So I've stumbled upon Shapeways and I was totally in love with the idea of beeing able to print things I spent so much time on when I made them in 3D.
Reading through some topics and the FAQ I already got quite an idea for what to do in 3DS Max but I'm still wondering about some things related to the Printing process in Stainless Steel...
Below you'll see a ( not really posed ) model I worked on for quite a while which I would really like to get printed but I'm wondering about a few things...
Most of the parts are designed in a way to actually work if I'd have them done in single pieces ( you can see the different shades of green each resembling a moving part with a joint )
Question 1: Would it even be possible to have the model cast in a single piece like a sculpture?
Question 2: How will the bounding box of a single piece version affect the production cost compared to a model made of multiple pieces which then could be rearranged to a third the size of the single piece bounding box version?
Question 3: Lets assume Question 1 is an option. Will I have to turn the model in as one continuous mesh or can I leave it in parts just touching ( maybe intersecting ) each other?
It should be printable in stainless steel as one piece, the bounding box size makes no difference to the price in any of the materials except a density discount for WSF.
You can either make the model one continuous mesh or with individual parts. I'd recommend intercsecting individual parts as Shapeways Mesh Medic checking software has a habbit of removing parts with shares vertices or faces. A good piece of software to use for error checking, measurement and repair before uploading is NetFabb Basic (free).
Some of the smaller pipes etc might need beefing out a little depending upon the overall size as there is a minimum wall thickness of 3mm - see;Stainless Steel Design Rules. Parts can be smaller though - see; Stainless Steel - Advanced Rules- under 3mm. And some of the smaller detail might not come out too well.
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Printing the first time, what to be aware of?
