3d print

[Petros Ioannou]

Anyone out there who has experience in producing a physical 3d model using his 3d ArchiCAD model?
How was it transformed to STL files?
What was the behavior of the various elements of AC (walls, windows , doors) in the 3d printing??

Thank you in advance

[Gary Lawes]

Hi Thomas,

Yes model came in fine, and L shaped building, 3 stories on wings and 4 stories in centre, with balconies on internal faces. All fenestration as clean openings. White walls, grey roof and green landscape. Does this sound OK?

[Thomas Holm]

Gary wrote:
Yes model came in fine

Thanks very much for your help, Gary, I'll pass this on to my service bureau. Obviously the problem wasn't the file. And I take it "Write vertex normals" is the standard.

[Gary Lawes]

Hi Thomas,

Yes to writing normals. This again is something ArchiCAD does very well, orients normals automatically, not like some lesser CAD products.

One of the possibilities for the difficulties could be that the bureaux is using the standard version of ZEdit rather than the Pro version to prepare the models, the standard (free) version does not support VRML only .STL.
They would still be able to print VRML, just unable to carry out pre print checks and tweaks.

Good luck with it. Any problems and we would be happy to quote to do it here and ship over to Sweden.

[Thomas Holm]

Thanks for your support, Gary! I'm not going to give you much hope about giving you the job, though, I have a feeling the shipping costs - and delay - would be prohibitive. But why not - if you like you could give me a quote for the file I sent, just PM me.

I don't want any textures or colors at this stage, even if Archicad exports them with the VRML. At this time, it's supposed to be a simple volume model with openings, all white, matte gypsum-like, nothing more. It's supposed to be made at 1:200 scale which makes it about 18x15x10 cm I think.

I've been told that the final price is highly dependant of how much powder is used, i.e. the net volume of the model's structure. Therefore I guess it would be better to separate the site mesh and print it as a thin shell instead of solid like in the file.

Also, I need to know if the supporting structure is working. It may be better to remove some of the floor slabs that are present in the file, and instead insert a couple of vertical supporting walls, just for the model structure, all the way from bottom to roof. And if the wall thickness as-is is OK (30cm/200=1.5mm), and what roof thickness you need.

I'd of course like to know what shipping would amount to too. UPS or DHL both work fine I think. And how long that would take. So please PM me!

[Anonymous]

I have saved an ArchiCAD model for 3D printing in VRML as you guys recommend. But how do I check what the VRML file looks like before sending it to the 3D printer?

[Anonymous]

Well, I have solved the STL issue myself......because I had too.... I just bought a 3d printer!

Send me your PLA or VRML and I will send you a free quote to print a physical model.

www.modellabs.com

[Anonymous]

lizydude wrote:
Those prototypes are really small enough for rough 3d printing. Maybe the prototyping machines are very nice to prototyping of a high quality prototype.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say or ask. Could you re-phrase your last post and maybe I could help you?

Here is a link to some more detailed photos of that model:
www.modellabs.com/architectural-models/index.php?option=com_fjrelated&view=fjrelated&layout=blog&id=0&Itemid=76

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Jeff,

lizydude was a spammer and the post has been removed.

Your additional photos are interesting though. Consider placing an ad in the 'Ads' forum advertising your services (no ads allowed in normal forums like this). Ads are auto-purged every 30 days and have to be re-entered then.

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

ok, i will have to re-post an ad in the ads forum. It was not my intention to reply as an Ad. I just didn't understand that last reply and thought that link would provide that answer.

Thanks for clearing the spam.

[Karl Ottenstein]

No problem. I didn't see your reply as an ad - the photos of a 3D print obtained from an AC model is of general interest. Looks great. Just wanted to head off any ads in this thread. 😉

Karl