I Nearly Missed This in My 3D-Printed Cup Holder Design

After working on my heated cup holder, I spent some time checking the 3D-printed housing before sending it to print.

And I nearly missed one small thing.

There are quite a few parts packed into a relatively small space — the heater, temperature sensor, wiring, and the cup itself. When everything is visible at once, it’s surprisingly easy to overlook whether a specific part is actually sitting where I intended.

So I started checking the assembly in a 3D Viewer from different angles.

Being able to highlight or isolate individual parts was pretty useful here. Instead of rotating the whole model around and trying to figure out which part I was looking at, I could focus on one component and check its position.

It sounds like a small thing, but catching a layout issue before printing the housing is definitely better than finding it afterwards.

Anyone else had this happen — you only notice a small layout issue after the part is already printed? 😅