As 3D printing experts, we spend most of our efforts focusing on improving the printing process by optimizing the printer itself. However, while better printers and the correct print settings play an important role, what really determines the success of a 3D print is how well-optimized the underlying CAD model is.

For the best printing results, designers need to use industry-leading CAD tools like SOLIDWORKS to create the most reliable, optimized, and printable models possible. SOLIDWORKS for 3D printing is a powerful option, and to make the most of it, a deep understanding of SOLIDWORKS productivity tips is necessary.

The following are some of our favorite SOLIDWORKS features for optimizing your design-to-print workflow.

Print3D

  • Direct 3D Printing Capability: Enables users to print directly from SOLIDWORKS to a connected 3D printer, optimizing orientations and positions to make full use of the printer’s build volume.
  • Interactive Pre-Processing Tools: Offers tools to adjust print settings, generate support structures, and preview the layer-by-layer build to ensure model accuracy and print quality.
  • Streamlined Design-to-Print Workflow: Reduces the gap between digital modeling and physical production, ensuring that the models are optimized for printing and aligned with design specifications.
The Print3D tool is a SOLIDWORKS feature that facilitates the direct printing of 3D models from SOLIDWORKS to a connected printer.

As part of this, Print3D offers an interactive interface where users can adjust their models for printing by specifying orientations, positions, and scales to optimize the use of the printer’s build volume. It supports a seamless design-to-print workflow by enabling the user to check the model’s suitability for printing, including verifying if the model is a watertight manifold, which is essential for 3D printing optimization.

Key capabilities include choosing print quality settings and automatically generating support structures necessary for overhanging features, significantly reducing manual pre-processing time. Users can also visualize the layer-by-layer build, including viewing potential problem areas with the display of striation lines, which helps in anticipating the print's quality and precision.

Overall, the Print3D tool in SOLIDWORKS significantly enhances the 3D printing process by ensuring that the models are optimized for printing and accurate to the design specifications. This tool effectively reduces the gap between digital modeling and physical production to create a streamlined path from CAD designs to finished 3D prints.

Mates

  • Geometric Relationship Definition: Allows users to define precise relationships between components in an assembly, guaranteeing correct alignment and fit for 3D printing.
  • Realistic Simulation and Automatic Adjustments: Simulates real-world physical constraints and automates adjustments to connected components, enhancing the realism and functionality of models and reducing iteration times.
The Mates SOLIDWORKS feature allows users to define precise geometric relationships between separate components within an assembly, ensuring that parts fit together correctly before moving to the printing stage. This is a necessary aspect of the SOLIDWORKS for 3D printing approach, which emphasizes precision in the design-to-print workflow.

Mates in SOLIDWORKS help maintain the integrity of designs by controlling how assembly components interact with each other. For instance, a coincident mate can align faces to be planar, which helps confirm that components will properly align without adjustments during or after printing. Similarly, concentric mates guarantee perfectly centered components such as gears and wheels. Such alignment is a key part of 3D printing optimization.

By simulating real-world physical constraints within the CAD environment, Mates significantly contributes to the realism and functionality of the model. Simulation allows designers to visualize how parts will move relative to each other, identifying potential collisions or misalignments early in the design process. Such preemptive corrections help avoid costly reprints and ensure that the final printed products function as intended.

SOLIDWORKS' Mates feature also streamlines the modification process. If a designer changes one component, the mates can automatically adjust the connected components, maintaining the assembly's functionality without additional manual adjustments. With dynamic interaction, designers can significantly reduce the time required to iterate designs and allow for rapid product development cycles.

Multi-Material Model Handling

  • Simplified Management of Complex Assemblies: Enables the handling of multiple discrete bodies in a single part file, allowing for different materials and print processes in a unified design environment.
  • Advanced Modeling and Verification Tools: Supports Boolean operations between bodies and provides tools for interference checking and mass properties calculations, necessary for verifying design integrity before printing.
SOLIDWORKS' Multibody feature supports the management of multiple discrete bodies within a single part file without the need to create separate part files for each body. This capability is particularly beneficial for 3D printing applications where components may be made of varied materials or require separate print processes.

With the Multibody feature, users can create, modify, and manage multiple bodies independently but within the same context, which simplifies the design-to-print workflow for complex assemblies. For example, in the design of a multi-material object, designers can assign different properties and appearances to each body to simulate how each material will interact with the finished product.

The Multibody tool also enhances workflow efficiency by allowing designers to perform operations such as Boolean additions or subtractions between bodies, facilitating complex modeling tasks that are often required for 3D printing optimization. Interactively managing multiple bodies within a single document ensures that designers can swiftly make changes to one component without affecting other parts of the model, thereby speeding up the prototyping and development phases.

The Multibody feature also supports advanced functionalities like interference checking and calculation of mass properties for individual bodies or the combined assembly. These tools help verify that the designed parts will fit together correctly in the physical world, which is a common concern in 3D printing. Interference checks can prevent costly print errors by ensuring that parts do not overlap in ways that the designer did not intend, and accurate mass properties allow for better estimation of material usage and cost.

Model-Based Definitions (MBDs)

  • Integration of Manufacturing Information: Embeds detailed manufacturing data directly into 3D models, eliminating the need for traditional 2D drawings and reducing interpretation errors.
  • Enhanced Communication with Printing Hardware: Utilizes formats like STEP 242 for machine-readable annotations, facilitating precise communication of design intent to 3D printers and minimizing print errors.
SOLIDWORKS Model-Based Definition (MBD) is a comprehensive approach to integrating product manufacturing information directly into 3D models.This method effectively replaces traditional 2D drawings, embedding all necessary data—such as dimensions, tolerances, and annotations—within the 3D environment. The approach effectively ensures that designers can unambiguously define all manufacturing data such as geometric dimensions and tolerances (GD&T), surface finish specifications, and bill of materials (BOM). The system then organizes the data clearly and logically to reduce errors and eliminate the common discrepancies that occur when interpreting traditional 2D drawings.

Naturally, the integration of MBD in SOLIDWORKS supports advanced functionalities that are particularly beneficial for 3D printing workflows. It allows for the export of data in formats like STEP 242 and 3D PDF. STEP 242 is particularly advantageous as it supports machine-readable annotations, which manufacturing machines, including 3D printers, can directly utilize. This capability ensures that the user fully captures their design intent and communicates it to the printing hardware, minimizing the risk of print errors and material wastage.

Moreover, by automatically aligning the digital model with the physical output, MBD helps maintain consistency across multiple prints and ensures that each copy is as close to the original design as possible. For industries that rely heavily on accurate and repeatable manufacturing outputs, such as aerospace and medical devices, SOLIDWORKS MBD enhances the efficiency of the design-to-manufacture workflow and improves the overall quality and reliability of the final 3D printed products.

Optimizing Your Design-to-Print Workflow

The success of any 3D printing effort hinges on the 3D printing optimization of the underlying model. SOLIDWORKS for 3D printing is among the best options available for designers who are looking to improve their design-to-print workflow. With these SOLIDWORKS productivity tips and a deeper understanding of the best SOLIDWORKS features, any designer can ensure success in their next 3D printing efforts.

Makelab makes design and 3D printing easy with our extensive Design Engineering Services. If you’re a designer in need of support for your next set of prints, you can leverage our expertise in manufacturing, industrial design, and mechanical engineering to bring your ideas to life with 3D printing. Expert support is always available. Ready to bring your ideas to life? Talk to us today!