http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php Shapeways: Bring your creativity to life in 3D http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3694&th=810#msg_3694
I was very excited by the new material made available, so I decided to print icecubes.
I wanted to take advantage of this opportunuty to test unit conversion since I had some problems with my previous model.
So I designed a 1cm3 cube in 3DS Max. As my default unit is mm, I made it 10mmx10mmx10mm.
I exported it as STL file. While uploading it to Shapeways, I specified mm as the unit. And I got an error message :

Quote:

Your object is too small! [The size is 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm / 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 inch (h x w x d).

I went back to 3DS Max, changed the default unit to meter, without modfying my model. The cube was now 0.01mx0.01mx0.01m (and still 1cm3). I exported it as STL file again. While uploading I specifyed meter as a unit.
New error message :

Quote:

Your object is too big! The size is 39.4 x 39.4 x 39.4 cm / 15.5 x 15.5 x 15.5 inch (h x w x d).

Note that 39.4 inches are 1 meter.
Finally I did a last conversion in 3DS MAx to change the default unit to inch. My 1cm3 was now 0.394"x0.394"x0.394". I save it as STL file. Of course while uploading I specifyed inch as a unit.
This time all was correct.

I did not make any test of "cross-unit" (saying in 3DS Mas that I work in mm and then pretending at the upload that the unit is inch). But, with this experiment, has anyone an idea on how 3DS Max and/or the upload function of Shapeways are dealing with the unit conversion ?

Thanks,

Magic.
PS: I finally give up with the idea of printing icecubes as they seem not to be safe to add in your beverage. ]]> Magic 2009-04-01T06:42:24-00:00 http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3695&th=810#msg_3695

Max uses internal units, these are the actual values exported using STL, as far as I can tell.

In Customize->Units Setup->System Setup you define what this max unit will be in real measurements.
(I have this on 1 unit = 1,0 mm, seems you have it on 1 unit = 1 inch or something)

This setting has no influence on the way Max displays measurements, only on the internal unit size.

From your question I gather you only changed the display value ?

Hope this helps !

Did you try the 3ds Max pricing tool ?
That currently forces the above issues by setting all units to 1 mm (display and system) and should probably solve your issue

]]> virtox 2009-04-01T12:02:22-00:00 http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3700&th=810#msg_3700
the question (and all the rest ) was real.
And your explanation is crystal clear.
In effect, I went to the Unit Setup panel to change units, but I missed the System Unit Setup button which was in this panel. I guess it should work now. By the way, changing the System Unit Setup actually scale your object...
And I did not try the 3ds Max pricing tool yet. Thanks for the tip.
Thank you very much again for your help.]]> Magic 2009-04-01T17:55:47-00:00 http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3722&th=810#msg_3722 It will complain it has a different unit size, with the option to rescale or not. I don't know which of the two, but one option should work
]]> virtox 2009-04-02T22:07:26-00:00 http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3781&th=810#msg_3781 - The first propose you to switch back to inch (that what I've done, so the Zen Box is still internally in inches).
- The second - if I have well understood - does nothing, so 1 inch become 1 mm.
It is not complex to rescale manually, but I decided not to do it. For my next models, I will set the system unit from the beginning in mm.

Thanks again Virtox.]]> Magic 2009-04-06T11:56:45-00:00 http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=3793&th=810#msg_3793

-Whystler]]> Whystler 2009-04-06T15:40:51-00:00