Norge Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 I am trying to convert an architectural model ready for printing in 3D. 3 years ago I learned to export to Parasolid and then import back to VW so that I could convert to Generic solid. This no longer works. Is there a way of converting walls and other parametric objects to a solid format so that they can be exported to STL? Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Norge said: I am trying to convert an architectural model ready for printing in 3D. 3 years ago I learned to export to Parasolid and then import back to VW so that I could convert to Generic solid. This no longer works. Is there a way of converting walls and other parametric objects to a solid format so that they can be exported to STL? I just did some quick testing and walls will export to STL as is. I also tried selecting a group of walls and creating a solid addition. However when I brought them into software to check the integrity of the STL there were a lot of individual shells, some of which weren't closed. It looks like VW doesn't deal very well with walls and converting them to other things. @Jim Wilson in your 3d printing tests, did you work with walls? Kevin Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted August 17, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted August 17, 2018 No, nearly all solid additions, subtractions, extrudes, sweeps and shells in most of my stuff. I did print a few whole buildings, but the problems i saw were mostly to do with lack of support during printing, not with the walls themselves. The slicer I use mostly, Cura, does do a lot of model fixing automatically, it possible I had issues I never noticed that the slicer smoothed over. 1 Quote Link to comment
jbtroost Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Just that. Cura takes care of walls and stairs and doors. Just File > Export > Export as STL. Import in Cura to check scale, support & brim and you’re good to go. Maybe adjust the nozzle size and speed but that’s it. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 ^ Hmmh, the Stairs have real holes in their Mesh geometry, 2 vertex polygons, overlapping faces and flipped normals directions. And CURA is able to fix all these problems automatically ? Quote Link to comment
jbtroost Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 What file did you ise for exporting to stl? Most of my files with walls/doors/stairs are fine in cura… Quote Link to comment
Norge Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 I must be doing something wrong. If I take a 4 simple walls in a box 10m x 10m, with some windows in it and export straight to STL, open in Cura and then scale it down to 1%, then there are no objects visible in Cura. Maybe I don't know enough about Cura? or should I scale it down in Vectorworks first? Quote Link to comment
Norge Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 I have found the problem. When I scale down, the walls end up very high on the Z axis. By bringing the Z to zero, the model arrives on the build plate. Thank you to everyone for your help. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 I'm no more sure if I modeled with Solids or PIOs. Have to look at it again. I think there weren't any geometrical problems in CURA but I think I had no Stair in use ... Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Often the slicers for FDM machines will repair or gloss over issues with the STL model. Those errors tend to show up if you try printing the same model with a higher end printer. I tend to error check everything in case I end up sending files out to be printed. Kevin Quote Link to comment
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