3D to Printing Ironman Arc Reactor

casper87

Hello therpf!
I have been lurking here for a while now and love all the stuff people have been putting out so I decided I would try something on my own. I would like to recreate the arc reactor from the first Ironman.
Ive had little luck finding things at my local lowes and dollar stores, and since I have a 3D background I decided to create the parts I need in 3D. Here is something I made today pretty quickly:
http://i.imgur.com/QEjMM.jpg
The major problem Im having is since I work in Softimage I work in SI Units and not inches/cms So im not sure if my item is in scale. Also to to send my items to say shapeways do I need to seperate all the items or can I leave them as they are?

GrimmOmen

Hey Casper,
You should be able to just go into preferences and set the units to meters, inches, or whatever. Then just create a box the size you want the reactor to be, say 6 inches, then scale the object to that size.

Another option could be to just leave your units settings alone, and create a box. In the size values, you should be able to just type in 6", hit ENTER, and the software will auto convert to SI units so that the size will be in the correct scale, even if it's just in SI units. When you export the asset to a file format for the printer, you'll most likely have an option to pick either inches, or millimeters - just pick whatever units you used to create the box in and I think you'll be good to go.

Mind you that you need to make sure that you don't have any surfaces that are smaller than the minimum thickness for whatever material you are going to use to print the object out with, but the printing company should be able to help you out with that.

-Grimm

casper87

Hey Grimm,
Unfortunately you cannot change the units of measurements in Softimage in the preferences or type " 6" " or "6inches". Softimage only works in SI Units. I was able to get a rough estimate for printing. After saving it out as an .obj and uploading it to shapeways they give you a H x W x L so after 2 trial uploads I figured 1.5 SI Units equals about 3 ins .

I uploaded the pieces I needed and sent out for them. Only cost 20ish bucks. Im looking forward to seeing the outcome. Thanks for your help!

PepMaster

Hmm looks good when you get it set up in Shapeways I would be intrested in getting one.

casper87

Sure. I wanna wait till I get them back to make sure they are printed correctly and see if I have to make any changes to the meshes. Then I think I can make my models public for anyone to buy.