TissueDB/Guides/3D printing service guide

3D printing guides · 3D model preparation guide

Use this guide when a printing service, laboratory or colleague will produce a simulator component. You do not need to install a slicer. You need to identify the files and requirements well enough for the provider to propose a suitable manufacturing route and return an inspectable part.

Open the simulator's build instructions and complete the model and requirements checks in the 3D model preparation guide. The source may specify the anatomy, a casting mould or a structural component; name the part you are ordering. Identify the person responsible for resolving a missing requirement or proposed change.

Do not order from the material name alone. The same polymer name can occur in different manufacturing processes. The provider's quote should describe the actual process, product and finished state.

1. You identify the component, source files and requirements.
2. The provider checks completeness, licence conditions and equipment compatibility.
3. You resolve any proposed change against the simulator's requirements.
4. The provider prepares the machine-specific job and completes the agreed manufacturing and finishing operations.
5. You inspect the delivered component and retain the build record before assembly.

Use this production brief after you identify the model files. Agree the manufacturing requirements with the provider before placing an order.

Ask who will prepare the job, operate the equipment, remove temporary supports, perform finishing and inspect the result. A colleague may do all these tasks, or a service may divide them between operators. Record the responsibility for each task so that no finishing or inspection step is assumed to happen elsewhere.

If you already have a machine-ready file, identify its original printer, hardware and material configuration. Let the provider determine whether it is applicable. Usually the provider prepares a new job from the agreed geometry for its own equipment. STL surface geometry and machine-specific output are distinct.^[1]

Copy this table into the build record. Fill unknown items with “unresolved” and identify the missing source; an empty cell can be mistaken for no requirement.

Send the identified source models with the quantities and manufacturing requirements.

Diagram description: The file outline contains a faceted solid. It represents model geometry.

Check. The provider can distinguish required values from proposed choices, and can identify each file's role.

If the check fails. Resolve the specific gap before ordering. A provider's ability to print a shape does not establish that it satisfies a simulator's requirements.

The provider should confirm that its equipment supports the specified material/process and can accommodate the complete job. Ask it to identify any necessary change to orientation, scale, internal structure or supports. Obtain the proposal before the geometry is modified.

Keep the original files. Any permitted repair or design change needs a separate version and a comparison of the critical features. A service should not silently hollow a solid part, close a lumen or substitute an “ABS-like” resin for specified ABS filament.

Ask for the agreed workspace and handling arrangements relevant to the process. NIOSH covers exposures during preparation, printing, finishing and maintenance; a machine enclosure by itself is not a complete description of exposure control.^[2]

The following examples identify different manufacturing routes. They are not interchangeable material recommendations.

These process identities are recorded on the simulator pages and in their primary sources. The Simulator model source register records whether the exact geometry and permissions have been verified. Do not treat a model-image or article supplement listing as a released STL set.

Before production, agree what the quotation includes and which requirements it meets. Do not accept an unexplained substitution. If a manufacturer instruction and a simulator requirement conflict, record the conflict and obtain a resolution for that configuration.

For a vat-resin component, explicitly include the product-specific washing, drying, post-curing and support-removal sequence. Manufacturer finishing instructions differ by material and equipment; a completed printer cycle is not the complete job.^[5]

For filament parts, specify required cooling, removal and permitted finishing. A clean-looking surface does not establish that internal structure or dimensions meet the source requirements.

On receipt, compare component names, quantities and revision with the brief. Complete the required dimensional, opening and fit checks at the specified finished state. Confirm the actual material and relevant configuration from the provider's record. Record defects and deviations with photographs where useful.

Check the returned components against the agreed dimensions, features and inspection record.

Diagram description: A magnifying glass marks an edge of a generic component. The drawing gives an inspection cue; it does not show a passed check.

Keep parts with unresolved differences from the requirements separate from the training set. Resolve repair, replacement or acceptance with the responsible developer/reviewer. Retain the brief, actual build record and outcome so the next order can reproduce the same configuration.

This example shows how to prepare a useful brief while a requirement is unresolved. It is not a released production order.

• Simulator: Tibial Shaft Transverse Fracture Simulator.
• Components: one proximal Model 1 and one distal Model 2 from the specified Medical Makers file set.
• Files: Model_1_-_Male_-25-June-2022_version.stl (proximal fragment) and Model_2_-_Male_-19-May-2022_version.STL (distal fragment). Keep their distinct version dates.
• Source: developer print-preparation instructions. The source specifies white PLA and model-specific orientation and internal structure.
• Size question: the source lists Model 1 at 202.2127 mm and Model 2 at 202.2275 mm, but also gives 200 mm at 100% and a separate 95% S3 example.^[6] Obtain one applicable target and scale instruction for the identified files; do not choose a value to fit the machine.
• Infill question: confirm the source-required pattern against the proposed printer/profile. Preserve the distinctions explained in the PLA filament printing guide.
• Licence record: the individual STL File pages explicitly declare CC BY-SA 4.0.^[7] Retain those declarations and the upstream geometry provenance. The overview's displayed CERN-OHL-S value is inherited from the Device data template when its hardware-licence field is unset; it is not a separate explicit per-file licence declaration.^[8]
• Release condition: resolve size, pattern compatibility and acceptance checks, retain the applicable attribution, then record the agreed provider configuration before production.

The numerical conflict belongs to this source file set. It is not a scaling rule for other bones or simulators.^[9]

3D model preparation guide · Filament printing guide · Vat resin printing guide · 3D printing guides