Sometimes prints just don’t come out right. Maybe the angle was too steep or the object wasn’t watertight. There are many factors besides those that determine whether a print meets expectations or goes to the soon-to-be-reclaimed pile. Thankfully many of those factors and more were considered when the folks at Econolyst put together their printability algorithms for Willit3DPrint.com.

This is a rather useful website; if you upload your .STL file and select your printer (of the six listed), it’ll tell you if your object is likely to print well, and will also return estimates of material cost and build time. If your object shows as green, it should print just fine. If it’s red in any area then you’ll need to address that before printing. Specifically, from the website, the algorithms do all this:

• Test if your part has features that can be 3D printed or not
• Visualise the surface roughness of the printed part
• See where support is needed
• Estimate the build time and the cost of your part
• Calculate the carbon footprint of your part
• Reorientate, rescale, and reposition your part
• Export your changes (in STL or AMF)

Eventually modeling software and printers will have these same features, but until then, Willit3Dprint plans to add more printers to the list, so check back every once in awhile to see if yours has been added. It could save you some time and money.

h/t: 3Dprinting.com