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Jason's Workbench (was 3D printed buildings)


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That looks top notch.

 

What is the reason for orientation problems you're having with the roof - is it trying to find a way that minimises suction or stepping?

 

Until I got my larger Saturn I was printing wall and roof sections individually  them gluing them together like a plastic kit. Bricks corners were interlocking . Failing a successful print of the entire roof could you do the roof faces individually like this?

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  • RMweb Gold

I was concerned about suction and damaging the FEP. After I've printed the signal box, I might do an experiment and put the roof on, but with holes along the top, and have the ridge tiles along the top a separate part that can be sanded and glued on.

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The second building at Havenhouse is the signalbox. This was demolished in the 1980s, and the photos are generally at an oblique angle (not many people got off at Havenhouse it seems, so no change there!)

 

3353663253_4e72410890_h.jpgHavenhouse

by Jonathan Hazan, on Flickr

 

This is the box at the moment. Just the back window to do and the roof and bargeboards.

 

856907475_signalboxrender.jpg.06e9bb43d720f8294f0c2590c4675a6f.jpg

 

Once it's finished I'll do a blow-by-blow build of a pump house that was situated next to the Haven (river) between Wainfleet and Havenhouse. It was used in the draining of the area.

 

The pump house is a square building with a flat metal roof, some arches, windows and doors. There's a bit of ornamentation going around the building, and a 1901 date plaque in one of the walls. There's also a lean-to, which I'll do in the original brick. If I can find any photos/drawings, I'll also see if I can put a steam pump in there.

 

Next post will have more photos and some measurements, etc.

 

_JCL6249.jpg.2c463d0b7e6a0a1ebdec04e5ad23c867.jpg

Edited by JCL
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Cheers! I’m definitely printing one for the signal box - I’m looking at. @monkeysarefun’s suggestion, so will try it tomorrow. I have a test base printing at the moment - although I did forget to do the back window.
 

I’ve a problem with the lower parts of the windows. The horizontals are ok, but the verticals have snapped. I think I’m going to have to do some tests and thicken up the widths a bit.

 

Doing the bricks is strangely therapeutic - I imagine it’s like cross-stitch or something as you put your head down and relax for an hour.

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On 08/01/2021 at 04:43, JCL said:

 

 

Doing the bricks is strangely therapeutic - I imagine it’s like cross-stitch or something as you put your head down and relax for an hour.

Brickwork isn't so bad, wait until you do stone work!!!! 

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On 09/01/2021 at 05:36, woko said:

Brickwork isn't so bad, wait until you do stone work!!!! 

 

The Lincolnshire coast is a wonderfully stone free place! Even All Saints church in Wainfleet is made of bricks. My family's church is Wainfleet St Mary - it's stone, but far too far away from the railway line. :dance:

 

On another note, the windows I've drawn up have failed slightly on both the waiting room and the signal box - even with plenty of supports. Because of this, I've put together a test file with different thicknesses of 'wood' between the panes.

 

windows.jpg.d43b93c5d88050f5ce95bc197ecac644.jpg

 

Also, my printer has a power output percentage that can be changed on the machine. This determines how bright the LCD panel will be and how well each layer is cured. It's currently at 65%, but I'll up it to the normal 80% and print this file. Hopefully at 80% the original thicknesses will work properly.

 

Here's the stl file: window test f.stl

 

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

 

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In the meantime, it's probably time to start the pump house. Now, there are a lot of people on here who are much better 3D modellers, and there will be many ways to skin a cat. All I can show you is a workflow that works for me.

 

I'm using Blender 2.91.0 from here: https://www.blender.org/download/

 

Setup the Environment

 

727669344_setupscreen.jpg.fbc4a043292e2e827598683014d61e4a.jpg

 

After opening up Blender:

  1. select the cube delete it
  2. hover over the margin between the main screen and the playback pane, right click, click on 'join areas', and move the mouse downwards to delete the playback pane.
  3. make sure the layout workspace is available. If you can't see it, click the + button at the top of the screen (to the right of scripting in the illustration above) and choose it from the list. You can delete all of the others except for modelling by right clicking on each one and choosing delete.
  4. on the right, click on the scene properties tab (looks like a tear drop), click on Units to open it, and choose the following options
    1. Unit system: metric
    2. Unit Scale: 0.001
    3. Length Millimeters
  5. Click on the small V shown in the red box next to the '5' in the diagram and set Viewport Overlays -> Grid Scale to 0.001

Setup the Preferences

 

Now we need to add a couple of helper modules.

 

preferences.jpg.e2f9c0411c03419739dd60f0a3b2752c.jpg

 

  1. In the menu system, click on edit -> preferences,
  2. when the preferences window is displayed, click on add-ons (in blue here)
  3. go to search (top right) and start typing import
  4. choose Import Images as Planes
  5. we'll probably have a go with Archipack, so select that too. On this one, click on the little arrow to open up the details, and click on render preset thumbs.

Now, if you save this as your default startup position, and you'll not need to do this again. To do this, in the menu system, click File -> Defaults (at the bottom) -> Save Startup File

 

I'm still looking at Archipack to help with the modelling, and although it looks good, I'm not sure that it will work out the box for 3D printing. One case in point is that the default guttering it creates wouldn't be printable. With this in mind, I'll show how I did the modelling, and then afterwards will write up some notes on Archipack.

 

Blender Course on YouTube

 

Finally, there is also a general Blender course available below. Blender Guru seems to be the most popular Blender education channel on Youtube, so it's worth having a look at. This will give some more starter information, and you could even get a zero calorie donut out of it.

 

 

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1 hour ago, JCL said:

 

The Lincolnshire coast is a wonderfully stone free place! Even All Saints church in Wainfleet is made of bricks. My family's church is Wainfleet St Mary - it's stone, but far too far away from the railway line. :dance:

 

On another note, the windows I've drawn up have failed slightly on both the waiting room and the signal box - even with plenty of supports. Because of this, I've put together a test file with different thicknesses of 'wood' between the panes.

 

windows.jpg.d43b93c5d88050f5ce95bc197ecac644.jpg

 

Also, my printer has a power output percentage that can be changed on the machine. This determines how bright the LCD panel will be and how well each layer is cured. It's currently at 65%, but I'll up it to the normal 80% and print this file. Hopefully at 80% the original thicknesses will work properly.

 

Here's the stl file: window test f.stl

 

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

 

Also the printing orientation can play a part. For eg if you print them standing up you only get the tiny cross-section of the window frames being printed each layer which may easily get pulled apart as the plate raises up. Printing them flat gives you more of an area on the FEP which might be more successful. Hard to describe!

Edited by monkeysarefun
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6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Blender guru is probably the best out there as far as describing Blender goes , as long as  you can understand his accent.

 

It started with a G'day and carried on from there. Luckily my sister-in-law is from Brisbane, so she can talk me through the more difficult words. ;)

 

On the printing, yep, printing flat on the FEP. basically, the problem is in the bottom part of the window, where the verticals are thinner front to back. The test print has been set off, so fingers crossed, something should be available in the morning.

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I reckon the Blender tutorial you are putting together deserves its own thread, named accordingly.

 

I've dabbled on and off with  Blender but initially  found it quite hard to find tutorials that specifically covered architectural models intended for 3D printing, and had given up on it until the 2.8 redesign, and the  later introduction of the push-pull style tool and recent CAD style add-ons which has made me get back into it.

 

This could be a very valuable resource for anyone who has ignored Blender, thinking its meant for 3D rendering  and animation, or who had tried the pre 2.8 versions and given up on it due to its then complex and confusing  user interface. 

 

Like  the Inkscape one you put together it would give the curious a chance to see what it can do for modellers - it would be a shame if people were not aware of its existence. 

Edited by monkeysarefun
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Good point, I think you're right. I've created a new thread and reposted the, erm, post, onto that one. I'll continue with non-tutorial stuff here. 

 

The good news is that I successfully printed those windows twice, once at 65% power, and once at the recommended 80% power.

 

The 80% power ones on the right look better, but ultimately, for my printing configuration, the .5mm verticals are too thin, so I've gone for 0.75mm instead - effectively the third window.

 

1611423586_windowtestcropped.jpg.4989217014e98beacf4a2f7236a37098.jpg

 

Both the waiting room and the signal box have been amended, so I'll be able to print them at the weekend.

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Thank you. I've been snowed under with work, but this weekend I've been recording the first tutorial video, so hopefully it'll be uploaded the beginning of next week.

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Could you cut the windowframes on the silhouette and drop them into the brickwork recess?

As to the reason there aren't many pictures of the station buildings etc, I would imagine that HavenHouse passengers arriving on the train there were in too much of a rush to get to Batemans, and passengers departing were too bladdered to take meaningful pictures.

 

Mike.

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You're not wrong there Mike, the bright lights of Skeg-Vegas, or one of the many pubs in Wainfleet :) All Havenhouse really had was fishing. And yes, window frames in Sihouette could be an option, but I think the .75mm cross section works for me.

 

Right, I've managed to create a video. If anyone's interested, I used something called OBS to record the screen (apparently it's used by gamers a lot), and the OpenShot video editor to make a few changes. Both of these pieces of software are free.

 

As I'm no David Attenborough, so that I can get used to recording, I've recorded the video so that it goes through the information about setting up Blender that I added above. In the next one I'll actually have us create something. I'm hoping I'll get better with this as we go along.

 

The video was recorded in HD, so hopefully it should be clear. If it's not, please check you're watching it in HD 1080 by clicking on the cog button below the video.

 

cheers

 

Jason

 

 

 

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I downloaded and printed the waiting room on my Cr10s filament printer as an exercise, then drew up a roof to see what it looks like.

Pitched at 30 degrees and printed at .1mm layer height. Ill upload the stl later if anyone wants it, if you want a different pitch or an eave overhang just ask and ill add it.

Heres a couple images for comment.

I sliced the building to print flat on the bed, roof is just flat as you see printed whole. No eaves on it and just noodled up a ridge cap by eye.  

I draw in Autocad.

STL Added.........

1179607868_ROOF1.jpg.b79bfe10081ce50b1993be6e22701bc8.jpg1469908822_ROOF2.jpg.ae5c20f0f5e7e0b279e241269d3452f5.jpg1924457280_ROOF3.jpg.f95f3f44e1ac1aacb2ad5e9f4658e5b2.jpg

TEST ROOF.stl

Edited by amandalee
Added STL file.....
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That video course is brilliant, thanks for sharing it. It helps to understand what to do and how to do it. Having dithered I'm tempted to try and have a go. Your buildings are great. Daft questions do they get printed in one go or are they in sections and does it work out relatively economically or is it as expensive as going to say shapeways?

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Thanks @amandalee, I'll have a look at it after work. :)

 

Hi @Blandford1969, if the buildings are smaller than the size of the print area of the printer, then I would print the walls in one piece. It depends on what you mean by economical! The printers can be expensive, but it depends on what you are looking for. Smaller printers are cheaper than larger ones. The Photon, which I think @MikeTrice started with is currently $229US, and the larger Mono X, which we're both using, is $699US - I'm afraid I can't see UK prices here in Canada. I'm afraid I've no idea of prices of the type of printers amandalee uses.

Taking out the price of the printer, the cost of resin, electricity, rubber gloves etc per print  is considerably less than Shapeways. That waiting room amandalee did cost me about a $1.60Can to print, so about a pound. And of course, you're not paying for Shapeway's shipping rates. Finally, it still astounds me when I see a model rising (very) slowly out of the murky resin bath. Lots have been said about 3D printing in different parts of the forum and out there on YouTube, but if you've a mind for it, are happy tinkering and tweaking settings, and aren't put off by failures (and there will be! Sometimes because you did something stupid, or didn't do something you should have, or 'just because'), then it's a really interesting and rewarding thing to have a go at.

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  • RMweb Gold

1959131814_signalbox.jpg.0149b5cacd42d22db0678594c0d16f8b.jpg

 

45E177E3-D00A-46E5-B923-E78F9EFECF5D.jpeg.7a92734423b4267c23b13b457420b5cc.jpeg


Hi all

 

Work's got in the way, but I've finished and the signal box, and printed the main part of the building so far. This time, I printed it vertically, i.e. upside down, but with the supports underneath it. You'll see that a corner of the box curled up slightly, so I might do it straight on the plate like last time - either that or strengthen the supports in the corners. The downside there is I have to chip away at the support bases to get in, but I think that might be the better option, so I’m going to print it again and cut out the bottom with a Dremel. The photo above was taken after the clean, after I broke off the finial and before the tidy up.

 

I'm going to print the stairs separately so that I can properly paint the wall the stairs (almost) butt up to.

 

I've a quick question, does anyone have an idea how I can support the stairs if I print on on my resin printer? It looks like it's going to be interesting.

 

Anyway, here are the files - 4mm scale as last time.

cheers

 

Jason

 

Edited by JCL
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