Ok, i tested .obj export from MoI to a nightly build from Blender and changed in there the scale to 0.001. I will in the next couple of days then try to use an exported VRML from Blender for a color print. Fingers crossed that all goes well, with what i expect. I will the community later know about the result.

Regards
Stefan

Hi,

I regularly print from MOI to Shapeways just by exporting an STL. Then when you upload the model to Shapeways you specify millimeters as the scale.

I haven't done a 3d color print, though -- so it requires the VRML for the color information? I'm very interested in your experiment as Shapeways has a pilot going with color plastics which I assume means they are close to offering to everyone.

Looking forward to your experiment results.

Best,
Nick

Hi Nick,

thanks for your reply. Yes, according to the Shapeways pages, VRML is used for color prints. However i will print the model at a local University, because they use a printer my company likes to buy… If i can convince my boss, we might buy also MoI licenses for these things. :-)

What i'm also interested in, since you say you use MoI too for 3D printing, what are good settings, like Mesh Angel etc. for export, so that the model looks not facetted? Any tips would be welcome!

Best regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

> today MoI saved my life with a logo design in multiple colors, due to the fact that
> after boolean operations different colors remained intact on the model, which i find
> pretty awesome.

I'm glad the individual face color preservation through booleans was useful for you!


> Now my question, since i really like to work in Millimeters in MoI, what is the best
> procedure to export from MoI as .obj file and convert that to a .wrl file with the
> proper scale intact from MoI, to be able to do 3D color prints?

It really depends on what the receiving application decides to do with the .obj file data - .obj files themselves do not have any method in them to mark the unit system that the coordinates are in, and it's not too unusual for rendering applications to apply some scale factor to the geometry but there should likely be an option for controlling the scale factor in the receiving application.

But since .obj files do not have any marker on them of the unit system it won't usually be able to be scaled automatically if your current unit system in that other program are something other than millimeters, you would need to apply the right scale factor yourself probably.

Anyway since there is not any standard marker in .obj files for the unit system the way it's handled on input can vary with different applications.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

thanks for the explanation, much appreciated! At least the re-scaling with .obj in Blender works fine. The only thing now what puzzles me a bit is the .VRML export from Blender, since the apps i have have no .VRML import and therefore i can not check the scale at home, but i assume that those 3D printing programs for a 3D printer will let allow the operator to fix scaling issues.

Best regards
Stefan

> I'm glad the individual face color preservation through booleans was useful for you!
This has proven useful to me too!
Thanks.

Hi all,

just a small update. I picked up the logo today, it was printed on a ZCorp 650 Color Printer, and everything looks as expected. So, the workflow for a color print is pretty easy with MoI and Blender. I assigned the colors in MoI, exported as .obj with Mesh settings of 5 (all triangles), to have a relatively high resolution and as suggested by Burrman set the scale to 0.001 in MoI to have the proper scale in Blender. As a last step in Blender i adjusted the material color settings a bit (because the default diffuse is set in Blender 0.8 instead of 1. From there i exported as VRML (.wrl), that's all. :-)

Best regards
Stefan