I’m making a model that is to be printed on a 3d printer. That means that there can be no inverted normals. I checked my model, and apparently it has over 1500 inverted normals.

is there a way to either select only inverted, normals (so I can just flip them back to normal) or a tool that automatically sets normals to face? (doesnt maya have something like that?)

or a way to at least see which normals are inverted? I know you can hit “show normals” when editing an editable poly, but the model is so detailed it doesnt really help much ,as one missed normal messes up the entire thing.

3ds Max Design 2012/Maya 2012
Intel Core i7 3.07 GHz, 8gb RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6950
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64

Use the “Normal” modifier and set it to “Unify Normals”.

3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

Also try the STL-Checker to find any problems in the mesh.

When I get models from our engineering department, often the normals (among other things) are messed up. Here is my workflow…

1. Add an “edit mesh” modifier
2. In sub-object-vertex mode, hit Ctrl-A to select all
3. weld the selection at .01”
4. In sub-object-element, (select all) under surface properties, select “unify”
5. Still with the model selected, clear smoothing groups, and auto-smooth if needed.

The STL check modifier as mentioned above is a great help to see what is going on.

Dean

Max Design 2012 SP2 / Win 7 Pro
NVidia Quadro FX 4800 x 2 (non sli)
HP Z800 - 2 Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz; 36 GB ram

thanks I’ll try those.

also, I ran an stl check before I even posted this topic, but it said 0 errors.

3ds Max Design 2012/Maya 2012
Intel Core i7 3.07 GHz, 8gb RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6950
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64