3D Printing

[jpolding]

I need to find out how to do a 3D print from a Revit model. Has anyone done this or have suggestions?

[Mike Hardy-Brown]

Hi Jay,

Just print it from the 3D view.
Go to file, print, then select current view

[Shaun v Rooyen]

If you sending to your own printer I can't see why you just cant print.

If you send it to a print shop the easiest is just print it to PDF.

[jpolding]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I need to print to a 3D printer or stereo-lithography printer preferably .stl format. Or are you saying that it will print directly to a 3D printer from a 3D view?

[sbrown]

No it won't print directly, I don't know how you would do it. Revit will export to dwg, .sat, but not stl that I know of.

[bowlingbrad]

Saw these guys (http://www.zcorp.com/home.asp) at AU last year. Cool stuff from Revit and Sketchup.

[jpolding]

Has anyone tried exporting to an .sat from Revit then opening in a 3rd party and exporting to .stl?

[JakubG]

I've exported a simple part created in Revit to Inventor. It was opened without any problems. Components of a part were understood as "inventor's components".

[jpolding]

After preliminary tests the process is looking like this:

export Revit model to .sat file
import .sat file into Inventor/Solidworks etc.
export to .stl file
clean up faces etc.
print 3D!

A couple notes of caution, the model needs to be scaled down somewhere along the way before going to the printer. Be carefull with thin "walls" which may make the model collapse.

Now to get the textures and colours to export...

[mlgatzke]

The problem is that Revit's modeling engine exports as a surface model. 3D printers need solid models so the elements have thickness for the binder to work. There is someone (and I have to apologize for my lack of memory) who has a utility that creates an electronic "shrink wrap" around a surface DWG file and create an STL in a single step. Therefore, you can export your Revit model as a DWG, "shrink-wrap" it and send the STL to your 3D printer.

By the way, the guys that I work with who use the ZCorp unit prefer models created from DWG files. They say that the resulting model is much cleaner and doesn't have as many ridges or uneven surfaces.

I cannot think of the person's name that has this "STL Shrink-wrap" (my words) utility. However, the ZCorp guys at AU last year knew who I was talking about and, actually, a couple of the models they were showing had been created using this utility.

[Mr Spot]

We've had one of our projects done as 5 minute fly through in stl, looks amazing with goofy glasses. Didn't do it in house though, just supplied a 3D dwg.

[Scott D Davis]

The problem is that Revit's modeling engine exports as a surface model.
In RB 8.0, Revit can export a 3D model to ACIS solids in DWG format...we'll have to find out from Zcorp if this helps!

[jpolding]

whoever this mystery hero is, please contact me!

The shrink wrap in AutoCAD would be nice although you wouldn't be able to easily change colours, textures or fix messed up normals. But most places have AutoCAD so it may boil down to $$$.

Regarding the dwg as solids; AutoCAD gave me an error when I tried to export as .stl. I think it said it had to be only one solid.

[jpolding]

We've had one of our projects done as 5 minute fly through in stl, looks amazing with goofy glasses. Didn't do it in house though, just supplied a 3D dwg.
How did they do the fly through with an .stl?

[mlgatzke]

STL files can be used in VR projection techniques. Then, using 3D glasses, you can experience the walkthrough in semi-decent 3D.

[jpolding]

That sounds really cool. Do you have any information on how they do this (technical)? I haven't heard much about VR lately.

[mlgatzke]

You have to have a single or two video cards capable of projecting a "stereo" image (we use projectors). Then you have to have the headgear or glasses. You then wear the glasses and align the projectors. Once they're aligned, Voila - you have a 3D image (if you wear the glasses or headgear). WARNING! It ain't cheap. We had to get a grant for it.

[cwentworth]

You can do it no problem. Output the file as a DWG polymesh. ACIS makes the arcs crude. Then output it from Autocad in VRML format. Bring it into ZPrint and if the file is ok your done. If not bring it into a mesh editor and clean it up. The walls need to be thickened if the scale your using is to small obviously. The windows also need to be thickened if you don't want them open. If you need help let me know I'd be happy to help.


Chris
3DRP

[cwentworth]

I do models on 3D printers. Here are some examples. The newest printer has extremely high detail.

Chris
3DRP





I need to find out how to do a 3D print from a Revit model. Has anyone done this or have suggestions?

[tc3dcad60731]

After preliminary tests the process is looking like this:

export Revit model to .sat file
import .sat file into Inventor/Solidworks etc.
export to .stl file
clean up faces etc.
print 3D!

A couple notes of caution, the model needs to be scaled down somewhere along the way before going to the printer. Be carefull with thin "walls" which may make the model collapse.

Now to get the textures and colours to export...


Did not read all posts so it might have already been mentioned....... Check out Z corp and you can even call them and ask them. You can print textures becuase I saw it on their machine but you can print colors on a revit model that I am aware of but did see it on a topo print!!!!!!!!!!!

[truevis]

Check out Z corp and you can even call them and ask them...
I keep asking them and asking them -- but if they have the info about the best procedure, they are rather coy about sharing it.

It is possible to 3D print if you can get the Revit model to VRML but things need to be changed. You need everything printed thick enough so it doesn't break -- glass, doors, floors, etc.

Using Viz or MAX to make the VRML is a bit like cutting butter with a chainsaw.

[sbrown]

If the model is small in size, then 3drp's high quality printer is pretty amazing. We have been just exporting the model to acad NOT SOLIDS. then they print. Its very quick and costs little. The trick is to modify your wall, window and door thickness slightly prior to export.

[johan d]

Maybe these people can help

www.materialise.com

[mschroeder]

It's been a few years since I prototyped anything, but at the time we had to create "watertight" stl files. This was critical for Z-corp because their software automatically generated internal structure to reinforce the model as it is printed.

I'm not aware of a single Architecture program that does this well. Instead I had to turn to engineering applications. Pro Engineer does "Shrink Wrap". Geomagic has a tool to create watertight models as well - I think it also provides you with tools for thickening. - good luck.

[Kroke]

If the model is small in size, then 3drp's high quality printer is pretty amazing. We have been just exporting the model to acad NOT SOLIDS. then they print. Its very quick and costs little. The trick is to modify your wall, window and door thickness slightly prior to export.

Scott,

How does one go about the thickening of walls/windows and doors (railings too I have heard) in a painless manner?

Thanks in advance...

Is it all in Object Styles / Cut ?

[sbrown]

All my windows and doors all have thickness parameters for frame, mullion and glass, so I just change them in the family, it takes all of 10 minutes. then assuming you set your walls location line where you want them to stay(typ. I use ext. core) then you select your walls and thicken them(this is rare you have to because usually, my walls are thick enough allready due to finish, airspace, block, furring, etc. I think at 1/16 scale, any wall over 8-10" total thickness will be fine.

[Max Lloyd]

I do models on 3D printers. Here are some examples. The newest printer has extremely high detail.

Chris
3DRPHi Chris.

Looks great! Must be fun to 'print' off the models in 3d. I bet the clients love it. Why have you chosen to do it? Is it marketing, for design analysis, all of the above presumably!

So who can tell me about the cost of these models? I have no idea. Is is better to send out your files to a printer who have the facility? How much would it cost to get the models that you have shown built? Or is it better to lease/buy the machines in house?

We recently had a 1:100 scale model of a single building (a big 10,000sq.ft building though, plus site) built for us that cost something like £5000 ($8000ish). I am hoping this will be far cheaper!

Thanks for any input.

Max.

EDIT:

Ok, it seems like the cost of the printers are something like: (for the 3 different z corp printers)

310: £20,000
510: £40,000
810: £100,000

I am trying to send accross a stl or vrml file to a reseller here so they can give me a quote to print a 3d model. I'm having some trouble. Seems like everyone are going to dwg (not using solids). Then what? To vrml? How?

I'm looking to go through sketchup to vrml at the moment, but expect the dwg way is best. I just can't figure how to get a vrml out of acad.

On a separate note, is there any way to get a preview of your print? It would be good to get a preview of the vrml file.

Thanks.

[Revitator]

Hi Max,

NIST have a section on VRML, including links to several (free) VRML viewers: http://cic.nist.gov/vrml/

I've used the (free) ModelPress STL viewer before: http://www.modelpress.com/stl-viewer.htm

HTH

[Kroke]

All my windows and doors all have thickness parameters for frame, mullion and glass, so I just change them in the family, it takes all of 10 minutes. then assuming you set your walls location line where you want them to stay(typ. I use ext. core) then you select your walls and thicken them(this is rare you have to because usually, my walls are thick enough allready due to finish, airspace, block, furring, etc. I think at 1/16 scale, any wall over 8-10" total thickness will be fine.

Thanks for the tip Scott.

I understand how to set the thickness parameters for frame/mullion and glass, but I'm a little fuzzy on how to do that with a wall. Could you enlighten please?

THank you,

James

[cwentworth]

Materialise will not help until you export a vrml file. We have there Magics software and it is a good mesh editor. But you need to use the printer software to convert it to a PLY file to get it into the Magics software. There VRML import is very poor.

Chris
3DRP




Maybe these people can help

www.materialise.com

[cwentworth]

The export is easy. Just output DWG Polymesh and your RP house can go from there if they know there stuff! You could send me the file and i could prep it for you. We do that as a service as well as printing. The cost varies greatly. We are much faster and cheaper than conventional model makers. With a lot more detail as well! If cost is an issue we can always scale down the model to meet your price! Or you could print the building alone and use a conventional base. A lot of our customers do that. So price is very flexible to what you want. The big model in the picture attached was made from 2D Autocad drawings. We got the data on Monday drew the model in 3D and delivered the model by Friday. As well as making some changes to the design that the customer asked for on Wednesday after he saw a rendering we sent. I'll attach the data we received and a picture of the model.

Thanks,
Chris
3DRP



Hi Chris.

Looks great! Must be fun to 'print' off the models in 3d. I bet the clients love it. Why have you chosen to do it? Is it marketing, for design analysis, all of the above presumably!

So who can tell me about the cost of these models? I have no idea. Is is better to send out your files to a printer who have the facility? How much would it cost to get the models that you have shown built? Or is it better to lease/buy the machines in house?

We recently had a 1:100 scale model of a single building (a big 10,000sq.ft building though, plus site) built for us that cost something like £5000 ($8000ish). I am hoping this will be far cheaper!

Thanks for any input.

Max.

EDIT:

Ok, it seems like the cost of the printers are something like: (for the 3 different z corp printers)

310: £20,000
510: £40,000
810: £100,000

I am trying to send accross a stl or vrml file to a reseller here so they can give me a quote to print a 3d model. I'm having some trouble. Seems like everyone are going to dwg (not using solids). Then what? To vrml? How?

I'm looking to go through sketchup to vrml at the moment, but expect the dwg way is best. I just can't figure how to get a vrml out of acad.

On a separate note, is there any way to get a preview of your print? It would be good to get a preview of the vrml file.

Thanks.

[sbrown]

Thanks for the tip Scott.

I understand how to set the thickness parameters for frame/mullion and glass, but I'm a little fuzzy on how to do that with a wall. Could you enlighten please?

THank you,

James

James, I know you know how to change the thickness of a wall, you've been using revit as long as I have. Your probably thinking I have some trick. No trick, just select your wall, click properties, under structure change the thickness of the core or interior finish. Like I said, just make sure your exterior face of wall stays where you want it. I usually save a copy of the file and rename it ...-model. so I don't mess up the original.

[Kroke]

D'oh...how embarassing.

Ok, well this whole 3D printing thing has me in a hizzay. I wasn't sure if there were some family changes I needed to change. Ok, I think I have all I need as far as information goes then, I mis understood what you were saying in your previous post.

Thanks again Scott, much appricated.

[Max Lloyd]

~scary child sings~

Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!
Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!
Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!

[sbrown]

Feel free to call me if you want more detailed process. I've worked with Chris at 3drp on 2 models now and they've gone very well.

[Kroke]

~scary child sings~

Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!
Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!
Kroke doesn't know how to change a wall thickness!

Hey, how do you add a window to a plan? Or a door? I can't seem to explode this dimension, what is going on?!?! Hehe
---------------------------------------------------------
Scott, thank you, it's always good to get the process down from an experienced user in this process like yourself.

We'll probably hold off for our next big project as far as 3D printing goes, as our current projects don't weigh into the cost factor for one until that time, but we're excited to do the next one for our 'big client' and probably more after that. Cool technology!

[bcraig]

Remember we can help you reduce cost by using a smaller base or no base at all. But, if you do not have the budget then you do not have the budget. We at 3D Rapid Prototyping will be happy to help. www.3drp.com.

[Max Lloyd]

Hey, how do you add a window to a plan? Or a door? I can't seem to explode this dimension, what is going on?!?! Hehe

LOL http://www.bbc.co.uk/dnaimages/boards/images/emoticons/f_laugh.gifhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dnaimages/boards/images/emoticons/f_laugh.gifhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dnaimages/boards/images/emoticons/f_laugh.gifhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dnaimages/boards/images/emoticons/f_laugh.gif

However, on a serious note (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=28922&highlight=exploding+dimension)...... aren't you glad we aren't using that pile of cr*p anymore! ;)

[Kroke]

I haven't used it for almost 6 years now and I'm excited about it :)

My partner is going to hit up his old man tonight to see if he wants to go 1/2's on the 310 machine, w00t!

[cwentworth]

Kroke,

If you want a machine talk to me. I sell them and I can show you how to use it best for Architectural models. Not to mention software support.

Chris
3DRP




I haven't used it for almost 6 years now and I'm excited about it :)

My partner is going to hit up his old man tonight to see if he wants to go 1/2's on the 310 machine, w00t!

[cwentworth]

Here are some better examples. They where drawn in Revit and textured in 3D Studio.

chris

[jason_LGM]

Bit of an old thread, but the mystery shrink wrap program is called CADSpan. Please visit www.cadspan.com for more information. The long and short, it does do a virtual shrink wrap, but the more official term is a polygon mesh resurfacing tool.

CADSpan is a proprietary software that was developed for LGM. LGM is a company that is dedicated to Architectural Visualization products, and has been working to adapting 3-d printing processes to the architectural design process for many years. LGM has been working exclusively with Z corp for the last several years as well. The fact of the matter is we have the most extensive knowledge of 3-D printing specific to the AEC industry.

Some recent exciting news is that there is now an .stl export directly out of Revit. The geometry created from Revit's export is very good. However, I must dispell the myth that .stl geometry generated from Revit is directly applicable to 3-D printing. It may be, but more often than not, it isn't. There are a number of issues in getting a Revit .stl but one of the most pressing issues to deal with is scale.

For example: A 6" square column when scaled down to an out put model scale of 1"=20' works out to only .025". Depending on the machine used for 3-d printing that column may not resolve, as it's potentially too small. At current time, there are very few machines that replicate that kind of freestanding detail, and if they can, creates a potentially very fragile part. Those kind of details need to be addressed before the model can be applied to 3-d printing.

This potentially could lend itself to a very long conversation and discussion regarding Revit and 3d printing. More often than not, what works and doesn't work is very project specific. If someone has a specific problem they would like to discuss, I would be more than happy to go over it.

Jason
www.lgmmodel.com

[tenghui2000]

I have used 3d printer from CAD and Rhino. You can export your Revit model to solid dwg. Then you open the model in either program to ensure that you have valid solid geometry by checking object properties. Also you need to reduce the volume that means making your model envelop as thin as possible (but not less than 2mm), and leave openings somewhere (alwasy at the bottom of your model) to let the power go out when doing the cleaning. Once these are done you can export the model in stl format and send to the 3d printer.

check the following link to find out how to analysis your model in Rhino

http://www.ald.utoronto.ca/resources/prototyping_laboratory/3d_printing/1934

[t1.shep]

An old thread, and I'm not sure if this was mentioned in any earlier posts, but for 3D printing check out...
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/revit_stl/

[cliff collins]

Does anyone know if there is a Revit 2011 version of the STL exporter for Revit?

***edit*** : We have found a workaround solution:

Export from Revit to FBX
Import/Link FBX into 3dsMax ( or AutoCad 3D mesh? ) this needs to be confirmed.
Export to STL from 3dsMax
STL to 3D Printer.

cheers