Przemas

just a quick question - how do you make material bump visible? I can see it on the small preview window but not in the viewport. Finally had a time to boot windows and play with 3D Coat a tad - pbr and viewport improvements are so nice I finally got out of voxel room and tried some painting .

Any ideas whether Linux version is going to happen? I'd love to try the new features at home. Anyways tested the latest beta in the workshop - I don't know whether something has been changed to the sculpt tools but they seem to work so much better, tend for more fluid workflows. Also the viewport is nicer, less tweaks needed to avoid overblown lighting (overexposure) adn seems snappier. Great job! Also from my perspective improvents to the undercut tool are killer - especially considering we'll be working on some medals in the workshop. For my work it is such a time saver! And the PBR really makes me want to give texturing a try . Painted so many models in real life - I think I'll enjoy doing that on the screen.

OK, so I'm trying to make a switch to Linux (eOS is awesome ). Downloaded latest beta from the forum thread. Is CUDA version gone? I can't find executable for it. Other than that it works nice so far. Also it seems to be the first 3d app I've tried on Linux that seems to be less plagued by screen tearing issues (which with the nvidia 660m I have are driving me nuts - but not in 3D Coat ). Also have anyone tried using 3dConnexion on Linux? I can't seem to get the official driver to work on eOS - Ubuntu based distro, When executing the script I get bunch of errors regarding wrong paths. Installed open source driver via ppa but it seems to not work in 3d Coat (to some degree it works in Modo).

As I'm trying out doing more things in 3D Coat I've been wondering about best approach when posing high poly, multilayered models using 3D Coat. For example a humanoid with accessories (gun, shield , shoulder pads etc) on separate layers. I know how I'd do it in Zbrush - I'd either use transpose or for more complex work I'd use GoZ to open low subd mesh in Modo, rig it there , pose then again with GoZ update the pose in Zbrush. Any ideas howto do it in 3D Coat (or with the help of external app - preferably Modo or Blender/inexpensive app as I guess I won't get any cash for additional licenses) would be greatly appreciated .

ok, so where could we post feature ideas / suggestions now? Mantis seem to be for bug reports only ... BTW - hope that we will be able to use existing logins and/or Mantis will be more tightly integrated into main site. Having 2 more sub sites is IMO not the best solution , it dilutes content (hope you know what I mean).

I've just tested it inside 3d Coat - it has turned out that I need to flip the piece by 90 degree. Attached to this post you'll find corrected file. Also I plan to play with mesh settings - need to figure out which will work best (as I'm making those in nurbs I can set the density, max angle and so on). Here's how it looks so far: rope_small_segment.obj

Just found the decimation in surface mode. WOW! That's the thing I thought is missing - aparently it is not. So not only I can repair files quickly i can also get away with much better polycount. Awesome!

So far it was rather straightforward - imported mesh for voxelizing, scaled it till polycount seemed right then run fill voids / close invisible hulls command . Then I rebuilt the areas that were not right with "Fill" brush . That's it - that gave me mesh that has not caused any more serious problems. We have an inhouse 3d printer. When we've decided to go digital it was tricky to find a company that provided service that matched our needs (very high res). Just to show you what I mean:

A couple of weeks ago we've needed a rope segment we could use to create spline tool so adding ropes would be fast. I've created a quick model in Rhino that did the trick. Humbly admit I haven't tried that inside 3d Coat so far, but it should work in it nicely . The ends match each other perfectly so there shouldn't be any issues. Thought I'd share . Hope someone will find it useful . rope_small_segment.obj

We're using computer apps to design miniatures for tabletop games. We then 3d print those crazily small and even more crazily detailed models on our 3d printer. But the files need to be really clean for it - and usually we use specialized apps for repairing the meshes. Truth to be told we rarely have issues with the stuff we do inhouse. But as we're running 3d printing service as well we sometimes get files so screwed up that repair apps show me a middle finger when I'm running repair scripts. Those so far were a real pain. I've always suspected that thx to using voxels 3d Coat should be great for manuacturing. But never thought how capable it is when it comes to fixing meshes for 3d printing. Last week I've been able to make 2 really nasty models printable. First voxelizing/filling voids removed most of the tricky areas while Fill tool worked as magic rebuilding the few screwed areas that were left. Now I only regret I haven't tried it sooner . Thought I'd share chaps .

Just wanted to congratutale on V4 . I've been playing with v3 a while back and speed improvement is great. We've launched V4 demo in the workshop last week and our jaws hit the floor when we've noticed how smooth it is. Both surface and voxel modes are better. Great work - no excuse for me now to not add 3d Coat to our toolbox in a near future !

@Digman: I've just installed the beta and started testing the feature. While it miss some important elements it does surprisingly good job at the moment . Praises goes to Andy for implementing it. For sure I'll drop him an email with info what to add - he's such kind and patient fella .

I'm not sure - as there's a question how much "mass" Sam wants to go . If that's a couple of hundreds or low thousands he can do it without getting into plastic injection process.

Sure it's possible - that's what I do on a daily basis . You can print an object and reproduce those either in resin or in metal without much worry about undercuts and geometry. Things get tricky when you wish to try injection moulding process used for mass production (tens of thousands copies). Model has to be properly design for this method. But as I've said - if you keep the numbers in hundreds it should be fairly easy.

On technical items you can take that into account during design phase. But it is very difficult to plan such things on organic items - IMO not possible time wise. That's why I hope that modelling apps like 3d Coat will add detection and undercut removal features to their toolbox (especially that algorithms needed for such functionality are already there). So far such features are available in industrial CAD systems used to design moulds. The issue is that most of them do not handle polygon data well and do not allow freeform modifications on the fly thus making designing mould for complex organic sculpt a real pain. I'd like to get a moldable model from the sculpting app (3d Coat , Zbrush etc) that I could mold in CAD software (Rhino, Space Claim etc).

@geo_n: you're absolutly right you can 3d print almost anything. The issue has nothing to do with it . It is related to plastic injection moulding process. Plastic is being injected into rigid metal moulds - they can't flex. So recesses that collide with the direction that the mould opens would prevent the piece from ejecting the mould cavity, would trap it inside.

@Polyxo: I've found a temporary solution. I run "Draft Angle Analysis" in Rhino. Then when it's active I run "ExtractAnalysisMesh" command to get the coloured mesh. Still undercut detection in modelling app like 3d Coat / Zbrush would be much better, especially if accompanied by other "simple" tools , like the ones you could see in Sensable FreeForm Modelling Plus.

@polyxo: I'm sure it could work. Draft Angle Analysis in Rhino works on meshes - I'm sure of it as I did it a couple of times (in fact I think that's how this algorith works). Curvature analysis might not work though.

@polyxo: thx mate, nice to see I'm not the only one struggling with those issues . Your tip howto handle those atm is great - will definitely try it. Realtime would be best, but still it's better than switching between apps . Also I'll try contacting Andrew directly. Recording a short video is a cool concept - explaining those matters only by written description is a tad problematic. I have my fingers crossed and hope he'll be interested in implementing those - algorith wise that shouldn't be tricky. Will surely let you know how it went . @AbnRanger: no worries, I'm rather aware most of the 3d graphic artists on the forums are focused mostly on rendering/animation. But I really see things changing now and I see a growing amount of people using freeform/clay like modelling apps for manufacturing. A couple of years ago there were no hardware options easily available that could translate such complex designs into real objects. Things are way different now - heck, the 3d print above is good proof of it . But lack of such users on the forums is an issue - it's rather hard to get support for such manufacturing related tools because of it. The funny thing is that I propably won't get support from those interested in manufactiring because they don't use such modelling apps and simply do not visit forums like this one. Argh - a starnge circle of things....

thx AbnRanger - but got to admit I fail to see how pose tool could help me. The main issue is that modelling apps like 3dCoat/Zbrush lack the tools to detect undercuts. If those were available removing undercuts would be pretty straightforward even with fill/smooth. Note that we're not dealing with simple geometry where you could detect those using your common sense and eyes. Here's a sample of the head (modelled by our inhouse sculptor Kazube) and then 3d printed: Without undercut detection in modelling app removing undercut only from this single object would take enormous amount of time. If we had those it would be fast and easy . Later on I'll try to post a sample head that we've used to test whether we're able to do it without such features (by switching between modelling app and CAD app). We've did it (well almost) but the amount of time we had to spend on it does not make it a viable option. I know I'm repeating myself - there's a need to detect undercut in modelling app (even if that would make a separate app, only with undercut detection and some basic brushes). But looks like we're going slightly off-topic . Anyways I feel slightly convinced that 3d Coat may be a good addition to our workflow as it works on volumes and thus objects made in it should be watertight, thus better for 3d printing and manufacturing in general (that's the main difference between needs for manufacturing and for animation/cg).

Ok, so I'll need to explain a tad what it is needed for. While manufacturing a piece you create a mould that gets filled with some kind of material (plastic/metal etc). Ok, that's pretty obvious . The mould can be either flexible (for example made from rubber) or totally rigid (fe steel). Flexible moulds allow undercut which can be described as areas that are angled towards parting surface, a sort of recessed surface. Here's a quick pic taken from Wiki : It's not the perfect sample as in this alignment you could have a horizontal parting surface through the center. Here are some better ones: Steel moulds allow almost no undercut - so there's a need to find those tricky areas and remove them quickly. While I can avoid those when we're working on a tech design (some sort of weapon for example), but while working on complex organic items it is a real pain. Option to choose a "parting plane" and looking for areas undercut towards it in a software that allows to tweak model easily (3d Coat for example) would be awesome. ATM moment I can load a design into Rhino for example and run draft angle analysis to look for those areas then get back to modelling application but it is insanely time consuming (create / save / open / check / make screenshot / open / modify / save / open and so on....). I see a real need to check undercut in modelling app. So far the only solution I found is Sensable Phantom Desktop with FreeForm Plus. But got to admit atm I can hardly justify buying such insanely expensive hardware/software combo (over 30000USD out here) - especially when I see no real advantage (apart from undercut removal and creation of cavities) over 3dCoat/Zbrush with good tablet.

@digman: oh, now I get it - something like airpockets in a real clay. Shouldn't be an issue during 3d printing and even if they prove to be problematic they should be easy to remove . @AbnRanger: thx for the info. I'll need to check whether I'll be able to turn mesh object into nurbs myself using the software I use. Damn, if I could only find a way to quickly identify&remove undercuts on rather complex 3d sculpts I'll be a happy man

Yeah , but my point was shouldn't voxel model be watertight from the very beggining as they operate on volumes? It would be really interesting to get info on this. In the workshop we use Netfabb Pro to fix problematic .stl files . While most of the designs we do ourselves are rather ok, and only minor fixes are needed, the files we receive for 3d printing are often much more troublesome. @AbnRanger: would you mind sharing your workflow? I understand you change polygon data into nurbs data . I'm really couious on your approach on the matter.

Ok, I guess this will be obvious for most of you.... For the past couple of days I've been reading about voxels / 3d Coat and it got me thinking - are the models made in 3d Coat using voxel technology watertight? I mean no holes, joined objects? I'm asking as I use 3d sculpting tools for manufacturing of sci-fi/fantasy models (toys for big boys ) and thus I have a tad different needs than those using the software for animation etc. The common issue with most of the software is that final objects are not joined into single shells and the mesh often has holes. Moreover you can build objects that have no volume (that are basically flat surfaces) - and thus non manufacturable. I have to go through a number of additional tools to fix those and was thinking whether 3d Coat could have an edge in this field. Heck, I really feel I need to get a book to get familiar with all the terms related to 3d and with technical aspects of the whole thing ...

@bisenberger: thx for the tip . But got to admit I'm pretty aware of that. For me it's not an option because of the reason I need it for. Check this topic. I'm looking for a combo that would allow me to make complex manufacturable models easily (more or less). Until one of the sculpting apps (3d Coat / Zbrush / etc) implements draft angle analysis (or CAD like Rhino, with draft analysis, adds mesh modelling features) I'm looking for a way to quickly switch between two as a temporary solution. Importing/Exporting/Saving/Opening takes too much time and is a real pain.