2018 Export to STL_DCE not available

[Anonymous]

I am trying to export my Maya project to a STL_DCE file. I see the option to export as a STL_ATF file, but not the DCE file that I need. I am trying to take this object into cura and get the file ready to be 3D printed. When I export as an OBJ file, my text layers do not look right, there are no hollow parts, and so it fills any circles in letters like D B or 8 and fills it with a solid material in Cura. Anyone know how to fix this or get Maya to export to STL_DCE?

Thanks

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

Usually the reason Cura will fill holes is because its creating a base to print off of. 

For example, if you were going to print a big letter D it needs to fill that hole with a thin layer of support while it finishes the rest of the model. While it may not look right in Cura or even when you print, once you cut out that thin layer it should look normal.

That said, when you get a chance can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it? If the file is confidential please feel free to send it to me in a private message!

Let me know if anything changes!

[Anonymous]

So I know what you are referring to of filling holes to build a base, however this is filling the holes with a complete solid structure. I have researched several things on this and everything is leading me to say that I need to export as a STL_DCE file, I read on another forum that this option was possible is past maya versions, but not in 2018. Is there a way for me to make that an option so I can export the file in that format? 

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

At the moment since 2018 does not have STL_DCE export I don't know of a way for you to export in that format.

That said, I know Maya 2015 has this functionality and if you would like you could zip and send me the file here or in a private message and I could export it into STL_DCE format for you then send ti back your way.

Let me know if you would like to do this or if you need any more assistance!

[Anonymous]

Perfect. Here is the file. I will be anxious to just see if this fixes the problem or not. Do you know if maya 218 will ever update this to their program? I have read a lot of other forums that other people are having similar problems with not being able to export in the STL_DCE format when wanting to create something that has text and 3D print it.

Thank you for all your help with this.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for attaching the file! I just want to make sure everything is correct cause it looks like the model is missing some geometry.

If this is how it's supposed to look I'll go ahead and try and convert it however if this is broken or missing geometry you can try exporting as an obj and attach that file here isntead!

[Anonymous]

Here is the OBJ File

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for attaching the OBJ!

It looks like there's still some issues. Your OBJ file contains faces shared by multiple groups so I believe its messing up the geometry on the 8 so it appears like this.

You may need to clean up that geometry and fill in the 8 properly before it can be printed.

That said, I did go ahead and convert it anyway so you can at least open it in Cura.

Let me know if anything changes!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Just wanted to add, this is how it looks in Cura as obj format. It still looks ok and ready to print so I believe if you fix the topology for the 8 you can even use OBJ format and should be okay to print.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

If your issue is resolved, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, still can't figure it out. Even If I just take the text tool and write the number 8 and do nothing to it, it will still fill it in and not print it properly. I am not sure what to do. I tried using a different 3D program and I got it to work, but I am hoping to figure out a way to get it to work for Maya so that I dont have to toggle back and forth between a different program. 

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

The face of the 8 in the OBJ file is simply wrong.

When using Type in Maya enable Deformable Type or use Triangulate after creating the Text.

[Anonymous]

This fixed it!! Thank you so much! It is now working. I am still learning Maya and pretty new to it, so I appreciate you taking the time and helping me through this all!

[klmgraphics]

Consider that 3D printing is so popular and become more popular every month and the fact that previous versions of Maya supported this I find it extremely poor judgment on Autodesk's part to not support this! I am just left shaking my head and asking what bonehead thought it was a good idea to take support for this file type out of Maya?

[Anonymous]

agreed!

in schools it is extremely difficult to keep past versions on any computer, please help us by updating from your end. Every year i have a hard time exporting my models out of Maya, it should get easier. I also read that now we have to have our models in NURBS...really?

Who actually models in NURBS anymore...?

Alexi

[sflipse]

can you please explain the actual solution? you never said "save as...such and such file, etc" ...and then print. I need to know what I use instead of STL_DCE since it's not available in my plug in manager to load and it's not in my 2018 version. 

i need to 3d print asap it's finals week and I can't find anything on how to get maya to print. And i can use tinkercad but it's limited. 

[sean.heasley]

Hi @sflipse 

What are you using for 3d printing software? Depending on the program multiple formats like even OBJ can work if you're in a program like Cura.

[charles.andersonSRKK9]

Hello Matthew, could you please explain what you did to fix this?   I just switched from using Maya 2016 in which I have been successfully exporting stl files for years on to 2018 where stl_dce is missing and stl_atf exports empty files.  

I cannot for the life of me figure out why Autodesk would remove something that works so well.  But here we are...

What did you do to fix this?  Please explain!!

I need a reliable way to export stl files from Maya into Simplify3D for printing.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hello, I’m trying to 3D print a car body I made using maya. When using the stl export to the 3d printing software, I am not able to see anything and the file is only 84kbites. The car was made using polygons, so after doing some research I found that I should only use NURBS to 3d. So I tried using a simple sphere to see if it appeared in the 3d software and it did. So now my situation is just to try to convert my existing model to NURBS? Or any other suggestions?  I can also attach the car file ignora you would like to take a look at it. 

thank you in advance