Chip parameters and split types

The chip parameters live in the right-hand panel of CAD Preview. Change one and the solid rebuilds.

Dimensions

Parameter	Default	What it is
Width	40 mm	Chip X extent.
Length	60 mm	Chip Y extent.
Base thickness	4 mm	Total block height.

The channel network’s coordinates are absolute chip millimetres with the origin at the bottom-left, so shrinking the chip does not scale the channels — it moves the walls in around them. Watch the boundary warnings when you do it.

Wall rules

Two settings that are easy to confuse.

Wall thickness (default 2 mm) is the minimum material between a channel and anything else, including another channel. It feeds the channels-too-close check, which uses the larger of this and the minimum-printable-wall setting.

Minimum edge spacing (default 3 mm) is specifically about the chip boundary — how close anything may sit to the outside edge. It feeds channel-near-boundary, and it is drawn on the canvas as a dashed rectangle inside the chip outline.

Edge spacing is your design rule, not a printer limit. If your parts release cleanly from a thinner rim, lower it.

Channel defaults

Parameter	Default
Default channel width	0.8 mm
Default channel height	0.5 mm
Default cross-section	rect

These apply anywhere a segment has no dimension marker.

0.8 × 0.5 mm is chosen to sit comfortably above every printer preset’s minimum feature size, so a freshly drawn channel does not start life with a printability warning on it.

Split type

The single most consequential choice on this panel.

Two-piece (the default)

The chip is cut at a plane into a channel plate and a lid. You print both, then bond them.

• The channels are open grooves until the lid goes on, so uncured resin rinses straight out.
• Rectangular channels sit just below the cut plane, leaving a flat lid.
• The drainage checks do not fire, because there is nothing sealed to drain.
• Explode in the CAD toolbar separates the halves so you can inspect the bonding faces.

The cost is a bond, and a bond is a seam that can leak.

Monolithic

One sealed block with the channels as internal voids. No bonding, no seam, nothing to align.

The cost is drainage. Uncured resin inside a sealed channel does not stay liquid — it sets, and at that point the channel is gone. This is the failure that ruins most first chips.

If you choose monolithic, read Draining uncured resin from channels before you print, and expect to add vents.

The full comparison, including when monolithic is genuinely the right answer, is on Monolithic vs. two-piece.

Split height

Where the cut plane sits, measured from the bottom of the block. 2 mm by default, which is the mid-plane of the default 4 mm chip.

Rectangular channels are placed so their ceiling is at the cut plane. Raise the split height and you get a thicker channel plate and a thinner lid; lower it and the reverse.

Caution

A split height outside the block means no cut happens and the chip prints as a sealed solid, even though the split type says two-piece. That is easy to do by accident — set the split height above the base thickness and the geometry silently becomes monolithic.

The enclosed-cavity check catches this case specifically, and the warning says why.

What the panel also tells you

Above the parameters, a line of statistics from the last build: triangle count, build time, channel void volume, port count, chamber count.

Channel void volume is the useful one. It is the internal volume of the chip in mm³ — how much fluid it holds, and how much uncured resin you will need to flush out.

Next

• The 3D preview — driving the viewport.
• Exporting — getting the STL out.