I’ve printed a few models from C4D at Shapeways.com as a 3D sculpture and each time I do this I have to go through a trial and error process to create the model at the right size and specifications. I haven’t found good information that explains what the correct settings are, so for my own benefit and others, here it is:
- Set Cinema Preferences to use Millimeters
- Create geometry without using Boolean (seems like Booleans never work once translated to VRML)
- Make your geometry a single object, the Connect object works well for this
- If you use the Connect object, don’t forget to “Make it Editable” to actually connect it into a single object
- Keep polygon count less than 100,000 and it must be less than 500,000. Since C4D uses 4 sided Polygons, this means the actual count should be 250,000 or less in polys.
- Since version 11, if you have Advanced Renderer you can check Render>Cineman>Select non-Manifold edges
- Export at VRML 2 with the scale set to 1000
This brings the models in as centimeters, i.e. 100 mm = 10 cm and in Cinema the object is scaled at a reasonable size so it’s easy to work with. Hope this helps other people trying to do the same thing!
Update: Shapeways has expanded my tutorial on their blog, you can read more here.
Awesome, I was just wondering how to do this correctly. Thanks, I hope to have a viable model ready by the end of summer.
When using Boolean Operations do not use HQ this setting will produce non manifold results. Do Boolean on editable Object, turn it into a single object and fix errors immediately. Never concatenate Boolean Operations.
I would not recommand C4D for Shapeway Objects instead learn Blender – which is Free and More Powerful.