Packing parameters reference

Saves and loads presets of packing settings.

Use to save the current settings as a new preset, to load or overwrite the selected, existing preset, and to delete the selected preset.

The presets are stored as SETTINGS files at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\netfabb\PackerSettings\ in their respective subfolders.

Minimum distance between parts; applied after finding suitable positions from the specified accuracy

Granularity of checking for available build space

As the size decreases, the sampling resolution of the build space increases, increasing the number of locations that are evaluated for fitting parts.

Smaller values lead to tighter packing at greater computational cost.

Range: 0.001-10000 mm

Allows or disallows stacking

Parts that do not fit onto the bottom plane are placed outside the buildroom.

Allows for some generosity in checking available build space.

The more accuracy is favored over time spent calculating, the tighter the packing result is likely to be.

Range: 9 steps

Starts packing with a bounding box minimization in X and Y

In previous Netfabb versions, this was always performed for any permitted part rotation interval except None.

Sets how finely parts may be rotated around the Z axis

The more steps allowed, the more variations are tried to get a tighter fit, and the costlier the calculation.

Range: From none to 18 divisions of a full rotation

Sets a margin at the build space's walls at X and Y within which parts cannot be placed

Inflates parts after voxelization with 0, 1, or 2 layers of voxels, closing finer contours to intentionally ignore them

Sets the granularity of checking for available build space.

As the size decreases, the sampling resolution of the build space increases, increasing the number of locations that are evaluated for fitting parts.

Smaller values lead to tighter packing at greater computational cost.

0.5-2.5 mm

Optionally packs only those parts that were selected when the packing dialog was opened

Useful to fill gaps between large, manually placed parts using small parts.

Allows for some generosity in checking available build space

The more accuracy is favored over time spent calculating, the tighter the packing result is likely to be.

9 steps

Sets the granularity of checking for available build space

As the size gets smaller, the sampling resolution of the build space increases, and the higher the amount of locations that are evaluated for fitting parts.

Smaller values lead to tighter packing at greater computational cost.

1-5 mm

Sets how finely parts may be rotated around the Z-axis

The more steps allowed, the more variations are tried to get a tighter fit, and the costlier the calculation.

None to 18 divisions of a full rotation

Enables part to be turned upside down to potentially find denser packings.

Enables the part to be tilted.

A tilted part may fit better and tighter in smaller spaces. However, depending on the type of machine, this could cause unwanted side effects such as needing more or different support, as well as changed alignment of material grain against the part's geometry.

Optionally packs only those parts that were selected when the packing dialog was opened

Useful to fill gaps between large, manually placed parts using small parts.

Prevents placing parts in positions from which they cannot later be separated

Testing against interlocking is highly calculation-intensive and should be kept disabled unless it is really needed.

To prevent large apertures or gaps from having smaller parts intrude or even interlock without costly tests during packing, consider designing the part with break-away structures to fill such zones.

Sets a ceiling height that is artificially lower than the actual build room

Suitable to ensure enough powder can be left above a part to support it and to keep it from cooling off too quickly

Up to full build space height as measured from the buildplate surface

Sets a margin from the build room walls at X and Y within which parts cannot be packed.

Suitable for keeping parts away from heated buildroom walls

Sets a margin from the buildplate surface

Suitable to ensure enough powder can be left below a part to support it and to keep it from cooling off too quickly

Applies in addition to any setting of Limit platform height

Depending on selection, packs the parts more or less densely.

Select Fast to pack faster but more loosely. Select Accurate to pack the parts as densely as possible, at the cost of greater packing duration.

Minimum distance between parts; tested for after finding suitable positions using the performance setting.

Respects the parts' current positions instead of completely discarding it for packing to be performed.

With this option enabled, packing starts or continues from the current positioning. Uncheck this option if you want to start over, and also to potentially have parts rotated again.

Anchors selected parts so that they are left in place.

Use this option to lock one or two important pieces in the exact position you have placed them. Locked items don't move. Other items are then packed around the locked items.

The packing may attempt to rotate parts at the start of packing, and then pack with the new orientations. Select how you want the initial rotation to occur, if at all.

Arbitrary, Around Z Axis only, No rotation

Sets a ceiling height that is artificially lower than the actual build room

Suitable to ensure enough powder can be left above a part to support it and to keep it from cooling off too quickly

Up to full build space height as measured from the buildplate surface

Sets a margin to the buildroom's walls in X and Y

Suitable for keeping parts away from heated buildroom walls

Raises the part off the platform by the set amount

Suitable to ensure enough powder can be left below a part to support it and to keep it from cooling off too quickly

Statistics on packing progress

Animates the movement of the parts as they are packed.

Packing takes longer with this option enabled.

• Start packing
• Stop packing
• Close

Stop packing if you are already satisfied with the result.

Restart packing if its result is unsatisfactory and it should continue to look for tighter fits.

Close packing to continue with other actions.

Increases or decreases the physics step

When selected, this moves only parts you have selected.

This can be used to fill gaps between large, manually placed parts using small parts. Works best with part grouping to allow selection of multiple, associated parts at once.

Minimizes the gap between parts

Minimum distance between parts; tested for after finding suitable positions using the performance setting.

Arbitrary, Around Z Axis only, No rotation

The packing may attempt to rotate parts at the start of packing, and then pack with the new orientations. Select how you want the initial rotation to occur, if at all.

Sets a margin at the build space's walls at X and Y, within which parts cannot be packed.

Set an offset to the platform borders, appropriate to your machine and process, to prevent parts from touching the machine walls.

Packs parts into the XY boundaries first

Use to catch any parts that may lie at least partly outside the buildroom.

• Pack platform
• Save
• Cancel

• Starts packing
• Saves the current settings to the currently selected preset
• Leaves packing without doing anything

Reserves this size within the buildroom for large parts.

Parts larger than this are packed first.

These parts are placed in the reserved space in the center of the build room.

Parts smaller than this are packed last.

Parts are packed with at least this distance apart

(Five presets of general packing density)

Sets a margin at the build space's walls at X and Y within which parts cannot be packed.

Set an offset to the platform borders, appropriate to your machine and process, to prevent parts from touching the machine walls.

Phase 2 only

Raises the part off the platform by the set amount

The packing may attempt to rotate parts at the start of packing, and then pack with the new orientations. Select how you want the initial rotation to occur, if at all.

Arbitrary, Around Z axis only, No rotation

Respects the parts' current positions instead of completely discarding it for packing to be performed.

With this option enabled, the packing starts or continues from the current positioning. This ensures that the packing does not deteriorate. Uncheck this option if you want to start over, and also to potentially have parts rotated again.

Allows for some generosity in checking available build space.

As the size gets smaller, the sampling resolution of the build space increases, and the higher the amount of locations that are evaluated for fitting parts.

The smaller the size, the tighter the packing can be.

Range: 9 steps

Specifies how finely parts may be rotated around the Z-axis.

The more steps allowed, the more variations the packing tries to get a tighter fit, and the costlier the calculation.

Range: None to 18 divisions of a full rotation

Keep this distance to prevent parts touching the side walls

Set an offset to the platform borders to prevent parts from touching the machine walls and melting. The distance you should set depends on both your machine and process.

Affects the voxel size of Scanline packing

(Five presets of general packing density)

Prevents placing parts in positions from which they cannot later be separated.

This is highly calculation-intensive. It should be kept disabled when the shapes of involved parts can be expected to not be prone to interlocking.

Enables part to be turned upside down in search for denser packing arrangements

Without further, more individual adjustments, parts are packed in order of their volume, largest first, or the order they sit in the project tree.

To adjust the order in the project tree, drag & drop them as required.

Uses the true mesh volume, not an abstraction of "bulkiness", like a convex hull or bounding box

When enabled, a table dialog opens after clicking OK and before executing the packing where packing settings can be adjusted per individual part

True Shape uses a 3D grid to analyze parts and to test for valid orientations and arrangements. The finer the spacing of this grid, the closer it can reliably pack, but also the more processing is required.

Leaving part duplication to the packing lets it reuse internal data, thereby significantly speeding up packing of duplicates compared to duplicating first in a separate step and then following up with the packing.

Includes the original in the count

If the final count of parts fills the current buildroom to excess, new buildroom copies are added to the project to take up the remaining parts. Up to this many buildrooms including the original are used; any parts still not fitting are placed alongside the last platform's buildroom.

Smallest permitted distance between parts. The packing attempts to get parts as close as possible to this value.

Enforced spacing between packed volume and the buildroom dimensions

Switches between modes of specifying the degrees of freedom of permitted rotations around the cardinal axes, either through drop-downs or as a series of terms in the form of (X;Y;Z)

When enabled, orientations are tested where the part has been rotated according to the given degrees of freedom along multiple axes; otherwise, orientations with rotation increments around only one axis are tested.

Only available when Rotation stepping is selected

Reserves the area under larger or tilted parts against placing of smaller or other tilted parts even if such placement would otherwise be permitted

2D True Shape only

Enables access to options that fine-tune the packing algorithm's behavior

Activates additional computation for preventing part from being oriented and arranged in inseparable combinations

Selects arrangement variant

• Center bias: Arranges radially from the platform center
• Along axis: Arranges in rows parallel to a wall and away from it, then up
• Predefined location: Begins with primary part at given coordinates

Modifies arrangement variant Along axis

Packs parts in decreasing priority starting with a row along the first axis, and at minimum along the second and third, then increases the second and then the third axis as needed. However, smaller or lower-priority parts may find gaps among larger and higher-priority parts that were arranged earlier.

• Positive X axis: min. to max. X, min. to max. Y, min. to max. Z
• Positive Y axis: min. to max. Y, min. to max. X, min. to max. Z
• Positive Z axis: min. to max. Z, min. to max. X, min. to max. Y
• Negative X axis: max. to min. X, max. to min. Y, min. to max. Z
• Negative Y axis: max. to min. Y, max. to min. X, min. to max. Z
• Negative Z axis: max. to min. Z, max. to min. X, max. to min. Y

Modifies arrangement variant Predefined location

The part with the highest priority (given or calculated) is placed with its bounding box origin (after orientation finding) at the given coordinates. Then all other parts are packed around it in regular descending priority.

Tunes the overall weighting of arrangement using keywords

Supports multiple keywords. If one cannot be observed, the next one is attempted. Once a weighting could be observed, no further weightings are evaluated. Some keywords are specific to part copies generated by True Shape during the same packing run.

• MinBuildHeight: Lowest packing height
• MinBuildBoxVolume: Prefers placement of added part copies where the new overall bounding box of same-parent copies is increased by the smallest amount
• MaxContactArea: Attempts to maximize packing tightness between part copies
• MaxBoxOverlap: Prefers placement of new part copies where its bounding box overlaps the most with the bounding box of already placed copies from the same parent
• MinPartBoxVolume: Prefers placement of same-parent copies (including parent itself) to form the smallest bounding box
• MinPartHeight: Prefers placement of same-parent copies (including parent itself) to form the smallest bounding box height

Experimental weightings

• LayerBalancingZ: In terms of contour area, attempts to pack for lowest variance across the total occupied range or ranges along the Z axis