njee20

A lot of naysayers here. I’m reminded of the N gauge layout “Deansmoor” which is built on a door; and therefore I assume a similar size to yours. Plenty of articles/videos of that about, and a detailed thread on the N gauge forum. That evokes the atmosphere of a mainline (WCML in that case) in a small space. I would advise that yes, if what you want is available then buying it now would make sense. The second hand market is buoyant and you’ll sell stuff easily if you change your mind.

N is decades old, it’s not going anywhere. it’s say it’s a less ‘risky’ proposition than TT right now. The problem with N (relevant to all scales, but seems particularly acute in N) is the batch production nature. So yes, HSTs are plentiful at the moment because Dapol have released blue/grey and swallow, but give it 2 months, or try and get GNER or VTEC and it’s second hand only, often for inflated prices. There’s a Zimo sound decoder for the Kato 800, but yes it’s a proprietary fitting as Kato eschew most standards.

I think all of that is implicit; particularly if there's no photos of the finished item. Worsely works are a good example of this. They are up front in saying they provide scratch aids, and certainly the wagon I bought didn't offer any advice whatsoever on where to find all the missing parts. I don't think this is a bad thing, but IMO it does devalue the product; people may be happy to take a punt on something cheap knowing it may be junk. I’d certainly pay more for an STL if I was confident it made a good model. Personally everything I sell I have built, including finishing and applying decals, and will provide full instructions advising paint colours and finishing tips. I don't want to offer STLs, I've done it a couple of times, where I've still sent instructions, decals etc. I think there's room for both approaches in the market. None of that helps with what the hell this thread was meant to be about though 🤣

The point of this thread has not become any clearer. You said you’d been asked to work on an article with someone for BRM. What is that article? What is your role in it? We’ve gone around the houses on the feasibility of printing (and validated that you know nothing of it, because you’re a designer, not a printer, which is fine as long as you don’t portray yourself as any sort of authority), now we’ve come back to your models appearing in magazines and the relative popularity of different scales. Is there actually a question or issue or anything? 🤷‍♂️ By all means offer your files for download. People will work it out, or they won’t, because the files aren’t good enough or because they don’t have the skills. IMO the problem isn’t likely to be with printing the item so much as turning it into a finished product, which is the current problem anyway.

Perfectly prototypical!

Same for me. I’m a fan of lots of light supports. 0.15mm contact patch, so they pull out very easily. I start with auto supports, tweaking settings on them to suit, and then go and adjust them, usually deleting many, and ensuring all extremities are supported.

I’ve spent longer scanning this thread than I’ve watched live NFL, but I really enjoyed the Netflix series “Quarterback”, and have a bit of a man crush on Pat Mahomes. That’s likely to be all I can add to this thread, but I recommend it!

No, diagonal is desirable. Large flat surfaces sag and warp, you don’t want them level. Proving that designs are printable is adequate, particularly if you can say “printed on X printer, with Y resin”. No one expects you to have tested every permissible combination, but validating that they’re actually printable seems entirely reasonable. You can fit 20m coaches in a Saturn 2/3, but it’s close!

I came here to say this! I understand the dilemma, but I'd definitely update to silver.

Yeah it’s weird actually, I also thought the colour looked good, but it looks bright in my quick phone snap of the demo one:

But then I come back to ‘what are you wanting to achieve’? Yes you churn out designs by the hundred. But the point of this thread remains entirely unclear to me. With FDM printers you may get away without supports, but for virtually anything in resin you’ll need them. This entire thread is analogous to you producing brass kits, positing yourself as an expert, and now saying “I’ve read that you need solder on these”. It’s so basic to anyone with even a passing knowledge of printing, but it feels like you’re somehow having a bit of an epiphany. You say you’re wanting to provide advice to the people buying your files on how to print them? Honestly… I wouldn’t. You will not be able to provide any meaningful advice on this without experience, which you’re saying you don’t want to gain. You’ve never provided instruction on how to make your Shapeways prints usable models, and I’ve seen several posts about this. Why start now because you’re providing STLs? This is like saying “I make cars. I can’t drive, but I want to teach people how to drive”. There’s also no correct answer to lots of the set up. I only ever use lightweight supports. Up to and including O gauge models. Others will use fewer, heavier supports. Some people like to minimise print time by keeping Z-height to a minimum, printing things flat. Others derive optimal angles for printing (which vary by printer), others simply go for trial and error or experience. I can’t help but think you’re grossly overthinking all of this, which I think goes some way to explaining why you think your catalogue of STLs is worth tens of thousands of pounds.

3D printing is virtually a hobby in itself. Maybe the mainstream magazines would be interested in an article about it (plenty in the N Gauge Journal, 2mm SA Journal etc) but detailing the nuances of how to convert an STL into a printed output is not something for a magazine article. I’m afraid that the more I read the less it appears you really understand 3D printing. Not an inherent problem, but I don’t think you’re leading the revolution you think you are, and I think you risk setting yourself up for failure.

The flyer in the photos says it’ll be modelled “as pictured” which is present day condition with modern warning flashes. Not that clear though I agree.

You can either sell files pre-supported, which will help ensure people don’t make changes to your design, but offers no flexibility or you just get home users to support the model themselves. this is an intrinsic part of home printing. As I said previously the standards home printers will achieve are far beyond what Shapeways will tolerate. If shapeways accept it then it’ll print on home printers. Frankly you can probably print better than Shapeways using a potato.

Chitubox will also arrange all the models, no need to be trying to move individual ones unless you really need to. As you've found that'll cause you problems. Just set the minimum distance between models. I usually go with 1mm on small models and up to 2mm on larger ones (like wagon/coach bodies) to give space for resin to drain between them.

I saw 66781 head through Billingshurst with a rail milling machine just after midnight on Thursday. Annoyingly my ineptitude with the SLR means I only have some wonderfully blurry photos of it 🤦‍♂️

Now you are. Any need to keep stating it?

That's more like it. That's on the long side for the base exposure and the short side for the standard exposure, but should work.

And what are your exposure settings now? Ignore anything on the bottles that advises 6-8 seconds, they’re woefully out of date from when printers used RGB screens.

May I politely suggest the OP doesn’t get involved in UVTools at the moment. Chitubox can output perfectly good prints, adding in a load of extra variables seems likely to cause more confusion at this stage.

Per my last post, you need to delete the printer profile and re-add your printer. You’re saving to random file types at the moment, because Chitubox appears not to know what printer you have. The problem is not hardware or software I’m afraid, it’s user related. Chitubox will tell you when you open if an update is available, but again, that isn’t the problem.

Those exposure times are way off. It’s a Mars 3 Pro, right? I’d delete the printer profile in Chitubox and re-add it, making sure you’re specifying that it’s a Mars 3 Pro (it’s odd your Chitubox shows “default”). Exposure time of 30 seconds will destroy your screen and give awful prints, so just in case you’ve got other weird settings you’ve accidentally changed I’d just start afresh. You’ll be aiming for something like 25s base exposure and 2.5-2.8s main exposure with 0.05mm layers. Ctbdlp is an old file format for the Mars series, I don’t think anything exported against the Mars 3 will print, it predates the printer by some years. Exposure tests can definitely be helpful, but I’ve found that sometimes actual prints don’t come out as well as they could despite ‘optimal’ settings. They’re a good way to get a great baseline though. The site linked above has a load of great advice. Be wary of the Rook test piece, even with the configured settings some people find it doesn’t print.

Opening a CTB will do weird things, so in terms of what will show in Chitubox or UVTools etc all bets are off I’d say. In this instance I’m not sure what UVTools is bringing to the party? If you want to edit supports, orientation or anything about a model then you don’t want the actual CTB file. If the supports are printing but the model isn’t then I’d look at either exposure or lift speeds.

Sunlu resins are very well priced, and markedly better than Anycubic IMO. Their ABS-like is good, add some Siraya Tenacious if you want more flexibility. I prime with Halfords primer, they’ll take acrylics or enamels, neither will do any damage.

As above. In Chitubox you want to “save project”, which will save it with a .Chitubox extension, and allow you to reopen it and make changes. You can save as an STL, but then the supports will be a part of the model, and all you’ll be able to change is exposure settings. You can’t just alter a file extension and have it change. Nor can you edit a .ctb file in retrospect.