Thanks a lot for this, it got me going in the right direction. The 3D print service I'm considering limits file size to 25Mb, so I tried the "Mefisto" mesh generator; it gave a reasonable result with a much smaller file size.
@@MangoJellySolutions Cheers. After a more thorough look at this the outcome seems more complicated. It depends to some degree on the geometry of the part/model, the thing I'm primarily working on curves continuously in all 3 dimensions. Even following your sterling advice to use Blender to make a comparison I feel like my evaluation is still a little subjective, I'd say I get roughly a 25% saving in file size for a broadly comparable surface smoothness. Of course how much of a difference would actually show up in a printed item I lack the experience to say right now. So I'll moderate my earlier enthusiasm to: If you have the time and are working with a file size constraint it might be worth your while to have a look at Mefisto's output. It may be worth bearing in mind that setting the edge length or surface deviations much smaller than the defaults on large models can result in very long processing times, like go-out-for-a-bit-of-a-walk long on my i7-7700 machine. The processing appears to be single-threaded.
Just a quick tip seeings you've put so much help out there, when importing to blender, you can right click even a lower quality part that was displaying them face lines, right click it and hit "Shade auto smooth" and it will get rid of them, its handy if you just want blender for rendering and or animation, keeps the face count low yet still looks smooth as a baby's b... lol, if you dont see shade auto smooth and only smooth, grab the latest version of blender or click the Shade smooth option then on the right side goto object data properties which is a little green upside down triangle and go down to normals in there and hit Auto smooth
nice examples.. May I say though - the angular may not be particularly suitable for 3d printing due to it large filesize and the amount of movements the printer has to deal with. that said though, it could be a step in the right direction if you need fine detail, just using a larger setting, say 0.5 would reduce from 7mb to around 3.5mb and less stress on the printer.
Thanks for that, and thanks for the comments on the video regarding output quality to screen. This jogged my brain into remembering about the settings for finner output for models. I'm still researching the use of the mesher settings. I am wondering if it's going to help with displacement uv mapping in Blender as it's more of a sub divided surface.
@@MangoJellySolutions Hi, you mentioned about displacement mapping and this is something I am considering to utilise for textured mesh surfaces e.g. brick work for a wall in Freecad. So far blender seems to be the only freely available software that can handle this. Would love to see a video on this subject by yourself.
@@TheAndrian463 you will be happy to know it is in the making 😁. It's an interesting realm as you need to use a combination of different stl output settings in freecad along with blender sub surf modifiers and displacement to get the best effect. Also if your like me and your running on a computer that's 10 years old then there is some additional techniques you can use to unwrap parts of your object rather than applying surface division to your whole model which constantly cause blender freezing up or crashing for myself.
@@TheAndrian463 another way would be to use lattice2 to add repeating geometry (next week I am releasing a video that has been sitting as early access with my Patreons for a while regarding creating a diffusion pattern for tail lights) but if your going for a more organic feel then finishing in Blender is the best option.
@@MangoJellySolutions Awesome, looking forward to it. Yup in the same boat as you with hardware limitations, just looking to build my own PC with possibly a Ryzen cpu which has a top end single thread speed for Freecad.
I'll have to play with the MesherWB at some point when outputting for FDM 3D printing. But, without knowing about using the MesherWB to first convert to a mesh object, I've had success with the standard STL export by changing the output resolution in preferences "Import-Export/Mesh Formats" to 0.01mm without having to first mesh my object with the MesherWB. (Note, you do need to load the MesherWB in order to get the "Mesh Formats" tab in the "Import-Export" preferences.) But I wonder if I'm just getting the same result as changing the Mesh conversion to 0.01mm as you show in this video.
You would be getting the same results for changing the default preferences. Also changing them in your preferences should change them as the defaults for the mesh wb when you create a mesh from shape
Very helpful, thank you. People (and even the documentation) tend to say "change the view settings to make your exports better" but I don't want to change them back an forth every time. Of course I don't want view settings that lead to a lag fest but that could happen if you set it to export quality. It never ocurred to me, that the mesh workbench is what I was searching for the hole time, I was just like "why are there no export settings??". ^^; Also this here seems to be in mm and not in "% of object size" what you get with the view setting. That's so much better. I don't really get the math behind the angular deviation and in what scenario you would restrain the angular deviation vs. the surface deviaton. Also: is angular deviation the same as angular deflection in the view settings??
Thanks glad your enjoyed. In regards to the resolution all I can say is give it a go, if you do please could you share your results hear. Be great to get feedback from the community.
Long way to say that just changing the degree in meshes will make it much bigger in file size and much more detailed and nuanced. I am still curious how these 3 changes in Cura and when 3D printed. This is the number 1 reason I looked after this video. Because using Freecad is a bit troublesome in the beginning thing dont want to do what you want, while Tinkercad cannot get the same detail, and Fusion (personal should been free but they just locked it so I am back to Onshape and freecad). So printing with the same measures and build model from freecad was better than tinkercad, but Fusion was able to make the cylinder smooth as round, the others didnt (I still need to tast onshape), but now I am getting a grasp on freecad I like it. Making drawings is a struggle, and that I cannot in onshape unless I start finding my wallet. .. So how will the end result be, physical?
Can I ask or make a suggestion to further this object? Really because I am at a loss as to how to accomplish it myself! Take the wheelnut and remove the threads you added internally. Now imagine that this had to fit on to a shaft or axle with a splined end rather than a threaded. How would you add the splines to the inside of the wheelnut? I've tried using the polar array function and failed miserably. Maybe this would be an idea for a future video, adding splines to an object rather than threads?
Draw a sketch of the shape you need to remove on the end of wheelnut/cylinder or whatever and press the pocket function on the part design bench. From there you can set the depth, thru all, up to face or whatev for all the specifics
Hi, very interesting and valuable content (thanks). Do you know if is it possible to recompose freecad objects from stl (meshes from internet, example thingiverse). I suppose the name is "detesselation".
Glad you are enjoying the freecad videos. You can take a model from such sites and tessellate them in mesh wb and then turn them back into a solid via part wb. But they will be one single solid.
I am unable to do angular deviation, I get an error message stating "Select a shape for meshing, first.", the program does not recognise the 3d object I present it as a shape. How can I export the file to a format that is considered to be a "shape" that can be meshed? I'm stumped. edit* by "How can I export the file to a format that is considered to be a "shape" that can be meshed?" I mean what file type is considered a shape, to clarify I do know how to export, I just need to know what format I need to export it to :D
You need to select the body rather than the model. If your drawing has more than one body, you need to ctrl-click and select all the bodies. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the comments guys, glad it's all sorted. Just been trying to recreate the issue for the last 30 minutes and couldn't think what you may of done. Don't worry, time not lost as I have found a couple of settings that I have been looking for for a while. And thanks for the resolution, all good for the community 😊😊👍👍👍👍
Turns out mesh settings can help a lot
Thanks a lot for this, it got me going in the right direction. The 3D print service I'm considering limits file size to 25Mb, so I tried the "Mefisto" mesh generator; it gave a reasonable result with a much smaller file size.
Glad it helped! And thank you for adding that information regarding the the Mefisto setting, helps with others that read the comments.
@@MangoJellySolutions Cheers. After a more thorough look at this the outcome seems more complicated. It depends to some degree on the geometry of the part/model, the thing I'm primarily working on curves continuously in all 3 dimensions. Even following your sterling advice to use Blender to make a comparison I feel like my evaluation is still a little subjective, I'd say I get roughly a 25% saving in file size for a broadly comparable surface smoothness. Of course how much of a difference would actually show up in a printed item I lack the experience to say right now.
So I'll moderate my earlier enthusiasm to: If you have the time and are working with a file size constraint it might be worth your while to have a look at Mefisto's output.
It may be worth bearing in mind that setting the edge length or surface deviations much smaller than the defaults on large models can result in very long processing times, like go-out-for-a-bit-of-a-walk long on my i7-7700 machine. The processing appears to be single-threaded.
I think this is the reason some of my slicer models have been failing on the printer. Going to try and bump resolution up. Thank you!
Please comment back, it be great to know if this does or does not resolve the issue and it would help others. Glad you enjoyed
Just a quick tip seeings you've put so much help out there, when importing to blender, you can right click even a lower quality part that was displaying them face lines, right click it and hit "Shade auto smooth" and it will get rid of them, its handy if you just want blender for rendering and or animation, keeps the face count low yet still looks smooth as a baby's b... lol, if you dont see shade auto smooth and only smooth, grab the latest version of blender or click the Shade smooth option then on the right side goto object data properties which is a little green upside down triangle and go down to normals in there and hit Auto smooth
Thank you so much for sharing this and detailing the process, really greatful for that 👍👍👍😁😁😁
@@MangoJellySolutions no worries mate, hope it helped
nice examples.. May I say though - the angular may not be particularly suitable for 3d printing due to it large filesize and the amount of movements the printer has to deal with. that said though, it could be a step in the right direction if you need fine detail, just using a larger setting, say 0.5 would reduce from 7mb to around 3.5mb and less stress on the printer.
Great info you supplied. Thanks for sharing
excellent explanation. Thank you!!
great video.. this will definitely help with print quality.
Thanks for that, and thanks for the comments on the video regarding output quality to screen. This jogged my brain into remembering about the settings for finner output for models. I'm still researching the use of the mesher settings. I am wondering if it's going to help with displacement uv mapping in Blender as it's more of a sub divided surface.
@@MangoJellySolutions Hi, you mentioned about displacement mapping and this is something I am considering to utilise for textured mesh surfaces e.g. brick work for a wall in Freecad. So far blender seems to be the only freely available software that can handle this. Would love to see a video on this subject by yourself.
@@TheAndrian463 you will be happy to know it is in the making 😁. It's an interesting realm as you need to use a combination of different stl output settings in freecad along with blender sub surf modifiers and displacement to get the best effect. Also if your like me and your running on a computer that's 10 years old then there is some additional techniques you can use to unwrap parts of your object rather than applying surface division to your whole model which constantly cause blender freezing up or crashing for myself.
@@TheAndrian463 another way would be to use lattice2 to add repeating geometry (next week I am releasing a video that has been sitting as early access with my Patreons for a while regarding creating a diffusion pattern for tail lights) but if your going for a more organic feel then finishing in Blender is the best option.
@@MangoJellySolutions Awesome, looking forward to it. Yup in the same boat as you with hardware limitations, just looking to build my own PC with possibly a Ryzen cpu which has a top end single thread speed for Freecad.
Perfect !!
I'll have to play with the MesherWB at some point when outputting for FDM 3D printing. But, without knowing about using the MesherWB to first convert to a mesh object, I've had success with the standard STL export by changing the output resolution in preferences "Import-Export/Mesh Formats" to 0.01mm without having to first mesh my object with the MesherWB. (Note, you do need to load the MesherWB in order to get the "Mesh Formats" tab in the "Import-Export" preferences.) But I wonder if I'm just getting the same result as changing the Mesh conversion to 0.01mm as you show in this video.
You would be getting the same results for changing the default preferences. Also changing them in your preferences should change them as the defaults for the mesh wb when you create a mesh from shape
Thank you😍😍😍😍
tranks!!!!!😍
Very helpful, thank you. People (and even the documentation) tend to say "change the view settings to make your exports better" but I don't want to change them back an forth every time. Of course I don't want view settings that lead to a lag fest but that could happen if you set it to export quality.
It never ocurred to me, that the mesh workbench is what I was searching for the hole time, I was just like "why are there no export settings??". ^^;
Also this here seems to be in mm and not in "% of object size" what you get with the view setting. That's so much better.
I don't really get the math behind the angular deviation and in what scenario you would restrain the angular deviation vs. the surface deviaton. Also: is angular deviation the same as angular deflection in the view settings??
👍👏
great content!
I was wondering if the best 1º output would actually make a difference on the 3D print @ 0.2mm layer height?
Thanks glad your enjoyed. In regards to the resolution all I can say is give it a go, if you do please could you share your results hear. Be great to get feedback from the community.
Long way to say that just changing the degree in meshes will make it much bigger in file size and much more detailed and nuanced. I am still curious how these 3 changes in Cura and when 3D printed. This is the number 1 reason I looked after this video. Because using Freecad is a bit troublesome in the beginning thing dont want to do what you want, while Tinkercad cannot get the same detail, and Fusion (personal should been free but they just locked it so I am back to Onshape and freecad). So printing with the same measures and build model from freecad was better than tinkercad, but Fusion was able to make the cylinder smooth as round, the others didnt (I still need to tast onshape), but now I am getting a grasp on freecad I like it. Making drawings is a struggle, and that I cannot in onshape unless I start finding my wallet. .. So how will the end result be, physical?
And therefore the best compromise for export in Blender according to you would be which one ?
Can I ask or make a suggestion to further this object? Really because I am at a loss as to how to accomplish it myself! Take the wheelnut and remove the threads you added internally. Now imagine that this had to fit on to a shaft or axle with a splined end rather than a threaded. How would you add the splines to the inside of the wheelnut? I've tried using the polar array function and failed miserably. Maybe this would be an idea for a future video, adding splines to an object rather than threads?
Draw a sketch of the shape you need to remove on the end of wheelnut/cylinder or whatever and press the pocket function on the part design bench. From there you can set the depth, thru all, up to face or whatev for all the specifics
Hi, very interesting and valuable content (thanks). Do you know if is it possible to recompose freecad objects from stl (meshes from internet, example thingiverse). I suppose the name is "detesselation".
Glad you are enjoying the freecad videos. You can take a model from such sites and tessellate them in mesh wb and then turn them back into a solid via part wb. But they will be one single solid.
@@MangoJellySolutions Ok thanks
I am unable to do angular deviation, I get an error message stating "Select a shape for meshing, first.", the program does not recognise the 3d object I present it as a shape. How can I export the file to a format that is considered to be a "shape" that can be meshed? I'm stumped.
edit* by "How can I export the file to a format that is considered to be a "shape" that can be meshed?" I mean what file type is considered a shape, to clarify I do know how to export, I just need to know what format I need to export it to :D
Be good if it expired exported with quads and good edge flow
cant get it to work keeps saying select model first even when selected?
You need to select the body rather than the model. If your drawing has more than one body, you need to ctrl-click and select all the bodies. Hope that helps.
@@marti6464 thank you ill give that a try
Thanks for the comments guys, glad it's all sorted. Just been trying to recreate the issue for the last 30 minutes and couldn't think what you may of done. Don't worry, time not lost as I have found a couple of settings that I have been looking for for a while. And thanks for the resolution, all good for the community 😊😊👍👍👍👍
@@MangoJellySolutions I missed out a bit it seems that you cant bring any stl you want and do this Bugger