3D Printing


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A client wants to get a 3D print of their house plan.  Has anyone done this with success?  The printer requires a STL file, which I can do but I would like to know how many layers to turn off and what to leave on before exporting.  (eg. Interior walls, interior doors staircases, etc.).  Should I save a copy of the plan and just clean it up for the export?  

The person doing the printing does professional printing for different manufacturers so is quite knowledgable but I would like the best export I can to start with.

Any and all suggestions welcome. 

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I hope a few users have done this type of project.  I can see where items such as gutters, piles, footings could be eliminated to decrease the complexity.

I did find one discussion that mentioned Chief wasn't "watertight"???  Hopefully this isn't the case with a proper plan.

 

I am going to read up in the reference manual because there wasn't much of anything except how to export STL in Help.

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Sherry, 

 

 Likely a good test would be to re-import the STL model and take a look.  You might find that things like windows all need to have their materials changed.  

 

Please let us know how it goes as there are only a few previous threads on this subject.

 

 

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I didn't realize I could import and open the file.  That will be a big help.  

I will definitely report back on what I find and if I get a plan that works well I will post it.  If things don't work, I will also let everyone know why.

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Chopsaw

I did a full STL export of the current file and then opened it in a new plan file.  It comes in as a library object and looks exactly how it should.  ( I even left the terrain , trees, walks, etc.) Now I can get rid of all the items I don't need for the model and work from there.  Thank you very much for that suggestion.  It will save me lots of back and forth with the printer to start with.

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The person doing the print has told me to be sure the model is waterproof.  The one comment I could find on the forum was that Chief in X8 wasn't waterproof.  Does anyone understand what I have to do?  I do see gaps in some areas between the soffit and roof and was wondering if I should make the roof a solid slab or ?

I have sent a note into tech support to see if anyone there knows anything but I would think someone in our group would have done something like this.  (Only $100 - 200 for a scale model!). The printing company did give me a list of file formats that would be easier for them to fix but none of them are supported by Chief export.

 

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3 hours ago, country said:

The person doing the print has told me to be sure the model is waterproof.  The one comment I could find on the forum was that Chief in X8 wasn't waterproof.  Does anyone understand what I have to do?  I do see gaps in some areas between the soffit and roof and was wondering if I should make the roof a solid slab or ?

I have sent a note into tech support to see if anyone there knows anything but I would think someone in our group would have done something like this.  (Only $100 - 200 for a scale model!). The printing company did give me a list of file formats that would be easier for them to fix but none of them are supported by Chief export.

 

 

You can find a STL File Format Converter online Sherry , eg Autodesk has the free MeshMixer  , it will import STL and can then "fix a file" and then export it in a number of other Formats apparently

 

check this page ....

https://www.mmmanual.com/export/

 

The program download http://www.meshmixer.com/

 


** word of caution ...I know nothing about 3D Printing :)   I have just read about MM in the past....

 

M.

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Thank you Mick.  I have already downloaded the program and imported the file.  It actually looks pretty good.  Now I have something to play with over the weekend.  It looks like there are training samples and lots of help files.  

I'll report back on how things go.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry about the delay in reporting back.  I tried a couple of the programs to attempt to fix the mesh and make it waterproof.  I found it required a similar learning cure to properly using photoshop or gimp.  Much more knowledge than I was willing to put in the time to learn.  

My client was going to see if the printer had someone knowledgeable in mesh repair to make the model waterproof.  I haven't heard anything but they were away for a month so I may still.

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