3MF Print Editor

Guideline for hand-editing 3D-printing files — Bambu Lab's .3mf project files, as opened/sliced by BambuStudio — when the user wants a model cut, split across plates, repositioned, merged, or reconfigured programmatically rather than through the slicer GUI. Covers three things end to end: editing the mesh correctly, building/arranging plates correctly, and setting print parameters correctly. Read references/3mf-structure.md and references/plate-coordinate-system.md before editing a multi-plate project — the plate math is not obvious and is the single most common source of silent failure (see Pitfall #1).

Scope disclaimer: this skill is verified against BambuStudio only. Everything here — the Metadata/model_settings.config schema, the multi-plate shared-scene offset formula in §4, and the project_settings.config keys in §5 — was reverse-engineered from BambuStudio's own source (bambulab/BambuStudio) and confirmed against real BambuStudio behavior. OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer, and other tools also read/write .3mf, and OrcaSlicer's is close (it's a BambuStudio fork), but their exact plate-offset constants, config keys, or metadata schema are not guaranteed to match and have not been verified here. If the user's target application isn't BambuStudio, say so explicitly, and re-derive/verify the relevant constants against that application's own source or behavior before applying this skill's formulas — do not assume they transfer as-is.

When to use this skill

• "把这个模型从中间切开/分成两半" — cut/split a model into pieces
• "分别放到两个盘里" / "put these on separate plates" — multi-plate arrangement
• "调整模型位置/旋转/缩放" — reposition, rotate, scale an object in a project file
• "改一下打印设置" — change bed size, plate count, filament/printer profile in a project file
• "帮我重新打包这个 3mf" — merge multiple STL/3MF sources into one project
• Any task that requires opening a .3mf as a zip and hand-editing its XML/config instead of using the slicer UI

Do NOT use this skill just to view or slice a file — only when the file itself needs to be programmatically modified and re-saved.

Environment setup

Mesh editing needs trimesh plus its optional dependencies for boolean ops, capping, and polygon repair. On macOS with a Homebrew Python, the interpreter that actually has these packages may differ from the default python3 (check with python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)" vs which -a python3.*). Install once per environment:

python3 -m pip install trimesh numpy scipy shapely networkx rtree manifold3d

Verify:

python3 -c "import trimesh, numpy, scipy, shapely, networkx, rtree; print('ok', trimesh.__version__)"

If pip3 and python3 resolve to different interpreters (common on macOS with multiple Homebrew Python versions), install and run with the exact interpreter path that has the packages, not just python3.

1. Understand the file before touching it

A .3mf is a standard OPC (Open Packaging Conventions) zip. Always extract and inspect first:

mkdir -p /tmp/3mf_work && cd /tmp/3mf_work
unzip -o "/path/to/model.3mf" -d extracted
find extracted -type f

Read references/3mf-structure.md for the full file-by-file breakdown. Key files:

Never assume a schema detail — when unsure, verify against the actual BambuStudio source (src/libslic3r/Format/bbs_3mf.cpp, src/slic3r/GUI/PartPlate.cpp in bambulab/BambuStudio on GitHub) rather than guessing. This skill's plate-offset math (Pitfall #1) was reverse-engineered from that source after a first attempt silently failed.

2. Editing the mesh correctly

For real geometry edits (cutting, boolean, hollowing, etc.), never hand-edit vertex/triangle XML — parse it into a proper mesh library, edit, then re-serialize.

1. Parse the object's vertices/triangles from 3D/Objects/object_N.model (or the sole object file when there's no multi-part split) using xml.etree.ElementTree, build a trimesh.Trimesh(vertices=..., faces=..., process=False).
2. Determine the cut/split plane from the mesh's actual bounding box — don't guess an axis. Print mesh.bounds and mesh.extents first. For "cut in half", pick the plane through the midpoint of the longest horizontal extent (or the axis the user specifies), and prefer a plane that lands on an already-symmetric midpoint (e.g. bounds like [-127, 127]) since that's almost always the model's natural centerline.
3. Cut with capping so each half stays a valid solid:

   half_a = trimesh.intersections.slice_mesh_plane(mesh, plane_normal=[0,1,0], plane_origin=[0,0,0], cap=True)
   half_b = trimesh.intersections.slice_mesh_plane(mesh, plane_normal=[0,-1,0], plane_origin=[0,0,0], cap=True)
   

4. Always verify before packaging:
   • half_a.is_watertight and half_b.is_watertight must both be True.
   • abs(half_a.volume + half_b.volume - mesh.volume) < 1e-3 (volume conservation — proves no geometry was lost or duplicated at the cut).
   • Bounds of each half only extend on the expected side of the cut plane.
5. Use scripts/mesh_tools.py (split_mesh_plane) to do steps 3–4 with the checks built in instead of re-deriving this from scratch each time.

See references/mesh-editing-notes.md for capping caveats, common trimesh dependency errors and fixes (scipy/shapely/networkx/rtree ImportErrors surface one at a time — install all five up front), and how to handle non-watertight source meshes.

3. Wiring edited objects back into the 3MF XML

When a cut/split produces N new sub-meshes that must become N separate placeable objects:

1. Write each mesh to its own 3D/Objects/object_<id>.model file with a unique numeric object id, following the existing file's template (<model> root with the same namespaces, one <object type="model"><mesh>... per file). Keep IDs unique across the whole package — IDs are global, not per-file.
2. In 3D/3dmodel.model, give each new sub-mesh a wrapping top-level <object type="model"> with a <component> pointing at its .model file, then add one <item objectid="..."> per object to <build> with the placement transform (see §4 for the coordinates that transform must use).
3. Add a <Relationship Target="/3D/Objects/object_<id>.model" .../> for every new object file to 3D/_rels/3dmodel.model.rels — a missing relationship can cause silent load failures in strict parsers.
4. Update Metadata/model_settings.config: one <object id="..."> block per top-level object (with a nested <part> for the mesh + mesh_stat face_count=...), one <model_instance> per plate assignment inside the matching <plate> block, and matching <assemble_item> entries in <assemble> using the same transform as the build item.
5. Reset or clear Metadata/cut_information.xml (<objects></objects>) when you replace geometry outside the GUI's own cut tool, so stale connector/cut metadata doesn't get misapplied to the new geometry.
6. [Content_Types].xml normally needs no change (it declares Default Extension="model" which covers any new .model file automatically) — only touch it if you introduce a genuinely new file extension.

4. Building/arranging plates correctly (read this before any multi-plate edit)

BambuStudio-specific. The constants and behavior below (LOGICAL_PART_PLATE_GAP = 0.2, the shared-scene layout) are taken directly from BambuStudio's source and confirmed in BambuStudio. They are likely similar in OrcaSlicer (a BambuStudio fork) but have not been verified there, and are not guaranteed at all for PrusaSlicer or any other .3mf consumer. Do not present this formula as universal to "3D printing" or "3MF" in general — it is a property of this specific application's renderer/loader.

This is the part that silently fails if you skip it. BambuStudio renders every plate in one shared 3D scene, not as independent origin-0 canvases. Every plate after the first is offset along X (and wraps to a new row after the configured column count) by:

stride_x = bed_width  * 1.2   # LOGICAL_PART_PLATE_GAP = 0.2, i.e. a 20% gap
stride_y = bed_depth  * 1.2
col = plate_index % cols       # plate_index is 0-based; cols defaults such that plates fill one row unless very many
row = plate_index // cols
plate_origin = (col * stride_x, -row * stride_y)

Read the bed size from Metadata/project_settings.config's printable_area (four "XxY" corner strings) and printable_height. For the common 256×256 bed, stride_x = stride_y = 307.2.

Every object's build-item transform (3D/3dmodel.model <item transform="...">) and its matching <assemble_item transform="..."> in model_settings.config must be in this shared global space: local plate-centered position plus that plate's plate_origin offset. If you center every object at its own plate's local origin without adding the offset, every plate's objects land on top of each other at plate 0's location — the first plate looks "whole" (multiple pieces stacked back together) and every other plate renders empty. This exact bug is documented with full derivation in references/plate-coordinate-system.md; read it once, then use scripts/mesh_tools.py's plate_origin(plate_index, bed_width, bed_depth, cols=...) helper so you never re-derive it by hand.

Assigning which plate an object belongs to (separately from its coordinates) is done via Metadata/model_settings.config: each <plate> block has a <model_instance> child per object/instance (object_id, instance_id, identify_id) that belongs on that plate. identify_id can be any positive integer; it does not need to match anything else in the file (BambuStudio falls back to internal IDs when it's absent/≤0).

5. Setting print/project parameters

Metadata/project_settings.config is flat JSON (not XML) with every printer/filament/print setting as a key → value (often the value is itself a stringified array/percentage). Common keys to look for:

• printable_area, printable_height — bed shape/size (see §4, drives plate offsets)
• *_plate_temp, *_plate_temp_initial_layer — bed temperature by plate type (cool/eng/hot/supertack/textured)
• Standard print-profile keys (layer height, speeds, supports, etc.) — treat this file as the single source of truth for "what will this print with"; do not assume defaults

When a user asks to "改打印设置" (change print settings), find the exact key(s) in this JSON, change only those values, and leave the rest of the (very large) file untouched — do not reformat or reorder it.

Metadata/slice_info.config and Metadata/filament_sequence.json are usually safe to leave as-is unless the user is specifically changing slicing/AMS filament-sequencing behavior.

6. Validate before delivering

Always run these checks on the rebuilt package before handing it back:

1. XML well-formedness on every .model/.config/.rels XML file (xml.etree.ElementTree.parse).
2. Mesh integrity: re-parse each Objects/object_N.model, confirm vertex/triangle counts are sane and (for solid parts) trimesh reports is_watertight.
3. Volume/bounds sanity: for split/cut operations, confirm combined volume matches the source and bounds fall on the correct side of the cut plane for each piece.
4. Plate placement math: recompute each object's expected global position from §4's formula and diff it against what you wrote into the build item — don't eyeball it.
5. Repack as a proper zip ([Content_Types].xml at minimum should be present; ordering isn't strict but keep the file complete) and re-extract it fresh to confirm the zip itself isn't corrupt.

Use scripts/mesh_tools.py's validate_package(dir) to run 1–3 automatically over an extracted tree.

7. Non-destructive output

Never overwrite the user's original file in place. Write the result to a new file (e.g. name_edited.3mf or name_split.3mf) alongside the original, tell the user exactly what changed, and only overwrite the original if they explicitly ask you to.

8. Common pitfalls

1. Multi-plate objects overlapping on plate 1, other plates empty — you used plate-local coordinates instead of adding the shared-scene plate offset. Fix per §4.
2. ModuleNotFoundError cascade when calling trimesh.intersections.slice_mesh_plane(..., cap=True) — trimesh lazily imports scipy, then shapely, then networkx, then rtree one at a time; install all four (plus manifold3d for booleans) up front instead of iterating on import errors.
3. python3 without the packages — pip install and python3 can point at different interpreters on multi-Python-version macOS setups; always verify with the same interpreter you'll run edits with.
4. Cut plane guessed instead of measured — always print mesh.bounds/mesh.extents first; don't assume which axis is "the middle" of an asymmetric or unfamiliar model.
5. Forgetting to update 3D/_rels/3dmodel.model.rels when adding new Objects/object_N.model files.
6. Leaving stale cut_information.xml pointing at old part/connector IDs after replacing geometry outside the GUI cut tool.
7. Editing project_settings.config by reformatting the whole file — it's huge; touch only the specific keys requested.

References

• references/3mf-structure.md — full file-by-file breakdown of a Bambu/Orca .3mf package
• references/plate-coordinate-system.md — full derivation of the multi-plate offset formula, with BambuStudio source citations
• references/mesh-editing-notes.md — trimesh capping/watertight/dependency notes
• scripts/mesh_tools.py — reusable helpers: extract/repackage a 3mf, split a mesh with validation, compute a plate's origin offset, validate an extracted package