Dubman Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I've made an egg in VW as a solid object, starting from circles stacked on top of each other & then converted each to nurbs, then used the loft surface tool & made a solid object. Then I needed to cut the egg in half to make a shell of each half so a light can be installed inside the egg shell. I have found out the split tool on the solid whole egg will only split the egg horizontally, when I try vertically at the center line, it does not split the egg, when I go horizontally it works fine. Then I use the shell tool & select max polys for an inside shell, it works great. I can see the shell of the egg in both halfs. Then I export to a STL file ASCII type with max polys. When used in the 3D printer, the results are not the same thru the entire printing of the egg. The owner of this 3D printer is saying I need a better 3D software that VW is not the best software for doing 3D printing. Just looking for a VW users advise on this matter. Thanks Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted April 2, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted April 2, 2014 If you can send me that STL I can see where the problem lies specifically. tech@vectorworks.net There are some shapes that export to STL improperly for 3D printing still, but I have actually made a few similar shapes to that in VW that 3D printed just fine. You may also find this useful: http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/1124/Improving+STL+File+Export Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 (edited) It sounds like a geometry error is being created. I would bet some of the normals in your STL are flipped, something I have seen with VW before. I would suggest a different approach to splitting the egg. Instead of using the split tool, draw a 3d solid by extruding a rectangle and use subtract solids to get half of your egg (it should work horizontally or vertically). From there use the shell tool and select the flat surface generated by splitting it to generate your shell. The resulting geometry should be much cleaner. Kevin Edit: When I tried it didn't work quite as expected. The egg I generated was a NURBS surface so it ended up hollow like yours. I created it using Revolve with Rail from the Model menu. I started with a profile, the centre axis and a circular rail. I've attached the file. The resulting STL was error free. Edited April 2, 2014 by Kevin McAllister Quote Link to comment
Dubman Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Thanks for the info Jim, attached is the STL file of the egg half that did not print out of the 3D printer well. With this new info I will try making the shell object a generic solid & will thy the other suggestions. Quote Link to comment
Dubman Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Thanks Kevin, I will try your way & see how it goes. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted April 2, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted April 2, 2014 Apologies, the boards weren't set to allow .STL files as attachments. I have corrected this and you should be able to attach them in the future. Quote Link to comment
Dubman Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 no problems Jim, the stl file is to large to send. So I'm trying converting the shell object to a generic solid & re-exported it to a stl file. I noticed the file size stayed the same, not that it should or should not. Once the existing egg half that is being printed we will try the new generic solid version. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 no problems Jim, the stl file is to large to send. One thing I would recommend is using the binary option when exporting STLs (this is different than Jim's recommendation in the knowledge base article). I've found that binary STLs are much more efficient on space. 3D printing tends to generate a lot of files so this can be important over the long term. KM Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted April 2, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted April 2, 2014 Confirmed, a few basics shapes exported to STL in both Binary and ASCII, the Binary ones averaged 1/6th of the size of the ASCII versions. I will amend the article to detail this. Quote Link to comment
Dubman Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Thanks Jim & Kevin for this info, its been very helpful! I am trying the various recommendations & will try 3D printing the new versions. Once we have a correct egg out of the 3D printer I will post back to let you know which worked best for us. Thanks again ! Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Jim, this is one of the reasons why I wished for the ability to set the default export setting for an STL (you've already added it). Dubman, Good luck with your printed eggs. I'll be curious to know how they turn out. Kevin Quote Link to comment
Dubman Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Just to let you know, the last egg printed out good except for close to the top of the egg, the printer for some reason makes the shell very thin, thinner than the thickness of the shell I made. This has happened to all versions no matter which director the egg is printed. This I believe is a 3D printer setting &/or the software that runs the printer. But the curved shape of the egg did come out much better. This last version that was printed (1/32" thk.), which now electrics says is to thin, so they are using the previous version & correct any seams, patchwork, etc. in post visual effects. Thanks again for your help & advise on this. I feel much more knowledgeable for the next 3D printer project they request. I'm happy to be able to do this egg in VW, because everybody else here in the "Under The Dome" productions art department uses SketchUp & knew they could not do this as well as VW does. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted April 3, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted April 3, 2014 In the slicing application / gcode generator, you can normally specify a number of perimeters, increasing this may resolve that, as well as increasing the number of solid top layers. Sorry to be so vague, but its very dependent on what software is being used to control the printer. Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Have you tried Sli3r.org - there are a lot of settings there that, as Jim says, should help you resolve this. for fun: [img:center]http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=10458&filename=Prop.png[/img] Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.