Crazy story: I spent approximately four hours with improving the 3d-model of a Steam Centurio in Rhino. Original looks like this: Well, four hours wasted time. The printer software wasn't able to make my model printable. Finally I decided to try the original 3d-model with a few suspensions only. And TAHDAH!
Very nice. For the non-initiated (but interested) what does "make it printable" mean? i.e. what what wrong with it and how did you fix it?
Well, the 3d-model is kind of a hollow paper body. Wall thickness = 0. The printer software cuts this model layer by layer regarding to the thickness of one print-layer hight for example 0,2 mm. The result is a polyline wich must be transformed into the printer-path for each layer. The cross section of one print-string is in my case approximately 0,2 mm high and 0,4 mm wide. Because I want thicker walls than 0,4 mm for my models I use three strings to get something like 1,2 mm wall thickness. For that and for the infill the software needs to know where the inside of the model is and where the outside to place the wall thickness to the correct side. The polygons of a 3d-model have normals wich usually point toward the outside. But sometimes models arn't closed or the normals arn't uniform for nearby polygons or several single parts stick into each other without any connection. They share the same place and their normals point against each other. All this can irritate the software and you will either get an unwanted result or the software gives up and tells you that it is impossible to create a correct print code. This is the reason of the demand for waterproof models for printing. Completely closed, unified normals, no single polygons without connection to the rest of the model. 3d video games don't need all this. Not even the normals of polygons have to point to the outside because you can declare textures as "two-sided", so the direction of the normal doesn't matter. Often it is very time-consuming to make a model waterproof. Accordingly it's often impossible to use 3d-geometry from a game directly for 3d-prints. Additional some diameters or wall thicknesses can be to small for printing. And in case of the dwemer centurio I found "flying" parts at its arms without connection. It works perfect for the game but isn't printable in real life. So I was surprised that the software did it in this case without problems.
Brilliant reply! That is exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks Jamira. On the internet it is so rare people do that. Normally some smartass suck just ignores the question and tells you to use a Mac ;)
LOL! "... to use a Mac" I assume most hard as bone 3d-junkies, like me, prefer devices with more industrial strength than Apple can offer. Macs may be the first choice for 2d-designers - the flat world even. (How to jail a 2d-manikin? Just draw a rectangle around it!) Once Mac + Photoshop was the ultima ratio. But talking about 3d they arn't such a high-flyer.
Regarding this Dwarven Robot: My print is approximately 200 mm tall (two parts). It stands in my shelf meanwhile and looks impressive from a distance greater than one meter. Initial thoughts about making a functional model with all details have been canceled. This machine would never ever be functional. No need to improve it. It's a quick and dirty print and looks good. Another project needs a lot of work. But I like it so much! I want to print a small model of Skyrim's most important place: Whiterun. It shall fit completely to my printers workspace: 200x200x180 mm. It's a WIP: The lower district with Dragonborn's home Breezehome is nearly done already: Such projects are pure fun. Way back in the past (nearly 50 years ago) I made my first paper-models, painted my first pictures and wrote my first stories. Now I'm able to bring them all to RL in 3d. That's simply crazy.
