I like Shapeways since you can upload your own 3D designs and end up with a 3D printed model. This allows me to e.g. create custom boxes for small hardware experiments. These boxes are combined with my Poser models and will thus result in very interesting designs. But like everything with 3D, you will have to do some experiments first. I created three new models in Poser named Nora, Tommi and Cassiopa and I used some interesting trick to create a special rack to include in the pose. But first, let’s look at Nora:
Nora was printed in two versions: White plastic and Colored sandstone. And in both models a few flaws were already visible. Nora’s shoes were made of a very thin material and the upload to Shapeways did a repair that removed the very thin parts. As a result, the shoes are flawed.
Well, a bit of glue and plastic can fix that. But her fingers were also a bit delicate and the sandstone version ended up with broken fingers because the fingers are actually too thin. Again, some glue and they’re back in place.
Her thumb is still missing, though. Then again, I was more interested in checking how well the 3D printer handles holes, like the area where she keeps her left hand. In front of her genitals, to keep it decent, yet far away so it doesn’t touch. Combined with the position of her legs, this results in a complex hole to print but it ended up flawless. Even her left hand was intact.
So, what I’ve learned from Nora is that thin elements like fingers and shoes won’t print very well. White plastic does a better job than sandstone, though. That’s because sandstone needs further processing after the printing is done, which requires some manual labour. Thus, small parts can end up being damaged.
Another part that’s important with the sandstone version is the textures. For this, I will check her face:
And in case you’re wondering why her hair is covered by a towel, well… Hair really doesn’t print very well. It tends to generate loose shells or often to parts that are too thin to print. Besides, the towel makes her look as if she’s just out of bath, relaxing.
The White plastic versions shows a reasonable amount of details in her face. Even her open mouth is printed quite nicely. The sandstone model also has an open mouth and you might see her tongue and teeth if you look inside with a microscope. But I’m more looking at her face and eyes.
Printing in colored sandstone has an ink density of about 50 DPI. Normally, a printer would print at 300 DPI so the colors will lose details. But I chose a light-colored iris and Nora has good-looking pupils in this print. Which is important to remember, since dark eye colors might darken the whole eye. It still looks good in my opinion. At least better than what I can do with paint and a brush.
The next model is Cassiopa. Since I know that thin parts won’t print well, I’ve placed her on a towel, hoping for a better result. The result is okay but the sandstone version did not survive the print because the towel was too thin. So I uploaded a newer version of Cassiopa on a more solid floor and in this version, I also adjusted her clothing. Why? Because I need to test more than just panties on topless women. Still, the white plastic version looks okay, although it is a bit small:
The model was almost 15 CM long, but that’s the length of the towel. Cassiopa uses only 2/3rd of this length, thus she’s smaller than my other models. (This also happens with one of my Tommi models.) Smaller means that fewer details will be visible but it is still detailed enough.
The towel she’s on has a hole in it, which is too bad but I’m not too worried about it. I now know that I can’t use these kinds of thin plateaus for my models to rest upon. In the sandstone version, the towel had crumbled away.
The last model is Tommi which I’ve combined with a rack. I made a second version of Tommi climbing this rack but Tommi herself becomes small if you do this, thus losing details. Let’s look at the climbing version first:
I gave Tommi a skirt instead of panties so you should have been able to look up her skirt. However, Shapeways repairs this automatically and as a result, the skirt became solid. And that’s a flaw in the skirt model.
This is a colored print so her texture helps to add details, but she’s too small to be very clear in details. She did have a flaw in her right hand, since her fingers were too thin and either did not get printed or broke off afterwards. A bit of paint will fix that, though. It is just something to remember.
So, remember: make sure thin parts are well-supported and preferably resting against something else and with clothes, be aware that Shapeways might fill in specific areas that you’ve hoped would stay hollow. In this case her skirt but I also tried another interesting top on Tommi but that added a white mass over her breasts since Shapeways was filling the area between the left and right cup.
Next, the bigger version of Tommi with her resting upon the rack. That one was perfect, although one of the legs from the rack had broken off during transport. So, even if a part is thick enough to print, it might still be very vulnerable. With a length of over 4 CM, they can’t handle a lot of stress. Still, this model is great with no broken appendices and even her toenails are visible!
Well, at least I glued the leg back in place. I might decide to remove all four instead, though, if I fear they will break again. This model happens to be quite heavy too, which makes sense since she has the biggest volume of all. Her eyes are nicely detailed and her skin color even has some variation around her knees. And you can see her toenails! A bigger model is nice in that regard so if your model has a lot of fine details, have it printed in a larger scale! Although the price will scale up too, since more materials will be required.
Well, these three models all look reasonable well and taught me what I need to know about printing Poser models: use a reasonable large-scale, support all small parts and be aware that hollow spaces might end up being filled with extra material because Shapeways “repairs” some thin materials.
I kept these models mostly undressed because I know the textures of these models and needed to see how the color printing will support the texture details. Also, it is difficult to find Poser clothing models that are working well when uploaded to Shapeways. These models are not made to be printed in 3D but to be rendered. So finding good clothes to print is difficult. For Victoria 4, her bikini top and bottom do print quite well, though. They too are filled up, but the filling it towards the body of the model and not between both cups.
Another problem is the limitations on models set by Shapeways. There’s a size limit and there’s a polygon limit. (64 MB or 1 million polygons.) Poser models can easily go over this amount of polygons so you will have to find a way to reduce those, while keeping textures intact.
And then there’s the rack used by both models. The rack is the same length for both and I’ve created it myself by using the Firestorm viewer with the Second Life virtual worlds, but I could have used my own OpenSim world too. I just joined several cylinders for the rounded sides and balls for the rounded corners to build the framework. I also created a square plane with a hole inside, which I copied three times and put next to one another. I then exported the whole model from the SL viewer to a Collada file, which I imported in AccuTrans 3D to clean it up a bit and to reduce the complexity of it. (For example, by merging all parts into one single part.)
And then I checked if the rack has enough space for other hardware.
Well, the rack isn’t wide enough for an Arduino board
Since I copied the square plane three times, I had expected all holes to have the same size. And the rack was made so I can add some hardware in the empty rack space and have some wires or other parts move through the open holes to e.g. shine a LED light on the model. So, I was surprised when I discovered that the middle hole was slightly bigger than the other two. Which I discovered by trying to fit an Arduino-board. (The YUN is shown in the picture.) The length is long enough for the Arduino Mega but it will have a few millimeters on the sides of the rack. The pins are actually at the exact location of the long bars. So you could actually put an Arduino in the rack if you don’t mind the width.
But smaller devices like the Arduino Mini, the Trinket, the NetDuino mini and the Digispark have plenty of room inside the rack.
But back to the holes!
Using the climbing Tommi version, I used to try a green LED. It doesn’t fit the top or bottom hole but it does fit the middle hole. Trying it again with a regular lamp of 5 MM diameter, I see it going through the middle hole without effort but the top and bottom ones don’t fit. A laser light won’t even fit the middle hole, though.
The conclusion is that these holes are a bit too small for LED lights. No problem, since I can take a drill bit and make them wider. Still, I had hoped they would be big enough for a LED light. So I have to redo my calculations. And I have to wonder why the middle hole is bigger than the other two, while they’re basically all the same in my 3D software.
Anyway, I now have two great models for containing some of my experimental hardware. I know the racks are open so the hardware would be exposed but that’s something I will solve with a next version of my rack. I also know how thin the walls can be and how thin the walls of my rack are. I can still have the rounded areas but the rack should get more solid walls. Thin walls too, since the rack has a lot of volume.
Next, the question what I would like to create with these models. Whatever I think of should match the model. The three holes in the rack are meant for lights, cables, buttons or something else but I don’t want to show too much hardware on the model side of the rack. I also need to find a solution to attach the additional hardware to the rack, since it doesn’t have any special pins or whatever to hold them. Then again, these models were created to see how well these racks would print. The different hole size was a surprise for me which I need to include in my calculations.
And the three rack-less models? They’re just nice desk ornaments.I have ordered more prints so I will likely have more ornaments soon.
My next designs will have better racks, preferably with extra points to hold my hardware in place. The sandstone prints still look great but I have to consider the size of the whole thing. And I will need to experiment with clothing, to see which items will print best. The same is true with hair, since I still have to find hair that prints well in 3D.
All in all, 3D printing is a very interesting challenge. Slightly expensive too, though.
Wim ten Brink 