14 DAY TRIAL // There are many things that can happen at hardware-level to cause a 3D print job to come out wrong. Maybe the filament runs out, maybe you didn't apply the adhesive to the plate well enough (assuming you don't have a heated build plate).
Maybe someone bumped into the printer while it was working and caused an imperfection to mar the otherwise accurate-looking object.
However, most 3D printer makers have managed to eliminate the majority of these bugs, and experience with the technology should remove human error well enough.
That means that there is a greater chance that imperfections will be owed to the software side of things than the hardware. More precisely, imperfections with the design files themselves.
Avante Technology releases Emendo Automated STL Validation & File Repair software
The Emendo Automated STL Validation & File Repair software, available for Mac users, is priced at $49.95 / €49.95.
The software is meant to address the problems that can stem from feeding 3D printers “non-manifold” STL files, which can cause failed prints very easily.
Fixing a failed print needs manual repair toolkits and is pretty costly, assuming you even bother with it instead of trying a print job again.
It doesn't matter that much to consumers, who only make little figurines and parts of toys or mechanical contraptions. But for corporations which use 3D printing to make, say, engine parts, it can be very costly to repair problems of this kind.
What Emendo does is take an error-filled STL file and click on one single button. The software does the rest, just by activating “Repair Errors.” You can, however, use it for validating, identifying, listing, and displaying the errors in a 3D rendering.
You can overwrite the original file once you're done, or save a new one from the repaired version. Some smaller issues may be created during the repair process, but you can just click the repair button again and again until they're all gone.
In fact, Emendo has several repair options, each stronger than the last and automatically revealed to the user if the first one doesn't cut it.
Availability
We mentioned the price before ($49.95 / €49.95) and that only users of Apple Mac systems can use it. Don't fear, though, because a Windows version will be available in the first half of 2015. It is not certain if this means in the first or second quarter though. Hopefully the former.
