Matte Finish Around Holes

Matte Surface Finish Around Holes and Apertures

Sometimes, models printed with a glossy surface finish will have matte surface finish in certain areas. A matte appearance may occur even if there are no angles below 45°.

Possible Causes and Solutions

Support Offset

For specific geometries, GrabCAD Print software adds 1 mm of support material to reinforce certain parts of the model. This occurs to ensure the optimum quality and resolution of fine features and other geometries, such as under holes, cavities, and text. This offset results in a matte appearance; even though you selected a glossy surface finish. 

Solution: To avoid adding support under holes and apertures, go to File > Preferences > PolyJet dialog box. For Glossy surface finish, select Smart instead of Default. This will disable the default reinforcement around holes and other areas.

Preventive measures: Same as above.

TIP: For more information about Smart support, see our tutorial on Pre-Printing Tips.