Many 3D printers are able to output very tiny details, 0,2 mm for solidscape, but at this size problems often came from cast .
0.5 mm is usual deep for jewelry.
Could you please post an example of how the FlowAlongSrf command works with ConstrainNormal=Yes to solve the original poster’s example (inside of the ring)?
Also perhaps an example of adding positive draft to, say, the letter “B” with “Scale1D command twice”?
Times_B.3dm (33.4 KB)
Many thanks.
–Mitch
Well, I bow to the vast experience of people here who are actually making jewelry, which is something I do not do. My only experience is limited to the CNC engraving of some curved surfaces for various ID projects I have prototyped, and there the engraving was always on the outside (positive curvature) and the depths rarely exceeded 0.3mm.
–Mitch
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Could you please do your homework?
I did mine already, please do yours.
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Yeah, I realize now .7mm is bad idea for this particular ring. I’m redoing the whole thing so good catch.
Question: With Gemvision/Matrix there is Tsplines. So what do you mean you use Tsplines to do your lettering? Same process with boolean, etc, but you are in Tspline mode? Does this get rid of triangles?
@Cyver I agree. As @Helvetosaur wrote I think .3mm is about as deep as I would go and often for engraving like this done in CAD fro the inside of a ring I go less. I have been printing and direct casting with an Asiga for about 4 years and now a Solus. Both produce details finer than will survive casting which we do all in house. The detail of the Solus is amazing.
From what I have seen a CNC like a Mira will do super fine details and the wax produced will survive the investment/casting better than resin …but once again I don`t see this font surviving the casting at this scale/depth…so making the ring in CAD is a bit of a waste if it is intended to be made.
But I am always open to learn and things always improve so if someone can show me this font to this scale to a depth of .7mm printed/milled and cast I genuinely would be interested to see the gear used to do it.
For me at the moment there are some fonts that will not survive the casting process. I try to avoid them but if the customer really wants them I get out the Gravograph and diamond drag engrave the metal object. I don`t even try to carbide engrave. Better still get a hand engraver to do it.
I think a good point for @richardpowell.powell to consider is that what looks large in CAd with jewellery often is smaller detail than both matters or is manufacturable.
When I first started doing my jewellery in CAD someone told me to put a 1mm diamond in every file and have it visible to give me a constant reminder of real size. I found it helped and if you look at some of those font ends compared a to a 1mm diamond in your file I think you will see what I mean @richardpowell.powell.
Good luck @richardpowell.powell .
@richardpowell.powell so this how I do it using t-splines. You have to remember that I save these fonts for reuse. I also do mainly high end pieces so for low end stuff the time might not warrant the effort. This letter is 2.8mm high and .3mm deep and I have successfully cast it in the past
Create your curve and extrude to the depth you want.
Then you angle the walls to your preference and close in the bottom nice and smooth. To finish off go back to the top and extrude horizontally to give you a nice round top edge. Helps if you know t-splines here.
Make a copy of your t-spline in case you need to make adjustments or for reuse. Convert to nurbs and trim it into your surface.
Out at a more realistic view the letter still looks sharp.
Up close nice and smooth for renders, assist metal flow and minimise the risk of investment damage during casting.
HTH.
I think you might also be able to make similarly nice slightly rounded letters with a heightfield from some 2D graphics using zSurf - maybe @jim has an example… The result could then be flowed to the inside of the ring.
@Helvetosaur I have tried that Mitch and @richardpowell.powell might find that easier than t-splines. There is another thread where I think this was talked about a lot.
The benefit of t-splines I find Mitch is that if I have one part of a letter or word that is causing me problems in casting I can go in there and very specifically tweak it. Might be more my limtiations than Rhino`s but I find heightfield not as flexible and fast for alterations.
BTW…yes the flow to the inside of the ring is the way to go whatever method you choose to create the text IMO. Working on the flat is the way to go.
Yep, unfortunately T-splines for Rhino is no longer available and it wouldn’t run on the Mac side anyway; Clayoo certainly exists, but IIRC they won’t port to Mac Rhino either…
I believe he has a copy of Matrix that comes with t-Splines. I think all the new versions of Matrix now ship with Clayoo since stuller bought TDM. He can do the same using Clayoo or he might find the heighfield method easier.
For me I will sit in Rhino 5 until another sub-d option comes along or Clayoo gets better. Pretty sure I read someone from TDM say that Clayoo is not coming to the Mac as well. I am on the Mac.
There is now a version of Clayoo for Rhino 6.
FWIW, here is my admittedly poor attempt to do this with only Rhino and Photoshop - no T-Splines or other add-ins.
- Made some letters in PS and used “OuterGlow” to soften and blend the edges (a bit too much)
- Saved as a PNG
- Used Heightfield in Rhino (V6) and created a control point surface - has about 500 points in the “long” direction.
- Flowed the surface into the inside of the ring (Flow or FlowAlongSrf).
- Need to have patience when the surface to be flowed has a lot of points - it’s a bit slow.
–Mitch
(note that I am the world’s second worst Photoshop user, I’m sure an expert user could do much better)
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@Helvetosaur LOL nice job but not too sure about you being the second worst photoshop user…but it does have me wondering who you think the worst is.
I have no idea but I always have to comfort myself in the fact that someone, somewhere, has to be worse than me… 
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Wow, you guys are really dropping some knowledge on me! Thank you for all the input and sharing you experts are doing with each other. In the meantime, I’ve been learning the basics which clearly is what I needed. I’m having a lot more success now that I know the basics like merging surfaces.
In terms of 3d Printing or making jewelry from Rhino or any software… you are right that what seems large enough is often too small in reality. But like someone said… .5mm is large enough for almost all printing and casting. .2mm or even .1mm is possible, but only the Solidscape Max or Solidscape Pro’s can print wax in that level of detail.
I’m just a poor school teacher by day and make jewelry as a hobby. So I have to use 3d Hubs to print my designs and those guys only have FormLabs which are pretty good cause they print castable resin. But the level of detail is nothing like a Solidscape Pro or Solidscape Max.
If anyone knows a hub that lets you print your designs on those printers, I’ll buy you a beer.
Shapeways will do waxes but I have no idea if they are good enough… (not a jewelry guy)
Here is a (perhaps) slightly nicer version, a bit crisper. There is still a minor amount of artifacting with the heightfield, but it might work OK for some purposes.
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No, if I remember correctly, they use something like older Envisiontec wax printers which were good for 10 years ago but nothing like the Solidscapes of today. Also, Shapeways has ridiculous rules about your model because they fear wax breaks in shipment.
That is not true and I don`t think he said “only”. There are many printers that can compete with that level of detail. I printed daily items with the level of that detail on a 4 year old Asiga and now a Solus. The main issue with your set up in Cad was the .7mm depth…secondly the narrowest sections of your font.
The Asiga cost me $10k Au and the Solus $5k Au. The Solus makes better prints than my first rev Asiga Pico, is much faster, the build area is larger and product support is unbelievable. Don`t be fooled by big dollars on a printer = good quality. I looked at buying a $25k Au Kevvox printer on a locked platform using their $800 Au a litre resin for about 2 seconds before saying no.
This I believe was printed by Monger on the Solus boards on a V1 of the Solus. That is a strand of hair and I believe that is cured castable B9 Cherry resin. The resin I prefer to direct cast even over the hugely popular B9 Emerald. I am not a fan of the Asiga resins.
There are more samples of prints from the Solus in B9 Emerald/Cherry and other prototyping resins on this page.
http://www.reify-3d.com/gallery/
Also with printing the person using the tool has a lot to do with the results. Experience helps a lot in getting good results. That starts with your design in CAD, supports size and orientation during print, the size and placements of sprues for metal flow…the resin/material printed and most of all the burnout and casting process.
Point here is that you can give someone a great printer or printing service and they will find a way to produce terrible prints/results.