Hello fellow fractaliens,
I have been trying to print 3d fractals on an Ultimaker 2 printer. I am using the workflow developed by Teena described in this thread:
http://www.fractalforums.com/tutorials/voxel-image-stack-and-then-what/Currently my current method is:
• Generate fractal slices using voxelstack in Mandelbulb 3d
• Combine slices to create obj mesh using Fiji (method described in earlier thread)
• Reduce mesh in Meshlab using quadric edge collapse decimation to 1,000,000 polygons – results in a file size around 50mb
• Export stl
• Open stl in Rhino. Delete all interior “bubbles” or extraneous geometry trapped within the fractal so there is only one “watertight” mesh remaining.
• Import stl into Cura (ultimaker slicer) or similar slicing software
• Export gcode
This is where I am running into issues. Many of the slicer softwares seem to hang or crash trying to calculate g-code for any files over 50mb. Because of the complexity of the fractal mesh (ie lots of voids, openings etc.), many of them require support for overhangs that need to be generated by the slicer software. Calculating how to build this support material is resource intensive and seems to be what is causing problems
I realize many of you who have 3d printed are using shapeways or similar services. My understanding it that they use commercial quality printers that have dissolvable support material, whereas with the smaller printers (makerbots, ultimaker) support material is built like scaffolding out of the same plastic and is then manually removed. Has anybody had any success printing on these printers?
I am wondering if anyone has had any success in developing g-code directly from the 2d slices exported from voxelstack. Is there a way to completely circumvent having to combine the voxel slices into a mesh and back into g-code. It seems a cumbersome route that results in a huge loss of detail. In other words can we simply 3d print layers of the 2d slices without having to recombine them into a 3d mesh that is then re-sliced. I have come across a few Voxel based slicers like Voxelator which can import voxel formats. Such as .vdb, svx (shapeways format). But I haven’t yet come across a method of converting 2s slices into one of these formats which I am certain would be a massive but lossless file. Has anyone tried this method?
I realize that the voxelstack method I am using is 4 years old now and I am curious to see if there has been any progress with alternative methods.