3D printing brick walls.

[chessie system fan]

I was about to post the same think, Pete. Yeah, come to think of it, that seems to be a pattern when I take a downloaded stl and click "convert mesh."  I guess imported stl's are imported at an enlarged size?

[chessie system fan]

Aha! I just did what I should have done a long time ago.  I created a 1mm cube, exported it as an stl, started a new file and imported the cube, and then converted the stl to a solid. 

The cube was 10mm.



Gareth, I like the size of those bricks.  Can you share its dimensions?

[Chris333]

On my garage building the mortar is .010" wide and .005" deep. Bricks are .0172x.0541". Again just what I used, maybe not ideal or pushing the limits.


Every once in a while I get an e-mail from some one who downloaded from Thingieverse and the parts are way too big. Even though they are the same files I use and should be to scale.

[dem34]

On my garage building the mortar is .010" wide and .005" deep. Bricks are .0172x.0541". Again just what I used, maybe not ideal or pushing the limits.


Every once in a while I get an e-mail from some one who downloaded from Thingieverse and the parts are way too big. Even though they are the same files I use and should be to scale.

Thanks for before.
But thats weird, when I printed the garage it was normal. Though some slicers can get a little freaked out by certain dimensions if they think a measurement is supposed to be Metric or vice versa Imperial. I had that with a transmission line tower, where one part the Prusa Slicer would ask if I wanted to fix a part, and when completed it would be scaled to the build plate.

[Chris333]

I draw in English    but when I export a STL file I save it in metric. So I'd guess the Thingieverse files are in metric.

Funny thing. All the 3D stuff I make, all I can do with a STL file is print it. I cannot change it at all. In fact Sketchup needs a plugin just to be able to save as a STL.


Side note: I've been using imperial for so long at my last job that it is easy for me. Nothing wrong with metric, but I just couldn't visualize what the size was. But now at my new job on occasion drawings are in metric and I need do layout with a tape measure. So as of the last 6 month I absolutely hate metric.

[peteski]

Side note: I've been using imperial for so long at my last job that it is easy for me. Nothing wrong with metric, but I just couldn't visualize what the size was. But now at my new job on occasion drawings are in metric and I need do layout with a tape measure. So as of the last 6 month I absolutely hate metric.

Funny, I grew up with  metric, and got immersed in Imperial when I came to this country 40-some years ago.  Now I use Imperial  in decimal format (if that  is the correct description), but I can fairly easily visualize both metric and Imperial. That is why when chessie mentioned those metric N scale brick dimensions I instantly knew that something was horribly wrong.  But don't even talk to me about those silly Imperial fractions (like 23/32 or 15/64) !  Oy! 

[John]

I do all my design work in metric .. it's just easier for me to adjust dimension and conversions

[chessie system fan]

I use metric exclusively, too.  Fusion360 uses three decimal places (or maybe that's just its preset setting?), and 0.001 mm is a smaller unit than 0.001 inch. 


I've created three brick test walls which will go to the printer in a few minutes.

[samusi01]

Fusion360 uses three decimal places (or maybe that's just its preset setting?)

Preset - for reasons I've forgotton, I set mine to five decimal places. Click the account button top right, preferences, unit and value display, general precision.

[John]

I use metric exclusively, too.  Fusion360 uses three decimal places (or maybe that's just its preset setting?), and 0.001 mm is a smaller unit than 0.001 inch. 


I've created three brick test walls which will go to the printer in a few minutes.

Pictures or it didn't happen

[bbussey]

I 3D-printed my station platform stairway portals and eventually I will be printing two brick stations. The bricks are close to scale. I’d have to check the exact dimensions.

[timwatson]

Just seeing this thread I have done quite a few brick tests and I ended up getting the best effect from using blender and using photo textures that tile. Let me find some of the files.

Ok now these are stl previews but the effect is really nice brickwork.

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You can even do siding!
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I can't for the life of me find the video I watched. It was by a UK guy and he made it extremely simple to do, so I went nuts and found online 3d textures that were 8k and just made a ton of wall sections.

[chessie system fan]

Interesting!  If you ever do find that video, please share.

I've printed a few test sections of different sizes.  I just need to paint them and then I'll share the results.

[rodsup9000]

  Tim
Sending a PM to ya

[timwatson]

Well it appears he deleted his videos. It’s really too bad because he was willing to share knowledge and there’s nothing more noble than that.
I did find this tutorial that covers a very simple approach in blender.

This tutorial goes through the basics of what I did.