I understand for videogames/animation using quads is preferable, but if I'm making a model solely for 3D printing does it matter if I have a mix of quads and tris?
Since an STL file only looks at the "outside surface" of the model I wouldn't think it would matter much, at least form a modeling perspective.
>>546689
Use a faceted shading and thats what you'll get when you print. And make sure that you have one uniform mesh rather than lots of meshes intersecting with each other.
Other than that the quads, tris, polycount doesn't matter when 3D printing
>>546690
>And make sure that you have one uniform mesh rather than lots of meshes intersecting with each other
By this do you mean make sure the meshes are connected and make one object, rather than separate objects?
>>546692
yep
>>546689
You'll want to sub-d it to get the smooth surface you seek, so it kinda does matter. But otherwise no.
>>546690
>And make sure that you have one uniform mesh rather than lots of meshes intersecting with each other.
Cura, at least, has a setting to combine intersecting meshes into a single object to be sliced. I bet Simplify 3D has such settings too considering it's probably the most feature rich slicer.