FAQ

Section 5

Real problems you might hit, and the fastest way to recover from them.

Most of the time this means the scene is not yet in the state that panel expects. Resin2FDM hides or disables things on purpose so you do not accidentally skip important steps.

  1. If the Model Prep or Assign Miniature panels are missing, make sure you have clicked Prepare Scene and then Import STL in the Setup panel.
  2. If later panels are greyed out, check that you have run Split by Loose Parts (Step 3) and successfully assigned a MINIATURE (Step 4). Some tools will only appear once the scene is marked as "split complete" and a miniature exists.
  3. If you want to see every panel regardless of state, enable Open All Menus in the Feature Toggles panel. This will not force tools to run out of order, but it will expose everything for inspection.

This usually means there are extra Blender objects in the scene (like cameras or lights) that Resin2FDM did not create. The addon wants a clean, predictable environment so it knows which objects to manage.

  1. If you are comfortable in Blender, you can open the Outliner (top-right by default) and delete any Camera or Light objects from the current scene.
  2. The simpler option is to go back to the Setup panel and click Reset Scene (or Prepare Scene if you have not run it yet). Then re-import your STL and continue from Step 2.

Once only Resin2FDM objects remain, Assign Miniature should stop complaining.

These tools are helpers, not magic. On some models (especially very simple or very noisy ones) they will not find anything reliable.

  1. For Auto-Select, adjust the sensitivity slider. Drag it up to cast a wider net and include more pieces as potential miniature parts; drag it down to be more selective. Run Attempt Auto-Select after each adjustment.
  2. For Tip Detection, double-check that the tip size and shape roughly match what the sculptor used. If your tips are very small, moving the expected size slider down a bit can help.
  3. If you have tried small adjustments and still get nothing useful, do not fight the tooling. Fall back to the manual workflow described in Steps 4 and 5: select the miniature yourself, assign it, and thicken supports. The core workflow does not depend on these helpers.

After thickening, you may notice the miniature or supports appear slightly higher off the build plate than before. This is intentional.

Resin2FDM recalculates the lowest point of the mesh after thickening and snaps it back to Z = 0 automatically. The apparent upward movement is just a visual side-effect of the modifier being applied; the actual export will still sit flat on the build plate.

By default, Resin2FDM tries hard not to accidentally destroy your previous exports. If a file with the same name already exists in the output folder, the addon will warn you and block the write.

In the Export panel you will see a small lock icon next to the overwrite warning. Click this lock to temporarily allow overwriting existing files. Once it is unlocked, run your export again and the new files will replace the old ones.

If you want to keep both versions, leave the lock engaged and instead change the base file name before exporting.

Glossary

Section 6

Short, practical definitions focused only on what you need for Resin2FDM.

Scene

A container that holds all the objects for a particular setup in Blender. Resin2FDM creates and resets its own scene so it can safely manage your miniature, supports, and helper objects without touching your other work.

Object/Model

Any individual thing in the 3D Viewport: a model, a support cluster, a camera, a light, or a helper like the level cube. When this guide says "select the miniature", it means select the objects that make up the model in the viewport.

Modifier

A non-destructive effect you can apply to an object, such as thickness or smoothing. Resin2FDM uses modifiers to thicken supports and tips before you click Apply Modifier to bake the changes into real geometry that your slicer can see.

MINIATURE

The main model you care about printing. After you run Assign Miniature, Resin2FDM merges your chosen pieces and renames the result to MINIATURE so later tools know which object is the hero.

SUPPORTS

All of the support columns, cross-braces, and similar helper geometry that holds the miniature up during printing. These are separated from the miniature so you can thicken and export them independently.

BASE

A flat or decorative platform the miniature stands on. When Resin2FDM detects a base, it keeps it as a separate object so you can easily see and manage it in the slicer.

SUPPORT_TIPS

A special object that holds only the tiny contact points at the ends of supports (Advanced version only). Created by the Tip Detection tools so you can thicken just the tips without over-thickening the entire support column.

Build plate

The virtual representation of your printer's bed. In Resin2FDM, Z = 0 is treated as the build plate surface. The optional build plate visualizer helps you see roughly how your miniature will sit on your real printer.

Level cube

A tiny helper cube that Resin2FDM adds under the miniature when exporting. It gives slicers a clean reference for the build plate and helps keep the model from floating slightly above or sinking into Z = 0.

Non-manifold

A technical term for geometry that is not perfectly "watertight". Many resin support structures are non-manifold in ways that do not matter for FDM printing, so minor warnings about SUPPORTS can usually be ignored.

Lite vs Advanced (Standard)

Resin2FDM Lite includes the full core workflow (prepare, import, split, assign, thicken supports, and export) plus Mesh Repair. Advanced/Standard adds optional tools like Tip Detection, Auto-Select, 3MF export, Support Reinforcement, and Slicer Profile integration. This guide is written so both versions can follow the same main steps.