3d Max model issues

[naturalstate720]

I'm very new to 3d printing, but have been using 3d software for a few years. I'm trying to print a 20 story high rise building at 1/16 scale. I realize I'll probably need to split it in two and glue it together at that scale. Is this the wrong place to ask a question like this?

I just exported from 3dmax as stl and imported into 3d simplfiy. I expected I'd probably have issues. And am wondering if I should just model the entire thing again. Originally the model was for renderings and construction drawings. I honestly probably didn't model the thing that well, it's been years since I've done this and was in a time crunch just to have some low qualify paper printed renderings.

After import into 3d simplify, the boolean holes for a few hundred windows are having issues. The balconies that I just redrew to larger to print (originally it was glass so very thin) are fine on one side of the building, but hollowish looking on the other side. I'm assuming this is because I mirrored it as an instance in max. Bad way to do it? Both main walls with windows were made in the same way doing one large edit mesh attached boolean for 120 windows at once out of edit mesh box.

I'm having trouble finding a good guide for complex model prepping for printing and or guide on starting over and modeling it the right way with the end product of printing it. I wonder if I should just start over and remodel.

Thanks for any advice

[jimc]

if your going to print something then you should design the model for printing. everything needs to be 100% watertight. no stray unconnected surfaces, holes or bad triangles in the mesh. any errors will cause slicers to go a bit wacky and not know what to do.

[naturalstate720]

Is there any software that can help salvage a model? Looking at SpaceClaim. Probably just going to start over though.

Thanks for reply

[jsc]

Netfabb, either the cloud service (http://netfabb.azurewebsites.net) or the standalone Basic downloadable version, will attempt to clean up bad meshes.

SpaceClaim is good, I've used the free version (DesignSpark Mechanical). Not so good if you want to be able to adjust things parametrically, but if all you care about is the geometry it's pretty easy to learn.

[naturalstate720]

I'll check that one out. What about Cad Span? Their video looks impressive as a sketchup plugin.

[naturalstate720]

Nice that microsoft / Netfab worked! That's impressive. I mean this model was a mess and has thousands of faces it cleaned up everything! Highly recommended and free!

[jimc]

yes the netfabb cloud svc is great. i rarely need it but when i do i use that instead of their app installed locally on my mac. i find it works alot better

[jsc]

I am not familiar with Cad Span, but anything having to do with SketchUp is a big red flag as far as 3D printing is concerned. I know many people use it because it's free and "easy", but it was never intended for use as a CAD modeler and the meshes it generates are ugly and full of holes. I found that DSM (or full on SpaceClaim if you can afford it) was just as easy to learn and far better, then I discovered the joys (and headaches) of parametric modeling and decided the headaches are worth the utility.

That said, 3DS Max or SketchUp or whatever you are most used to are probably going to work fine for architectural models as long as you can get a good workflow going.

[naturalstate720]

I'm not a sketchup fan. The only thing I like about it is the quick and easy sketchy non rendered output you can get quickly. 3d studio is my go to, very powerful. What is DSM? I've never heard of it, it's part of SpaceClaim?

[jsc]

DesignSpark Mechanical, I mentioned it above. It's the free cut down version of SpaceClaim.