NEW SERVICES AVAILABLE: 2D to 3D conversion and Photo-Realistic Rendering
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: July 14, 2009
- In: 3D printing| 3d| design
- 1 Comment
3D Creation Lab is pleased to announce it can now offer the following services in addition to its 3D printing service.
2D to 3D Conversion
Don’t have a 3D CAD model? We can convert your 2D drawings or sketches into a 3D CAD model for you. From engineering widgets to houses we can convert them to 3D CAD data from napkin sketches or 2D engineering drawings.
Prices are dependent on the complexity of the component being modelled and what information you can supply us with. E-mail info@3dcreationlab.co.uk with the details of your project for more information on how we can help you.
3D Photo-realistic Rendering
We use specialist software to produce a digital image of your 3D CAD data that is as good as a real photo without ever involving a photographer or a lens cap! 3D Rendered images are now widely used by marketing departments to give their clients images that would otherwise be impossible or extremely costly to produce and in instances where no physical model of the object exists.
Using 3D visualisations on your product marketing can reduce the project timescales and communicate your design or product to your market and customers to measure reaction before you commit to building.
Prices are dependent on the scale of the project and what information you can supply us with. E-mail info@3dcreationlab.co.uk with as much information as possible and we will get back to you with a price for creating your photo-realistic rendering.
3D Creation Lab……now creates 3D in the physical and digital worlds!
3D Printing brings characters to life
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: July 7, 2009
Pixologic have recently launched 3D Print exporter and Decimation Master plugins for their amazing ZBrush 3D sculpting software.
Within a couple of days of this we got an enquiry from Matthew Long at the West Wales School of the Arts to 3D print his model “Flake the Dust mite” which he had sculpted using ZBrush. The STL file came to us with only a few errors which were easily fixed with our specialist software so we were able to give a quick quote for a 3″ high printout in our White Detailed material.
This was our first ZBrush 3D print so we were intrigued by the process that the designer goes through and how the detail of the model would come out from the 3D printing. Coming from an engineering background where primitives and Boolean operations are the order of the day I could only imagine being able to produce a model like this, the photo below shows the workflow for the subdivision modeling process from the initial idea sketch to the final rendering.
As for the 3D printing it was a straight forward print apart from the removal of the support material which had to be carried out by hand rather than the waterjet because of some of the features being so thin. As you can see from the photo and video below the model came out really well and to quote Matthew “Just had the model delivered, looks fantastic! Better than I imagined”. I can’t say more than that apart from I can’t wait to see what character model comes through next……
Photos & Video courtesy of West Wales School of the Arts
More information on the ZBrush plugins:
With 3DPrint Exporter you will be able to export your favorite ZTool in STL and VRML file formats, opening you to the world of 3D Printing.
Who has never dreamed about having your virtual sculpting in “real” 3D, standing on your desk? Now it’s possible for you to print your ZBrush models:
- Sculpt your art with ZBrush
- Optimize if needed your model with the Decimation Master plugin
- Export it with 3D Print Exporter
With Decimation Master you will be able to easily reduce the polygon count of your models in a very efficient way while keeping all their sculpted details. This solution is one of the fastest available and is able to optimize your high polycount models from ZBrush, allowing you to export them to your other 3D software packages.
Sculpt your model with ZBrush, add all your small details and push your artistic skills, then optimize your ZTool. Export it to your favorite 3D package which will now be able to open your sculpting to create specific textures like Normal Maps or Ambient Occlusion maps by baking the high resolution mesh information on a low resolution mesh.
Another use is to export your model for a Rapid Prototyping process (3D printing) and bring your virtual art to a real object but also displaying your model in a real-time viewer such as PDF 3D. The possibilities are infinite!
Main features
- High quality optimization with accuracy details.
- Two different optimizations for a better control of the result.
- Optimization based on the polypainting information
- Support of Masks for details protection.
- Border protections.
- Support of the symmetry and partial symmetry.
- Optimization of your UVs for exporting models for 3D Color printing
Extras
- Export all SubTool as one OBJ file
- Clone all SubTools
Amazing New 3D printer from Objet
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: June 17, 2009
Objet geometries have just introduced the 350 to its Connex family of multi-material 3D printers. Like its older brother the Connex 500 it offers multiple materials in one build tray, not only different 
materials for separate parts but different materials within the same part! These are the only 3D printers on the market that can do this by using Objet’s patented Matrix Polyjet technology.
This technology allows the machine to offer very close simulation of end product. It supports FullCure and composite materials like photopolymer models and provide exceptional quality and features which are way ahead of the technology curve. The machine also provide “Digital Materials” which are composite materials made up of any two Fullcure model materials integrated in specific concentrations and structures to provide the desired mechanical properties, which you can see from the video and pictures below.
Where’s that phone number for the bank manager……..
In a Galaxy not so far, far away……
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: June 4, 2009
There seems to be plenty of buzz around 3D in general at the moment, and much of it is biased towards filming and viewing 3D images or videos. All of these technologies 
require special glasses to get the affect though.
This company stands out from the crowd with a technology that they have been developing for 4 years, they can bring full colour, glasses-free holograms to life! This has the potential to bring the technology of Star Wars into the realm of reality. ZI’s software puts a virtual camera inside every point of a digital models holographic vertical plane so that it can measure its surface volume. As you can imagine the amount of data required to produce this is enormous as there are approximately a million points to analyse.
Zebra then send it to their printer which processes the data containing distinct points of view to a plastic polymer which creates a sheet full of 1mm holographic tile encryptions. Each of these tiles is an image conductor that is sensitive to light, so when light is shined its scatters around and all image angles are shown at once. This results in a free-standing 3D model appearing from the sheet as shown in the picture shown on this page; it is a very clever optical illusion. With support from DARPA, Zebra Imaging has recently developed a holographic display that is capable of producing this effect in a scalable dynamic near real-time display. The US army have already picked up the technology for displaying maps of constantly changing battlefields which can be printed on the fly.
This technology is amazing but currently costs thousands of dollars so it is a long way from being available to everybody, rapid prototyping with 3D printing on the other hand is here and affordable now!
Athletic footwear manufacturer uses Objet technology to “Fax” 3D designs between offices
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: May 11, 2009
Objet technologies have partnered up with footwear giant Adidas-Salomon AG to help move them towards a more streamlined digital process for sharing their designs between offices across the world.
Adidas-Salomon AG has a vision which it has been working on for four years, this is to have a complete digital process that will enable them to create and share 3D data back and forth between their corporate HQ in Germany and Portland in the USA as well as all of its corporate units and factories across the world. They recently took a step closer to completing this goal when they introduced the use of 3D printing by Objet.
Adidas-Salomon AG has been using rapid prototyping technologies since 1998 so this isn’t a new technology for them. The initial use for the technology was for design verification but they have realised that it can go much further than that.
The Objet Polyjet technology produces a superior surface finish to other rapid prototyping techniques (one of the reasons we use it at 3D Creation Lab 
) Vice President-Product Creation Technologies Gary Pitman explains why they also chose Objet: “Our research told us that having a higher-quality RP model would allow us to influence more than just the design verification phase; we felt we could save significant time and money by using the RP models as the master when vacuum-casting parts for development review and eventually, for production tooling.”
“Installing a machine for both headquarters has put us at a higher level. Objet’s helped change the way we work,” Pitman states. “Our designers and engineers need to hold and feel the model in their hands; it’s always important, and with Objet, it’s almost like having a 3D fax capability.”
Both companies are now searching for new ways to apply the Polyjet 3D printing technology to other areas of the business such as the accessories and gear division which produces equipment for the football sector.
All they need to do now is see what they can do about the referee’s decisions!
Architectural models provide unique “deal sealers”
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: April 7, 2009
The advent of 3D visualisation software delivers a giant leap forward for property developers and Architects. It provides them with a “fly through” to show the client and they are hopefully suitably impressed and sign on the dotted line. But reading an article in Cadalyst magazine recently about Andrew Chary the principal architect at Andrew Chary Architects in upstate New York it becomes clear that many clients don’t fully understand what they are seeing in an on-screen walkthrough.
Chary says “The software doesn’t convey perspective, such as the relative size and location of rooms. The walkthroughs don’t excite clients, models do”, he continues “Holding a model in your hand, there’s a light bulb that goes off. It’s almost like a fourth dimension — you see things better when you hold it in your hands, turn it around and upside down. It’s a whole new perspective. People are extremely surprised to see the models” Chary said. “They light up like it’s a toy”
“Now the client is all of a sudden in control.” Chary says seeing the 3D-printed model “results in intelligent questions and an understanding of the design that is gratifying.” Builders also respond to seeing the connections in a model, Chary said. “It excites them and gives them confidence.”
So clearly there are major benefits to presenting 3D models to clients and helping the design and build process, especially in the current climate where the smallest detail can give you the edge over your competitor. Whereas this is becoming more and more common in the USA, in the UK there are only a few forward thinking companies that have started to use 3D printing as a selling point. One of these companies is property consultants Urban Aspects who have just discovered the 3D printing process and are looking forward to using it on their clients’ jobs for the first time.
Managing Director Russell Ranford says “We are always looking for a different angle that will assist our clients with land and property disposals,
so far the clients have been very impressed with the example models provided. In the current marketplace you need an edge just to survive and move forward in business. For bespoke properties 3D printing will enable us to provide scale models for clients to really appreciate what their properties will look like. This will undoubtedly prove to be a much more effective way of communicating proposals than 2D drawings. Property developers are only just starting to use 3D visualisations as a selling point which means that with 3D printing our clients will be ahead of the curve”.
Of course there is a cost issue to address as well. 3D printing is getting cheaper but it isn’t currently in reach of your average Joe on the street, but as Russell points out “for some of our clients spending £1,000 to £1,500 on 3D visualisation and a 3D printed model will be minimal when you consider the cost of building a house and the business it can potentially win.”.
Matt Latham, a 3D artist for Quay Design Creative Solutions is also keen to use the 3D printing process after a recent demonstration of its capabilities here at 3D Creation Lab. Matt uses 3D modelling software to produce the afore mentioned 3D visualisations and walkthroughs for property developers. He immediately saw the potential for the models to impress clients with and also sees it as a unique selling point, Matt says “As soon as I had the demonstration at 3D Creation Lab I was amazed that this technology even exists, I had never seen it before, except maybe on Star trek! I can see how these models could give a unique opportunity to seal deals in the property & architectural markets”.
3D Printing in Action video
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: March 31, 2009
This video is a demonstration of our Objet 3D printer and shows the level of detail that can be achieved with this type of rapid prototyping machine.
3D Printing from an iPhone?
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: March 26, 2009
I recently read an article on Solidsmack.com which I found interesting, mainly because I am an iPhone user and have often wondered why there weren’t any CAD type applications. As it turns out there is a 3D cad modeller on the iPhone caller iTracer programmed by Fabio Policarpo, and it is actually quite good. It’s no Solidworks but it is an interesting first attempt at simple 3D modelling on an iPhone, there is even a Ray tracing and export options.
I purchased this app from the UK iTunes store for £1.79 which is pretty reasonable considering what you are getting. There is an export option included which requires an SMTP email account (Gmail, Mobile me) so that the exported file can be emailed out (no save to disk option for export). The export file is in the 3DS file format, at this point a light bulb went off! I can import 3DS files into our 3D print processing software so I decided to find out whether a model created on an iPhone could be 3D printed?
I used the standard shapes that are included with the software with a little bit of moving around to make sure all of the objects were touching so as not to create an unprintable part. I also experimented with the software and created a part with the characters “3D” going through the middle of it. As you can see from the pictures these are 
very simple shapes but this was just to prove whether it could be done.
I emailed the parts to my office ready to have a look first thing in the morning. I first attempted to read the files in Meshlab but the parts came out incorrectly, so I then tried it in our Magics software and amazingly the parts imported with everything in the correct place and with minimal errors. The different components were treated as separate parts so a Boolean operation soon sorted that out. The only other issue was the part was in meter’s which again with a quick scaling operation was cured.
The next stage was to use our 3D printing software to process the model and send the information to the printer, and as you can see from the photos below you can indeed print models that have been created on an iPhone!
Example prices (Low cost option)
Cube & Sphere
Bounding box: 11.5 x 10 x 19mm
Volume: 1.3 cm^3
Build cost: £7.50 (min. build charge)
Delivery (UK): £7.50
Subtotal: £15.00
Total inc. VAT: £17.25
“3D” Shape
Bounding box: 24.6 x 24.6 x 10mm
Volume: 3.3 cm^3
Build cost: £9.08
Delivery (UK): £7.50
Subtotal: £16.68
Total inc. VAT: £19.07
Visit the Apple App Store via iTunes to learn and buy the program.
Boys and their customised toys
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: March 23, 2009
One of the problems 3D printing has before it can be adopted universally is the skill currently required to produce a 3-dimensional model to be printed, this therefore means that it is still a few years away from being available to everybody.
But a few forward thinking people are overcoming this problem to produce some great models and in some interesting ways.
One of these people is Steve Talkowski and his Sketchbot project. Steve is a character artist and animator based in Brooklyn, New York and Sketchbot has been a project for over a year. On his blog he takes us through every stage of the manufacture of the prototypes and what his thoughts are.
Steve is using 3D printing in his iterative design process to perfect the model before it goes to the factory for production. Issues like the grooves on the arms not being big enough wouldn’t come to light until production had started and then it would cost a lot to change anything even as minor as that. This of course helps Steve to get the model perfect right off the starting blocks and as economically as possible.
Having read the blog it becomes obvious what advantages 3D printing have given Steve and his Sketchbot project and Steve doesn’t own his own printer but instead used a 3D printer service provider in Los Angeles to produce his model.
You can also follow Steve on Twitter http://twitter.com/sketchguy
3D Printers are the stars of movie Coraline
Posted by: 3dcreationlab on: March 23, 2009
The film Coraline was released in the UK in February and looking at IMDB it has been a pretty popular film all round for young & old alike.
What a lot of people wont realise whilst they are watching this film is that 3D printing played a major role in making this film a reality.
The filmmakers used three Objet 3D printers to produce the models for the stop-motion animation. This is of course one of the technologies used by us here at 3D Creation Lab.
The main character had the ability to exhibit over 208,000 facial expressions, compared to the 800 expressions that were available in The Nightmare before Christmas in 1993. This is truly groundbreaking stuff and very impressive. Anybody that has seen the film (or the Coraline trailer below) will know that the film is a genuine leap forward in stop-motion animation and this has been accomplished by utilising the technology of 3D printing. So, what groundbreaking leap forward are you going to make with 3D printing?
