Blender 3D Design

Hi everybody-

I'm new to Shapeways and to 3D modelling, so please be gentle!

I've made a model in Blender, using mesh. I have just uploaded it to Shapeways, and have found it to come to $75.

Just to know, if you upload a file onto Shapeways, that hasn't had wall thickness specified- and as far as I know, is almost non-existant (the thickness of the mesh), will it be uploaded as a solid model, and this is why it is so expensive?

It's 6.3inches long, and a diameter of 1.2inches (it's a glorified cylinder)

Thank you

You got it right, you can reduce the price a lot by making the model hollow with a hole to the outside (taking into account the wall thickness and any other design rules for your chosen material)

Thanks very much for the reply!

The only problem is, I don't have any idea how to go about doing that- a hole to the outside is fine, as I was planning to put a switch in it anyway, but I'm not sure how to go about making it hollow. Do you/anyone else who is reading this topic know how to do this in Blender?

I don't have experience with Blender, but it should be as easy as putting another shape inside the main part with smaller dimensions paying atterntion to the material wall thickness, then adding a third part (e.g. a small cube or cylinder) that overlaps the inner and outer part, then perfoming boolean operations to get the finished item as one manifold, hollow item.

Hi
You can use the shell modifier in Blender for simple objects, more complex meshes generally go haywire and you gotta clean them abit.

here`s the blend file with the modifier applied on a cylinder.