5th April 2014, 05:23 PM | #1 |
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how to merge parts for 3D printing
ive used ac3d a lot but this is my first 3D printing project, how do make sure the parts will be printed as one piece, for example if i highlight wings and fuselage and click on merge does that mean the printer will print the fuselage and wings together as one piece? or is there more i have to do to make sure the wings are not seen as a separate part and fall off the fuselage?
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5th April 2014, 11:42 PM | #2 |
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Re: how to merge parts for 3D printing
Preparing a model for 3D printing, that was not built to be printed, is not a simple task. With some exceptions, the entire model needs to be a continuous mesh. Further, there needs to be an inside and an outside.
I know Shapeways.com charges per cubic centimeter of material used, so non-hollow shapes cost way more than hollowed shapes. They also have a tutorial section at http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials The tool chain in AC3D for 3d printing is pretty much in its infancy. -There is a new plug-in for 7.2.17 that detects edges that do not have exactly two surfaces attached. It does not detect other problems like flipped normals and intersecting planes. -The extrude by normal tool doesn't always generate parallel surfaces so its hard to make an "inside" surface in some cases. |
9th August 2014, 11:56 PM | #3 |
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Re: how to merge parts for 3D printing
You don't really need to worry about making hollows inside the model. Any half way decent software is going to have infill settings that auto-generate the correct hollow spaces and scaffoldings inside the "solid" object.
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