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SimQ DENTAL Mill Check › What We Check
Every file runs through the full check pipeline: mesh defects that break manufacturing are found and repaired automatically, and the design is validated against the parameters you define per material and restoration type. Below is every check, what causes it, and what it costs when it reaches the machine.
No installation · runs in your browser · first checks free
Areas of the mating surface that undercut the milling direction, marked in red on the 3D model with the insertion axis shown.
Crowns and bridges on preparations with divergent walls.
Due to the geometry of the preparation or the chosen insertion axis, there are areas that the milling cutter cannot reach at a certain tilt angle.
The restoration cannot be milled according to the design or does not fit the stump properly. If the undercut is near the margin, chipping may occur.
Determines the milling direction and Z orientation of the restoration and flags files that are not aligned as expected.
Crowns, bridges, telescopes, veneers
The restoration is not aligned with the Z orientation, so the insertion axis cannot be derived reliably.
It fails to fit into the auto-nesting and ends up misaligned in the nesting, so it always has to be positioned manually.
Ensure that the margin where the crown meets the prepared tooth is continuous.
Crowns, bridges, telescopes, veneers, inlays, and onlays.
There is no clear, continuous margin visible. The interrupted margin needs to be fixed
An improper margin leads to problems with nesting and in quality control, as well as to an improper fit on the tooth stump.
Wall thickness is measured across the entire geometry and displayed in red or yellow depending on the threshold. The wall thickness is ignored at the margin and at sharp edges, since it always approaches zero or falls below the threshold at those areas for design reasons. General design parameters must be adhered to.
Occlusal surfaces reduced for space, and anterior crowns thinned for aesthetics.
The design falls below the minimum for the selected material.
Restorations too thin risk holes during milling, deformation under cutter pressure, or fracture under occlusal load.
Minimum wall thickness and minimum area per material and restoration type, with a separate threshold for splints.
The file contains multiple separate bodies that are not physically connected, where a single solid is expected.
Bridges, crowns, veneers, inlays/onlays, telescopic crowns, abutments, splints
Geometry not fully merged during the design process. Connectors not applied, or separate bodies never combined into a single solid.
Disconnected bodies produce separated fragments or surface artifacts in SLM. In milling, loose fragments interfere with toolpaths and can damage surrounding work.
Small unrelated geometry fragments below a size threshold, floating near the main geometry or trapped inside it.
All types of restorations
Poor scan quality, or bodies created accidentally during CAD free-forming.
Cutter breakage during milling. Flying fragments can physically damage the restoration or surrounding work on the build plate.
Surface geometry that is not a closed solid and cannot be nested or sliced. Small holes are repaired; large holes are classified as shells.
All types of restoration
Geometry not fully merged in the design software, or a partial or corrupted export.
The file often cannot be nested for milling and cannot be sliced for SLM or printing. Where possible, Mill Check closes the surface automatically; otherwise the lab receives a visual report flagging the issue.
Areas where the mesh penetrates or overlaps itself, plus internal loops trapped inside the geometry.
All types of restoration
Teeth pushed over each other during free-form editing, or internal artifacts left by Boolean operations in CAD.
Self-intersections produce irregular outer surfaces and leave insufficient space for the cutter, requiring manual grinding after production. When sliced, inner loops produce holes and voids in the layer structure. This can also increase milling path calculation.
Loop structures that break through the exterior surface and deform the visible geometry, often with twisted normals.
All types of restorations
Poor scan quality, or free-form modelling errors that create surface deformations.
Significant deviation from the intended geometry, poor patient fit and irregular surfaces. Mill Check marks the affected section in the 3D report for the lab to redesign.
Geometry tapering to edges too thin to withstand manufacturing forces, detected by angle threshold, linked-edge count and surrounding material thickness.
Screw holes, reduced anatomies, margin lines, and flat connections to the tooth stump on inlays, onlays and veneers.
The design tapers below the angle and thickness your process can hold, usually without anyone noticing in CAD.
Material deformation, breakage and edge chipping in milling. Flattened edges and imprecise borders in SLM, affecting fit and quality.
Edge length , edge angle, walking distance and thickness.
Validates that connectors in bridges and multi-unit frameworks meet the minimum cross-section for the selected material.
Bridges
Connectors are the load-bearing elements joining pontics to retainer crowns. They carry the full occlusal force across the bridge span.
If a connector cross-section is too small for the material, the bridge mills fine, seats fine and fractures under chewing forces. A catastrophic failure requiring a full remake.
Connector area
Screw channel diameter, top and bottom rim and length, plus the deviation to Z orientation.
Screw-retained restorations and abutments
Channels designed to the wrong diameter or length, or channels that diverge too far from each other across the span.
Channels that do not match the abutment or diverge too far prevent the restoration from being seated and screwed down.
Length of screw channel, angulation deviation from screw channel to orientation
Automatically detects and counts units directly from the uploaded geometry, without opening and inspecting the file manually.
Bridges and multi-parts
When uploading the geometry, the wrong number of units is specified.
The case is being billed incorrectly due to the incorrect number of units.
Generates metadata directly from the STL file, so key information about the file is available without opening it.
Mill Check reads the raw STL geometry and generates metadata from it automatically, independent of what was typed into the order. This leads to faster clicking and nesting.
Question a result? Verify it on the spot in the 3D result viewer. Measure distances and angles directly on the 3D model and cut through the geometry with a clipping plane. No downloading the STL and opening it in a separate tool just to check a dimension. You can easily share it with the customer using a shared link.
Distance Angle Clipping plane
In the 3D result viewer: distance and angle measurement clipping plane original vs. repaired overlay repaired STL download share link
You configure Mill Check per material, restoration type and manufacturing method: which checks run, and the thresholds each one uses. Defaults work out of the box, calibration then reduces review load without sacrificing the catch rate.
During onboarding we tune the thresholds with your CAM team, so flags converge on the files your experts would actually stop.
Each configuration records which checks are active and which thresholds apply. When a file is approved or rejected, the parameters behind that verdict are part of the record.
Across several pilot studies, more than 50,000 production cases have been checked with SimQ DENTAL Mill Check. Automated results were compared directly with expert decisions to validate performance under real-world milling center conditions.
Every file runs through the checks activated in the configuration for the selected material and method. There is no basic or advanced tier; what you switch on runs every time.
Out of the box the defaults are deliberately conservative: catching a bad file is cheaper than missing one. During onboarding we calibrate thresholds with your CAM team, and checks that do not apply to your process can be switched off per configuration.
You do. Margin offsets, wall thickness and edge sensitivity are configurable per material and restoration type. Mesh integrity checks use universal standards with configurable sensitivity.
Mill Check produces a visual 3D report marking the affected section, so the lab sees exactly what to redesign. No back-and-forth over screenshots and phone calls.
Yes, continuously. Undercut detection has just shipped, and Milling Simulation and Unit Detection are live as feature previews. Next on the roadmap: connector size and screw channel validation, data enrichment with metadata generated from the STL file, concave spike detection and millability analysis against the minimum cutter radius.
The Mill Check overview covers workflow integration, plans and the free browser test.
Upload any STL in your browser and get the full analysis in about a minute.
