Anyone ever "split" a body for 3D printing?

[MrObsessive]

I got a very clean STL file off of 3Dprintables.shop the other day, but as I scaled it to 1/25th, it's a bit too big for my printer.  I have Blender, but darn if that program will not let me split the body. I've tried every which way from Sunday using different techniques to get Blender to cooperate, but no.......the program crashes when it gets to a certain point.

I did have Blender 3.0, but I downgraded to the previous 2.91 version----still no go.

BTW, the car happens to be this one......

A 1967 Maserati Ghibli coupe. I have everything else needed to make this car.......if I could just get the program to cooperate and split the body.

Edited March 2, 2022 by MrObsessive
Added pic and more text

[Cool Hand]

Wouldnt have a clue, but can it be split in slicing software. 

[Fat Brian]

If he doesn't reply to this post send a message to Jhedir6. He split a body in the manner you're needing for his Cannonball build this year.

[MrObsessive]

1 minute ago, Fat Brian said:

If he doesn't reply to this post send a message to Jhedir6. He split a body in the manner you're needing for his Cannonball build this year.

Thanks! I'll certainly get in touch with him. ?

[Spex84]

Meshmixer might do what you need.

If I was going to split that body in Blender, I'd make 3 copies of the body and use Boolean modifiers with a large cube to remove the rear 2/3 of the first body, the nose and tail of the second body, and the front 2/3 of the third body. The result, once the modifiers were applied, would be 3 chunks: nose, center, and tail.

The body probably needs to be a contiguous "watertight" mesh in order for the Boolean modifier to work well.

 

[my66s55]

Bill, Email me the body and I'll do it for you. It may have to be re-meshed and you don't have the add on to do it. Besides that, it'll only take me a couple of minutes.

[OldNYJim]

Dumb question, but can you just angle it diagonally (as in, nose down towards the build plate, tail in the air) using the rotate feature to make it fit?  Might be a simpler way to be able to print it all in one go and not deal with slicing it up...

(EDIT - I know that's not what you were asking - but just an idea)

Edited March 2, 2022 by CabDriver

[stinkybritches]

10 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

Dumb question, but can you just angle it diagonally (as in, nose down towards the build plate, tail in the air) using the rotate feature to make it fit?  Might be a simpler way to be able to print it all in one go and not deal with slicing it up...

(EDIT - I know that's not what you were asking - but just an idea)

I agree with Jim. I would angle it. 

 

[my66s55]

That would be the first thing I would check,Jim. Good idea, but the printer ha has only has a z height of 130 mm. The file itself is, as is usually the case, has a lot of non quad faces. This makes it impossible to get a straight line for splitting. An ad on called Quad remesher does this. It only works on 5-6 cad softwares. This will create what's needed to do what Bill wants. And yea, it should be printed on an angle anyways. Flat would cause a lot of problems on the bottom of the body pane;s.

[MrObsessive]

50 minutes ago, Spex84 said:

Meshmixer might do what you need.

If I was going to split that body in Blender, I'd make 3 copies of the body and use Boolean modifiers with a large cube to remove the rear 2/3 of the first body, the nose and tail of the second body, and the front 2/3 of the third body. The result, once the modifiers were applied, would be 3 chunks: nose, center, and tail.

The body probably needs to be a contiguous "watertight" mesh in order for the Boolean modifier to work well.

 

Blender for whatever reason, won't cut this particular body into sections. Each time I try the modifiers, the program crashes. I do believe because the body has very tight vertices (I checked 'em out in Blender), the program can't handle it. Same thing with MeshMixer. When I attempt to edit the body to cut it in two using their edit functions, the program crashes.

I tried the "cube" method to get it to separate...........nope. No dice.

17 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

Dumb question, but can you just angle it diagonally (as in, nose down towards the build plate, tail in the air) using the rotate feature to make it fit?  Might be a simpler way to be able to print it all in one go and not deal with slicing it up...

(EDIT - I know that's not what you were asking - but just an idea)

Even when tilted up, it would still get cut off due to the size of the build plate. Those brown areas you see is the program telling you that it's too big. Even after scaling it down to 1/25.

[MrObsessive]

Here's a pic with the body at an angle..........still too big noting the brown areas.

37 minutes ago, my66s55 said:

Bill, Email me the body and I'll do it for you. It may have to be re-meshed and you don't have the add on to do it. Besides that, it'll only take me a couple of minutes.

Keep an eye on your email...............  

[my66s55]

Will do.

2 minutes ago, MrObsessive said:

Here's a pic with the body at an angle..........still too big noting the brown areas.

Keep an eye on your email...............  

Will do.

[Spex84]

Sounds like that body must be a super-high detail mesh. Good luck.  There are a couple ways to optimize or re-mesh objects in Blender, but it does tend to result in undesirable changes to the mesh. I look forward to seeing what technique does the trick!

[MrObsessive]

29 minutes ago, Spex84 said:

Sounds like that body must be a super-high detail mesh. Good luck.  There are a couple ways to optimize or re-mesh objects in Blender, but it does tend to result in undesirable changes to the mesh. I look forward to seeing what technique does the trick!

It is! At one point when I had it in Blender, it showed all the mesh in the body. I should've taken a screenshot of it, but I can say that it's VERY highly tuned. Whoever did the original file, they got the body lines pretty much exact. ?

One nice advantage of that file also, is they give you a variety of wall thicknesses. If you want a larger scale (or real small), that can be a huge help.

Major kudos to those folks there at 3DPrintable!

Edited March 2, 2022 by MrObsessive

[peteski]

How about printing it almost vertically (so it fits on the build plate?

[iamsuperdan]

Very interesting. I've been eyeballing some bodies on that site. Good to know what I can expect in terms of quality and printability.

 

 

 

[Cool Hand]

5 hours ago, peteski said:

How about printing it almost vertically (so it fits on the build plate?

Z axis limitation.

[MrObsessive]

4 hours ago, Cool Hand said:

Z axis limitation.

Yes, it would still get cut off. The maximum I believe is 130mm, and it's just too long for that.

Edited March 3, 2022 by MrObsessive

[paul alflen]

Mr OBsessive,( Bill G.) can you print it vertically with the body cut off and then filp it 180 degrees and print it( with the opposite end cut off) ? I know this would be a waste of resin but it would give you two incomplete bodies at opposite ends to join? Just thinking out loud.

[MrObsessive]

1 hour ago, paul alflen said:

Mr OBsessive,( Bill G.) can you print it vertically with the body cut off and then filp it 180 degrees and print it( with the opposite end cut off) ? I know this would be a waste of resin but it would give you two incomplete bodies at opposite ends to join? Just thinking out loud.

Hmmm.....That's a thought. The only issue I can see with that is knowing where the cut off point would be, and then getting those two sections joined up again without the body looking awkward. I'll have to see if Chitubox can handle that, and where the stopping points would be.

I did get this file from the same place yesterday, and it does fit in the slicer with no issue even after scaling it for 1/25 scale. It's a 1968 (or '69?) Fiat 850 coupe. Another one I could build and make it full detail with engine and all. ?

Come to think of it, I remember seeing this body offered on eBay from a seller, but my curiosity is up to see if I can run this with this particular printer. The body would definitely need some cleaning up afterward, as the vertices on this particular file are not as tight or well done as the Maserati.

 

[OldNYJim]

It still amazes me seeing that forest of supports you need for bigger parts like this - haven’t been brave enough to try a whole body yet (although I’d like to find a good Willy’s Jeep to print sometime soon…)

[Oldmopars]

What is the web site you got that from. I looked for 3Dprintables and 3Dprintables.shop and did not find anything. 
I would love to see what they have. Thanks. 

[MrObsessive]

16 minutes ago, Oldmopars said:

What is the web site you got that from. I looked for 3Dprintables and 3Dprintables.shop and did not find anything. 
I would love to see what they have. Thanks. 

It's actually 3Dprintable.shop. Be careful............LOTS of good stuff in there which can lead to an emptying of one's bank account! ?

[stinkybritches]

@MrObsessive Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (I'm not sure about Windows 11) have 3D Builder built in. You can split the body that way. I tried it myself and it works, though I haven't tried to print the split body yet. Here is a quick tutorial

 

 

[MrObsessive]

Thanks Rob! I had to download the program as it wasn't on my Windows 11. I'll take a look at the video and play around with the software. Meanwhile, I learned an interesting trick in Blender in getting rough surface bodies MUCH more smoothed out for final printing. It's too much to go into explaining here, but I tried this on a Karmann Ghia Type 34 file I have which was on the rough side.

Looks MUCH better, and I'll have to remember this technique if I run into any more files that are "less than acceptable".

I'll let you know if I was able to split the body or not.