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Claude Help - Week 05

3D Print Ship in a Bottle

In Bambu Studio, the ship is dropping to the build plate because of the default "auto-arrange" behavior. Here's how to fix it:

  1. Select the ship (click on it)
  2. Press M or click the Move tool in the left toolbar
  3. In the Z field, increase the value to raise the ship up to where it should sit inside the bottle. You'll need to eyeball the height or measure it from your Fusion 360 design.
  4. Important: Make sure "Drop to bed" or "Place on bed" is unchecked/disabled — this is what's forcing the ship down to the plate. In Bambu Studio, when you move an object on the Z-axis, there may be a checkbox in the move dialog or right-click context menu that says something like "On Plate" or "Drop to Bed." Uncheck it.

Alternatively, if you designed the ship and bottle together in Fusion 360 with the correct relative positioning:

  • Export them as a single .3mf or .stl from Fusion 360 with both bodies, so they import with the correct relative positions already set
  • Or export each part separately but note the exact Z-offset of the ship from the build plate in your Fusion design, then manually enter that Z value in Bambu Studio's move tool

The easiest approach is usually to go back to Fusion 360, select both the bottle and ship bodies, and export them together as a single .3mf file. That way Bambu Studio will import them with the ship already in the correct position inside the bottle.

Multi-part object dialog

Click Yes — that will load the ship and bottle as a single object with the correct relative positioning preserved (ship inside the bottle at the right height).

Then you need to fix that red error at the bottom right. You currently have spiral vase mode turned on, which won't work for this print. To fix it:

  1. Click "Jump to (spiral_mode)" in the red error, or go to the Print Settings panel
  2. Turn off Spiral Vase Mode — print-in-place objects need normal layer-by-layer printing, not vase mode

Vase mode only prints a single continuous outer wall with no infill, which can't handle an object inside another object.

Ship not visible in preview

If the red error went away, you're good — the spiral vase mode issue resolved itself when you loaded it as a single multi-part object.

Check that the preview looks correct:

  1. Click Slice plate (bottom right button)
  2. Then click the Preview tab at the top to see the layer-by-layer view
  3. Use the layer slider on the right to scroll through and verify the ship appears inside the bottle at the correct height

If the ship is visible in Prepare but not in Preview, the slicer is ignoring it — it's likely treating it as internal geometry of the bottle rather than a separate printable part.

Try this instead:

  1. Delete the current object
  2. Re-import the .3mf file
  3. This time click No to keep them as separate objects
  4. One object (the ship) will drop to the build plate — select it
  5. Press M for the Move tool
  6. Raise the Z value until the ship is positioned inside the bottle at the correct height (you'll need to match the height from your Fusion 360 design)
  7. If it keeps snapping back down, right-click the ship and look for "Do not auto drop to bed" or similar option

Then slice and check Preview again to see if both parts generate toolpaths.

If the ship is gone, try importing again but click No to keep them as separate objects. Then:

  • Select the ship
  • Press M (Move tool)
  • Raise the Z value to position it inside the bottle
  • Right-click the ship and look for an option like "Do not drop to bed" or uncheck "On Plate"

Z-axis locked to bed

In Bambu Studio, objects are locked to the build plate by default. Look for one of these when you have the Move tool (M) open:

  • A lock icon next to the Z value — click it to unlock
  • A checkbox that says "On Plate" or "Place on bed" — uncheck it

If you can't find either of those, try this workaround:

  1. Select the bottle
  2. Right-click it → Add part → choose your ship .stl file
  3. This adds the ship as a sub-part of the bottle
  4. You should then be able to position the ship within the bottle since it's treated as part of the same object

This "Add part" approach is actually the proper way to do print-in-place in Bambu Studio — it tells the slicer that both pieces are related and should be sliced together, while keeping them as distinct printable parts.

Import as separate .stl files

The problem is that Bambu Studio locks separate objects to the build plate. You need the ship to be a sub-part of the bottle, not a separate object. The "Add part" approach is right, but you need an .stl file — the .3mf triggered a project dialog.

Go back to Fusion 360:

  1. Export just the ship as an .stl file (File → Export → change type to .stl)
  2. Export just the bottle as a separate .stl file

Then in Bambu Studio:

  1. Start fresh — import the bottle .stl
  2. Select the bottle in the object list on the left
  3. Right-click it → Add part → select the ship .stl file
  4. The ship should now appear as a sub-part under the bottle in the object tree
  5. Select the ship sub-part, press M, and you should now be able to adjust the Z value to position it inside the bottle

The key difference is that sub-parts can move in Z relative to their parent object, while standalone objects are locked to the bed.

Ship sitting on the bottom layer

If the ship just sits on the build plate inside the bottle, you don't need to raise it at all.

  1. Import both the bottle and ship as separate objects (both .stl files)
  2. They'll both sit on the build plate — that's fine
  3. Just position the ship in X and Y so it's centered inside the bottle (use the Move tool, only adjust X and Y)

The important thing for print-in-place is that there's a gap between the ship and the bottle walls (at least 0.3-0.5mm clearance). If they're touching, the slicer will fuse them together into one solid piece.

True print-in-place with loose ship

For a true print-in-place with the ship loose inside the bottle, you need a gap on all sides, including the bottom, so the ship doesn't fuse to the bottle floor.

The easiest way to get this right is in Fusion 360:

  1. Position the ship inside the bottle with 0.3-0.5mm clearance on all sides — walls, top, and bottom
  2. This means the ship should float slightly above the bottle's interior floor
  3. Select both bodies and export as a single .stl file (File → Export → STL, make sure both bodies are selected)

Then in Bambu Studio, import that single .stl. Since the clearance gaps are already built into the geometry, the slicer should handle it correctly — the bottle floor prints first, then the gap, then the ship and bottle walls print together.

Floating cantilever warning

That's actually a good sign! The warning says "floating cantilever" — that means the slicer can see the ship floating inside the bottle with the gap you designed. It's warning you because the ship has no support underneath it.

Enable supports:

  1. Go back to Prepare view
  2. In the settings on the left, check Enable support
  3. Re-slice

The supports will print in that small gap under the ship, and when you're done printing, you shake the bottle to break them loose.

Support type

Use Normal supports, not tree. Tree supports can be unpredictable inside a confined space like a bottle interior and may be harder to shake loose.

To make them easy to break free:

  • Support type: Normal
  • Lower the support density to around 5-10% (less dense = easier to break)
  • If there's a top Z distance or contact distance setting, increase it slightly for weaker adhesion to the ship

The thinner, sparser supports will snap off more easily when you shake the bottle.

3D Scan and Print

I used Polycam to scan a set of pinecones with my phone that does not have lidar. The free version only allows .glb exports. I then imported the file into Blender. Since it was a mesh object, it didn't have any surface to 3D print. I used the solidify modification tool found on the left in the modify menu that looks like a wrench. Then exported it as a .stl, and tried to print it on my Bambu P1S. There was an error that it still had no thickness.

I tried different thicknesses, making sure they were greater than the printing nozzle size in meters. Still didn't work.

I looked up other software, and KIRI Engine sounded great. The short video about their app sold me. A key selling point was the emphasis on photo scanning having the best results, since I do not have lidar on my phone. (I even ended up paying for the year subscription, because I appreciated the developers making a usable free product, and the price was very reasonable.)

The first tutorial in the KIRI Engine app says to move around the object, DON'T move the object. My theory was that this is because of how shadows might be used in their algorithms. I decided to test this by putting my object on a turn table, covered on a cloth, in an area without point sources of light. The scanned object ended up being flat on the front face. It had the correct shape viewed from the front, but the back was a photograph projected on the inverse of the front mesh.

I rescanned the object, this time walking around it. I circled the object on 3 levels, took additional close up images, and made sure the images overlapped by 70%. This created an amazing mesh object, which I exported as an .obj.

I just found out that I can save screenshots on my phone to iCloud files including dropbox and google drive, although I haven't gotten them to go directly to google drive yet. I have to sign in to google, and then I don't know where my file went to upload it. I have been able to save it to my iCloud, and then to Google Drive though! This is very helpful for sharing with my team on this project, and in other parts of my life.

I then imported the .obj into Blender, and solidified it. Then I tried to 3D print it. It still didn't work. I went back to Blender. In the Add Modifier → Generate menu and found Skin "creates a solid shape from vertices and edges, using the vertex radius to define the thickness," whereas Solidify makes "the surface thick." I think skin might be a better choice for my object since it is a mesh network. I asked Claude. It said to check my object in edit mode to see if it was, "a wireframe/skeleton (just edges and vertices, like a stick figure)" or a, "surface (like a shell or flat plane with no thickness." I should use skin for wireframe, and solidify for a surface. This is confusing since a mesh is like a shaped chicken wire. So doesn't that mean any mesh would be a wire frame? In sculpting I would make my desired shape using chicken wire, then cover it in paper mache or plaster. That seems like what we are doing here. That would be a skin. Then what is solidify?

Checking mesh type

Zooming in on my object in edit mode I see a mesh. I sent this screen shot to Claude to get its opinion.

That's a dense surface mesh with faces (likely from sculpting or a 3D scan). Solidify is the right choice if it needs thickness.

However, this might already be a closed solid — sculpted objects in Blender typically start from a solid primitive and stay watertight. Before adding Solidify, check first:

  1. Go to Edit Mode
  2. Select All (A)
  3. Go to Mesh → Clean Up → Make Manifold, or use Select → All by Trait → Non Manifold

If nothing gets selected with "Non Manifold," your mesh is already watertight and you can export it as-is to .stl for 3D printing — no modifier needed.

If it does have holes, then add Solidify (Properties panel → Modifiers → Add Modifier → Solidify) and set a small thickness value.

Boolean Union to fill bottom

I am now trying a Boolean Union to merge the box I created. This was harder than it should have been, because my main object is on an angle, and the move and rotate tools are strange. I am probably in the wrong mode or have selected faces when I should have selected something else.

Use a Boolean Union to merge them:

  1. Go to Object Mode (Tab)
  2. Select your scanned object (click it)
  3. Go to the Properties panel (right side) → Modifiers tab (wrench icon)
  4. Add Modifier → Boolean
  5. Set operation to Union
  6. In the Object field, click the eyedropper and select the box
  7. Click Apply
  8. Then select the box and delete it (X) — it's now merged into your scanned object

This will combine both meshes into one solid object with the box filling in the bottom. You can then export as .stl for printing.

If the Boolean fails (it can be picky with complex meshes), try the simpler approach:

  1. Select both objects
  2. Press Ctrl+J to join them into one object
  3. That should be enough for most slicers to handle