Applications of Three Dimensional Printing

@HiramO posted:

I build custom buildings for my own pike and for our club layout in Maine. I recently posted looking for anyone interested in producing architectural medallions for a scale building. Price not an issue, I got no responses. What am I missing? Is this a concept, rather than a commercial reality?

@HiramO

If you are referring to the ornate decorations on these buildings in the in the photos below, I am with you 100%. I do not have the CAD education and skills to design my own. So, I would be interested in purchasing ones that others make. All photos were taken by me of buildings around Mt. Vernon Place in downtown Baltimore, Maryland.

@HiramO posted:

I build custom buildings for my own pike and for our club layout in Maine. I recently posted looking for anyone interested in producing architectural medallions for a scale building. Price not an issue, I got no responses. What am I missing? Is this a concept, rather than a commercial reality?

Hiram, where is your layout in Maine? I went to a club open house somewhere in L-A a few months ago on my way to Sidney. Even bought a little steam loco to surprise my granddaughter. L-A is about 2-1/2 hours for me but I'd be interested if you folks are somewhere more southern, as I live in the NH seacoast.

Thanks, Bob

Not ignoring you, just thinking how to answer.  In short the commercial reality is you go to a 3D company and pay a lot if you don't have a model. 

In the hobby not having a model is the brick wall.  Making "sculptured" shapes is advanced level CAD.  Fine details require resin printers.   There may be someone on the site that has a Resin printer and CAD ability, but like me not be able to do custom orders.

I want to make an O scale Shinkansen type O.  I haven't found any models and the original prints are not available.   It will take months of work.

I moved this to the proper forum.

If you have high resolution Raster images (jpg, png etc.) they can be converted to Vector images.  Raster images are composed of a fixed number of square pixels. This means Raster files can become distorted if you resize them beyond the amount of space the pixels were meant to fill.  Vector images don’t use pixels. They’re created with mathematical equations, lines, and curves — using points fixed on a grid — which means images can be made infinitely larger (or smaller) without losing resolution. Basically, vectors don’t lose quality when resized and can be saved as 3D printable objects.  This is done via software and does not require extensive CAD knowledge or experience.  As Val noted... the level of detail expected for the type of objects discussed herein would require a Resin printer.

If you're talking about stuff like what @Randy Harrison posted, it's definitely out of my wheelhouse in terms of printing. I'm an FDM guy at the moment and this looks like a resin job. The CAD isn't straightforward either. I've never used the method @Dennis-LaRock is talking about but it sounds handy. I wonder if Solidworks can do it.

On a CAD level it's way beyond me Bill!  Ray (sidehack) is the only one I know that could do something like this straight from CAD.  I have pulled a couple of images into Corel Draw converted them and then printed them with Fusion 360 and it works very well... but, as I have an FDM printer ...the detail was definitely lacking for this type of 3D print.

I have never converted an image into a model but I have used an image as a template. I just traced over it in CAD, basically. It's a nifty idea. I'm still in the process of creating gcode files to run on my new printer. I have 48 out of 183ish complete. I will look into this once I'm done.

@HiramO posted:

I build custom buildings for my own pike and for our club layout in Maine. I recently posted looking for anyone interested in producing architectural medallions for a scale building. Price not an issue, I got no responses. What am I missing? Is this a concept, rather than a commercial reality?

If you become a digital subscriber, you will gain access to the OGR 3d digital catalog. There are two buildings there that might be of interest to you, the Cincinnati Union Terminal, and the Edmonton, Alberta Fire Hall No. 8. And there are many structure details, Doors, HVAC, Roofing, Stairs, Walls, and Windows. See if you can use any of those resources which are ready to print, and then add new resources to the catalog as you and others develop them.