Printing Disjoint Objects

Discussion in 'Design and Modeling' started by jwholper94, Feb 5, 2012.

  1. jwholper94
    jwholper94 Member
    Hello everyone!

    I was thinking of using shapeways to create a few various small things that I need. I was wondering if I could design each part disjoint from the other in one file, so I would only have to upload that single file. Can the parts be completely separate from eachother? Or would I have to attach them all together in some way. (Think of a plastic model airplane, with each part held by small tubes of plastic. Are the tubes needed, or can i just make the parts)
     
  2. Roy_Stevens
    Roy_Stevens Member
    You don't have to connect them, but you risk not getting all of them due to human error, particularly if they don't appear to go together. Some other members have reported problems with this. Shapeways has been good about re-printing, but I think I speak for the community that we don't want to push our luck. I'd have to re-design a number of things if I had to sprue all the parts together.
     
  3. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    The other option, if you have a large number of small parts, is to put a "bounding box" around them such that the box has holes for the support material to escape, but the parts themselves won't fall out.

    Unfortuntately, for many designs, the box itself may be more material than the parts.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  4. jwholper94
    jwholper94 Member
    I think I'll do something similar to the model airplane example I used, with the parts attached with thin, easy to remove tubes. How thin can I make the attachment points without having to worry about them falling off or not fusing at all. I will be using WSF material btw.
     
  5. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    One thing.. you said "tubes".. they don't need to be hollow.

    As to the size.. they need to be large/strong enough not to pull apart during cleaning, so the needed size can vary quite a bit.

    I work in 1:220 scale, and connecting sprues between 1.0mm and 1.5mm seem to be strong enough to work just fine. But, if youre building larger items (say longer than 10cm) then your sprues will need be thicker.