3D Models in REVIT, SOLID WORKS, Z PRINT & 3D RAPID PROTOTYPER

This week was a huge experimentation one trying out Revit, Solid Works, Z Print and the 3D rapid prototypes in the industrial workshop.

REVIT
Steps of how to bring blender model into revit and scale it up to be able to cut sections through etc. below:
1 - Bring model into revit (import)
2 - Look on google maps to gauge the scale of the site and measure something (I measured the story bridge was 30m wide).
3 - Back in Revit, draw a ML (model line) on the floor plan at 30 000 (as have set it up in mm)
4 - Scale up the model according to this by: select model/ modify/ scale/ click the 3 following points (1. edge of bridge., 2. other edge of bridge that I want to stretch to the 30 000 mark., 3. point where I want the model scaled up to which is the 30 000 mark).
This made for some interesting sections, but they were cluttered with trees etc.

SOLID WORKS
The workshop informed me that I had to pass the blender file through solid works before it would successfully print in the rapid prototyper (powder)... which didn't turn out to be the case! But I learnt a lot in the process.

I started by fixing up the faces of my imported STL file in Solid works so that it would print the 3D form properly. I spent ages and was told that I wasn't allowed to use the whole cone shape for my stage shell, but had to shell it to waste less powder before sending to print. This defeated me stitching it up in Blender in the first place (!!!!!!) but at least I got to practice my facing skills in Blender so wasn't a waste of time.

The way to thicken the shell in solid works was to 1/ select the outside faces of the shell I wanted to form together (as an outside surface) and then thicken them. I selected feature recognition from the top tool bars/ thicken/ thick outwards 0.05 so that it would print to be 5mm thick. Then save as stl unit in meters.

For the intricate web, I spent hours trying to heal all to close up all the faces but I couldn't get them all healed. Then simon walked in and said I didn't need to do that anyway and could have just copied and pasted the shape straight into Z Print by literally dragging it straight in!

So that was that! And I'll go to pick up my models tomorrow to see if they work. For the record, the lady next to me just modeled up a sketchup model and saved it as 3DS which was perfectly fine to once again COPY and PASTE straight into the Z Print file without converting it at all! This then fills up a box on the screen with all the models to print in the overnight session.


Below is a picture of the 3D rapid prototyper:

The white powder that forms our models looks like this: