In the previous post I created an artistic rendering of my model. I will now use 3D converter to remove the textures and unwanted parts and to turn it into one solid part for further processing.

Now, we will export the Poser model to a Wavefront .obj file. I generally use a numbered file structure where the first folder (1) will contain all the Poser models that I want to print. The next folder is the export folder where the exported Poser models go to. I have even more folders with the 8th folder being used for all models that are ready to upload to Shapeways. And the 9th folder has everything that I have uploaded as backup. So when I upload a model, that uploaded file will also be stored in this folder.

Only folders 1 and 9 are permanent. Once a model is successfully uploaded, I remove the related files from the in-between folders. They’re not needed anymore.

So I start to export my model to folder 2: export. The .obj file will have references to any textures used but I’m generally not interested in textures. Still, if you want a print in colored sandstone then you should do a second export to the Collada .dae file format. Then you will have a sub folder with all textures used in your model. Put those textures together with the .obj file and the .mtl file into a compressed .zip file and upload that compressed file to Shapeways for printing in colored sandstone. However, tools like NetFabb, MeshMixer en Meshlab tend to remove textures if you’re not careful. This makes scaling a bit difficult.

So, why not export to just Collada? Well, the problem is that Poser has a bad implementation of the Collada file format. While it is supposed to export things correctly, it has flaws preventing you to import the model in some other tool. Much of the parts of your model will be missing if you try. Which is why I only use it to get all textures together and not for further processing of the model.

But this time I only want a white, plastic print so textures can be removed.

That’s what the model looks like in 3D converter. The OpenSCAD objects had no texture so they have random colors. But the cane, shoes and bikini have textures that 3D converter can’t find.

The first step is ‘Layers/Make All Opaque’ which I use to change all transparent areas. You can’t 3D print transparent areas anyways so make them opaque. And once you do that, you will notice the eyes losing their textures too. Why? Because Poser has two transparent objects in front of the iris and eye, which are meant to be used to add reflections. These are the Cornea and eye surface and once removed, you will see a normal eye again.

Next, use ‘Tools_2/Set White As Color For Textures’. to make all parts nice and white beneath the textures. Then, use ‘Tools_2/Erase Textures on All layers’ to remove all the textures and you should have a nice, white model. Or, if you forgot to give all parts a white color, you get this:

This is not a big problem anyways and we will fix this once all parts are merged.

At this point, I start to select the parts that I want to merge. All other parts will be removed. So, deselect all parts and then select only those parts that you clearly need, like the face, body and the OpenSCAD objects. Keep in mind that the cornea and eye surface need to be removed to have a more detailed eye. And if the model has her mouth shut, you can also remove the gums, inner mouth, tongue and teeth.

Eyelashes can be selected and look good on large models, but will hide the eyes on smaller models. I decided to hide them in this model. But make sure you select the ruler since you will still need it!

Her shoes have small flowers and petals, which could become loose shells in Shapeway so those are also removed. Then choose “Merge Select” from the bottom buttons to merge all parts that you have selected. This makes one part from all of those parts. And at this point you can save the file as a StereoLithography .stl file in binary to continue processing in the next step. This export file will be in my 3rd folder.

In the next post I will scale the model to its proper size and remove the ruler.