Hi all, I'm a kind of a nubbie to 3D modeling and 3D printing, so I would appreciate some advice. I'm trying to create a 3D printed model that has both transparent and opaque material at the same time. Is that possible? Let me explain a bit more in details what I mean. I attached one model that I create and manage to successfully print at shapeways in both full color sandstone and transparent material. I'm super excited about how the model looks like. Is great. Now, what I would like to have is a mixture of the two. I want to have everything transparent EXCEPT for the brain which I would like it to be opaque(preferably in some color such as red). In other words, I want to see the details on the brain (which is available in the 3D model ) through the transparent skull. Would that be possible? Thank you so much, Mirabela
It is possible using with Frosted Detail or Frosted Ultra Detail, the interior geometry would be white as this is the colour of the support material. The concept is the same as creating a hollow model, but the inner skin is the shape of what you want as the non-transparent part, make the support material escape hole too small for the material to escaoe (0.02mm) works for my. A couple of examples here; https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=5289&a mp;start=0& Paul [hr]stop4stuff Modeller for hireShapeways ShopTwitterYouTube[hr]
Before I say Transparent detail, I'm verifying that you can still trap material in transparent detail without it getting rejected.
Thank you so much for your answer. This is very helpful, but I'm still a bit confused about the support material and the need (if any) of a hole in my model. "make the support material escape hole too small for the material to " Do I need to have a hole in my model? or is ok to not have it. My model normally doesn't have one, but I could create one if needed. Then I have another question: How do I express which part of my model is opaque and which part is transparent. In blender I can adjust the transparency(alpha value) of each surface in my model. Would that be enough or I have to do something different. Much appreciating your help.
Shapeways software automatically deletes internal geometry if it's not connected to the outside. The opaque parts will be the voids in your model, where the transparent parts will be the model itself.
So that makes a lot more sense now. But i would like to understand one more thing. You say: "The opaque parts will be the voids in your model, where the transparent parts will be the model itself." So if I understand correctly, at the printing level the void parts are filled with the opaque (support) material. So then I have to make sure that the hole is small enough not to allow this opaque material to go out. Why would it go out, is the support material a soft material (I was reading something about wax)? Thanks again,
Correct, and correct, the support material is a wax material, that is melted off after printing. So you can make the hole to small to see, and it will keep that support material trapped. I believe the software has a tolerance out to only a few decimal points, so try to keep the hole at .001mm or higher so that it doesn't get whipped out, deleting your internal geometry.