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VisPro128

@VisPro128

Easy Preparation of STL Files for 3D Printing

A guide on how to (relatively easily) prepare Star Citizen ship models extracted from game data for 3d printing. Especially useful if you've been having problem with model wall thickness. Repost from Reddit

8 months ago

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Small ship models produced using the method in the guide, without any other messing around in Blender apart from to add landing gear and remove really small details
Import the file
File imported
Open the modifiers tab
Add "solidify" modifier
Play around with wall thickness. Wall with modifier off
Wall with modifier on
Add "remesh" modifier, to reduce detail and make the file easier to work with
Swap modifier order
Export as STL
Sliced mesh with 0.1m thickness and no remesh
Sliced mesh with 0.4m voxel size and 0.6m wall thickness
Max scale (walls are incredibly thin if you inspect the layers)
Half scale, holes in the model
Remeshed model at half-scale with 0.5m voxel size, 1m wall thickness
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The Problem

You've got a 3D printer and a dream, a dream to print your favourite DRAKE ship. You've found a sweet STL file but when you put it in your slicer software, the model is missing a bunch of geometry and doesn't the slightest bit resemble your heart's desire from the people's manufacturer.

The Solution

You should fire up some 3D modelling software and remesh the entire thing by hand! What, no time for that? Lucky for you Blender, a free and open-source 3D modeller has some useful features that can help you achieve your dream before 3.23.3 3.24 releases, specifically the "remesh" and "solidify" modifiers.

The Steps

I documented the process on Reddit a few weeks, someone suggested I post it here. To avoid me having to write the whole thing out again, here's the link to the post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1dla13x/easy_preparation_of_stl_files_for_3d_printing/

TL;DR: Easily fix holes in Star Citizen ship STL files by using the "remesh" and "solidify" modifiers in Blender

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