Hello I was wondering if Poser 8 custom characters are suitable for 3D printing. By custom I mean shaping the basic figures into something else with the morphs. I heard a while ago that the meshes were probably not dense enough? Could you make these hollow to save in costs? Would I need abase for the figures to be able to stand? Thank you, Andres
You can certainly make objects hollow to save on costs. The trick is to make the inside of your object connected somehow to the outside. Completely enclosed voids do not count as empty space and you will be charged for them. What I usually do to make an object hollow is shell the object so it has the hollow chamber inside, and then connect the inside tot he outside with a small cylinder and basically poke a hole through the surface, like a needle. This allows the software to see only your model and not count the inside volume as part of your cost.
We're in the processes of verifying that hollowing method as acceptable or not. Some WSF models are being rejected because the material is trapped inside and too hard to get it all out, and for detail materials the hole has to be even larger for cleaning and models are being rejected. This all should be cleared up soon in some nice new material guidelines.
Thank you both! Which program do you recommend to deal with all the cleaning, Blender? I think I may need Meshlab and Acutrans also. I saw a model with the soles of it hollow, everything was solid but when put horizontally you could see it was hollow from the soles up. Also whta unique problems does Poser models present for 3d printing? I would like to do metal printing and white flexible strong.
The cleaning I'm referring to is after the model is printed. WSF, glass, sandstone, and stainless materials all use the build material as the support material. So an escape hole is needed to empty out the extra material. For detail material a separate more rigid support material is used, that is more difficult to clean out of trapped areas.
So in the case of a human figure you would put the escape hole in a unsconspicous area? You would not have a figure with a hole in the back or the neck. Like in the example rabitt in this website I did not see a whole.
You'd have to add the hole yourself in the model. So you get to pick where. Then it's up to the production staff whether they think it will be cleanable or not.
You can always try it with the needle hole, and if you're told it's unprintable they will tell you what you have to do to make it printable (if they don't tell you what you have to do, reply to the email and ask). You may get lucky and it may go through as is.