pixelplucker

Not for nothing but modeling bolts and threaded objects is difficult on an additive process unless the threads are really really really course. The resolution to have a working thread on a 3d print requires less than 50 micron and even at 25 micron you will have fitting issues with any thread finer than 20 tpi. I'm not sure but most fdm printers only handle 100-200 micron right? Typically all that can be done post process. I would suggest make your model and toss in maybe a location point. Drill your holes on the print and run a tap through the part. You will have far superior working threads that way rather than trying to print it. Even subtractive cnc systems it is usually easier to post process the part than try to run a slew of g-code, tool changes etc unless your doing some sort of production run. As advanced as all this technology is, sometimes old school still works faster, cheaper and better. Get your base part done and work from that. Just my 2 cents.

As Robcat suggested exporting the shapes out and doing the booleans in another program would do the trick. Blender should be able to handle that on the free side or Wings 3d. If your looking for a cad program that doesn't break the bank then check out MOI3d. I have used MOI for quite a while and it is a rock solid program that I never had it crash. There are limits to MOI so an alternative program that is a hybrid that is good is FormZ pro but that does take some learning. FormZ does have a free version but I don't know what tools are missing. It may be enough do to what you want. Both FormZ and MOI do work pretty well with AM as far as props go. I think MOI has better control on triangulation on export than many programs out there including Solidworks, and many of the really high end programs.

For added geometry you can just use separate objects but intersect them a little bit. You will have to model subtracted shapes from the object. What kind of objects are you making?

Not sure if i can explain any clearer but I'll try. If you have 2 closed objects that intersect and are exported as an stl, those objects where they intersect are treaded as empty spaces. If the surfaces are touching then you will have co-planer faces that can cause other issues. To get around that and keep a water tight object you need to either create a single clean mesh using booleans OR make the meshes intersect and use a format that supports multiple meshes within the same file such as obj. Sorry I meant MeshMixer not Meshlab. My mistake. As far as fdm prepping I am not that familiar with that since most my printing has been for sla printing. Fuchur has far more experience with fdm. For modeling It is possible to make mechanical models in AM but there are limitations and really depends on the precision you need and what type of objects you are trying to make.

If your object is made of multiple meshes you are better off with an obj rather than an stl. Stl files will make all the objects as one name which will create voides (negative spaces) where they intersect. An obj file will support multiple meshes which will allow most slicing software to add them with the other meshes. You may in some cases need to post process the models from AM if they have holes such as lathe objects do unless you do 4 or 5 points which you can stitch or use a 5 point patch. I have used meshlab also from autdoesk to do minor repairs. Seems like Autodesk is gobbling up all the companies out there

I was thinking of using AO for this, not sure how extreme I can make it. Too bad we still can't apply decals to props but for now I have a product sheet for my customer that shows the 2d art for layout, the 3d models I been banging out from FZ and as you can see they are Boolean city and need to be water tight for 3d printing. 3dCoat seems to get funky with the faces and loses some which shows in the renders. Just working the quickest way to get a virtual to the customers without breaking the bank and over engineering this stuff. They love to make changes

I have been doing quite a bit of pewter castings and they are antiqued. Curious if I can apply a decal to a prop in 19? Also need to create a texture that can fill in the dents and recesses but keep the tops shiney (pbr) but I don't want to have to use a 3rd party program like 3d Coat to do this. Can this be done in AM? Is there a stock shader floating around that can be close enough? Sorry for the edit, found a better image of base product so you can see how they look.

I can't see or download the mov

I might have to bite the bullet and update my win7 machine to 10. I noticed some of the errors especially in corel are permission errors with failed saved preferences. Even though I am running pro with full admin rights I think some of that has changed in 8-10 and those inconsistancies are showing up on the older OS. In any case I'm still using my old cd version of AM here and found it too isn't as stable on Win7.

Running Win 10 or 7? My laptop runs pretty solid with Win 10 but the desktop is dodgy. I'm inclined to believe the newer software isn't as stable on older Windows.

Nice machine. How is the stability on it? I find my AMD 8350 to be just ok, tends to get wonky with some programs like Corel Draw and FormZ where they tend to crash somewhat easily. Guess that might be average for a desktop chip and non ecc mem.

Wondering if Jason is on the road? Usually doesn't take that long to get a response back.

Contact Jason again and they should be able to resolve that for you.

You many need to use some nulls and rig it backwards. Long long time ago I had a character riding a bike and the chain would move with the cranks etc. Was tricky as hell but I had 2 ik chains operating off a null on the cranks with nulls on pedals. I would rotate the cranks, pedals would stay oriented to the world, feet followed that and made the legs bend and hips move. Upper body attached to handle bars with nulls on handles. Crank turning also moved the chain to the rear wheel and front wheel would roll like the rear. Not sure how helpful that is in AM world.

Interesting take on Walmart though they aren't the cheapest and more often are actually more money on common small items and most other places. The damage big chains like Walmart, Target and others is they raise the demographic traffic values and have the purchasing power to out right buy property and negotiate tax breaks. This sounds good until you see a small Ma n' Pa shop whos rent and taxes go through the roof which ultimately makes the small independent shops go out of business.

Nice!

That imported pretty good, was there a bazillion patches? Check out Make Human, its free. Daz is an evil company

Xeons are better at heavy calculations and much faster for floating point calculations. Not sure if AMD can compete in that area because Intel can just drop their prices. Intel is also coming out with an i9 series. For pre-built desktops, the Dell XPS are pretty nice and can be upgraded. The warranty and support is nice too. The offshore the help that will look on Dell's website and read back the info you are looking for via live chat or phone! This can save hours of using hyperlinks and clicking with the left mouse button. Kidding asside, they do make a descent desktop. Not crazy about their workstations which tend to use retail price on chips and have poor video card choices. By the time you customize one to suit your needs you can have a better machine by building yourself. If your doing general graphics and using AM then a good desktop is all you need. 16gb+ mem, half descent card and a descent cpu like an FX, i5 or better.

PC parts picker doesn't allow adding 2 cpu's?

Thanks Fuchur for clarification on the ryzen. As far as desktops go I am pleased with AMD's performance for the most part and have always been a fan of the underdog. Previously AMD had been a hit or miss with chips they produced and you had to shop carefully to get the most for your money. I wish they came up with a chip that competed with the Xeons. Intel seems to still dominate the workstation and server market. My old Xeon workstation is still running and only reason I disbanded and turned it into a Sun server is because it has a proprietary power supply and the PCIE is outdated and does not support the newer cards very well. The extra power draw causes a chassis fault light to come on and the slower bus speed really diminishes the worthiness of a new cad card. That machine had been running pretty much non stop going on 9 years. That workstation has the Intel Skulltrail board that Mac had used a custom version on their older Mac Pro workstations. Really solid machines. Ill check the pc parts picker site out, usually buy parts from Newegg (I hate Amazon).

Do you know if the Ryzen chip has all calls on each core like an i5 and i7 or is it still the same as the fx series where some functions are bridged between 2 cores? My 8350 unlocked 4.0 4.2 turbos is blazingly fast on many things such as ordinary graphics apps and games but raw number crunching it seems to fall short as compared to a xeon of the same speed with half the cores. From what I remember when I still had AM on my machine the render benchmarks where nearly identica between my 8350 and an 8 year old dual chip xeon 4 cores (8 cores total) running at 2.66 ea. I think on a modern 4-6 core xeon system AM would really shine. Curious how the ryzen could compare. FYI most Xeon motherboards do have dual sockets. Keeping that in mind you could consider dual 4 cores on them with the higher clock speed which woud actually be cheaper than a single 8 or 12 core chip and give you the clock speed as well as the extra cores for multi applications. The massive multi core chips, 12core +, will have lower clock speed due to heat. As far as desktops if you were to get an i7 extreme (8 core) the extra cost of those machines make Xeons a better option for nearly the same money with the added bedefit of ecc memory which gives you incredible stability. Any thing less than am i7 extreme then AMD is a solid choice. Bang for the buck I can't complain having my desktop in a thermaltake box casae (motherboard on its back) AMD 4.0 8 core, 32gb of memory adn rx 480 8gb all for under $900.

Fantastic modeling by Rob. That would normally be a tough model to sand case because of the detail and height of the relieve. Really made the project a breeze.

Don't most if not all the Intel Mac books use Intel video and not discreet? On Intel's site is should show the specs.

You may want a Macbook Pro for running AM. The others seem to be way underpowered. The Pro's have Intel 540 graphics and higher as well as a descent i5-i7 cpu's (i5 will run AM fine). I have a little Dell Inspiron 13 2:1 with i5 and 520 graphics and it is able to run FormZ Pro very well and FZ can be a dog on big files. The Macbook Pro seems to be a much beefier machine than my Dell. I need to subscribe again, debating on a permanent license or the usual sub. Can't run my old version 17 that used the CD since none of my machines have a built in cd drive.

I had that same problem a long time ago, Robert is right, its just a group order thing. I did notice the last render you can see the characters hand in the reflection of the binoculars, wondering if its because there is some flipped normal on the binoculars?