poly count limit?

i hope this is the right place to put this if not "sorry"

i was just wondering if there are any poly limits for 3d printing.

i do a lot of my modeling in Zbrush at poly counts between 1-4 million polygons will such models be able to be printed?

also as most models at these poly counts are large files is it ok to upload the model in a zipped file or is a 3d format the only way.

and finaly how much detail can be shown in a printed model.

thanks for reading this i hope they are not stupid questions

thank you for the reply.
i don't currently have a model to be printed, however i probably will have soon.
but just out of interest if i where to have a very detailed model printed how well would fine detail show up. i.e. is there any point uploading a super high res model, or would i get just as good result with a mid res model?

thanks again for the help

That probably depends on the size of the model and the "grain" of the print, but I can tell you that the first model I had printed, a t-rex in wax, it must have been 7" long, maybe more. I was surprised. I could see every polygon all the way to the tip of the tail.

More recent objects I've had done were from ZBrush 2.5. Not super detailed, but more polygons than I would have used in modeling in the past. They were only printed at about 2" to 3", out of a reasonably good plastic. One was probably comparable to Shapeways' cream robust material, judging by the description and hilights, and the other was printed in a translucent orange plastic, somewhat darker than the translucent plastic they offer here. On both of these models all polygon-level detail is lost to the "grain" of the print. I consider this a worthwhile level of detail.

thank you, for the reply

you have given me some good points to think about when making a model for print i spose its logical that the bigger the object the better the detail will show.

i think ill have to work out a good balance between cost and detail on a model by model basi.

thanks again for the help