Cutting a model into parts using Meshmixer

I use meshmixer for a variety of things when getting my models ready to print. Slicing the head into parts using the simple plane cut works really well and it is very easy. I tend to do this to print the head in parts or to make the parts fit on smaller printers.

Let's begin with an easy to follow tutorial. You will need a file to slice, meshmixer and a computer to do so.

Once you have the file selected that you want to cut we can start slicing. I am using my cat model which I want to cut into 3 parts. The upper area and the bottom jaw divided into 2 parts.

Go into edit > plane cut 

Once you are in the plane cut menu you will need to alter one thing as you want all the parts that you cut to be kept. You want to change the cut type to Slice (keep both).

Angle the slice how you want it. I tend to look for clean areas to break it off, think about how you want to glue this back together. I tend to slice it at the smile line when I want to split top and bottom. We will worry about slicing the bottom jaw into 2 parts later on. To move the slicer I use the blue and red arrows to move it up and down and the green arrow to tilt it.

Once you are happy with the position of the slice be sure to hit Accept.

So it will look like nothing happened but it did you just need to separate the pieces that are cut but still together. Once you used plane cut the 2 pieces are now their own "shells". You will need to  separate shells to be able to see them separated in their own layers.

Once you press Separate Shells you will get what you see in the image above. 2 different parts in 2 layers. 

To confirm the cut looks good I go into the Object Browser and close the eye of the layer I do not want to see. For example I only wanted to see the top section of the print so I turned off the bottom layer by shutting the eye.

I did the opposite to check the bottom layer to see how it looked by shutting the eye of the above layer.

So I need to split the bottom jaw into 2 parts since I am printing it on a smaller printer so I did the same steps above to cut the bottom jaw down. You can do this as many times as you want until you cut the pieces down small enough they fit in your print bed.

Went to the layer I wanted which was the bottom jaw. I turned off the eye of the top layer to avoid cutting it as we are only cutting the bottom jaw. So I went back into plane cut, sliced it in the middle, made sure I kept both pieces then separated the shells to get the jaw into 2 sections.

And here you can see the cut worked how I wanted it to and the bottom jaw is in 2 pieces. So now we have 3 total pieces. An upper top of the head and a bottom jaw split into 2 parts. To get all these pieces out of meshmixer you will need to export each obj separately.

To do so, go into each layer and do it one by one. To start with  only open the eye in the object browser for the top of the head. Go to the left of the program and look for export. This way the program is only exporting the layer you currently have visible. Once you hit export you can place it anywhere in your computer. Repeat the same steps for every layer, make sure you are on the right layer with the eye open so it is visible while the others are not to export the files on their own.

And that is pretty much it when it comes to doing a simple cut in meshmixer using plane cut. I will go over more intricate cuts using Nomad Sculpt at a later date. If you have any questions be sure to respond below.