Hi all! Has anyone tried using a 3D printer with models made in Houdini? I got in on the RigidBot Kickstarter campaign just before it ended a few days ago.
I just added direct support for saving/loading ASCII and Binary STL files for the daily build that should be out in a few hours, though there's an executable named “gstl” that was already included for converting to/from STL files.
I've also tried to make an asset for making a honeycomb support structure, but there are a few kinks to work out. I know that Peak moves points by their normals, but is there a good way to move polygons by their normals, and then keep only the “inside” region? Of course, it may be difficult (or even ill-defined) for non-convex regions, but maybe other people have tried to do the same thing before.
Michael Kessler, one of the big brains here at R+H Vancouver, showed at the last VHUG meeting a bunch of 3D Printed objects that he output from Houdini. It was pretty cool
With most low-cost 3D printer setups, that sort of very intricate work would mean a HUGE amount of clean-up, because the surfaces are usually ridged because of the plastic filament, and there are often stray connections because the print nozzles often can't stop emitting plastic when jumping between pieces that are disconnected within a 2D layer. There might be a way to mitigate the second issue by sending custom control operations instead of using the usual slicing approach, but then there's a ton of software work to get it right.
I've done a fair bit of printing. To hollow out print models I usually make an isosurface with a negative offset from the exterior shell. This can make your interior geo quite heavy but it prevents any issues with concavity. It's an especially attractive workflow since the introduction of VDB
we recently did some previs work for nike which was partially 3d printed in the end. All of it was done in Houdini. You can check it out here: http://www.deskriptiv.de/projekte/flyknit [deskriptiv.de]
