First shapeways project: ATSF hexagonal phone booth

[nscaleSPF2]

One thing I'm almost certain of is that they two I ordered were NOT oriented the same way when they were printed, so that I still think that trying to design to work around the orientation is pure luck at best.   On this design the layering really isn't objectionable at all.   On others I've seen it really is.  Until you can lock the orientation by choice no matter how obvious you make it it's a crapshoot.

  If you can make a pack on a sprue, is it more likely that they will try to print the sprue (and so the model) horizontal?

Um, randgust, John,

Here is another tip that I learned the hard way.

For a part like this, your best chance to get the parts oriented the way you want is to construct a model that has 8 of the parts in a 2x2x2 array.  Space the 8 parts so that they occupy a cube of space and are all oriented in the same direction.  This gives the Shapeways operator little incentive to rotate the model, which they do to pack more parts into the print space.  Hope you can visualize this, as it has worked for me.  There is no need to add a sprue; the Shapeways process does not require one.

Regards,
Jim

[Cajonpassfan]

Randy, very nice, and very Santa Fe!
Please let us know when the multi-packs become available; I need some!
Regards, Otto K.

[randgust]

After three miserable, frustrating attempts..... Shapeways finally 'approved' the 3-up version of the booth.   Should have it coming for review this week and if it's OK I'll open it up.

I have had all kinds of problems learning netfabb.  I get errors, and when I run repair, it makes it even worse.   It managed to 'fill in' the two windows with a surface 0.00 thick and Shapeways rejected it, also rejected it without running repair even though it was a copy of the first one that had successfully run.

Even though I can apparently make a beautiful-looking Sketchup drawing, that doesn't mean the mesh process is working right.   I had no success in installation of meshlab, and netfabb does some of the strangest things.

'Hopefully' this works.....

[wazzou]

Randy -

Check your PM's, I sent you a photo I found that had one of these booths in the background.

[3rdboxcar]

After three miserable, frustrating attempts..... Shapeways finally 'approved' the 3-up version of the booth.   Should have it coming for review this week and if it's OK I'll open it up.

I have had all kinds of problems learning netfabb.  I get errors, and when I run repair, it makes it even worse.   It managed to 'fill in' the two windows with a surface 0.00 thick and Shapeways rejected it, also rejected it without running repair even though it was a copy of the first one that had successfully run.

Even though I can apparently make a beautiful-looking Sketchup drawing, that doesn't mean the mesh process is working right.   I had no success in installation of meshlab, and netfabb does some of the strangest things.

'Hopefully' this works.....

Get ready for more frustration on rejected models that have already printed, I have had a truck sold and  printed 140 times, I copied it directly into another model and guess what it cannot be printed, pointed this out on several occasions and I could now write the reply myself.
The reason for rejection is that every time you upload a new file it is checked so once you have had a model printed and are happy with it do not make a new file, as once printed or sold it generally goes straight to printers without any further checking.
If you have been working on a single model and it gets printed you then sprue some together, upload the file it will get checked again and could get rejected! Sprues are another pain in the neck - all mine are now 1mm square and since I have started doing that they never get rejected, I have had one rejected for being 1mm x 0.985mm but on the flip side I have had sprues printed for 0.8mm x 0.8mm.!!!!!!

Putting a face on 0.00 thick will not work as you have found out, that is designated as a hole and holes are not allowed in a mesh.

I never allow netfab to fix my models [how does a machine know what I want], I look for the errors and go back to Sketchup and fix them myself. Once you have done that a couple of times then you get used to where thre errors are likely to occur and draw them out before you even check in netfabb.  If neftfabb shows that there is any error then it will get rejected.

[peteski]

While I am a SketchUp novice and never tried to have anything 3D printed, I have messed around with it.

One of the problems with SketchUp is that the surface faces on your 3D model might be reversed. The face which should be facing inside is facing outside.  You cant easily tell that from looking at the model on the screen.  The surfaces can easily be flipped. I downloaded a free plugin which clearly shows which way the surfaces are oriented.  See http://www.cadspan.com/tools

[randgust]

Well, with no particular explanation, the 3-pack test came out just fine, just as good as the 1-off.

So, if you want a multi-pack of 3, works for me, they are now up and available.  See either randgust.com or Shapeways.