A step turned red after I changed a parameter

You dragged a slider, and a step in the Recipe turned red. The model might look broken or half-built. Take a breath: this is a normal part of parametric design, and Solid Vibes is built to help you recover.

What "red" means

A red step means: with the new values, this step could not do its job. It does not mean your work is lost. The step is still there, still editable, and the history is intact. Undo takes you straight back.

Each failed step explains itself in plain language, naming the numbers involved. For example: "The fillet radius (6 mm) is larger than the 4 mm wall."

Symptom

• A step in the Recipe is red, with a message.
• The model looks different from what you expect, with a feature missing or unchanged.
• A design intent chip turned red (a different thing: see below).
• The agent says a step "failed" and proposes a repair.

What each kind of error means

Self-healing history

When an upstream change breaks a downstream step, the agent can explain what happened and propose a fix, as a ghost preview you can accept, tweak or reject. It does not silently patch.

You can ask for it:

A step went red after I set board_width to 70. Explain what broke and why, and propose the smallest fix. Do not change my parameter.

Typical repairs:

• adjusting a radius or wall to fit the new size,
• changing a selector so it still finds the right edge,
• reordering steps,
• limiting a formula with min or max,
• suppressing a feature that no longer makes sense (never deleting it).

Fix it yourself

1. Undo the parameter change to confirm it was the trigger.
2. Click the red step and read the message.
3. Find the numbers. Often one value has become impossible: a wall of 0.8 mm with a 2 mm fillet, a hole larger than its plate.
4. Adjust either side. Change the parameter that went too far, or change the dependent value (reduce the radius).
5. Check subsequent steps. A failed step can leave later steps that depended on it looking wrong too. Once the first red step is fixed, the rest usually recover.
6. Look for the earliest red step if several are red. Fix that one first.

A red chip is different

A design intent chip turning red means a rule you set no longer holds, for example "walls at least 1.6 mm". The model itself still builds. Decide whether to undo, fix the design, or relax the rule. See Design intent.

How to avoid it

1. Set slider ranges (min, max, step) to values that make sense, so you cannot drag into nonsense.
2. Use bounded formulas. min(fillet_radius, wall * 0.8) cannot exceed the wall. max(wall, 1.2) cannot go below 1.2.
3. Add design intent rules for the limits that matter.
4. Select by meaning, not by clicking individual edges.
5. Stress-test. After building a model, drag each main parameter to both extremes and see what turns red. Fix those cases once, and they stay fixed.
6. Branch before big changes.
7. Fillet and chamfer late in the Recipe.

Try it

On the Enclosure template:

1. Drag the wall thickness up to its maximum, and watch what turns red.
2. Ask:

Explain the red step and fix it so the wall slider can go up to 5 mm without breaking anything.

1. Accept the ghost, then drag the slider through its whole range again.