Achieving a realistic render of a 3D print in steel

[Barks]

Hi all. I've been working with 3D as a hobby for about 13 years and 3D printing for about 5. I'm stuck on something and I was hoping the community might be able to shed some light for me.

 

I design tie bars that I post to my shop of Shapeways (a 3D printing service) and I would like to have an accurate (or as accurate as possible) representation of my models without having to purchase and photograph each and every one. For the models that are printed at a high fidelity (e.g. accuracy of 0.1 mm) the model renders are a very close approximation. However, for those that are printed at a lower fidelity (e.g. accuracy of 1 to 3 mm) the models are never going to come out looking like they do in the render. The detail is far too precise.

 

If you look at one of my tie bars, you'll see what I mean. This ceramic cup exemplifies it even more.

What I would like to do would be to render them at a lower accuracy (I know that makes little sense). I've been racking my brain as to how to accomplish it but I haven't been able to come up with anything satisfactory. A simple smoothing operation won't work, especially for more complex models. I've tried loading them into Z-Brush and softening them manually which sort of works but isn't really an ideal solution.

 

Anywho, I work in Maya and Maxwell Render. If anyone knows any way I could accomplish this, I would really appreciate a push in the right direction.

 

Thanks in advance

[Noise]

If I understand you correctly, you would be better using photogrammetry to scan the items to get them into a 3D program.

[notamondayfan]

It sound to me like you need the 3D mesh the 3D printing software produces when printing the 3D objects. When I used Makerware, you can preview the print, and it shows the 3D model in layers how it would be built. Perhaps there's some software you can load your STL into, and it gives the sliced model back?

Might even be worth contacting Shapeways and asking them.

 

Dean

[Stephen Thomas]

Maybe Project Miller by Autodesk could accomplish this? Take a look.

 

Sent from my K00C using Tapatalk

[Barks]

Hi all,

 

Thank you very much for the suggestions. In the end, I ended up loading up my mesh into ZBrush and using the DynaMeshing feature to soften the mesh and it worked beautifully!

[notamondayfan]

You'll have to post some pics when you've finished, it would be interesting to see your results.

 

Dean