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3D Models Hollowing
Cutting down costs for 3D prints is the number one concern for many customers. Volume of material used for the model is normally the main part of how price is calculated. So all we need to do is to make sure to use as little material as possible. No need for downsizing - hollow it!
What Is Hollowing?
A hollow model means that the interior of your object will not be solid. Solid designs are not necessarily a problem – depending on the material they will be stronger and harder to break, but they will also be more expensive as more 3D printing material will be used. To create a hollow model you will need to use software and define a wall thickness and add ‘escape holes’ to your model.
What are "Escape Holes"?
3D printing materials can get trapped inside the hollow model. Escape holes are needed to drain the material out. How many escape holes a print needs and how big they need to be depends on the 3D printing material and the size of your print. We recommend to have at least one or two holes of 3.5mm in diameter
What is Wall Thickness?
Creating a hollow model means that you need to design your object with ‘walls’. We don’t have a single, ‘one-size-fits-all’ wall thickness to recommend for each and every 3D printing material. Normally it varies between 1 and 3 mm.

SOFTWARE RECOMMENDED FOR THE HOLLOWING

Find the list of software paid for as well as free, which our team of designers recommend for your models optimization
ZBrush
ZBrush is a well-known digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting. It uses a proprietary "pixol" technology which stores lighting, color, material, orientation, and depth information for the points making up all objects on the screen
123D Design
Developed by Autodesk, 123D is a suite of hobbyist CAD and 3D modelling tools and based on Autodesk Inventor. As well as the more basic drawing and modelling capabilities it also has assembly and constraint support and STL export
Meshmixer
MeshMixer software is a free product developed by Autodesk intended for easy creation of 3D mashups and remixes with specialized tools for 3D printing.
SolidWorks
SolidWorks is a solid modeling computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering computer program that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. While it is possible to run SolidWorks on MacOS, it is not supported by SolidWorks. SolidWorks is published by Dassault Systèmes.

TUTORIALS FOR RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE

Here are some video tutorials picked from YouTube for your convenience. Please, remember, these videos are not prepared by our team, but by the community and professional like yourselves

ZBrush Tutorial

MeshMixer Tutorial

123D Design Tutorial

SolidWorks Tutorial