3D printing Q

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LPaulCook
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3D printing Q

Post by LPaulCook »

I would like to 3D print some of the scanned data, e.g., topography and sometimes buildings.

I use FARO and SCENE and 3DReshaper. I have CC but don't use it much.

The mesh has no volume or thickness. Holes in the mesh too.

So, what do you recommend how I can get the point cloud or mesh ready for 3D printing?

Thanks for your help.

Paul
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Re: 3D printing Q

Post by sim.herrod »

LPaulCook wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 5:06 pm I would like to 3D print some of the scanned data, e.g., topography and sometimes buildings.

I use FARO and SCENE and 3DReshaper. I have CC but don't use it much.

The mesh has no volume or thickness. Holes in the mesh too.

So, what do you recommend how I can get the point cloud or mesh ready for 3D printing?

Thanks for your help.

Paul
We fix any holes in 3DR.

We don't print our own stuff (yet), but our print company give the mesh a nominal thickness. Most of our prints are in resin, and 1mm-2mm works well.

We did do a print that was going to be used to take silicon moulds from so that was a bit thicker and had ribs added for strength.
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Re: 3D printing Q

Post by Scott.Warren »

So the goal should be to create a 'water-tight' mesh. The CC and meshlab both have tools for filling holes, 3DR has a bunch of nice features here to fill, adjust, and clean spikes. If you can get a traditional surface mesh working, you would just need to create a flat polyline of its boundary, and lower it below the surface mesh, and union them. This should create a water tight mesh that is like a Tile, and should be water tight (if your surface mesh had no holes).

it gets more tricky when you veer away from what we thing of ground meshes. This is often becuase some software doesn't like triangles to overlap (sometimes called a simple mesh), but we often need a complex mesh, which does have overhangs and will be a struggle if you use traditional topo/cad programs.

Filament printing is cheaper and easier than resin printing DIY, less toxic usually too. Printers don't usually work out of the box, and require some tuning and maths to get it calibrated nicely (something a print service can handle). Print services can also use unusual materials, like metal, nylon, and colored sand which can artistically make a difference.

If you have a model and wanted printed for cheap, Etsy might be an option where there are lots of print farms looking for work.

I use a Ender 5 pro, and have done a few skylines/DSM models. You loose a lot more detail than you would think when shrinking things down, small details become microscopic in the grand scheme, so it helps to know the limitations of the machine+material you use to print (or service).

City Scale
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4460043

Neighbourhood scale
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/lo ... -cityscape

Building/tabletop Scale
https://www.thingiverse.com/make:774529

I've printed the NYC Manhattan city scape and it came out awesome:
20200918_195730.jpg
let me know if you have any specific questions.
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Re: 3D printing Q

Post by sim.herrod »

Here you go Paul. A few examples of what you can do with SLA resin printing...

Textured mesh of a terracotta roundel that was too fragile to cast in silicon...
Roundel Mesh.jpg
You can see the support structure through the opaque resin...
Roundel Resin Print.jpg

A cast lead 'head' from a Monastic site in Kent, UK...
Boxley Lead Head.jpg

This is my favourite thing we've printed do far. A mosaic on a building frontage that is listed, and had to be protected during renovation. We scanned and Revit modelled the entire building. The Revit model was exported as a .stl, 'fixed' to include magnets, then sliced into removable floors.
IMG_20210324_153355.jpg
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