File formats
The portal checks your file in the browser as soon as you select it, before anything uploads. STL files are measured on the spot and you will see the bounding box and machine fit immediately.
| Format | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
.stl | Preferred | Binary or ASCII. Measured and checked in your browser at upload. |
.3mf | Preferred | Carries units and colour assignments. Best choice for multi-material work. |
.obj | Accepted | Goes straight to slicing. Send any material file alongside it. |
.step .stp | Converted | Solid geometry. Needs conversion first, which adds a manual review step. |
.3dm | Converted | Rhino native. Meshing happens on our side, so export an STL instead if you can. |
.skp | Converted | SketchUp native. Frequently needs repair — see the export notes below. |
Maximum upload size is 200 MB. One file per request — if your project is several parts, either combine them into a single file or submit them as separate requests so each gets its own quote.
Anything not listed is rejected at upload with an export instruction. If your software cannot produce one of these, tell us what it can produce and we will advise.
Units and scale
STL carries no units. It is a list of numbers, and the slicer assumes those numbers are millimetres. If your model was built in metres, a 12 m building arrives as a 12 mm object. This is the single most common export mistake, and the portal flags it for you.
Two things to get right:
- Set your document units before you model, and export at the scale you actually want printed. Scaling to 1:200 in your CAD software before export is more reliable than asking us to scale afterwards.
- Declare your units in the portal. If you exported in inches, choose inches. We convert from what you declare, so a wrong declaration produces a confidently wrong quote.
If you would rather we scale it, leave the model at 1:1 and put the target scale or the target overall dimension in the project notes. Say which — "1:200" and "must fit a 300 mm base" are different instructions.
Size and build volume
These are the usable build volumes your model is checked against when you upload:
| Machine | Usable volume | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| H2D | 350 × 320 × 325 mm | Large single-piece models, multi-material builds |
| X1C | 256 × 256 × 256 mm | Standard models, parallel production of split parts |
Larger models are not a problem — they are split into sections, printed in parallel, and joined. Splitting can genuinely be faster than one enormous single print, because several machines work at once. If your model is over the limit, submit it anyway and we will propose a split with the quote.
Resin has a much smaller build area than FDM. Resin components are expected to be small; anything large gets split or moved to FDM detail.
Wall thickness
Architectural models fail more often on thin walls than on anything else. A surface that looks solid on screen may be a zero-thickness plane, or a 0.3 mm sliver the nozzle cannot produce.
| Process | Minimum wall | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| FDM standard | 0.8 mm | 1.2 mm or more |
| FDM detail | 0.6 mm | 1.0 mm or more |
| Resin | 0.4 mm | 0.8 mm or more |
Free-standing elements — railings, mullions, columns, fins, trees — need more than the minimum, because they have to survive support removal, packing and handling. A mullion at exactly the minimum will print and then snap when someone picks the model up.
Check the thin parts of your model at your intended print scale, not at 1:1. A 200 mm curtain wall mullion at 1:200 is 1 mm. At 1:500 it is 0.4 mm and will not survive.
Orientation and supports
You do not need to orient the model for printing. We choose orientation as part of slicing, weighing surface finish, support contact, strength and print time.
What does help is telling us which faces matter. If the front elevation is the one being photographed, or the top surface is the one people will look down at, say so in the notes. Orientation is the main lever we have over where support marks end up.
See support options for what each preference actually changes.
Common problems
These are the issues that most often send a file into manual review:
- Surfaces instead of solids
- Extruded planes with no thickness. Common from SketchUp and from Rhino surface modelling. The model has to enclose a volume to be printable.
- Open edges / not watertight
- Gaps between faces mean the slicer cannot tell inside from outside. Use your software's mesh repair or naked-edge check before export.
- Non-manifold geometry
- Edges shared by more than two faces, or faces meeting only at a point. Usually caused by boolean operations that did not resolve.
- Flipped normals
- Faces pointing inwards. The geometry looks correct on screen but slices inside out.
- Disconnected shells
- Floating pieces that do not touch anything. They will print as loose fragments, or fail entirely.
- Intersecting duplicates
- The same object copied on top of itself. Doubles the geometry and confuses wall detection.
- Unnecessary detail
- Full interior furniture, hidden structure, or millions of triangles from a mesh-heavy export. None of it is visible at model scale, and all of it slows slicing.
- Model far from origin
- Geometry sitting kilometres from the origin because of a survey coordinate system. Move it to the origin before exporting.
Exporting
Rhino
Check ShowEdges for naked edges before you export. Join surfaces into a closed polysurface, then export as STL with a medium-to-fine mesh setting — finer is not better once the facets are below what the nozzle can resolve. Set document units to millimetres and confirm the export dialog is not re-scaling.
SketchUp
SketchUp models are surfaces by default and need thickness added deliberately. Use Solid Inspector or an equivalent to confirm the geometry reports as a solid before exporting. Export to STL rather than sending the .skp, and check the export units.
Revit
Isolate what you actually want printed first — a full model exports a great deal of geometry that will never be visible. Export the view as STL, and expect to check wall thickness afterwards, since Revit families often carry elements thinner than the print minimum.
Blender and mesh modellers
Apply all modifiers, remove doubles, recalculate normals outward, and check for loose geometry. Set the scene unit scale to millimetres so the export lands at the right size.
Before you submit
- Geometry is a closed solid, not open surfaces.
- Thin elements clear the minimum wall thickness at print scale.
- Model sits at or near the origin.
- Units are known, and match what you will declare in the portal.
- Interior and hidden geometry that will not be seen is removed.
- File is under 200 MB.
- Anything scale-critical or finish-critical is written in the project notes.
Getting these right is the difference between a quote the same day and a round of emails asking for a revised file.