topic Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing in InfraWorks Forum

Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:43:48 GMT

I have several workflows for making a non-colored stl file for a given IW model.

I am not talking buildings and 3d bridges/city furniture, just the surface.

I am having a hard time getting to a textured model with a surface that is "watertight".

The 3d printer software I am dealing with takes .obj format, but I imagine any 3d program that can create skirts and bottom plate for a give surface will work.

The suggested 3ds max workflow is to bring in the IW model from fbx, then convert meshes to editable poly's, then select border, extrude down, change z to constant, and cap. I explained that and my issue in following post:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-modeling/combine-editable-polys-from-terrain-fbx-import/td-p/6843807

My issue had to do with how IW tiles things so you get many meshes, and I want to combine to get one so the outside border can be selected.

I got no replies.

I imagine I need to search a bit to find the right 3ds max person to help. I have found several articles/posts on pulling IW models into various viewers, and have done that for unity and other platforms. Those do not involve the creation of sides and bottom for 3d printing or other purposes.

Can someone point me to the right person on this?

I also need to figure out some other workflows like pulling in 3d faces for terrain from acad fbx, then draping an image on them.
Its all about how to manipulate 3ds max things, and I bet my issues are minor to someone familiar with the world of max.

I can pay for the help too, just have not found that person.

thx

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

John_de_Leeuw-NTI — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:51:57 GMT

@JamesMaeding, I'm also sure this can be done in 3DS Max but I would have to look up the exact workflow myself also.

If you know your way around Civil 3D, there is another very simple way to accomplish this. You can open your Terrain from InfraWorks 360 directly in Civil 3D (or use the IMX Export) and then just really simple create a 3D Solid from your Surface down to a certain horizontal height below. That will give you a nice 3D object to use I think for 3D prints.

Let me know if this helps?

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:23:57 GMT

Thanks John.

I think that extract solids tool does not preserve the draped image texture from IW.

Also, the c3d tools to get to solids is they choke on large triangle counts, say 500k and up.

Good reminder though, many people forget about that tool.

I told autodesk a long time ago to make a tool to figure the side and bottom triangles in memory, and write out to stl file, skipping the solid creation.

They did not, so I did it a year ago in C# and can make stl for any size surface this way. But stl is not textured.

I can also make 3d faces for the skirts and bottom as 3d faces with my tools.

So I am really close to texturing things in acad, without civil3d, and exporting to fbx for max that way.

Glad we both are interested, fun times!

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

tcorey — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:33:51 GMT

What does the draped image texture do for you? Does your 3D printer print in such color detail that it can replicate aerial photo images on the 3D surface? If so, that's extremely cool.

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:58:38 GMT

It do. Google "Mcor prints".

The slicer software takes .obj as one format....others too

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:29:36 GMT

Hi @JamesMaeding,

hi @tcorey,

hi @John_de_Leeuw-NTI,

this topic is super interesting! How did you manage to export 3D with a custom tool?

Which results do you get after it?

I would love to learn more and more on this.

At your disposal

Was this answer helpful? If so, please click the ACCEPT AS SOLUTION or the KUDO button

Nicola Ianeselli
BIM Manager

Twitter | LinkedIn

Infraworks Ambassador

Want to present in Infraworks? Vote this up!

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

John_de_Leeuw-NTI — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:59:18 GMT

@Anonymous, 3D printing from InfraWorks 360 models sure is interesting! And it's not even that difficult to do with just the standard tools.

Check this video I produced a year ago:

*Courtesy of CyberCity3D model of Amsterdam

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 18:24:56 GMT

Oh, if you mean FDM style printing (makerbot, prusa, reprap offshoots) that take stl, yes that is relatively easy.

I wrote a command that directly produces the .stl file from a civil3d surface to skip the "make solid" step which is the weak link in the process.

Stl files are exceedingly simple to make, if you have a bunch of (watertight) triangles from somewhere.

There is some thinking in making the skirts, as you must detect the outer boundary of a surface, but again that is easy to get many ways.

I'm not sure if I saw the video right, but looks like you went IW->fbx->momento->stl

That might get around the need to make solids in acad and use stlout which is what most people do.

But all that falls apart when you want to do a color print. That requires tools which output something other than stl, that you slicer software can read.

Mcor printers are high end, so the slicer software takes several formats. Momento might even work with it.

BTW, the "hotend" temp on that makerbot must be off a lot, as normally it will output really clean edges even for things like towers.

I make my own 3d printers and the print quality is super high, even with cheapest parts off ebay. If you just make a solid frame that is square, and don't use crazy settings in the firmware, it just works. I use PLA though, high temp plastic like ABS is another story, not good at that yet.

The thing that bugs me is there is slight "squeeze" of the plastic layed down at edges, such that holes of a precise diameter routinely end up 1/2 mm to small.

So you have to account for that when modeling, to avoid drilling or sanding those holes when they matter. Here is the typical fdm printer I make for about $350:

print of Mt Whitney I did a while ago:

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 18:46:10 GMT

So here is what I have found so far.

The fbx from IW will have multiple editable meshes, with textures.

I do not know how to extrude just the outer boundary without individually selecting the edge pieces which is ridiculously slow.

I am also not sure if the Mcor slicing software wants a true 3d solid in the .obj file from max, or if watertight editable meshes are good enough.

I will try the meshes.

So to get the skirts/bottom triangles, I do that with my tools in autocad which produce 3d face entities.

Those come in nicely to max as editable mesh by importing the drawing, not fbx.

Now, any c3d user could easily make those skirts and bottom by adding a breakline (flat rectangle polyline) to the surface, barely outside of the boundary.

Then the bottom would just be the same tris as the top, but run flatten on them to get flat and then move to right elevation.

So the end result is:

1) textured editable meshes for top surface from fbx import of file from IW

2) side/bottom editable mesh, with no texture, from dwg import of file from civil3d/acad

That might do it, I will see

However, I really want to apply the texture to surface myself in max. I think its just making a material with diffuse set to an image, then using a uv map modifier to slide it around to position. I don't know if that leaves you with a "projected" image, or a "wrapped" image though. Looking into that.

Re: Workflow to get IW model to 3d solid for 3d printing

JamesMaeding — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 19:47:01 GMT

pic of result using fbx for top, and dwg for side/bottom tris.

I'm feeling pretty good about this about right now 🙂