Hi Kellen,

So far, 3D printing technology prints on a larger scale than regular fabrics, so results are relatively clunky and heavy.

For printing fiber like Kevlar, the closest thing I know is a company printing using carbon fiber. Find them here: https://markforged.com/

There are a few ways that people have made a fabric-like mesh using 3D printing. The first uses a 'chain mail' approach, where the individual links are printed separately, but interlocking. Here are a few examples:

How to design Chainmail

Here's a model you can download on Thingiverse.

Folks into clothing and fashion are trying this idea out as well.

Another way to make a flexible model is like this guy using commercial SLS material.

See the rest of the videos on his channel for more ideas - he's pretty creative!

For a summary of the current state of 3D printing fabric, please see this comprehensive article: https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2016/01/27/making-wearable-3d-printed-clothes/

Better late than never Thanks for the reply.

Based on what I've learned, (my personal printer is a Solidoodle...they are not that great and subsequently went bankrupt ) here are my recommendations in order from high to low budget.

Ultimaker is very good, if not the best - and at $2499 the price matches its reputation.
Zortrax M200 is also excellent, at $2000 it better be.
Wanhao Duplicator I3 is the best value, with high reviews at only $399.

For more reviews, Make magazine's shootout and 3D Hubs trend reports are very helpful.

Hi, the easiest way is to make the contact area larger if possible. You may also use a higher percentage of infill - up to 90%.

Nice find Dave, gonna have to get one

This is usually a manual process, but a new tool you may try is MakePrintable.com

They have a SketchUp extension that will upload the model to their site where you can set parameters like scale, etc and it will correct wall thickness and non-manifold issues.

I haven't tried it on architectural models yet, but the demo looks promising.

This VR stuff is really taking off, eh? Tiltbrush runs on the HTC Vive, which just sold 15K units in 10 minutes!
http://www.wareable.com/vr/htc-vive-vr-headset-april-2016

Two things you can do:
1 - scale the model waaaay up, like 10000X, then perform the Outer Shell operation
2 - Export the models as STL, then upload to https://modelrepair.azurewebsites.net/ to have that free service merge them for you.

The Pro version is not likely to do any better than the free version for this operation.

Most of those appear to be official Sketchup videos, which can be seen here: http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos/80

They sure would, Oli!

If you can't find the exact model you need on the 3D Warehouse, here's how I'd do it:

1 - You have a mesh of lines for the dome - separate them into parallel sets of connected lines that you can use follow-me on so that you maintain a solid tube from one end to the other. After that, you'll have 20-50 sets of tubes that you can join together using Outer Shell. Only use 8 or so sides on your tube profiles or the polycount will get outta control.

2 - Use the same mesh of lines for your cladding. Connect them all to form your dome, then use JPP to push out to where you need it, rather than pushing inwards. You need some thickness on the cladding anyway.

Does that make sense? If you want to send me the basic dome mesh, I can show you what I mean.

Jim from Tiny Green Cabins is a real craftsman when it comes to designing and building tiny houses. In this project, his client was a firefighter who wanted her cabin to look "like the Easter bunny threw up on it".

First some photos of the finished home, and 3D prints below.

The interior is all clear finished.

My part of the project was to make a scale model to be 3D printed in color. All the tiny details made for an interesting challenge - the dentils and corbels needed to be large enough to be 3D printed and not break, but still maintain the sense of scale.

@kellenraid said:

I am trying to "attach" one face of one solid to a face on the other. Will the whole thing become a solid if I take both of the latter groups and make them a single group?

Like Pilou says, you'll want to use the "Outer Shell" function. Here's a video:

So neat, clever way to test it out too!

Great, please report back with your questions or results!

I have never actually used a printer with more than one nozzle, so I'm curious how It works for you.

Hi Catherine, welcome to the forum!

To print in multiple colors, the STL file must be split into multiple pieces - like separate groups or components in Sketchup. If the STL file is just a single shell, then the model can only be printed in one color.

Does that make sense? If you need more help, you may link or upload the file you want to print and we can help you from there.

Kellen, you can try rotating the spoon 90 degrees so it's laying on its edge, but shallow curves are always hard to print on an FFF (filament) printer.

You could also try using Meshmixer (it's free!) to generate the supports and see if that helps.

Kellen, it looks like the slicer for that printer is proprietary. However a quick Google search turned up this thread in another forum that may be of help to you: Using KISSlicer with CubeX

Edit: strangely, when clicking my link above says the thread has been deleted

Try clicking the 1st result from this Google search if my link above doesn't work... https://www.google.com/search?q=CubeX+Duo%26amp;ie=utf-8%26amp;oe=utf-8#q=CubeX+Duo+slicer

@dukejazz said:

How do they make a flat roof on a hollow Box?

Filament printers can "bridge" a certain distance. Here's a video that shows how it's done. Pretty sweet!

Welcome to the club!