+++If you have individual surfaces that are touching each other along common edges, you can use the Join command to glue them together. And if you have all edges in your model joined to another edge, that makes it into a solid.+++

Aah, alright, I get it. So there's no special command, but joining all the sufaces will do that.

I just had a look into my file, and it was already a solid. So this "degeneratd face" thingy probably was just something to omit or I picked some mesh settings that were too coarse.

thanks!

Sebastian

Hi Sebastian,


> Aah, alright, I get it. So there's no special command, but
> joining all the sufaces will do that.

Yup!


> I just had a look into my file, and it was already a solid. So
> this "degeneratd face" thingy probably was just something
> to omit or I picked some mesh settings that were too coarse.

Yeah, you don't want to go too overboard with making a hugely dense mesh - but at the same time you don't want to be too stingy with too rough of one either.

When you save to a mesh format, there is a readout of the polygon count in the upper right area of the main window, here:



You only really need to get concerned about being too large in file size once that goes up over something like 100,000 faces.

On the other hand, you actually don't want to generate polygons that are extremely teeny tiny in size because the receiving application may decide to do stuff like fuse together vertices that are quite close to one another.

- Michael

There's also another STL viewer/inspector program here that you can use to load in and check the STL file:

http://www.materialise.com/MiniMagics

- Michael

Remember that Shapeways Servers love Millimeters! I can get a failed model with inches, then only reset to mm and the model is accepted... I have read on their site that the Shapeways printers work nativley in Meters, so keeping it Metric will help.

Very good tips, thanks!

The white piece is an ABS type of plastic. The grey is the same, but infused with aluminum powder.

HTH

Chris

Less than 10 days from sending the file to receiving my parts. Shapeways is located in THE NETHERLANDS! Better service than a shop down the road.

$10 per piece.

Not much. output as STL with a decent amount of polygons. Just don't go over 100k, or it will give their machine fits. LOL

> $10 per piece.

That's another thing that is amazing about this, that it has become so very inexpensive.

- Michael

>> $10 per piece.
>
>That's another thing that is amazing about this, that it has become so very inexpensive.
>
>- Michael


Michael, the cost of the 3D print machine is such that I am seriously considering the purchase of one. They are now in the $6-10k range depending on the features and detail resolution.

They used to be $100k when they first came out.

Cheers,

Chris

Yeah but at $10 per part from the service you're going to have to make quite a lot of parts before it would be worthwhile monetarily to purchase the whole machine. But a faster turnaround time would definitely be a major benefit.

Maybe what will end up happening is that there will be more local shops that will have a machine so that you just send the model to your local shop and pick it up right away.

- Michael

You could try a RepRap machine.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Obviously, you have to be a bit of a do it yourself guy, but to me, none of it looks hard.

Nice prints!

It's changing in the 3d printing area..

Stl printers for under 1300$, don't know of the output quality though...
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/content/rapman

It seems to print around 8x8x10 inches
They are selling materials around 37-70$ a kilo

There's also kits like makerbot and reprap as Steve mentioned.

Marc

> Any pointers on making a MoI file for Shapeway?

Michael,

Another thing you'll want to do is keep your model in positive xyz space. Most machines don't like STL to be in the minus direction of any axis.

I certainly can't afford a 3D printer, but I do play around with a CNC router. Many of the same things apply!

Mike...

That $10 isn`t much. I think they print a lot`s of part so they can dump prises so low :)
What is the volume of your part you printed out?

d3

>>You could try a RepRap machine.
>>
>>http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
>>
>>Obviously, you have to be a bit of a do it yourself guy, but to me, none of it looks hard.
>>


Incredibly LOW resolution. More of a toy for tinkerers than a useful tool at this point. Maybe someday. Prices keep dropping. I fully expect to see state of the art on your desktop for under $5k within 2 years.

C.

The RepRap can go to quite fine resolutions but is slow. The problem with printed parts is overhangs. Shapeways quote a minimum feature size of 2mm which is worse than the RepRap.

I think to get really high resolution with overhangs, unsupported melted plastic is not the way to go. Better is the layered powder with sprayed binder method.