87 replies to this topic

[Veiled Cause]

Shut up and take my money! D:<

Amazing stuff, though. Im curious of what would be next ^^

[Galorin]

I would love to print these myself. have you made the STL files publicly available anywhere?

[Ialdabaoth]

I'm working on a fully articulated King Crab at 1:100 scale.

And I do mean FULLY articulated - the claws are geared so that opening and closing the bottom claw causes the top claw to raise and lower; most possible weapon configurations are modeled as separate snap-in hardpoints; shoulders, hips, ankles and waist are all ball joints; elbows, knees and toes are jointed; I even ripped the cockpit (with every button in detail) and added a pilot.

[Luscious Dan]

Ialdabaoth, on 25 August 2016 - 09:20 AM, said:

I'm working on a fully articulated King Crab at 1:100 scale.

And I do mean FULLY articulated - the claws are geared so that opening and closing the bottom claw causes the top claw to raise and lower; most possible weapon configurations are modeled as separate snap-in hardpoints; shoulders, hips, ankles and waist are all ball joints; elbows, knees and toes are jointed; I even ripped the cockpit (with every button in detail) and added a pilot.

You're my kind of crazy.

[Captain Artemis]

Reven, on 03 April 2015 - 07:22 PM, said:

So as I had promised, here is my step-by-step process to creating 3D printable files from the MWO game assets.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not an expert, this is the result of much trial and error on my part. If you have other ways to accomplish the same thing, I WELCOME any improvements / suggestions. Please share…I would love to get better at this.

Software tools used:
Netfabb - http://www.netfabb.com/basic.php
Meshmixer - http://www.meshmixer.com/

First step: Get the files into .obj format.
Rather than rewriting what has already been documented amazingly well, the process I use is virtually identical to what is outlined in the following thread below.

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

Step two assemble the .obj files.
So I am a bit on the paranoid side and not an adept coder, so I use a manual process for this with the tool netfabb Basic. I am well aware that there are tools available to auto-position each of the parts, but I don’t like running code from the interwebs on my computer
I assemble and repair each of the following parts independently:
1 – Torso and pelvis
2 – Arms, if symmetric, just one and then mirror it, if asymmetric got to do the work
3 – Legs as they are always symmetric, I just build one then mirror it, unless I’m going with an asymmetric pose.
An item to note is that I like to determine the mech weapons configuration I plan on using prior to beginning and creating a folder with only the .obj’s I need to avoid cluttering up the project.
I’ll demonstrate with a Battlemaster torso/pelvis as I’m working on this model right now for a unit-mate of mine. The nice part about the torso’s is that they are for the most part already properly positioned and need very little tweaking. The hips / pelvis are another story though.

First I’ll add each of the base torso .obj’s into my netfabb project as shown below:
So I like to start with the Center torso front (remember to add both front and back), but order really doesn’t matter


So all these parts here in the center, right and left torso’s require no movement as they load up perfectly aligned as shown in the image below.


Now for the pelvis and “twist”. As you see in the picture here, these parts are not positioned properly relative to the torso’s. I’m certain that this is because they are part of a different in game object that animates separately.


I then shift the parts away from the main model and lay them out. Very important at this point to have a good reference. I usually will have MWO booted up to have the basic model laid out to get an idea of how the parts are positioned.


I then adjust the parts until they match my reference AND also try to block off any non-solid faces (they show up as red in nettfabb). This is one area where I try to help make the model more “watertight” through minor adjustments.


As you see in the image below, I like to increment in movements of 0.1mm based upon the initial model scale. I adjust to a more fine movement if needed. The parts WILL and SHOULD overlap.


This next step is one I’ve recently tried and doesn’t always work well. I take each individual component and “repair” them using the nettfabb default repair. This tries to address the biggest problem I’ve experienced in getting parts “printable”…making them watertight, without “fattening” up the parts and making the model look like a marshmallow.






Go through each individual component and apply these repairs.

Once all the individual components are repaired, the next step is to combine the parts together. This is accomplished by exporting the parts in their current state as .STL’s (could do .obj’s as well…doesn’t seem to matter).


Now shift to Autodesk’s Meshmixer software and load in each of the repaired .STL’s or .obj’s (click this import button) and after the first select “append”. If you get a dialogue saying the part seems small and/or far away, ignore it and do NOT let it fix it. This usually happens with energy hardpoints.



Once all the parts have been imported, select them all in the object browser and then select the “Combine” action. Now export as an .STL.




You now have combined all the parts into one file.

Now go back to nettfab and open the combined file into a new window. The next step I like to do is to scale the model up 40x. This way if you do want to apply a “thickening” repair, it will be applied to a larger model with less “marshmallow’ing” as meshmixer can only apply that type of repair to so small a model without having that kind of impact.
After scaling up, there are two paths I usually take depending upon how water tight the model is at this point.
If the model slices up well (is water tight) in its current state, then I will now section the model into two pieces to maximize the amount of “flat surface” and improve its printability and minimize the amount of support material.




I’ll try to slice the pieces and see how the results look. If there are no crazy gaps, then I’ll test print.
In this case the model was not water tight (at least not enough for my taste) and so I’ll take the second path. If you’re familiar with 3D printing notice all the support material being used for the “inside” of the model….not good.



Load the scaled up model into Meshmixer again and click the “Print” option.
This will bring up the repair operation. Click the “Tool” button to the right of Repair.



Now adjust the “Fix for minimum thickness” to 0.1mm and click “Done” Wait for it to bake and this will soften up some of the sharp edges, but not so much since the part is scaled so large.



Notice, however, how the image has changed as it thickens up. This should now have made the model watertight unless it is a “lost cause” to my process as the Banshee has become.

Export the model from Meshmixer and load it into netfabb.
I then apply the same splitting the model process as done before to improve printability and then test again. This time the print is MUCH more water tight.



Last step I usually take is to print out a small version as a test print. This helps me to see if I could improve where I split the part for printing or any other problem points to help me refine the print.

Those of you who 3D print, will likely have some “low quality” print filament to do these kinds of tests with.
I’ll add pictures of the initial test print and first production print of the torso when they’re done.

Note that you then rinse and repeat this same process for each of the other limbs / parts you wish to print.

Hell... I want my Black Knight so badly.

[Pippykins]

where can I find already done .stl? I want a black night, and may actually just rip the files and start from there, but a head start would be nice. specifically, I want to make the MWO equivalent of the red reaper and give it a sword and shield.

Edited by Pippykins, 25 September 2017 - 11:16 PM.