Hi, I have applied color to my model in Creo Parametric (3.0), but when I export the .WRL and the .STL and zip them together to upload (as laid out in instruction here; https://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/exporting_to_vrml_and_x3 d_for_color_printing ) the texture does not come in on Shapeways. I am able to print in sandstone, but full-color sandstone does not recognize the texture/color. I am new to full color sandstone, and I know Creo isn't the most widely used software, but my original file was created in Creo. Does anyone have experience with this or can offer suggestions? Thanks, Wes
No experience with Creo, but can you check the WRL file (which is readable if perhaps confusing) to see if it actually has any texture entries, and if they contain the name of your image file (surely you meant to write "JPG" or "PNG", not STL ?) without any drive letter or folder name ? If in doubt, can you upload a small sample file here - it need not be your secret creation, just a textured cube or sphere that exhibits the same problem
Thanks for the response mkroeker - sorry for my ignorance but this is my first time trying to do anything in full color sandstone. I work in the toy industry so mainly am familiar with designing parts for injection molding/ 3D printing functional prototypes. The only "official" shapeways article I can find is this on Exporting to VRML and X3D for Color Printing; https://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/exporting_to_vrml_and_x3 d_for_color_printing In this article it says there are two options; "per face" and UV texture mapping. Per face seems to be the simplest; just simply applying color to surfaces of the model as I would for a rendering I'd produce to present to my managers as what a product will look like in production with color. UV mapping is completely new to me, and I'm having trouble finding relevant articles on it (especially in Creo). The article on "per face" textures; "To use 'per face' materials, simply apply material colors in your 3D application and export to VRML2. Then, jump to step 4 below to read how to upload your model." Creo gives me the option to export as VRML (*.wrl), which I chose and zipped this file along with the .STL outputted geometry. That being said, I've attached an image of a test object and the exported VRML (.WRL) file. Thanks again, Wes
Slight misunderstanding - with "per vertex" coloring, all the color information is in the wrl file itself, no separate texture needed, only one file to upload (which you can still zip to save upload time or get around the 64mb size limit). Could be that the presence of the STL file - which is a geometry file format in its own right, but without any space for color information - made the system prefer that one.
That was it - mostly ... unfortunately Creo puts a lot of stuff in the WRL that shapeways' software does not understand. This is the edited file for comparison - all that Node_info has to go, which could be a major nuisance if your actual file is big and complex. EDITed to add: Probably easier to just take the STL, do the vertex painting in meshlab (freeware) and export to wrl from there
Thanks, I'll try MeshLab out Wish it was easier to export for FCS from Creo directly, but I'll give this a shot.. There were too many instances in the WRL file to delete and I wasn't sure which parts were necessary and which were superfluous