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Please correct me if i'm wrong, it seems like retopo is a way to maintain quality by lowering your poly count whereas decimation will also lower poly count but lower the quality of detail, in some instance even deform the object if you are overly aggressive? Either way to retopo the models i'm working with would take forever and I don't necessarily know if it's necessary as the printers we have can handle the large files and high poly count. Nevertheless, my experience is limited so any knowledge for my specific use is greatly appreciated. I attached a picture of one of the models we worked on. I would love to add different textures to the heart, ribs and lung and be able for those textures to hold for printing on our Stratasys J750.

Hey Phil, Rather than starting a whole new thread I would like to add to this as well. I work in the medical field and we are exporting our renders as stl through TeraRecon (TeraRecon FDA approved for creating DICOM renders). Like you, I would like to import these high poly stls into 3D coat to add texture and bumps in order to produce more realistic looking models. We have access to ta Connex 250 (3 color) and a J750 (multi-color) I've played with adding textures to some of our imported models and then exporting as an obj. I then load it up into Netfabb to check if the texture held. It seems that the texture is holding but bumps that were created do not hold, which in honesty is probably because i'm doing wrong ( i'm just using a brush and changing depth, don't know if that's the right method). In any case, I would appreciate if anyone can help me with a workflow or provide me with documentation that will help given my needs. In the meantime I will take a look at links that digman has attached to the board.