Sorry if this has been asked before but.

[fallen013 0]

I've spent an hour rolling through the topics on here and I haven't been able to find the answer so I thought I would ask.

Is Cura set to maximum STL file size of 150mb?

It seems to refuse to cut any STL larger than this or combination of files which exceeds this file size and I was wondering if this is it's limit.

I've just finished a higher detailed model than the one I originally did and it is kicking out at 208mb and 2 million points (down from 12 million) and ZBrush won't decimate it any more than this as its trying to hold the detail. This is just the main body of the model.

The original model combined was 150mb but it was really plain. And as my Ultimaker had managed to print the really fine detail I didn't think it would print on part of it I went back and started just cranking up the detail levels and now Cura is flat out refusing to look at it.

I don't mind if it is restricted to 150mb file size as I can cut it up some more and make it into smaller parts to print separately I just wondered as it has happened a couple of times before when I have been multiplying models on the bed.

If any one knows I Would be grateful of the information, as I said I haven't been able to find these details on the forum and I am going to think it is software over hardware restrains.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I don't think Cura is limited in size, i know it has a hard time with the poly count tough

The latest version work better with high detailed models, maybe you could try that (if you're not already using the latest).

 

[fallen013 0]

I'm already using 14.12.1, it crashes out far more than the last build. Though has the same problem there.

I don't mind the issues as we work around them when we can. I'm just pondering is all if it is me, or my laptop or Cura itself.

I just found it interesting that it only did it with models exceeding 150mb. (I have a few)

 

[nallath 1,120]

Cura engine on windows is still 32 bits because of one library that isnt ported properly. Mac & linux are 64 bit (and should give less problems)

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Maybe try the latest beta:

http://software.ultimaker.com/Cura_closed_beta/

I'm not sure which version handles large models better but it's worth the try

 

[fallen013 0]

Cura engine on windows is still 32 bits because of one library that isnt ported properly. Mac & linux are 64 bit (and should give less problems)

 

Ah the infamous 64 bit operating system running 32 bit program and not being able to allocate the memory as it can't see over 3.5gb of RAM. An getting confused. Small chunks till the 64 Bit version gets round the windows glitches then.

I'm not skilled enough to build a lynx system and I'm not a mac fan.

 

[fluxline 0]

you could try to reduce the polygon count in Zbrush, there are a couple plugins, 150MB is really a lot. or look at meshlab to reduce the stl for printing.

 

[nallath 1,120]

Building a linux system? Its a simple matter of downloading an .iso from a site and installing it. I've never built my own linux system

 

[jonnybischof 60]

you could try to reduce the polygon count in Zbrush, there are a couple plugins, 150MB is really a lot. or look at meshlab to reduce the stl for printing.

 

True - Your 3D printer will not benefit from a model that has a microscopically fine mesh resolution. It will be printing with a 0.4mm nozzle and a positioning resolution (not to be mistaken for accuracy!) somewhere in the 0.01mm range.

At some point I gave up drawing small circles in Sketchup with more than 24 segments - the printer will smooth it out anyways.

 

[area0404 0]

True - Your 3D printer will not benefit from a model that has a microscopically fine mesh resolution. It will be printing with a 0.4mm nozzle and a positioning resolution (not to be mistaken for accuracy!) somewhere in the 0.01mm range.

At some point I gave up drawing small circles in Sketchup with more than 24 segments - the printer will smooth it out anyways.

 

Agreed to that as well, filleting (unless really big ones are pretty much useless as well. Basically, forget details smaller than .4mm (not always but generally, yes). Rounding of sharp corners isn't that useful as well. Personally I find it better to print sharp and sand down for rounding corners.

 

[fallen013 0]

Well this did actually print.

 

 

Along the back of the cape (this is a bad photo) the thread actually printed it isn't the layer printing it is actually meant to be there as the cape thread, an becasue that actually worked which I wasn't expecting it too I thought I would push it a bit more which resulted in the over sizing issue I did get it down to 800K points. With some remeshing and decimation without losing too much detail and that worked but it was still 150mb.

But then I broke the feeding tube point and yeah this hasn't been done yet.

Using Colorfabb white as I seem to get on rather well with that.

 

[pm_dude 27]

load it in Meshlab and use Quadric Edge Collapse.

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/polygon_reduction_with_meshlab

Its easy to reduce the number of triangles without really affecting the end result. If you have too many faces the printer wont be able to print at normal speed because it will not be able to deal with the amount of commands in its small buffer.

 

[jonnybischof 60]

Agreed to that as well, filleting (unless really big ones are pretty much useless as well. Basically, forget details smaller than .4mm (not always but generally, yes). Rounding of sharp corners isn't that useful as well. Personally I find it better to print sharp and sand down for rounding corners.

 

That's actually not true!

Rounded corners (even very small radii) have a big advantage over sharp corners: The printer can do them without deccelerating. That means much less "ringing" in the object near corners.

You can also print details smaller than 0.4mm, especially in the z direction (0.02mm layers are possible). But it doesn't make sense to make a sphere out of 1'000'000'000 polygons. Models with extremely high poly counts usually utilize most of the polygons for heavy smoothing. The printer does some amount of smoothing when printing.

In most cases, these high-poly models can have their poly count reduced significantly without any noticeable difference (as long as you don't view them at a very high magnification).

 

[Daid 306]

Maybe try the latest beta:

http://software.ultimaker.com/Cura_closed_beta/

I'm not sure which version handles large models better but it's worth the try

 

The latest beta handles large GCode and thus large models a bit better. The current release isn't even hitting the 3GB memory barrier, as it's getting problems before that. (It's 3GB, not 3.5GB. And some applications are limited to 2GB in windows. It's an odd world)

And, yes, it's polycount that we need to talk about. Currently. I'm limiting my testing to 3mil polygons. That should give you ample resolution in the current Ultimaker machines.

In the future, I do want to be able to offer a 64bit windows version as well, which then can handler larger models. But there are some huge hurdles in the way for that on Windows. (On Mac everything is 64bit by default. On linux lots of things are available in 64bit already, and 95% of the users of Linux have 64bit systems)

Note that about 30% of the users currently still use a 32bit OS.

 

[fallen013 0]

I'd like to, but: "You don't have permission to view this image" :,(

 

my bad clicked the wrong button, should work now.