3D printing C3D surface with buildings

[AJDurkin]

Hello, all

I am trying to print a mockup of a neighborhood we are building. I have built the surface as well as some buildings in Revit. I will also add buildings from the tool palette. How do I add them so that they will print upon the surface? What do I need to do to the surface to make it printable? Should I add the buildings and then send it all to Revit or another program or file type? 

Thanks for any advice!

[dgorsman]

Interesting idea.  Depending on how big the area is, the number of buildings, how many are duplicates, etc. you might be better off printing the buildings separately and attaching them onto the ground afterwards.  You will almost certainly need to do some pre-processing for both grade and buildings for them to print efficiently.  For exactly *what* those steps will be, you'll have to look elsewhere for people actively involved with 3D printing (I'd recommend the Fusion 360 board).

[AllenJessup]

I only use Civil 3D. So what I'd to is insert the building Block and explode it until it's just lines. Then I'd add the lines to the Surface. If the walls are vertical you may have to edit them so you don't have 2 Z's for an X,Y.

Allen

[jmayo-EE]

If you select the surface and look at the contextual surface ribbon the is a command to bring blocks to the surface elevation in one shot. It is hidden in the Surface Tools panel dropdown.

[AJDurkin]

Thanks for the responses so far.

Adding the blocks as lines creates some undesireable triangles. I'll have to experiment with just adding them as objects and printing to see if they show up. They don't show up in the tin when they are added this way.

My main concern at this point, though, is just turning the surface into a printable object.

By the way, you all have answered dozens of questions for me already, as I always find some problem to google and wind up here in the archives. Thanks for everything.