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Author Topic: 3-D printer files?  (Read 1301 times)

Offline Captain Gars

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 35
3-D printer files?
« on: January 01, 2019, 03:01:24 AM »
My brother acquired a new 3-D printer. I don't know what brand.

Could you pass along any websites that sell or have free "files" that would be useful for historical gaming?

Thanks in advance.

Offline DavyJones

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 220
    • GlueandDice.com - Adventures in small worlds
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2019, 06:46:31 AM »
Just two quick links:

https://www.printablescenery.com has a lot of stuff.

https://holvi.com/shop/6GWBSw/ only a few, but they are nice

Offline ichwillauch

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 494
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2019, 07:28:27 AM »
You can find free files on thingiverse.

You can find a free program called 3d builder on Microsoft sites. This program can repair meshes and cut files.
In combination with 3d programs like blender or google sketchup other free libraries can be used.

For example google sketchup warehouse has the german ww2 midget submarine "biber". After downloading the file, it can be opened in google sketchup and saved as *stl file. After that open the file with 3d builder to repair the mesh and waterline the model. Now it's ready to print.

Offline zemjw

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
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  • Posts: 2091
    • My blog
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2019, 09:00:12 AM »
One I only just heard about this morning is MyMiniFactory - https://www.myminifactory.com/

It looks like they do a mix of free and paid for stuff, but I haven't explored the site yet

Offline Hami

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 116
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2019, 12:40:24 PM »
I have recently purchased a 3D Printer (Christmas present to myself). There are many Websites out there that allow you to purchase or download for free.

As previously said there are software out there that allows you to slice and edit .stl files or create .stl files.

I use a mixture of Cura and/or Slic3r for my printing programs.

You are able to use Blender to create your own, but that takes some time to learn the software, unless you have previous experience with it.

Offline digid

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 75
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2019, 06:37:41 AM »
I just purchased a 3d printer for myself for Christmas also. I purchased a Ender 3, and have been having a blast.
I purchased some stuff from https://www.printablescenery.com/ and really am happy with what I have printed so far.
Lots of free stuff on thingiverse also, some of it is hit or miss but for the price I can not complain.

My only complaint is I am thinking about buying a 2nd printer, that way I can turn out twice as much terrain.

Dale



Offline Captain Gars

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 35
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2019, 02:30:26 AM »
Thanks again for the pointers and replies.

I had lunch with my brother yesterday and it turns out that his machine is an Ender (cost about $250). He brought along some of the items he has printed and I was very impressed by what he has turned out.

Offline Hami

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 116
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #7 on: February 14, 2019, 11:41:32 PM »

My only complaint is I am thinking about buying a 2nd printer, that way I can turn out twice as much terrain.

Dale

you have started to go down that slippery slope my good friend. My cousin prints from Thingiverse and some of the stuff I design for his Star Wars games.

I am loving the fact I have freedom to print what I want. I have just spent all of December designing and all of January printing a village for my Dad's up coming King Arthur Games (end product can be found here http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=115106.0).


Offline The Dozing Dragon

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3939
    • The Little Soldier Company
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #8 on: February 14, 2019, 11:58:30 PM »
I backed a pirate town Kickstarter a while back without looking into 3rd party printing costs.....eek! I'll have to wait until I get my own printer  :'(

Offline Hami

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 116
Re: 3-D printer files?
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2019, 06:49:31 AM »
the things you need to look at is cost of every day running:

Electricity (I can say that I left it printing for 12hours) and altough it went up, it wasn't by much. maybe a few pence in my day to day electricity costs.

PLA - I use PLA, its around £20 for Kilo (300m approx). Once you pass the initial setting up phase and you have run your test prints etc. you don't really waste anything.

Files - there are enough free files out there that you don't really need to buy anything, unless you want top of the range prints.

Printer - I had a cheap one to start with. I then bought a better quality one and you can tell the difference (on the Dads Thread, the failed Pigsty was done on the cheap Chinese printer, the rest was done on my new one).