My 3DPrint-O-book

Projects & Prints
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Hello !

I’m Thomas Roussel from France, working in the 3D industry, at Pixologic, makers of ZBrush, a 3D sculpting software. A co worker and me decided to buy the Form1 since it was one of the few high resolution printer available on the market which is also plug&play.

We bring it back from US to france by plane after the Siggraph tradeshow in LA this last summer, after meeting Robert Vigogne that you already know in this forum ( http://formlabs.com/blogs/blog/9196235-robert-vignones-sculpts-at-makerfaire) and who is a ZBrush user. He brings his ZBrush prints at the Siggraph and we were blew away by the quality of the print. Well, our printer arrived few days earlier at our office, but unpacked :slight_smile:

Then since the end of august, we are playing with the printer, with some success and failure. Success because we are really happy with the quality of the printer, nothing to complain about the accuracy… but only when the print succeed…

The problem with ZBrush is that we are creating always high resolution sculpting with a lot of details and the support generation was a real pain in the ass since you have no control placement at all on them (even with 0.9 version of PreForm). For some models, they are perfect, but for some others, I had to create my own support. And creating your own support lead to failure :wink:

I’m happy to see the improvements in Preform 0.9, but their is really room for more!

Here are some photos of some prints in progress. In progress since I had to stop because of non stop failed prints and I think it’s because of the jelly problems that some of you reported.

With the first one, you have the 3D print and the 3D model inside ZBrush, just to compare. The model is 17 cm height and when the legs will be done, it should be around 30 cms.

The second one is simply our company logo, printed in 4 parts and quickly painted. Printed in 0.1mm which is enough for such model.

2 Likes
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Wow! Those are great. How did you get such fine texture details? This just confirms that there was something seriously wrong with my machine. How did you orient your print for the statuette? Can we see a picture of the back? I would like to see the side with the supports and how that looks.

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I did my custom support for this model, then I have been able to preserve the details where needed :slight_smile: But I really need to improve this process :slight_smile:

Here is some extra photos, of close up. You can notice the scratch on the edge of the blade. I didn’t expect the Form1 to recreate them!

Also, the back head (which has been printed separately) isn’t clean at all since I used the PreForm support. Then this aprt need some more polish love, but I didn’t have the time yet to do it. But custom support is the key, but it leads to a lot of failed prints…

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(PS: does someone from FormLabs can move this thread in the good section, I didn’t do it in the good one… :))

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Done! Looks awesome, Thomas.

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Thanks Sam :slight_smile: I just would like to print her legs now… :slight_smile:

This is a screenshot of the custom supports I did. Not really complex to create in 3D, but it’s really easy to mess up with a overhang part that you forgot… I also need to specify that under on the leg connectors, I have 4 strong supports, a lot larger that the others. I also hollowed the model to avoid using too much resin.

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Those prints are really awesome

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Very impressive Thomas!

As for supports, you might want to take a look at meshmixer from Autodesk, it’s free, and has some cool support generation capability [including customizing placement]

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Mark: Yes, I already download it :slight_smile:

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zbrush user here also, looks fantastic!

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Here is a timelapse video I did for my review, from the modeling to the support removing. No post process on the model of course:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3KPDGnZ5LU

And this is the review, only in french (sorry, english will come later) :)  http://www.polysculpt.com/articles/test-imprimante-3d-form1-formlabs-zbrush/

1 Like
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hi Thomas

love the work you’ve shown, really special. cant wait to see more… and to get my own when it arrives…

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Please, don’t use anymore the above Youtube link. I had to update the video, then this is the new link!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIL-fx4_67c

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No news since a long time, sorry :wink:

Here is a project I’m working on my free time: creating Easter chocolate moolds with my older sister who is very skilled when it comes to cooking (in all fileds…)

Then I created my molds in ZBrush and then, print them in 100 microns. Right now the goal isn’t to product the final model, but just testing the process. If it’s a success, then I’ll create the shape in positive, then using a food contact epoxy to create a negative mold. Of course, having a food contact resin would be really helpful!

I’ll share soon the tests with the chocolate (next week) and let’s hope it will work!

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And another project, to continuing testing my own custom supports, made with ZBrush’s ZSpheres features. 20mL of resin for my own supports in opposition to 120ml for the ones created in PreForm. At the cost of the resin, it’s worth spending some time to build your own.

It also helps you understanding better the constraints of the printer.

Right now, it’s not perfect since I lost some supports and underestimated again, the force that the peeling process applies to the model. But anyway, it has been a successful print of approximately 140 mm.

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Cool prints !! i really love how you made supports for the last one. And i totally agree with you, automatic support are somehow useless in many situations and missing in others. I’m really waiting for an uptade with manual supports. That way, i’ll do just a rough automatic support and add the missing one. Like you said we lost a lot of resin because of that … ( in many cases i used more resin for the supports that for the print itself ) . i’m waiting also for a possible stl export to do the same thing ; automatic rough support and add other with 3dsoftware…

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Hey Thomas,

Really cool prints!

Im wondering, did you leave the hole in the base in order to avoid the suction on the peeling process or to save resin (or something else?)

I’ve been experimenting with my own supports as well but so far have had only mixed success.

Im really happy you are able to get large prints done… it seems as though there is a lot of trial and error involved. If you used the preforms support do you think the print would come out successful every single time?

Once you have a successful print (with your own supports or otherwise) are you able to print it again many times without failure or does it still depend?

p.s. Sorry for all the questions, im just trying to figure out if there is something wrong with my printer or if we should just come to expect failed prints out of a ‘good’ printer on a consistent basis - this is why im asking if you are successful every time with an already successful print, then we can be sure that it is NOT your mistake

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I left the hole on the base just to save resin. I have a surface which is enough for supporting the whole mesh.

When using the PreForm supports, I have more success, and when it’s not a success, its because of my mesh itself or I do something wrong (I failed a very large print because of the lack of resin…)

I have been able to print several time the same model, but no large ones since I never had to do it… and I won’t do it for the fun just because I don’t want to spend extra resin and extra time in that :slight_smile:

To be honest, I had failed prints because of my printer (see below), but all the other failures I had was because of me or my lack of knowledge. I’m currently translating my Form1 review in english and then I’ll continue my ZBrush 3D Print guide as well as writing a small guide about good practices with the Form1. I hope it will help other peoples :slight_smile:

I suggest you to contact the support about your problems. I had issues with my printer myself, then you should contact them.

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Hello Thomas, I congratulate you for such a good job, everything is in the proper development of things, I am from Colombia, designer and am just starting in the world of 3d printing for my work, my printer just arriving for the New Year let me know if you have any free version available that I could print and descrestar my friends, or if you have any for sale also wanted to ask where I can get the file bucket rotation and Eiffel tower
A hug, thank you and move on

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Carlos: you can find a lot of 3D models to print on http://www.thingiverse.com/ :)