3d Printing for the Tabletop: The Future is Now

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > 3d Printing for the Tabletop: The Future is Now

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Wellllllll now show just the raw model (i.e. no texture applied) because that's what will be getting printed.

Even a model made out of a few rear end-quality polygons can look amazing with the texture image applied.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2021 22:01

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:58

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

parabolic posted:

He uses https://www.capturingreality.com/, blender, and unity. You have to pay for CR with a point system unfortunately but it's not horribly expensive.

And OK, I'm not trying to prove you can produce commercial level .stls from an effortless scan. I've seen multiple times in 3d printing communities people totally counting out 3d scanning tech as if they're not printing on resin printers that pretty much either sucked or were insanely expensive 5-10 years ago.

e: ok yeah I talked to him more and the textures are doing heavy lifting for sure, I'll admit I'm out of my depth and may have spoken out of turn. My only point was I wouldn't count 3d scanning out forever, it's cool to check in now and again on their progress.

Honestly, the fact that you can get that from a phone is absolutely amazing!

But :yosbutt:

since it's the 3D printing tabletop thread -- and for no other reason -- I wanted to point out that a textured scan looks way better than it "is" 3d-model-wise.

That being said, I have been half-following OpenScan https://www.openscan.eu/ and the OpenScan Mini is in fact specifically designed to scan small objects like minis at high detail, so there is that.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2021 23:45

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I ran across a kickstarter for a dungeon tile system (I know, pretty saturated market) but there is something I admire in the design direction of choosing to go for large modular set pieces, low walls (for faster print times, easier storage, etc) and flippable double-sided tiles.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 04:58

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

InternetJunky posted:

The unprotected monochrome screen with the bare polarizer is such a horrible design for a resin printer.

Economical, though! :razz:

# ¿ Aug 16, 2021 00:26

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Wow, those look wild.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2021 20:28

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

aldantefax posted:

So, I have four or five FDM printers that I am planning to get up and running (or sell) and I'm wondering what would be good to create for different kinds of props to use at the gaming table that aren't strictly just containers and minis. Since the majority of what I do at the moment is online, I have been craving adding an actual physical component back into it to better represent the kind of gameplay that I want to present and experience. Part of that I think is some kind of camera rig to use, but I'm wondering what other related 3d-printable stuff that I can make that can help in service to that 'combining physical and virtual space' thing that I'm angling towards. Is this crazy talk, or are there any items which might be useful for that (camera rigging aside)?

These simple blood spatter tokens were a hit with RPG games & anything mini-based. Enemy killed? Remove the mini and drop a blood splatter. We used it under a mini to mark wounded, as well.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3122240

It's unexpectedly engaging/scenic because it kind of paints a picture of how the battle moved/progressed.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2021 18:44

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I notice a lot of places offer blank (unpopulated) bases for minis. How do you all actually use these?

Are people 3d printing the blank bases, then gluing on the figures? Or do people prefer to kitbash figures onto the bases in a 3d program & print the result?

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 09:47

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I did a quick design for some money tokens, because for various reasons I didn't want to use poker chips, etc (they have to be able to go facedown and be unknown when facedown, like cards, but still have a satisfying tactile-ness to them)

Turned out pretty good! Could use a little fine tuning but I'm happy.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2021 01:30

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Yeah formlabs knows their poo poo really well. You can usually get away with less than what they default to, but I wouldn't gently caress with it much until you're confident you know what you're doing and why.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2021 19:39

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

No one printing tabletop minis in their basement is going to go for them, and I wouldn't recommend anyone who is happy with their Mars or whatever look at Formlabs. But the world is wider than those applications. Also, no one for whom human labor time is one of (if not THE) most expensive part of things wants operators to be spending their time loving around with something like a Mars or Photon or whatever.

Formlabs also have a very wide variety of resins, with exceedingly well-documented properties, some of which are extremely high-performance. They know their poo poo, and it shows in their machines, materials, and their workflow.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2021 07:33

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Five Parsecs From Home and Gaslands are two you need to look into, you can thank me later :yayclod:

# ¿ Nov 29, 2021 18:45

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Solus posted:

Nice nice nice

drat, that looks amazing.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2022 23:16

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I'm puzzled by broad recommendations to use an ultrasonic cleaner to clean resin prints. What exactly does it actually do that a couple rinsing containers won't?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2022 17:14

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

This thread is mostly about terrain and minis but here's a swell tool for quickly designing up 3d-printable (or papercraft) token trays and other tabletop game piece related organizers.

I really like the way that it's super simple to modify and add chambers and sections. It default just splits one larger one into halves when you add, but you can adjust easily. (Most tools like this are all fussy math and poo poo.)

# ¿ Apr 5, 2022 20:29

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Class Warcraft posted:

What kind of glue would you use to attach a PLA print to an MDF base? I'd prefer wood glue since it's cheap and I have a ton of it, but I'm not sure it'll stick.

Gorilla Glue (the syrupy stuff that expands) would be my first choice, assuming I want it stuck and not coming off.

e: I could have sworn you said plywood, but should still be OK (keeping in mind that MDF isn't really the best material for gluing stuff to, but it won't be the fault of the glue in this case.)

The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Apr 6, 2022

# ¿ Apr 6, 2022 20:44

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Just learned that Hero Forge (design custom minis online, then download the 3d model for $ or pay them to 3d print in color for $$$$) is now offering full color clear plastic standees.

Neat idea, I assume you basically screenshot a pose of your mini, and they UV print it in color on clear acrylic then laser cut it out. Clever idea I wish I had thought of.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2022 21:15

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I have been using 3D prints for tabletop stuff here and there and got to using Black 3.0 (the "blackest black", etc) paint on some terrain for washes, insides of pits, stuff like that.

I recently got my hands on some Musou Black acrylic paint (bought mine off ebay rather than direct from Japan) and I did a quick and sloppy coat for comparison & it occurred to me you folks might like to see the results as well.

Musou Black is definitely darker than Black 3.0, photos don't show it well because all I can do is point & shoot, but you can still see even in these photos with a sloppy coat on FDM 3D printed minis that there's a clear difference in magnitude of, uh, 'blackness'.

Left: Black 3.0 from Stuart Semple. Middle: Primed only. Right: Musou Black

Kind of neat.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2022 07:32

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

The issue with ripping models from video games is actually several big issues:

Game 3d models are only 'objects' in the sense that they exist as a frame upon which to paint graphics textures. They don't represent actual physical objects. Head not actually connected to body with a neck? Head not even actually a solid object? no problem, says a videogame and graphics card
yes problem, says basically everything else
The model looks awesome on the screen but 90% of that is a nice texture. The actual model probably looks like terrible and/or featureless
This varies by game, some better some worse

# ¿ Aug 19, 2022 23:56

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I remember using ninjaripper, it gave the best results from what I can dimly recall. I remember getting roughly nowhere with others.

I also remember printing literally zero percent of the models I went through the hassle of ripping :haw:

Also when I was taking print jobs for money, I would sometimes get ripped video game assets and they were a huge hassle that never worked out satisfactorily. Expect to do a lot of touchup to get something 3d-printable unless you luck out.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2022 01:48

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

armorer posted:

The site calls them "color printed", and one of the photos on the landing page makes it look like they're done before the laser cutting happens. It could be a decal?

I wonder if it's UV printed. That would be pretty cool. Same process used to print on phone cases, etc.

Could also be heat transfer decal, I've seen laser cut puzzles that used that method.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2022 06:04

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

queeb posted:

double post but im kinda excited about this, i painted one with a quick like 15 second paintjob and they actually look kinda dope?!

i feel like im on to something here, if i cut a set of like, 30 tiles, painted them all up like that or similar, packed them as an unpainted set but advertised them with a paintjob as a "heres what it could be" kinda thing, i feel like im ight be able to sell a bunch, especially cheap since its probably like $4 in materials to cut 30 tiles.

Neat! I've done tons of laser cutting and engraving but I was never much for painting, so stuff like this looks amazing to me.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2022 18:37

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

That sounds alright to me, but since we're process people here you can easily make it feel like less of an ad by adding a little bit about the back end, or something that was easier/harder/feels risky about the whole thing, etc.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2022 20:14

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

queeb posted:

Here's a fun one. Someone wanted to buy a building I had, but printed down to 15mm scale, from its original 32mm. Huge shrink. It had some very intricate window things that when shrunk just would not print as it became too fine. THe guy was really nice and still wanted it even with the fucky windows, but I dont want to send something like that, so I said gimme a day or two and some CAD time and ill see what I can do.

Pretty happy with these! They fit first attempt, and hell, I think they look nicer than the original ones lol. I might prime them grey to match but I'll see what the dude that bought it wants, but yeah, really happy!

here's the fail

and the new ones i made:

Old reply, but this is a super clever solution. Nice work!

# ¿ Jan 10, 2023 00:13

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I'm looking at splitting STL files, but not planar slice for printing -- I want to split a single model into technically-separate pieces for purposes of messing with printing in multiple colors.

Last time I did that I think muddled through it using meshmixer to draw the lines where I wanted the model separated and go from there. I don't really remember the workflow, though.

Anyone have any suggestions on the best tool / technique (or better yet, a link to a tutorial) for doing that? It's the kind of thing that searching for it is pretty useless.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2023 00:25

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

BlackIronHeart posted:

I use Blender, this is a 10 minute tutorial on how to do it and it works with the latest version of the program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moPDPB4MY2U

I appreciate it! That got me working enough to figure out a clunky but functional workflow. Thanks!

# ¿ Jan 10, 2023 19:36

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I was asking about separating 3d models into separate pieces (for the purposes of multicolor printing) a few days ago, and just a heads up that Bambu Labs' slicer (Bambu Studio) has some crazy good tools for assigning colors to models for exactly this purpose that are pretty easy to use.
https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/software/bambu-studio/color-painting-tool

e: aaaaaaaand it crashes out whenever I try to slice the result, hopes dashed :effort:

ee: Ultimately works, but the coloring tool doesn't actually create multi-part models that can be exported or anything. Still, as long as you're staying in the slicer it's a much faster way to mark areas of a model for coloring compared to messing in Blender or Meshmixer.

The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Jan 14, 2023

# ¿ Jan 14, 2023 07:21

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Coating the inside of a 3D printed mold with beeswax is a pretty clever solution.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 08:14

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I've been trying out some ideas of my own in that direction. I see the value in offering "sets", too.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 20:04

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I kind of see two use cases: parts enough to create an entire dungeon layout, or enough parts to build ad-hoc "battle maps" as needed.

My own limited experience is that #2 is more actually useful gaming-wise, but I suspect people chasing #1 are the folks who are spending the $$$ :shrug:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 21:42

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Electric Hobo posted:

What kind of ink do you use to tint resin? I'm getting some clear resin for flight stands, but I might as well tint it and use it for other things too.

Rit-dye (their synthetics line) in my limited experience dyed resin prints really well. So that might be an option if you don't want to gently caress with the resin itself.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 02:16

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

I really like the way that 3d Builder snaps parts to the centers & edges, etc of other parts.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2023 19:12

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Holy moses these are adorable

Just something I stumbled on from reddit

The incorporation of high quality fake eye (doll eye?) is really clever.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2023 21:19

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Sometimes you just want to stick with a tool you know that does the job, that's valid.

You could also use PrusaSlicer to add text, etc to a model then export to a new STL/3MF and use that in your favorite workflow instead of trying to migrate entirely to a new slicer.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2023 17:37

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

This is maybe a bit of a long shot, but can anyone happen to recommend to me a good 3D (by which I mean 3D-printable) model for a wrecked tank? Ideally a T-xx model tank.

Something along these lines https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-wrecked-t80-battle-tank/683847 (except that one's a 'game asset' 3D model and it's almost $50)

I want to 3D print a wrecked tank to use as a flowerpot, and grow my sunflower sprouts in it

# ¿ Jul 26, 2023 00:40

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Thanks for the link, not quite what I'm looking for but it got me thinking of just modifying my own and led me to find these good options:

https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/1-100-t-80-t-80b-t-80bv/
and https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/1-100-t-64-family/

Which gives me enough to work with (aka spend an hour or so futzing around until I decide if it's too much work or not :v:

)

# ¿ Jul 26, 2023 23:58

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

God, that's the main reason I still use an old abandonware CAD program as my main ride. I definitely have outgrown it... but it's hard to make the time and attention to devote to learning a whole new suite when the old comfy program is RIGHT THERE and I know how to use it :sigh:

this is absolutely holding me back, I know

# ¿ Jul 27, 2023 20:37

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

You're absolutely guaranteed to rip your FEP and scratch your screen if you're using a silicon spatula :v:

# ¿ Jul 30, 2023 21:28

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

IncredibleIgloo posted:

These are adorable. They look so happy!

# ¿ Aug 4, 2023 02:01

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

Roller Coast Guard posted:

How much effort is it to rescale a .stl file? If I see something on a public download that I'd like to get printed but enlarged or shrunk slightly, is that something that takes a few seconds to amend like a image file would in your photo editing package of choice, or is it more complex than that?

It's nearly zero effort. STL is a "unitless" format the dimensions are set but the scale isn't. In 3D printing models are assumed to be measured in millimeters. Resizing/scaling a photo in an image editor is a pretty good comparison.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2023 22:31

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:58

The Eyes Have It: Feb 10, 2008; Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

One of those irrigators you see from labs with alcohol is great for washing tricky spots.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2023 00:50

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