3d printing best practices

milliethegreat

I'm looking into doing 3d prints of my characters props and scenes for my personal use. i'm trying to create a tabletop and/or shelf top mega scene in my bedroom. Its gonna be a scene that will be played with not simply decoration so i have a few questions. im a begginner but i learn quickly with this kinda thing. heres my questions. sorry if it's a lot:)

 

 what type of printer do i need?

what type of filiment do i need?

what file format is best? stl or obj?

what assets are 3d print capable?

am i able to 3d print posed characters?

is genesis 9 3d printable?

are clothes props and wearables onn charachters printable with the character as a single piece?

are geografts 3d print capable?

are geoshells 3d print capable?

is strand based hair 3d printable?

I think thats all...for now

3WC

Oh wow, you have no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes. I would recommend doing a web search on each of those questions.

Your choice of printer depends on your budget--resin printers give you great detail for figures, but resin can be toxic and hard to work with. Good results can be had with filament or FDM printers, anything new from Bambu Labs, Prusa, or other brands are a good option, though Bambu Labs tends to have a closed ecosystem and some are wary of not being able to use 3rd party software with them.

I have gotten good results with an enclosed Bambu Labs printer using a PLA Meta filament. You can print Daz characters, but you may have to tweak them a little. They need to be "water tight" models, so to speak, and have thickness so they can be printed as a real object.

Maybe start with the printer and then go from there.

Richard Haseltine

Moved to Art Studio, since it isn't directly about Daz Studio.

Hermit Crab

I've owned a Creality Ender 3 Pro filament printer for quite a few years now and it worked well from day one.  I have only made figure prints of 10 - 16 cm high with PLA filament and haven't tried making anything that would take tens of hours to print.

The model has been superceded with printers (not just from Creality) seemingly being ready for use out-of-the-box these days. Bed levelling and getting prints to stick to the bed until completion used to be issues for beginners. I believe that most, if not all, modern printers have automatic bed levelling.  

As I write this, I realize that I'm behind the times with latest features such as monitoring prints remotely and having a camera record the print.  Also, I think some models seem to be linked or 'logged in' in some ways to the manufacturers'  home sites.  Maybe I'm wrong there but I think the need for firmware updates and such is monitored by the makers.

So far, I've been talking about filament printers.  I have no experience of resin.  Resin prints are superior in terms of fine detail but but the printers need to be used with great care - especially in the home.  The chemicals used are a health hazard, the prints need to be washed in isopropyl alcohol and then cured in UV light.  (I've heard of water-soluble resins - something to check out)

Painting PLA prints doesn't give great results because of the visible banding of the print layers but resin prints can be painted in fine detail.

Filament printers are easy to use with PLA.  For tougher prints which could withstand sanding with abrasive paper ABS could be used.  (ABS is the material used in LEGO bricks.)  ABS needs higher nozzle temperatures and apparently the smell is not nice or safe in enclosed spaces - remember that most prints take hours to complete.  There are other filaments which I know nothing of but you could print squeezy toys with some filaments apparently.

Nothing will print without thickness.  Also If a model has distinct parts such as eyes or teeth they need to be fixed to the main model.  Clothes on a 3d figure need to have thickness.  Strands of hair are almost impossible.

My workflow goes through a number of steps:  I simplify the model in Hexagon by deleting eyelashes.and anything else that might be problematic.  I export the figure without hair as .OBJ.

I bring the object into 3d Coat and convert it to voxels.  This makes one item to print.  I sculpt my own hair, which gets better with practice.  Nomad sculpt or Blender are alternatives to 3d Coat.

No printer can print on thin air.  Support structures need to be placed on the model where needed.  A standing figure with outstreched arms needs structures printed all the way from the base to the arms.  The same applies to anything overhanging - sometimes a structure in the form of a thin rod needs to be place from the base of the chin to the upper chest.  Otherwise the printer will be printing the neck OK until the point of the chin which is hanging in space at that layer.  It is the same for hair, which is why I sculpt my own.

Slicing software helps with support structures and programs such as 3dCoat allow the model to be broken up with locating pins to match up the parts.