Though each category has gained traction in its own right, there are still challenges to harnessing both as part of an integrated workflow-a scenario being addressed by a wave of new technologies and offerings. And to realign parts that belong together, use Align Selected Model Origins.3D scanning and 3D printing have come a long way over the last 10 years thanks to improvements in hardware and software. So, if you ever import a file that contains multiple pieces, use the Separate Connected Surfaces feature to split them up so you can work with each part independently. Now they are aligned so they will print properly. However, we want them to be aligned with each other when we print them! So, we select both models, go to Edit and choose Align Selected Model Origins. The designer created these parts with 3d printing in mind, so they are already broken up into two STL files. To show another example of when the Align Selected Model Origins feature can be useful, I’m going to get rid of our rhino and import a Hilbert cube. Now the parts are arranged in the same way they were modeled. Just select all your models - here I’m using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+A to select all the models in the list– go to Edit and click Align Selected Model Origins. Luckily, there is an easy way to do that. So, let’s say we’ve moved our rhino pieces all around the build plate, but in fact, we’d like to go back to how the parts were arranged when they were originally modeled.

And now the rhino that previously came in as one big STL file is broken up and will behave as if I imported seven different files. Doing this allows you to work with each part independently, and you can even apply different print settings to different pieces–but we’ll cover that in another video. Now you can see the rhino has split into seven different parts. We just go to Mesh, then Separate Connected Surfaces. If we want to make changes to just the rhino’s legs, we can split the model into its individual parts. This can make models more difficult to work with, but thankfully there’s a great feature in Simplif圓D to help with that. Sometimes, a file has multiple solids that are all contained in the same file, like this rhino. If it’s a completely enclosed surface, the software sees that as a solid object. You’ll notice the triangles all fit together to form a surface. If you toggle on the wireframe view from the right-hand toolbar, you can actually see each of the individual triangles that make up the model. When you import an STL file, it just contains a bunch of triangles.

Today, we’re looking at the Separate Connected Surfaces feature in Simplif圓D, which can be found in the Mesh menu.

Simplify 3d align models