122 replies to this topic

[White Bear 84]

Sentinel373, on 23 March 2013 - 09:23 AM, said:

i'm going to have this printed pretty soon. (it wont be TT size it'll be more like 20 - 25 cm tall or about 10 inches

Would pay money for this.

[Sentinel373]

Cleaning up the highlander for my next lance. i'll have the coolest figures at any battletech gathering

[Pariah Devalis]

You stripped out all the weapon ports?

[Sentinel373]

no i set it up that i can enable any weapon i want by simply turning a layer on or off that pic is with all the layers turned off. since i dont know what the variants are going to be. i figured i'd prep all the weapons

example:

[Tennex]

Sentinel373, on 09 April 2013 - 01:28 PM, said:

no i set it up that i can enable any weapon i want by simply turning a layer on or off that pic is with all the layers turned off. since i dont know what the variants are going to be. i figured i'd prep all the weapons

example:

woah double arm missiles.\



MISSISLEE PAWWWNCH

Edited by Tennex, 09 April 2013 - 05:09 PM.

[DasFreshMaker]

Sentinel373, on 09 April 2013 - 01:28 PM, said:

no i set it up that i can enable any weapon i want by simply turning a layer on or off that pic is with all the layers turned off. since i dont know what the variants are going to be. i figured i'd prep all the weapons

example:

That looks great as well !! I'd like to see your rendering of the Stalker and Hunchback.

[Rubidiy]

guys, please can you do me a favour? i'm a complete noob at 3D-modelling but we have a 3D-printing centre in my city. They ask an *.stl file for desired model. also I have to tell them the scale (I guess it will be something like 10-15cm high) and to tell'em whether file is measured by mm, cm or inches.
If you already have such file or it would be easy for you to remake it into 15cm, please send here or into my profile a download link.
I hope that I'm not asking for too much.
Anyway, thanks in advanse!

Edited by Rubidiy, 10 April 2013 - 09:56 AM.

[Sentinel373]

Printing stuff in 3d isnt as simple as getting a random 3d model and giving it to a printer. there are many things you have to take into a account. For example I optimised my models to be 1.4 inches tall. this means i can print them relativly cheaply cause they are optimised for this size. if i were to hand you my model and you scaled it 2x that means the material costs for the model will quadruple everytime you double the size.. for example say a 1.4 inch model is 20 dollars, a 2.8 inch model will be 80 dollars and a 5.4 inch will be 320. so your 15inch model will be roughly 360 dollars. and this is assuming they are only charging you for material costs. some printers actualy charge you for the total volume of the model. Which is even more expensive.
And to reduce costs you will have to make a model hollow. now making it hollow can present other problems such as wall thickness and material strenght. If your material is weak or flexible and your walls are too thin the model will simply collapse in on itself. also you have to take into acount which parts are very load baring and you'll have to make the walls of those components thicker so they can hold more weight.

on a 1.4 inch model most of these concerns are moot cause it weighs so little. but for anything bigger you'll either need to know what you're doing or you will have to shell out big time. and making a model big and cheap takes time.

[Rubidiy]

Sentinel373
they demand that 3D-model should be solid (not hollow) and I was asking about 15cm model, which is roughly 6inches. But that does not matter much. All I need is a *.stl file of solid model and to know the size of it inside the file. I can change the scale in my order, if it's too big.
Is it difficult? I really don't know.

Edited by Rubidiy, 10 April 2013 - 12:43 PM.

[Sentinel373]

wel yes it is kind of difficult. especialy because PGI's models are full of holes to reduce the number of polygons the game engine has to draw. if the model has to be solid i recommend you find someone to rip the model out of the game and fill all the holes and that should be all you need. When I import the models from the game into maya (unedited) they are 15mm high. (based on the catapult)

Edited by Sentinel373, 10 April 2013 - 01:18 PM.

[Rubidiy]

Sentinel373
thanks for explaining. I'll just go and cry in my pillow then. (that's a joke )

[Allfex]

Sentinel373, on 10 April 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

wel yes it is kind of difficult. especialy because PGI's models are full of holes to reduce the number of polygons the game engine has to draw. if the model has to be solid i recommend you find someone to rip the model out of the game and fill all the holes and that should be all you need. When I import the models from the game into maya (unedited) they are 15mm high. (based on the catapult)

What programs are u using? maybe i can provide you with a very fast workflow that fit your needs

Edit: Tryed it for myself... but i need over 40 mill polys to be able to merge to a solid voxelobject to hold the quality. Its a overkill for my pc so its maybe not a good resolution. sorry.

I have tryed it with the complete models...with closed singleparts it is no problem.

The parts get merged to a single solid object. Like in this video. And this programm is able to export the solid object as .stl

Edited by Allfex, 13 April 2013 - 01:46 AM.

[Sentinel373]

Founders catapult and highlander ready for printer. i should be getting them near the end of the month.
next up, the Raven

[Sentinel373]

Raven, almost ready. legs are very thin so i might have to make this one slightly bigger compared to the others.

[Rubidiy]

Sentinel373
please write down a simple guide about how to do that.
1. How do you extract models from the game? Just one or two sentences. Like "use this program to find *.xxx files in this folder et.c."
2. Can you give me links to videotutorials about specific actions in Maya I need to know? I understand that it's not that easy, but I can deal with that this way or another. Real help for me would be to show a specific tutorials, because I know how complicated 3D-editing programs are, and how many different options thay have.
Task is to create one solid model for a 3D printer.

[Teribnunu]

http://mwomercs.com/...ing-pgis-mechs/

[Rubidiy]

I know this tutorial, it's kinda helpful only in the beginning. Essencial thing is to know what should I do to prepare my model for printing?
here's an example:
1. I don't know how to make a hole in flash suppressor in shape of the prism which is intersecting it.
2. I don't know how to trim the barrel in any place I want.
3. That gear looking ending of the barrel is made by dragging some faces in the middle of the barrel forward to it's end. I don't know how to make this object ready for 3D-printing.

Overall I have no problem with drawing parts as I like em, but I'm having huuuge troubles with finding out how those things are done in Maya. If I had known the answers, I would have finished all my planned Centurion remodelling (which is quite a plan) by now, for I've spent a few days already trying to find answers to these questions.

Edited by Rubidiy, 17 April 2013 - 07:45 AM.

[Sentinel373]

you dont need maya specificaly. any 3d modeling program that is capable of exporting to .obj or .stl is viable. I am trained in Autodesk Maya and Z-Brush and several others because I do CG art for a living. (for video games, movies, commercials etc.)
if you are familiar with a different modeling application you can probably use that without any issue.

now how to make a model viable for printing.
quite simply you need to fill in all the open faces in a model. Every mesh need to be closed. and considering you are attempting to use PGI's models that have been ripped from the game. Those models are alot of open faces because the game engine doesnt require them to be closed so they can save on their polybudget by simply deleting those faces.

in maya there are options to highlight border edges. once you have these highlighted you simply have to go through each one and close them. this can be done by using the fill hole tool. or by selecting the border edges and extruding them and merging them all to center.

once all border edges are gone you should have a solid model that can be printed. however as i have said earlier the rules of each printer can vary wildly. for example I use shapeways. they charge me for the material used which means if I make my model hollow its cheaper to print. Based on what you said in this thread your model needs to be solid. so in your case all you need to do is close those holes and technicaly you should have a viable print model.

There are several other concerns you might need to deal with such as material strength, model balance (it might tip over and break)

In other news, the raven is ready to go. next up the awesome

[Rubidiy]

Sentinel373
Thanx for the tip about closing faces! It's really helpful!

What about extruded faces that intersect each other inside object (as in my example)? Are they ok to print?

Generally I thoink I'd rather stick to 3Dmax. It is so much more intuitive, and I find a lot of useful stuff in tutorials immideately. Unfortunately, most of tutorials about Maya are very specific and don't help much.

[Sentinel373]

intersecting geometry shouldnt be a problem, especialy in a completly solid model, but you'd best ask the print show about that.