For these tutorials, I generated a free 123D Catch scan of an Ancient Mayan Musical Instrument from the Met!
common problems: holes, extra geometry, non-manifold faces
goal: to create a manifold, solid object for printing
DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE STL ON THINGIVERSE
Free Programs:
→ Meshmixer
→ Netfabb
→ Meshlab
Make sure to generate the highest quality mesh from 3D scanning software
Netfabb
initial repairs, making it solid
To show platform View → Show platform
To rotate Click → Pull corners when object is highlighted green
For a flat base Cuts → Drag Z and a line will appear along the model
→ Execute cut (turns into two objects)
→ Select unwanted one, right click → remove
Move to origin Select → Move to origin
Unwanted Pieces Select → Red Cross (repair), cracks will be highlighted
→ Select surfaces, click on unwanted material
→ remove unwanted triangles button (only big pieces)
Close holes → Click on automatic repair → default → execute
→ Export as STL Binary (another repair if needed)
Meshlab
smoothing and improving mesh (like a blanket on top)
Smooth/Reconstruct Filter → point set → surface reconstruction: poisson
→ Octree depth (start at 10)
Layer → Select Poisson mesh
→ Export selected layer as .obj
[vimeo vimeo.com/91575780]
Meshmixer
details, scale
Import → .obj does better than .stl
For a flat base Edit → Plane Cut (shadow part will be discarded)
To repair holes Edit → Close Cracks
To make solid Edit → Make Solid
[vimeo vimeo.com/91576095]
Smooth/Highlight Tools → brush (hold down shift to smooth, change size with cursor) → play with brush size, strength, etc.
[vimeo vimeo.com/91576096]
Scale Analysis → Units/Scale
Replicator G
generate gcode
[vimeo vimeo.com/91577431]
Troubleshooting:
Netfabb Again
check for problems in the poisson file
For a flat base Cuts → Drag Z and a line will appear along the model
→ Check the triangulate button (will try to close hole)
→ Execute cut (turns into two objects) → Delete unwanted one
Run another repair in case
Blender
decimate (make the file smaller)
Click on Modifer (wrench) → decimate modifier. Anything above 300,000 faces too big.
→ type in a decimal ratio (i.e. .25) to get it around 100,000
→ if it looks good, hit apply, if not experiment
One more Netfabb repair
make sure it is printable
good resource: 3ders video tutorial
