Vent hole in .obj file

How do I put a vent hole in an .obj model? I tried to make it solid in mesh maker but it just crashes.

if you use PrusaSlicer you can add a vent hole and then save the STL. Honestly thats the easiest way if you dont have the original CAD file

I’ll try that thanks.

Well PrusaSlicer was no help. To be honest, for a $3500 printer the software should have a lot more features. I mean a feature to create vent holes at the very least.

Making holes in geometry is a pretty basic CAD operation. What CAD software are you using? How was the original OBJ created? Go back to that piece of software and drill a hole where you want the vent to be… If you didn’t create the model, that doesn’t prevent you from editing it. If you don’t have the CAD skills, try repositioning the model so you don’t need the vent hole. Barring any of that, post the file here and someone will probably be willing to drill a hole in it for you.

The problem is that I don’t have the original CAD file. All I have is an .obj file which can’t be edited. And yes I have the CAD skills but obj files can’t be modified in CAD.

Are you sure? What CAD software are you using? If the CAD software can import it, it should be able to edit it. There is no DRM in OBJ that I’m aware of, nothing that’d keep you from modifying the geometry once you’d opened it in your CAD program (which would have to have been written to respect the DRM if it was there). Been a while since I’ve used an OBJ but I don’t remember having any problems modifying it. Importing it, yes. But once imported the software treated it like any other model file…

I did some Analysis of the model and there are a lot of surface errors preventing it being converted to a solid. The model was poorly done or poorly converted from the original CAD model.

Try NetFabb and see if it can plug the holes…

SolidWorks can also import and modify OBJ files

Yes, PreForm does not do any CAD functionality (things to edit your model). It is software very focused on just printing models as they come in from CAD, and we leave the geometry editing to the CAD software that is intended for that (and will always be better at that).

For editing an OBJ file, I’d personally recommend Rhino. It can also do some mesh repair. They have a 90 day free trial as well: https://www.rhino3d.com/download. Netfabb can also certainly do mesh repair, though I don’t think their mesh editing is quite as advanced as Rhino.

Actually I have Rhino 4.0. I’ll try it.

Have you tried Meshmixer (free)? It imports .obj files and has a dedicated routine to create vent holes.

I don’t think I’ve tried that but I will give it a look. I recreated the model in my own CAD system and included a vent hole. it printed with no issues and came out very nice.

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