Is there an easy way to slice a model for 3D printing?

jbaflyer · 31 Mar 2012, 21:31

Anybody know of an easy way to take a complex model, with multiple components, and slice it into the desired number of pieces for printing in 3D? I am aware of the slicer ruby plugin, but it does not accomplish what I need. The ideal would be to say slice a complex model into 2 parts (or more of my choosing of quantity and on which coordinate) and then slice and separate the model, and close the slices to reform a new solid. Thanks, Brian

TIG · 1 Apr 2012, 09:33

Why won't 'Slicer5' do what you want ?
Group the components and it'll slice them.
It's very flexible, making the slice_thickness=spacing leaves no 'gaps' etc...
I don't fully understand what you've said...
Do you want to cut a piece out of a model and close up the gap and 'heal' it ?
With complex forms it will be weird... You could do it with Slicer...
Erase a mid-slice and move the others up so they touch, and close the gap.
Then edit the now touching pieces so that they have aligned vertices again [where possible].
Then you can explode the slice-instances into a single new group.
It won't be 'solid' because of the slice-inner-faces etc.
You could edit each instance [before the explode] and erase these inner faces.
The final group could be made solid using SolidSolver...

Hieru · 1 Apr 2012, 10:25

I wonder if he's talking about the slices that 3D printers put down in order to produce a model? In which case there's no need to slice up the model at all as something like CADspan should do the trick.

jbaflyer · 2 Apr 2012, 06:01

I believe CADSpan does not work in .3ds which is what I need to export in. What I am trying to accomplish is to take a finished Sketchup model and slice it into 2,3 or 4 parts for printing. I have a Zcorp 450 printer and they have their own proprietary software, Zedit Pro, however it butchers the Sketchup model and does not work in .3ds I work in 3ds, because it preserves the Sketchup color. I tried slicer but got the error. I grouped all my components, however when I sliced see the error message that came up. I may be missing something here. I basically want to take what you see in the .jpg and break it into 4 equal parts.

My Zprinter build tray is 10"x10"x8" and breaking it into 4 parts will allow me to create a larger model. I need to print a 18"x18" model roughly, and in order to do this I need to break the model into pieces. The only work around I can think of is to literally plan on the final build size and create stopping planes/boundaries so I do not say run a wall "through" its limit, to allow me 3 or 4 pieces. It could get messy this way.

I did build the roof element as a separate part in case you are wondering when you see the pictures.

I appreciate your help. Brian

jbaflyer · 2 Apr 2012, 06:16

Here is an attachment of what I was thinking. You would basically have a floor with clear panes you would never go through, that way you could pull apart the model.

TIG · 2 Apr 2012, 10:41

Seems relatively easy to me.

You really need to go around manually dividing the model into say 4 pieces using the wall-lines around rooms as the dividers - a single straight 'chop' will probably produce a messy result where they'd be a cut across the middle of floors.

However, if you set up two section-planes, group everything and then use Zorro2 [on 4 copies of the model!] to chop each one twice at the two section-planes [reverse the section-plane[s] for some of these cuts!]... you'd then get the 4 simple 'quarters'...

Perhaps treat the roofs differently as separate 'prints' ?

jbaflyer · 3 Apr 2012, 05:14

Great idea to break it by rooms. I didn't think of that. FYI, as 3D printing is getting larger, it would be great to have a plug-in that allows you to bind the model as a complete unit, then chop it up however you want. Just a thought. Thanks for your help.