This feature removes unnecessary points from a slice and thereby reduces the data volume of the file. Often, these are points between hatches with a flat angle, which possibly result from triangle edges on flat surfaces of three-dimensional files. At every place where the slice layer comes across such a triangle edge, a corner point is added and a new hatch is started.
Unnecessary points are removed.
You can see the points on your slice, when you activated the function Show points.
Netfabb calculates how far each point is from a potential hatch line connecting the two adjacent points. If the distance is below a certain value, that point is removed and the new line is inserted. The maximum distance of the old point to the new line is defined by the maximum deformation you insert in the dialog box before conducting the operation.
Edit and confirm the maximum deformation in this dialog box.
The result of the point reduction can only be seen with the option Preview calculations the point reduction is not finally implemented, until you Apply calculations. When you export your slice, calculations are applied automatically.
This function has the purpose to reduce the complexity of slices, as the point reduction eases lengthy calculations during export and during production, often without or hardly changing the actual shape. Round curves, however, may be made less accurate, so you should take care not to fill in a too high maximum deformation.
Here, the curve of the body is slightly less accurate after the point reduction.