--- title: "Read the layer check: islands, levers and peel in Encrust" description: "What each warning in Encrust's Issues view means, the numbers behind it (mm2, MPa, N), and what to change before you print." url: "https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/" lang: "en" updated: "2026-10-03" --- Preparing a model · Guide 5 of 5 # Read the layer check before you print Updated October 3, 2026 4 min read The layer check reads every layer as Encrust would write it and lists where the print is likely to fail. An island cures over nothing and fails the print. A lever is a thin neck pulled off-centre. A peel is a layer the film pulls hard on. Each comes with its numbers. ## On this page 1. [Before you start](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#before-you-start) 2. [Open the Issues view](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#open-the-issues-view) 3. [Islands](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#islands) 4. [Levers](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#levers) 5. [Peel](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#peel) 6. [How far to trust the numbers](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#how-far-to-trust-the-numbers) 7. [If something goes wrong](https://encrust.app/guides/read-the-layer-check/#if-something-goes-wrong) ## Before you start Have a model on the plate with a printer and resin chosen, and supports added if the model needs them ( [Supports](https://encrust.app/guides/supports-resin-print/)). The check judges the layers as they will be written, supports included, so run it after you have supported the model, not before. ## Open the Issues view Switch from Prepare to Preview. Encrust cuts the stack and measures it (“Checking the stack…”), then a card appears in the column beside the stage. - With nothing wrong, the card reads “No issues” and “Nothing found to fail on”. - Otherwise it reads “N issues” with the worst one under it, such as “Fails at layer 212” or “Likely to fail at layer 516”. Layer numbers start at 1. Click the card. The column becomes Issues: a verdict card at the top, then a “Found” list with one row per kind of issue per layer. Click a row, or the verdict card, and the stage jumps to that layer. When there is more than one kind, chips above the list (All, Islands, Levers, Peel) filter it. Every issue also has a tick on the layer slider, so you can see where up the print they sit. Levers and peels are not judged in the bottom layers, which the build plate holds rather than the model. Islands are judged on every layer. ## Islands An island is a piece of a layer that touches nothing in the layer below. It cures over nothing, sticks to the film and stays in the vat. It is the one issue the verdict calls “Fails”, and it always comes first when it exists. A row reads `island · 0.02 mm2`: the area of the piece, summed when a layer has several. On the layer itself, the island’s pixels are painted in the danger colour. Pieces under 0.01 mm2 are treated as specks of edge grey and not listed. Each layer is judged against the layer below it as written, supports included. Fix an island one of two ways: - Add or move a support under it (see [supports](https://encrust.app/guides/supports-resin-print/)). - Press “Remove N islands” in the Verdict card. Encrust erases the islands from the file and checks again. Anything that stood only on an island goes too, so a floating part is removed whole, from its first layer up. The card then reads “N islands taken out of the file”, and “Put the islands back” undoes it. Removing suits specks you don’t care about. For a part you do care about, it leaves the part missing from the print. The setting is saved with the project. The command line has the same switch, `--remove-islands`. ## Levers A lever is a thin neck under a part that the film pulls on from off to one side. For each piece, Encrust finds the narrowest section between it and the plate (the neck). It then takes the pull of the layer, adds the tension on the neck and the bending from the sideways offset, and compares the stress with 5 MPa. A row reads `lever · 9.8 mm · 12 MPa`: the offset between the pull and the neck, and the stress. The verdict card gives the neck’s area too: “The neck under it, 0.25 mm2, takes about 12 MPa from a pull 9.8 mm off to one side.” A neck is named once, at its worst layer. The fix is “Support it nearer its middle”: put a support under the part’s centre so the load doesn’t hang from one side of the neck. ## Peel A peel is a layer that pulls hard on the film as the plate lifts. A layer is flagged when its pull passes 30 N, which is about 3 kg or a solid section roughly 80 mm across. A run of such layers is named once, at the hardest. A row reads `peel · 60 N`. The fixes the verdict gives are to tilt the model, hollow it, or lift slower (for hollowing, see [hollowing](https://encrust.app/guides/hollow-resin-model-drain-holes/)). Under the Issues card, before you open it, a “Peel” section lists the “Hardest pull” layer and “Pulls like a disc of” a diameter in mm. The disc is the round section that would pull equally hard. It also gives the “Widest step”, the layer whose area grows most over the one under it, and “Grows by” how many mm2\. These are readings, not warnings, so they show even when no issue was found. Like levers and peels, they skip the bottom layers. ## How far to trust the numbers The 5 MPa and 30 N limits are warning levels we set, not measured on any printer or resin. The pull itself is a calculation (Stefan’s law, with a torsion constant standing in for the shape), scaled by one fixed factor. Treat a lever or a peel as “look at this layer” and an island as certain. A clean result means the check found nothing it can measure, not that the print will succeed. Exposure, lift and resin come first: follow your printer’s and resin maker’s instructions and start from a calibration piece. ## If something goes wrong **The check says nothing and the print still failed.** It reads geometry only: what each layer cures, what it touches below and how hard it pulls. It knows nothing of your exposure or the state of your film. **Hundreds of islands.** The list shows the first 200 rows and counts the rest (“and N more layers”). A model with that many needs supports, not scrolling. **Remove islands took out more than expected.** It also removes whatever stood only on an island. Press “Put the islands back”, add the support the part needed, and check again. **No Issues card.** When Preview shows a sliced file you opened, it shows that file’s own numbers instead. The check runs on a plate you have prepared in Encrust, and only once a printer is chosen. [ Previous Supports: automatic, then by hand](https://encrust.app/guides/supports-resin-print/) ## Read next - [Hollowing and drain holes ](https://encrust.app/guides/hollow-resin-model-drain-holes/) - [All guides ](https://encrust.app/guides/) --- Free and open source under AGPL-3.0\. No tracking, no account, no cloud. ## Product [Download](https://encrust.app/download/) [Printers](https://encrust.app/printers/) [Web app](https://encrust.app/app/) ## Learn [Guides](https://encrust.app/guides/) [Blog](https://encrust.app/blog/) [FAQ](https://encrust.app/faq/) [Changelog](https://github.com/vvvlladimir/Encrust/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) ## Project [Source code](https://github.com/vvvlladimir/Encrust) [Discussions](https://github.com/vvvlladimir/Encrust/discussions) [Report a bug](https://github.com/vvvlladimir/Encrust/issues) Encrust prepares files for machines that cure resin with UV light. It can’t know whether your settings suit your resin, printer or model, so check what it produces before a long print. Provided without warranty, as the licence says. [Privacy](https://encrust.app/privacy/) [Impressum](https://encrust.app/impressum/) [Datenschutzerklärung](https://encrust.app/datenschutz/)