3D printing brick walls.

[peteski]

I tried to post a picture but Railwire won’t let me.  Maybe I am too new or haven’t posted enough yet.

Exactly - you need post count of 25 to start posting pictures. See https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=43673.0

[Mdrzycimski]

Thanks. I’ll get a little more active then.

[John]

Pm me the pic and I will post it for you

[Sokramiketes]

The first method I tried was start with the backing first.  Then I drew a handful of bricks which I mirrored until I had a tallish strip.  I then Mirrored the strip to add the length.  This caused Fusion360 to freeze up after every mirroring.

 My second method was to again start with the backing, but this time every brick was a separate body.  This was slightly more successful, but even then the test pieces were as large as it would go.

What I actually need is enough brick wall to make two foot long warehouses sort of like these two.

You really did get bit by the Chicago passenger bug didn't you!  Welcome to the club of terminally ill. 

[garethashenden]

Its just occurred to me that laser cutting is going to be less computationally demanding than 3d printing. All that's needed is a 2d drawing of the surface, with a single line for the mortar joint. The width of the laser beam determines the size of the mortar gap. This will eliminate all the problems with computing all the individual mortar gaps, or bricks, that Fusion360 is struggling with. I think I'll try this out and report back. My boss has a laser that I can use.

[chessie system fan]

You really did get bit by the Chicago passenger bug didn't you!  Welcome to the club of terminally ill.

Recent Kato name train acquisitions helped!  My plan is to build a long, quat quasi shadow box to display some models instead of just keeping them in boxes.

I think I'll try this out and report back. My boss has a laser that I can use.

Please do!

[chessie system fan]

FWIW, this guy was able to print stone walls somehow. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115441894209

Anyone have $431? 

[dem34]

You can get some pretty good brick detail in an FDM print as long as the brick dimensions are divisible by the Nozzle diameter.
eh.. hold on I'll post in weekend updates since I forgot to do so here.

[Sokramiketes]

FWIW, this guy was able to print stone walls somehow. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115441894209

Anyone have $431? 

Well, he printed a block wall for a brick station... maybe that was the smallest brick he could render?

[timwatson]

I know this thread is getting a bit old but I did make some progress on this in Blender and the files are now manageable. I created a PoC model just to see. I will print it out in the morning. After I print a few I will release them on Printables.
I've always wanted a Trains of Texas style brick pattern and I think I have something pretty close now.

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[chessie system fan]

That looks great, Tim!  So how large of a brick wall can Blender create without crashing?

[timwatson]

That looks great, Tim!  So how large of a brick wall can Blender create without crashing?

That’s a really great question actually. It can create a very very large wall in 3d. My initial files were 500+ mb but decimating them and getting them scaled properly they are down to 14mb. I will check on the physical dimensions. But you can make some robust and detailed models in blender. I means it’s used for 3d animated movie making so I think the only limit is hardware.

[timwatson]

Printed and primed in red.

The current 3d files are 77x154.5mm

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[One of One-Sixty]

That looks great, Tim!  So how large of a brick wall can Blender create without crashing?

I just started working with Blender and am also using the Buildify Add-on, it's pretty dope.

I'm just getting my feet wet and research all the programs I could find.

Ibwas orginally going to go with TinkerCAD cause of Jimmy from DIY & Digital on YouTube. But I don't have the time to make the models and bricks the way he does.

So far with Blender with Buildify I can design a building fairly quickly. I just now have to scale them correctly.

[timwatson]

Please post about your process with some screenshots. That’s help us all.