Today's random discussion is about the limitations of acquiring meshes from the interwebs, and expecting those same meshes to instantly be 'print ready' for the k8200 or other printers.
The thing is, for the standard Everyuser of in-home rapid 3D prototyping machines,
commonly known as 3D printers,
theres this unwritten implicit expectation that, anything that can be imagined or seen, can be quickly made at home on the in-home printer, and as a competitive option, to other combinatorial methods/approaches.
This is far from the case.
So, we have as an example only, the context of some Makerbot, and k8200 users who ask some hypotheticals. "what if hypothetically, I wanted to hypothetically make some geometry for my own private collection... what hypothetical margins and constraints are involved in that hypothetical (other considerations notwithstanding contemporaneously).
The hypothetical also wants a shapemakerways level of detail, and wants the object for sake of argument to be 70%infill or more solid - they want a solid, difficult to transport cube of plastic, because they can (cue Portal Theme).
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above: a borgish Escher cube by an awesome devart user 'Magmarama'
1.38million poly model.
the light blue lines are "non-manifold' zones,
the voids on all faces are potential 'haywire' zones.
This cube is within the maximum size constraint for the particular rig print area -
so, it could be 147mm^3,
or it could be the 1/5000 scale* of upto 687mm^3 (as another rig has a ~2m print area, at 0.1mm consistency, and 0.1d loss per 4mm rise (so, the final cube will be 7degree distorted, assuming no other error).
It took on my rig, 48mins to raw import,
a further 2.3hrs to mesh correct and slicer (raw)
the result?
it would take 490560.37hours of continuous printing, (thats 8 years straight, and change)
require 24m^2 of plastic (thats enough to make a gahzillion other objects)
and the printer app even warned the printer would have parts failure if the print were to go ahead.
The cost estimate?
the plastic alone for that would be ~$300USD, plus the electricity, the running time, the apparently replacement 3D printers the printing app cautioned,
and taking 8 years turn around time minimum (plus, after all that, assuming no haywire, it would still need to be lit and painted properly)...
This hypothetical thought experiment, and excellent question, makes clear that;
1) it is cheaper to buy the mass-produce rotary moulded kits etc, or the resin void molded kits. (800% cheaper)
2) it is quicker to buy the other option, (40000 times quicker turnaround time)
3) it is more cost effective to buy the other option or use combined other methods (you can buy cube shaped structure for ~30USD)
4) ultrahigh polycount models are difficult to print (good luck not melting your computer if you use a raw import of files 40 000 poly or higher to print)
5) many meshes available directly online are not insta-printable, and require simplifications and mesh repair or to be broken into more components (ie, not a solid object).
Thanks for reading,
and I'm keen to hear your waffles and experiences with trying to make 3D objects cost effectively and in home. How do you make different shapes?
Do you find printing curves on a k8200 or thermal extruder to be challenging? (how do you avoid unwanted steps and uneven curved surfaces?)
