Icon key and function overview
This page provides further details on elements of the project tree.
Jump to:
Part and slice information and functions in the project tree
- (100%) Level of detail: The percentage value next to the part name indicates the level of detail with which the part is rendered in the display. This is purely for the display of the part, it does not have any effect on the part's actual mesh resolution.
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Visibility: Parts that are
visible in the display have a yellow lightbulb icon before the part name. Parts that are
transparent show the mixed lightbulb icon. (This part transparency state is enabled by default in the
Settings.)
Hidden parts have a bluish lightbulb icon. Click the icon to cycle through these states.
Display color: The display color swatch shown before the part name indicates the color with which the part is rendered in the display unless it is overridden by any actual texture or color of the mesh. Double-click to open a dialog to select a new display color.
Texture and color: Double-click while the part has neither texture nor color to launch the
Texture and color module.
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Texture and color visibility: When the part does have texture and/or color definition for its surfaces, click to toggle their display. When disabled, the assigned display color is used instead. The toggle for the display of texture and color of
all parts present is at
.
Need of repair: Damaged parts have an exclamation mark at the bottom right of the display color swatch. Examples of damaged parts could include those with inverted triangles or open triangle edges.
Caution: Not all possible mesh faults are tested for this indicator. Some are computationally expensive and must be run manually, such as a check for self-intersections. As such, this indicator cannot be taken as 100 % reliable for all possible requirements of mesh integrity.
Shell count: Parts with more than one shell are marked with a doubled color swatch.
Part number: The number to the right of the part name is a running number. The number is not adjusted as older parts are removed but can be reissued from the context menu of the
Parts section header. Part numbers are currently not used for anything functional. The switch to toggle the display of part numbers is available in the platform's context menu.
Part numbering within machine workspaces is independent from other workspaces as well as from the default platform.
Supports: The part has support attached. Double-click to open the support editor.
Open: Double-click the folder icon to load and add a file into the project.
Add: Double-click the blue plus icon to create new elements of the respective type to the project.
Apply: The green check mark appears next to loaded modules, such as repair or support. Clicking on it executes any queued actions, such as closing holes or generating supports, replaces the part with the repaired one, and closes the module.
Remove: Double-click the red X icon to remove an element from the project. This can be an object like a mesh or a slice, or a function like a repair action.
Main sections
Upon launch, Netfabb's project tree lists a selection of sections:
Parts: This is the default build room. Loaded parts typically appear here. Its dimensions are defined in the
Settings. More build rooms and machine workspaces are loaded through are loaded through
My Machines.
Slices: Create, manage, and modify slice stacks in this area. When loading slice files, they appear in this section. Plain buildrooms have a
Slices section.
More sections such as Lattices as well as machine workspaces become available as they are used.
TopSection context menus
Right-click a project tree section's title to access its context menu.
| Generic platform | Machine workspace | Slices | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create new group | Adds a new, empty group to hold parts or slices, respectively | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add part | Opens a file dialog to import a 3D model file onto the selected buildroom | Yes | Yes | |
| Export platform | Saves only the current platform into a new FABBPROJECT file | Yes | ||
| Show part numbers | Toggles the part number display | Yes | Yes | |
| Renumber parts | Freshly renumbers the 3D models present in the selected buildroom | Yes | Yes | |
| Randomize display colors | Issues new display colors from a list of colors defined in the
Settings
|
Yes | Yes | |
Rename
|
Renames the selected buildroom | Yes | ||
| Clone this workspace | Creates a duplicate of the selected buildroom and adds it to the project tree | Yes | Yes | |
| Save machine template | A template is a set of 3D models placed in the buildroom whenever an instance of a My machines record is loaded into the project tree. This command takes a snapshot of the current buildroom with any parts in it and saves it with the record that was used for the current buildroom. (A record can hold only one template; if a template is already saved, it is overwritten.) | Yes | ||
| Open slice file | Opens a file dialog to import a slice file onto the selected buildroom | Yes | ||
| Calculate build time statistics | Generates laser timing statistics in table and graph form across the full slice stack | Yes | ||
| Calculate current layer time | Generates laser timing statistics in table and graph form for the current layer | Yes | ||
| Manage standard properties | Set default laser timing, power, and other parameters to be used for statistics and export | Yes |
Groups
Groups are useful to perform certain commands on several parts at once. Rather than select each part every time you wish to perform some action, you can group them and apply the action to the group.
A group creates a new collapsible node in the tree, and using the group name's context menu you can perform actions that apply to all items contained in it. For example, the visibility of all the items inside can be switched at once. Alternatively, click the
// lightbulb icon of the zones, or the group of zones, to toggle the visibility.
No-build zones
No-build zones are volumes that forbid placing any part volumes such that they intersect with them. This is enforced by preventing automated processes such as packing from claiming the space of the no-build zones and by notifying you if you cause an intersection manually.
No-build zones may also be observed by the support editor. Zones already defined by
Netfabb's default machines are always observed; for custom zones, this is optional and switched off by default. To explicitly specify that a zone should be observed by the support editor, choose
Use for support from its context menu in the project tree. Custom zones respected by support generation are labeled with an
icon.
To toggle a zone's visibility, click the
/ lightbulb icon of the zones, or the group of zones.