# 3D Design / 3D Scanning / 3D Modeling > 3D Printing Slicer Discussion >  Trouble slicing large stl file

## adamrodgers

Hello, I am new to 3d printing and I am having problems slicing my file. The progress bar gets filled up and then it says 0 min to print which is obviously incorrect. I assumed the polygon count was too high so I used decimate to lower it by about 30-40% which helped cura slice it but removed so much detail that it was not helpful. The file called "smallest4layer" is the original stl file that I am trying to stack on top of itself a few times to create a filter, but I am unable to slice even the 4 layer version. The file called "smallest4layerdecimate" is the same thing after using decimate which sliced and printed fine but was too far off from my original design. I am getting extremely frustrated with this, so any help would be greatly appreciated. 
Thanks in advanceSmallest4layer.stlSmallest4layerdecimate.stl

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## curious aardvark

going to need your printer settings. 
The individual parts are too small and while it slices in about 1 second in simplify3d. It's just blank as the cell walls are way way too small for my printer settings.
Without knowing what ridiculously small settings you're usig I can't actually get a sliced model.

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## CSMonkey

So if I've got this correct, you've got a 50x50x0.8mm geometry made up of lots of sections of 0.2-0.7mm. 

I don't know which technology you are planning to use, but you are going to struggle with most of them at this scale, and if successful it will not be very accuratedetail-1.jpg

As CA said above, what settings are you trying to process this with? It might help us understand whether it's achievable.

Rich

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## ralphzoontjens

Hi Adam,

I am measuring your wall thicknesses at 0.02 mm. That is impossible to 3D print with current machines.
If you are using an FDM machine, take your nozzle size+0.05 mm for the minimum wall thickness to ensure good slicing.
Set the line thickness in your slicer also to somewhere around this value - sometimes setting it a bit lower makes for better prints.

Also use boolean-union functions to combine multiple meshes may make for better slicing. Send me a PM if you want me to help you further with preparing STL files.

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