Building a Biplane in Full Colour

Discussion in 'Design and Modeling' started by jamioflan, Apr 19, 2013.

  1. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    I want to construct a biplane with the coloured sandstone, but I am not sure how to create the support struts. Would building it in one piece be impossible and would having a separate upper wing with slots for a few support struts work?

    The biplane itself can have quite blocky struts as it is a model of the biplane from my Minecraft mod, pictured below. I would also be able to add more struts if necessary.
    [​IMG]
     
  2. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    I think you'd be better off making it two separate wings.

    You could design the struts like you've got, but if you go for the minimum wall thickness (2mm) then I'm afraid that they're going to break during post-processing or shipping. You may have to make them significantly thicker to survive post-processing, and that would hurt the look.

    I had to thicken up the struts on this model quite a bit: http://shpws.me/lp9l In that render, it looks pretty bad, but in real life, the whole wing is no more 1.5 inches wide and doesn't look too bad.

    One small detail: on most biplanes, there were two struts on each side.. one forward, one toward the back.
     
  3. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    Okay, so if I were to have two separate wings, how would I ensure that they slot together when I get them? If I make the struts the same dimensions as the holes in the wings, will they fit easily and smoothly, or would I need to make the struts a tiny bit thinner? And how should I make the holes in the wings? Indents about half the depth of the wing or holes all the way through?

    As to thickening the struts and increasing their number, would swapping each of the struts for a pair and adding two new pairs nearer the centre be sufficient?
     
  4. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    You would want to leave a little wiggle room. I'd do half depth so that you can put some glue in there, and unless anyone looks from underneath they would never know it's glued.

    What you can do, is email you file to service and ask about the print-ability. The wings, being mostly unsupported, I'd say would have to be 3mm thick. I always design sandstone to 3mm to avoid rejections. Could you make the supports really wide, and add a texture to the inside to look like the cables on older biplanes or something?
     
  5. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    Okay, so its been a while as I've had other commitments to see to, but I've finally gotten around to finishing the model for the biplane in SketchUp.
    I would love it if someone more knowledgeable about printing could give it a quick look to see if it will actually work.

    SketchUp file is attached and an image is provided below

    [​IMG]
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Very close, but you have a minor error that will cause problems. In the attached image, you can see two lines that are shared by 4 faces. For a "solid model", there can only be 2 faces per line.
    Capture3.JPG

    In this image, I moved the face up a little, and this will allow you to have a "Solid" model. This is one way, not necessarily the only way, of fixing the model.
    Capture3 fixed.JPG

    If you like, read up more on making solid models on this blog post I wrote last year: 8 Tips for 3D Printing with Sketchup.
     
  7. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    Okay, so I've fixed that problem, textured it and uploaded it to Shapeways.
    However, the texture mapping is showing up fine on the preview image, but not on the 3D preview. How do I know if it will actually print correctly?
    https://www.shapeways.com/model/1174872/
     
  8. Your model is set to private...If it doesn't show up with color in the preview, it won't print with color. What file format did you upload? How are you applying color?

    If using textures, they need to be combined into one texture and the texture zipped with the model. This is a PITA to do in Sketchup, but can be done...ask if you want tips on that.

    If using just colors applied to faces, that's much easier as you just need to upload the model in a supported format.

     
  9. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    It should now be public. The texture is being mapped to both previews, just incorrectly on the 3D one
     
  10. mkroeker
    mkroeker Well-Known Member
    The rotating 3d preview is known to be broken - even simple vertex colors often appear on part of the model only. If the static image shows correct texturing it should be alright.
     
  11. Yep, I see it now.

    It looks incorrect in the 2D preview too, see inside the cockpit. I would email service before ordering if you have any more doubts.
     
  12. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
  13. If you care to make it downloadable, or upload it here, I can take a look too.
     
  14. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    It is now downloadable
     
  15. Gah...its not importing correctly to Sketchup so I can't tell what the trouble is from that model.

    I'm guessing there's some stray geometry in the model that Shapeways is trying to fix, and that is messing up the textures. Could you upload the SKP here?
     
  16. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
    Here it is
     

    Attached Files:

  17. IF you go View > Face Style > Monochrome, you can see some faces in the cockpit are darker bluish-gray. These are reversed faces. Right-click > reverse faces on them and reapply the texture if necessary. (you can also right click on a correct white face and "Orient faces" to fix all of them at once)

    There is also a stray line in the center of the cockpit, but that shouldn't be too much trouble.

    The surprising thing to me is that you have 3 textures - I was under the impression that they had to be combined into one, but it appears that shapeways is applying them all correctly except for inside the cockpit where the faces are reversed.
     
  18. Side note, you may be able to decrease the cost some by moving the upper wing close to its final position above the cockpit. This will reduce the bounding box a little bit.
     
  19. jamioflan
    jamioflan Member
  20. Well the 2D preview looks fine, but the 3D preview is still wonky - it looks like they applied one texture to the entire model as the wings have texture from the prop. I'd email service about that to be sure you're getting what you expect.

    I guess moving the wing didn't help the price any.