# PreForm cant repair/open this file

**URL:** <https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889>\
**Category:** Support & Troubleshooting\
**Created:** [June 26, 2017, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889 "2017-06-26T09:19:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brainglow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/brainglow/32/9462_2.png) [@brainglow](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/brainglow)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889/1 "2017-06-26T09:19:09Z")

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Hi!

I’ve got a pretty silly order, but was going to take a look at it anyway, the details was silly, so I’ve remeshed, reduced and made it solid in MeshMixer before exporting. Looks good in Netfabb as well, no errors, but I get the question if I want to repair the model when trying to import it, and if I click repair it doesn’t load at all?

I’ve had this issue before, but restarting the software and trying again always solves it… Is the model to messy?

Any ideas?

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B21eOSeJjbALa1V0M3AtUm5TeWs/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B21eOSeJjbALa1V0M3AtUm5TeWs/view?usp=sharing)

regards Patrik

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**Author:** ![brainglow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/brainglow/32/9462_2.png) [@brainglow](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/brainglow)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 11:57am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889/2 "2017-06-26T11:57:37Z")

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I continued to reduce triangles and at one point preForm could open it… strange though since I 've loaded 100mb models before without a problem, this one had to be reduced down to 8mb before it was possible to open it…

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**Author:** ![Frew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c0e974/32.png) [@Frew](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Frew)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889/3 "2017-06-26T17:01:43Z")

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Surprised to hear that closing and re-opening the software has worked for you previously. The most reliable method I’ve found for repairing especially stubborn models is [Microsoft’s STL Repair tool.](https://tools3d.azurewebsites.net/) That exports to a .3mf file which can be opened in Netfabb or Micosoft’s 3D Builder app (native to windows 10) and exported as an STL.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brainglow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/brainglow/32/9462_2.png) [@brainglow](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/brainglow)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889/4 "2017-06-26T17:30:46Z")

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Yes Ive ran in to this before but only when In going through model after model, it have never happened with the first model after opening the software.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/formlabs/original/3X/5/b/5bc2bdf993ff27c2e0eecab5010b25626fbb327a.png) [@system](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/preform-cant-repair-open-this-file/13889/5 "2017-07-10T17:30:47Z")

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