New to Wings3D - suitability question.

[argo]

Hello all.

Wings 3D first-timer here. I have come to W3D from Sketchup as I'm looking for modelling software that is suited for 3D-printing, specifically for radio-control aircraft mould making.

Certainly liking the look of W3D so far, but before I spend the time learning to become proficient could someone advise if it does the following?

- Produce STL models that are accurate to around 0.5mm? And allow models to be built dimensionally, rather than 'by eye'?

- Allow solids to be intersected (boolean) and then make the resultant model a solid again? Especially with organic models?

My current project is a slope glider, which requires the wing section to be intersected with the fuselage. Pictures worth a 100 words so I'll add one to this post.

Hopefully I could trouble you kind folks for some advice :-)

Many thanks in advance, Brendan (argo).

[oort]

argo,
Welcome to Wings3d and the forum.

You can enter exact numbers by using the Tab key at the appropriate time. There are also the Absolute Commands which include controls for scale, move, and snap.

I would guess the accuracy would depend on the limits of 3D printing.

In order to do boolean operations you will need to use ggaliens ManifoldLab build of Wings3D or his plugin.

Here is another thread where 3d printing is discussed... 3D Printing Wings3D

I do not have any experience with this so my help, as you see, is very limited.

You can export your model from Sketchup as .obj and import that into Wings3D. You will probably need to do some cleaning up after you import it. I have done this in the past but it has been years ago.

Hopefully you will be able to do what you want and can post a picture of your 3d printed model...

oort

[nanakisan]

Wow i will say that is quite the intriguing shape. If you do get any fluid results would love to see them. As for 3D Printing, the field itself has been ever expanding. How large per say is your model going to be? Because most home desktop printers that use extruder systems. Are typically limited to 5x10x5, one printer i've seen lately that seems to have promise is the MakiBot that sells for $200 USD.

[Justanother1]

As far as real world scale I can't be sure, but I've used Wings3d to build Game Models(Trackmania Cars). The scaling seems to be the same as 3DSMax, which is based on Metric. To import them into the game they had to fit in a specified size bounding box, Parts had to carry certain names. I actually had to use the old Blender 2.4x with a script to do the importing, but all the modeling was in Wings3D ...