Exporting for multimaterial 3D printing

Grasshopper ShapeDiver
1

I am using ShapeDiver export download for exporting 3MF file for multimaterial 3D printing which means that I export multiple meshes positioned in a precise manner. The problem is that all meshes that are exported are in a flat structure (not grouped). Many of the slicers like Bambu Studio does not recognise the multi mesh model as an assembly but as separate parts and puts them on the “floor” ruining the model. I tried to inject some attributes based on cheat sheet

but its not working - not grouping them like it does with DXF files which unfortunatelly Bambu Studio does not support.
Am I doing something wrong? Can you help me?

2

If you use Rhino to export a 3MF file, does the grouping work as expected?

3

More precisely: if you manage to export files with Rhino according to your needs, please let us know exactly which export options you are using. It is possible that not all options are exposed in our component in that case, or that the default value is not the one you expect.

4

Hi Mathieu and Alexander. Thanks for your responses. So I tried grouping objects in Rhino with group command and putting them in separate layers. What I found with that is that 3MF exports as flat list (ungrouped) and AMF is even worse - it just puts every part in the center (doesnt care about model world coordinates). STL is obviously just merges everything into a single disjoint mesh. So no success with that approach.

I just was just experimenting in Rhino with Blocks. I added 2 meshes to Block 01 and another single mesh to Block 02 exported as 3MF, imported in Bambu Studio and it works! The names of the objects have not been saved but it seams that whatever Rhino exported as Block, Bambu Studio reads that as assembly so all parts can be printed properly.

Now question is how do I assign parts to blocks in Grasshopper. I will probably figure this out but maybe you have a clue?

5

In Rhino 8, you should be able to use the new Model Object components to create blocks and send them to a ShapeDiver export component:

image
image1712×636 138 KB

250410_BlocksTest.gh (14.1 KB)

In this definition, I tested exporting blocks to a 3dm file, but it should also work with 3mf. Please test with this format and let me know if it works as expected.

6

It works with exporting 3DM file but not with 3MF. When I try export 3MF locally via ShapeDiver Download Export it give me a message “There was nothing to be exported”.

7

I could reproduce the issue, we have already fixed it and will make it part of the next plugin release (likely before the end of april).

8

Sounds great! Thanks!