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Evaluate and Repair

In one sentence: Open a comprehensive dialog that checks a mesh for all common defect types and offers one-click repair for each.

Overview

Workbench: Mesh
Menu: Mesh → Meshes → Analyze → Evaluate & Repair…
Command: Mesh_Evaluation
Shortcut: none

Opens the Evaluate & Repair dialog — the most comprehensive mesh analysis tool. It checks for multiple defect types and offers one-click repair for each.

Intuition

Every STL file from an external tool, photogrammetry pipeline, or CT scan should be evaluated before further use. Common defects — holes, non-manifold edges, inverted normals — cause printing failures and invalid Boolean results. Evaluate and Repair finds and fixes them in one place.

Run it immediately after Import Mesh and after any mesh Boolean or cutting operation.

When to use it

  • After importing any external mesh file.
  • Before attempting mesh Boolean operations (Union, Difference, Intersection).
  • After mesh cutting or trimming operations.
  • Before converting to a solid with Part → Shape from Mesh.

Step-by-step

  1. Select the mesh in the model tree.
  2. Choose Mesh → Meshes → Analyze → Evaluate & Repair….
  3. Click Analyze (runs all checks simultaneously).
  4. Review the report — green checkmarks = OK; red = defects found.
  5. For each defect, click Repair to apply the automatic fix.
  6. Re-run Analyze to confirm all issues are resolved.
  7. Click Close.

Checks performed

Check What it finds Repair action
Duplicate points Vertices at the same/nearby position Merge nearby points
Face indices Invalid triangle index references Remove invalid faces
Holes Open boundary edges (unshared edges) Fill all holes automatically
Non-manifold points Vertices in non-manifold configuration Remove non-manifold points
Non-manifold edges Edges shared by more than 2 triangles Remove non-manifold edges
Orientations Inconsistent triangle winding Harmonize normals
Normals Outward vs inward pointing Flip normals
Self-intersections Triangles that penetrate each other — (no automatic fix)
Degenerate faces Zero-area triangles Remove degenerate faces

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Self-intersections have no automatic repair

Evaluate & Repair detects self-intersections but cannot fix them automatically — the geometry is ambiguous. Fix by returning to the source CAD tool and re-exporting, or use CloudCompare or MeshLab for manual correction.

A mesh can pass all checks and still have self-intersections

The solid check, normal check, and hole check can all pass while self-intersections remain. Always run the full Evaluate & Repair analysis — don't rely on a single check.

Repair order matters

Fix duplicate points first — they cause many other defects (non-manifold edges, holes) that will disappear once the duplicates are merged.

See also