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3D Designs Worth?


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Hi Guys,

 

First of all thanks for all the feedback,

 

Jack with the screen shots added I agree if I was to press print on the printer for instance the slicing would take hours. They where purely a rough image before I would attempt to print. I think the problem was the STL viewer I am using also does not help the quality of the images maybe I should use my render in Solidworks? What software do you use to preview STL in? The mesh for instance on the city of Truro is fairly big, as you can see in the pic.

 

Mike the printer I hope to get is a Z-Corp 650 colour with an impressive 10 x 15 x 8 inch build volume, also with the ability to print with no supports. This printer is also able to produce wax casting amongst other things.  The printer is reasonably priced from a local engineering firm after a several phone calls was able to do a fantastic price on.

 

I dont think for a min I could compete and take on a huge company like Shapeways but being able to produce items that our more affordable to those who may not be able to spend £40+ on a body, but I do feel there is always room for those little players (think of it as the corner shop). I am sure that if I put in the time and effort and uploaded my design to shapeways I could make a bit of money but at the end of the day that does not make me happy so to speak.

 

I also don't think for a minute that my designs would win awards as is, but from small acorns and all, I am a person that never gives up and will keep going and going until it is perfect. The key to running a successful 3D service in my eyes is to never take payment until that part is perfect which will be the main long term way.

 

Hope it makes sense,

 

Cheers Ryan :) 

post-23642-0-49241800-1453834745_thumb.png

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Hi Ryan,

 

It looks to me like you're taking the output of the 3D scan and then putting it into Meshlab to make it "watertight". Looking at the image above it's possible to see that the boiler has 18 or so surfaces that make up the cylinder, these surfaces are subdivided but they are still flat surfaces and they will print as such. Here is an example of what I mean:

 

post-146-0-36136700-1453836435.jpg

 

The surface on the left has is one polygon, the surface on the right is made up of 16 polygons, they are however both a single flat surface and would print as such.

 

post-146-0-16654000-1453836733.jpg

 

The cylinder on the left has 18 sides, the cylinder on the right has 180 sides. I would suggest at least 180 sides if you plan on scaling up to O Scale and definitely more if you're going up to 5" gauge. If you're relying on a fixed mesh derived from a point cloud you probably need to increase the resolution of the scan, but even then you will need to use a 3D modelling program to remove things like handrails and to remove various artifacts that occur as a byproduct of the scanning.

 

The more detailed the model the longer it will take to "slice" for printing, this is another key point as in addition to a 3D Printer you will likely need to use Cloud Processing as there is a lot of computing power required for these calculations if you're talking about a business level operation.

 

Here's a wireframe of my funnel mesh for reference, this is just a screen capture I did in 3ds Max:

 

post-146-0-35238300-1453837519_thumb.jpg

 

All the best,

 

Jack

 

 

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Hi

 

I admire your enthusiasm for starting your own business but I agree with a lot of previous posts, a few bullet points here 

 

I do not think I could name one business that provides 3D prints for sale as a stand alone business.

Providing models for different scales from one drawing is not a route for success, to put it simply if I was modelling O scale I would expect to see a 16mm bolt head on a model, I would not expect to see it on a N scale model and optimal wall thickness is not scaleable.

How much time are you prepared to spend answering questions about prints people have received.

How much time are you prepared to spend doing accounting.

The idea of selling a file to somebody so they upload to Shapeways is [i think] a non starter, anybody who uploads to shapeways needs to open their own shop first then what happens if there is an issue with the file who fixes that?

 

I have had my own shapeways shop for just short of 3 years with over 150 models, with every new model comes more emails and more issues that customers want information on, it all takes time, if I was trying to do it all myself I know I would fail because the there just is not enough hours in the day to do everything, there are enough hours in the day to do what I want and still sell my models through Shapeways since they remove a lot of the mundane work, i.e. - the printing, shipping and billing and sorting any issues with print quality etc, they remove the "I did not get my model" because they have a bulk handling deal with UPS on prices that an individual can only dream about.

 

There are many successful shapeways model railway shops but as said before how many stand alone printing businesses can you name.

You can have all your designs out there handled by Shapeways or Imateriaise or both and still enjoy life.

 

 

Alexander

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Hi All,

 

After a long hard think, you are all right! I have found myself not in a position to undertake such a huge task as this at this time in my life.

 

Instead I am going back to my true love and will be focusing on still 3d design and printing but this time developing Live Steam (Compressed Air) models but using the latest 3d processes.

 

I have purchased an Zcorp 450 3d printer and is now able to produce wax castings with ease, This is something that will only have about 4 products max to focus on  and not 1000s that the model railway world can be.

 

I appreciate all your feedback and is still willing to help any one out with a design etc....

 

:) 

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