Hello from Seattle, USA

[markw 0]

Hi Everyone,

I just ordered my UM2 a couple of weeks ago, so I'm (im)patiently waiting for it to arrive. I'm guessing around mid-April.

In the mean time, I've uploaded a few models to https://www.youmagine.com/designs/28mm-row-house. Enjoy.

I haven't had a chance to print these yet, but I'm going to try to print the ground floor at work tomorrow on our Rep2. I did clean them up in NetFabb, so they *should* print OK. Here's a preview of all five modular pieces as they would look when stacked.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[gr5 2,172]

You can practice slicing with Cura now. It's a free download and you don't need a printer to get started:

http://software.ultimaker.com

 

[markw 0]

Thanks gr5. I have been practicing a bit with Cura. I even use it on models I print on our Rep2. Cura has some nice features missing in Makerware.

It's still been a bit of a learning curve. I've done quite a lot of 3D modeling, but not for printing. A whole new set of things to watch for

Cheers,

Mark

[ian 32]

Good morning Mark :-)

Congradulations on ordering yourself an ultimaker2... its very very very good :-)

And you are going to have a lot of fun printing your house models..

May I ask what software you are using to model your houses ?

I have done a lot of arch modelling for 3d print and I think I can help you get started... or atleast start faster and better ;-)

Have a lovely day.

Ian :-)

 

[markw 0]

Hi Ian,

I did these in Sketchup, although I started the process with Maya. I found Sketchup is better than Maya for architectural models, but I would still do organic objects in Maya.

The biggest challenge was making sure the objects were manifold. Sketchup (free version) has no way of repairing holes in geometry, and will only identify flipped normals. I tried cleaning them up in Maya, but I still had issues.

NetFabb seems to have solved this issue for now, but I don't want to rely on software to clean the models. To that end, I've had to change my approach to modeling, since Maya is very forgiving of non-manifold objects. :???:

If you have any resources you can point me to, that would be greatly appreciated. I'm also open to learning new software.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[gr5 2,172]

removing internal nodes/faces

http://meshlabstuff.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-remove-internal-faces-with.html

 

I have started using designSparkMechanical. I love it. It's free. Daid recommended it. Illuminarti also.

It is a bit frustrating for me because I am SO FAST in sketchup and slow in DSM, but I am getting better. It's very good at mechanical or architectural designs. Not so good at organic things. For organic things (like sculpting people) consider:

blender - free

z-brush - not free but what all the pro sculptors seem to use

DSM doesn't have the ability to make non-manifold objects so it is perfect.

At least as far as I can tell it can't.

 

[ian 32]

I always used. REVIT ARCHICAD or CINEMA4D in the office and SOLIDWORKS at home.

From all of the above pieces of software I learned the same thing... Keep it clean, keep it simple and always keep 3d printing in the back of your head.

When you add a big feature to your building model... think.... when my ultimaker tries to print this....what will happen...

Then you can either split up your model and after printing... attach them together.. totally acceptable !

Also sometimes... when you have a room space with a lot of intersecting walls and window / door openings... then you have a lot of compley furniture in the room space.. it really does help to print the two elements seperatly and simply attach them later. It keeps the potential of 3d negative spacing to a minium... plus you can do the structural elements in a nice arch grey white PLA and then the furniture with maybe a cool woodfill PLA... looks incredible !!

I have a lot of tips................

Ian :-)

 

[markw 0]

A belated thanks to both of you.

@gr5 - I'm looking into Sculptris and Mudbox for organics. They're both free for personal use. I did start using DSM today, and I think it will work well for mechanical designs. It has some really nice features that have already allowed me to design some parts I couldn't do in Sketchup or Maya. :ugeek:

I'm limited to using it during lunches or after work in my office as I don't have a Windows machine at home, but so far it's time well spent.

@Ian - I really want to try woodfill, but it's a little expensive. I think I'll cut my teeth on basic PLA. :-P

As for mechanical design software, I'm looking at Autodesk Fusion 360, since it's free and runs on a Mac.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[illuminarti 18]

A belated welcome from me too, Mark.

BTW, SpaceClaim (the grown-up version of DSM) is the only Windows program that I run on my Mac (using Parallels) - it's that good (and performs fine running in the Virtual machine).

Sculptris isn't bad, but a bit limited. One of the issues I had with it (and with most free mesh sculpting programs I tried) is that you can't re-topologize the mesh, and that limits what you can do with it for 3D printing - at least without a bunch more post-processing in something like Meshlab.

For instance, imagine you have modeled a cylindrical blob, and now you want to pull out a loop to make something akin to a handle on a mug. Where you tuck the end of the loop back into the body, you want it to become a seamless part of the surface, with no breaks. But most sculpting programs have a hard time with that, and instead keep the original 'skin' on the end of the loop, and just tuck it inside the main body. You might be able to do various smoothing things to make the join smoother, and harder to see, but the basic topology will remain - the mesh will intersect itself and have triangles buried inside somewhere. That can cause problems when you try to slice and print it.

For that reason, I ended up investing in Z-Brush for sculpting and cleaning up scans. It's not a cheap piece of software, so I realize that it may not be worth the investment for you, or indeed many folks. But it does what it does incredibly well.