| Model orientation [message #824] Mon, 11 August 2008 15:18 UTC |
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Hi,
I made this statue in blender:
the up direction is along the (positive) Z axis, which how it's mostly done I presume
After converting to STL and uploading it to shapeways, the generated preview however displays the statue flat on its nose:
http://www.shapeways.com/model/2700/druplicon_statue.html
Is this expected (because I got my XYZ-axis wrong)? Is this because of the server side postprocessing? And will it be printed that way?
I added the foot (or should I call it pedestal?) at the bottom especially so that the drop shape could stand fixed (and could be printed without rolling around).
Thanks
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| Re: Model orientation [message #826 is a reply to message #824 ] Mon, 11 August 2008 15:47 UTC |
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Too bad you do not allow seeing your model, I don't know how to help you.
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| Re: Model orientation [message #830 is a reply to message #826 ] Mon, 11 August 2008 16:12 UTC |
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oh, sorry
I forgot to enable it as a public model 
should be fixed now
thanks for your time
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| Re: Model orientation [message #841 is a reply to message #830 ] Tue, 12 August 2008 07:27 UTC |
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Hi saxofaan,
yeah, that's a result of our server processing - we'll be adding better controls for that in the near future. In the mean time, don't worry about the print result, our operators always manually re-orient each model for the best printing quality.
Cheers,
Bart
Community Manager Europe | Shapeways
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| Re: Model orientation [message #844 is a reply to message #841 ] Tue, 12 August 2008 10:20 UTC |
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| bartv wrote on Tue, 12 August 2008 03:27 |
In the mean time, don't worry about the print result, our operators always manually re-orient each model for the best printing quality.
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I was worried about that, so it is not the most economical orientation, then? For example, if I print a gear, it is printed flat like you draw it on paper?
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| Re: Model orientation [message #855 is a reply to message #844 ] Tue, 12 August 2008 14:57 UTC |
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| svenpb wrote on Tue, 12 August 2008 06:20 |
| bartv wrote on Tue, 12 August 2008 03:27 |
In the mean time, don't worry about the print result, our operators always manually re-orient each model for the best printing quality.
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I was worried about that, so it is not the most economical orientation, then? For example, if I print a gear, it is printed flat like you draw it on paper?
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Usually, yes. One of the things the printers need to do is keep the support structures to minimum. So a gear would be printed flat because that needs no support structure during the printing process.
As for the axis directions - the conventions of pretty much every 3D file model format is that X and Z form the horizontal plane with Y pointing upwards (unless it comes from the geospatial community, which then has Z up). So we don't do any processing on the coordinate axis because knowing what is "up" is impossible to determine automatically.
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| Re: Model orientation [message #871 is a reply to message #855 ] Wed, 13 August 2008 10:42 UTC |
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| WetMorgoth wrote on Tue, 12 August 2008 10:57 |
Usually, yes. One of the things the printers need to do is keep the support structures to minimum. So a gear would be printed flat because that needs no support structure during the printing process.
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Thanks, I didn't think about that. Makes sense.
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| Re: Model orientation [message #880 is a reply to message #871 ] Wed, 13 August 2008 20:55 UTC |
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So, funny coincidence. Here I am sitting in a siggrah paper presentation titled: Upright orientation of Man-made Objects. Basically automating this problem of determing which way is up.
[Updated on: Wed, 13 August 2008 20:56 UTC]
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| Re: Model orientation [message #3881 is a reply to message #855 ] Fri, 10 April 2009 12:25 UTC |
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Well, apparently not.
I've printed a mutilated gear and it is printed in the least preferable orientation.
I can not make a picture of the gear because my camera just can't focus and can't see the details, but I've made an image to explain.
To get good results in gear printing I think the orientation is critical. I've built a router a few years ago (when I had little money and a lot of time) for about 1000 euro. The result of the milling is better than the printed gear. And that is not what I want (now I have more money and less time, I do not want to make them myself).
This single gear I've printed will probably work, I'll assemble it tomorrow. But then again, the final design I have in mind uses a lot of gears. And then I'm worried.
I'll probably order again to try out other things, but still...
| bartv wrote on Tue, 12 August 2008 03:27 |
In the mean time, don't worry about the print result, our operators always manually re-orient each model for the best printing quality.
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[Updated on: Mon, 13 April 2009 09:52 UTC]
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