airflamesred posted at 6:42PM Mon, 11 January 2016 - #4248613

I was reasonably impressed with Shapeways. The object arrived way before they said it would (pleased the wife anyway) very well packaged and good quality. Her other thought was that the hole in the middle could be of a lesser diameter but overall she was pleased.

On a technical note Lux, Am I right in thinking that they are not solid plastic - where permissable. So if they are a tubular type construction then there are 2 un connected meshes. So my question is (if I've got this right) is how does the software know which bit to print? Does it read the normals?

I'm glad you had a good experience with the purchase! That's part of the reason I chose to go with Shapeways. They are very attentive to their customers, and have some excellent customer service. Of course, the other thing is that they have the tech to print just about anything, in so many different materials. If you take a few photos of yours, send them to me and I'll use them in videos and other presentations, with credit back to you of course.

Shapeways uses a wide range of different technologies to create 3d prints, based on the materials and complexity of the objects. For example, in some cases, they use 3DP (Three Dimensional Printing) in a variety of powder options; from plaster to ceramics to glass and metal. The layers are built on a platform which lowers after each pass, as a wiper distributes the layers. In this case, the powder acts as it's own support, so this process does not need support structures or material, like SLA printing would. The results are very fragile, however, until carefully cleaned and cured. In the case of the object you purchased, there is no actual "wall thickness". The object is created as a solid, single manifold. I think the thickness is about 1mm. Some objects are created with an inner wall thickness, to save on material and cost. In other words, they are hollow inside and the walls are of a specific thickness. This is done by creating an additional "shell" around the object, or inside the object, in your 3d software. In Max, I'd create wall thickness by applying an additional shell thickness to a solid, manifold object. There are minimum wall thicknesses required for particular materials. For example, the flexible plastic you purchased needs at least a 0.8mm wall thickness to print successfully. Something like porcelain might require 3mm. So some models might not be made available in some materials, depending on if they can support the minimum wall thickness needed. Again, you don't need to use a wall thickness. If you chose not to, then the entire inside of a manifold object will be filled with material.

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