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3d printing round objects


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Basically I am trying to make some round cups and print them on my Makergear M2 3D printer.

I draw 2 circles, extrude them, subtract one from the other.

My 3d conversion res is set to Very High

The round becomes an icosagon (20 sided) inside and out in gl or rendered and that is what sends to the printer for slicing. Actually you can see it in wireframe as well. See attached.

That is also how it looks in the Simplify 3D slicer program when it gets imported as an .stl

Is there another way to do this that will work?

I have 2012 designer.

Thanks

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I've seen this at times, especially in older versions of VW. Also check your 2d conversion resolution in the Preferences. I think this option exists in VW2012. Sometimes solids operations cause degenerate objects. (Jim, this is why I always kept my 3d conversion resolution set to Very High for years).

A possible workaround would be to rebuild your object as a sweep so you can control the number of facets directly.

Out of curiosity are you just using Export STL from VW? Or are you exporting a different way? It sounds like the problem is inherent in the geometry because you see it in wireframe but I'd be curious anyway.

Kevin

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Open GL options were set to low

When I set them to very high it looked good on the screen but still exported as an icosagon (sorry new word).

My designer guy here at work started talking about segments of circles so I got the bright idea to just make a polygon with 100 sides.

See attachment for results

Kevin

Yes I export direct stl from VW 2012. Didn't know there was another option. Seems to work fine for me. So far always at low triangle setting but I haven't had time to experiment. Got my M2 2 weeks ago.

I too am exhibit designer. 20 years of hands on interactive at Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa and now Trade Shows, Museums (including MOSI), nature centers and Corporate environments.

I'm mostly the production drawing/inventor guy.

My science center first rule is 1,000,000 unsupervised 8th graders.

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If you see it in the geometry when in wireframe then my guess is its a geometry issue. Given your methodology (subtracting one extrude from another) it should be governed by the 3d conversion resolution as you thought. Your multisided polygon is much like creating a sweep.

I always use the highest triangle setting when exporting from VW to STL. You could try it and see if it helps things but I don't think it will.

Most of my work is theatre with a few museum exhibits on the side. I worked for a big exhibit design company that did museums, science centres etc. briefly but left to work on the olympic ceremonies instead.

Cheers,

Kevin

PS> You could try posting the problem object in a file. Jim might be able to isolate the issue and also tell you if the problem has been resolved in newer versions.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
If you see it in the geometry when in wireframe then my guess is its a geometry issue.

This ^

Also, agreed on the polys, the more the better. More details can be found here, I try to add more to this article whenever I discover any improvements to the Vectorworks > 3D Printer workflow:

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/1124/Improving+STL+File+Export

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