Hi atangeo

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've just started working with MoI (3D modelling) with the intention of modelling some jewellery pieces that I will then get printed at shapways (3D printer)
Shapeways have a limit of 64MB file size and recommend max 1 million polygons.

Would balancer be a good tool for reducing polygons for simple surfaces areas? so I can "save" polygons for high detail areas?

Does anyone here know if Wavefront (.obj) is a good format to use a shapeways, I've been using stl sofar?

Cheers, steve

Hi steve,

> Does anyone here know if Wavefront (.obj) is a good
> format to use a shapeways, I've been using stl sofar?

I'd recommend using stl format for shapeways - in general stl is the standard format for 3D printing.

Also a binary stl file should probably be a fair amount more compact than an obj file.

- Michael

Does Atangeo makes some similar thing like Decimation Master ? Better / Less / Similar ?

Hi Steve,

Balancer will do a good job by simpifying your model adaptively,
keeping as much details as possible given your required triangle count.

STL is the standard format for 3D printing. Right now, Balancer only supports .obj.
But we will release Balancer nPro just in a couple of weeks. It will have metric-based
tolerance simplification (not only pixel-based), and support of STL format.
Balancer nPro is exactly for simplifying models for 3D printing.

Hi Pilou,

Zbrush Decimation master is a good decimation tool,
but Balancer is more robust (no mesh artifacts, skinny triangles etc),
faster, needs much less resources and thus can work easily
with very large models, and can preserve more details given
the same triangle count. Also the latest version of Balancer
has a unique feature to simplify models down to your required
error tolerance. So, basically you get guaranteed visual appearance
without thorough inspection and adjustment of triangle count.

You may take a look at some comparison of
Zbrush Decimation master vs Balancer here:
http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/topic.aspx?id=40386

Here is a comment by a Balancer user on ZBrush:
http://forum.reallusion.com/Topic65513-85-2.aspx#bm105007

Many thanks for the precisions!
Ps And I have seen that was PaQ (a Moi fan) who made the comparaison test ! ;)

Hi atangeo,

Will Balancer nPro do any repair for the models that it simplifies? Like closing holes to make watertight, eliminating non-manifold edges, eliminating intersecting triangles, etc.?


Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your question.
The initial release of Balancer nPro will only have watertight verification
in addition to the existing tools in Balancer, vertex joining and T-junction
elimination.

We will gradually add various mesh processing tools like those you mention.
Mesh processing is exactly the area of our expertise. :)

I tried the demo and it is way faster than the ZB Decimation Master!
Nice results and simple interface too.