3D models play a critical role in most manufacturing processes.
Customers use 3D models to visualize a product before it becomes tangible and engineer load calculations to prove a product will meet specific design criteria—to name a couple of common use cases.
Sheet metal fabricators rely on 3D models for different but equally important reasons. A big one is programming machines to create customers’ parts as quickly and accurately as possible.
For this reason, we encourage all customers to provide manufacturable models when requesting metal fabrication services.
In the simplest terms, a manufacturable model is a 3D model that your manufacturer can use as is (i.e., without modifications) to program their machines.
Unfortunately, it’s still common to see 3D models intended for visual representation or reference only. These models cannot be used directly for manufacturing, meaning if you paid a designer to create it for you, you’d need to pay them to create another one that’s actually manufacturable.
No one should have to pay for multiple 3D models of the same custom fabrication. So before going through the (important and valuable!) work of creating a 3D model, you want to ensure you get what you need the first time.
If you’re paying for 3D modeling services and intend to seek metal fabrication services, pay for the model once by ensuring that it checks these boxes:
In addition to following these best practices, feel free to share some of our Design for Manufacturing tips with your designer so that your part design is optimized for quick and cost-effective manufacturing: