Tips And Hints For Cheaper Printing Within A Bounding Box.

Discussion in 'Miniatures and Scale Models' started by Aussie_Railway_Miniatures, Jan 20, 2017.

  1. Hi there,
    I have scale model buildings I want to print. I prefer to print each wall as 2 pieces an inside and outside. The flat surface that is against the print plate is also the bonding surface for the two pieces. I find this provides better detail than trying to print as one piece vertical walls. The two example pictures I have provided show what I have uploaded to shapeways. I have a few common parts and and several alternative parts which will make 4 variations of this basic shelter shed. I have layed out my parts as best I could to maximise the space within the bounding box. I have not joined the parts together with a sprue. The drawing in Print 1 has used the full foot print of the Bounding box the drawing in print 2 is the remainder of the parts and tkes up a little less than half the area of the bounding box. The price seems pretty high for the two prints print 1 $104.78 print 2 $47.64.
    My questions:
    > Can I use any different techniques to reduce the print cost.
    > Will shapeways be able to use the rest of the space in the 3D bounding box
    > Some of my parts are quite thin in parts but it has still past the preliminary tools for printing would they still print flat and true if put onto a sprue and stacked into the verticle plane Z.
    Print 1.jpg Print 2.jpg
     
  2. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    What to do depends on what material you plan on using.
     
  3. Frosted Ultra Detail
     
  4. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    Frosted detail materials don't penalize you for multiple parts per file or for any type of inefficient bounding box use. Cost is a flat $5.00 per file handling charge plus actual material costs based on material volume. You can review how costs are determined for different materials at the materials pages:
    https://www.shapeways.com/materials/

    So in your case it would appear the only way to reduce cost in FUD is to remove material from all parts by making them as thin as possible.
     
  5. Thanks for the info and link.