Index of 3D Printed Terrain Stl Files

[Elstree]

Originally Posted by White Knight

OK, let's see if you can follow this. Let me know if you have questions. I'm using the two hex tile.
[...snip...]

Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to get started! Once I got the hang of it, I started exploring other tools. If anyone else wants to try their hand at Blender, here are a few other tips I figured out:

• Clicking Translate or Scale twice will open the numerical dialog box below without the hazard of straying through the work area and accidentally dragging the selected points around.
  
  
• Clicking "a" will release any vertices you have selected (assuming there are some; otherwise it's select all).
  
  
• Clicking in the work area will place the target cursor. You can then type Alt+Home to recenter the screen on this point. This makes it much easier to zoom in on tight areas. (One of the hardest things I've found in Blender is moving the view around. Other tips on this would be welcome.)
  
  
• Under view, you can turn on the Properties toolbar. When you select a point, you'll see it's xyz coordinates. (You can use this to make sure pairs of points are lined up properly on the same grid lines.)
  
  
• To measure the length of an edge, first change the select tool to "edge" using the button on the bottom toolbar. Then in the Property toolbar, scroll down and check the "length" checkbox. The lengths of each edge will now be displayed next to the selected segment. (Very helpful for double checking segment lengths after making changes!)
  
  
• I haven't yet found a way to directly measure the distance between two selected points, but you can create a temporary edge and find its length, then undo it (CTL+z). Right click to select the first point, then shift+right click to select the second one. Then on the left-hand sidebar menu, scroll down to the Mesh Tools section and under Add: find the Make Edge/Face button. Click this to create an edge and view its length, then undo it.

By the way, there's some weirdness going on with the geometry in that double-hex file. The two points of each hex marking the interior edge of the lip along the faces where the two hexes meet are off. Specifically, they're slightly too far apart compared to the others, and a little closer to the center as well. I assume srmalloy moved these points to create a narrower neck in the middle that would interfere less with neighboring tiles.

Still, it disturbed my wa so I had to "fix" it and make that interior perimeter a true hexagon again. (We'll see how "fixed" it is when I get the printed version back in a week or so. My guess is I'll see why he did what he did once I see why mine won't fit right!)

[Elstree]

Whoa! @White_Knight, I just looked at some of your .stls in Blender and that is some sophisticated stuff! The rounded corners on those tree bases, the tree base rocks, that tree trunk! Do you have access to a laser scanner or something?

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by Elstree

Whoa! @White_Knight, I just looked at some of your .stls in Blender and that is some sophisticated stuff! The rounded corners on those tree bases, the tree base rocks, that tree trunk! Do you have access to a laser scanner or something?

Ha! I wish!

Some of the parts (mostly the hexes and some bases) I made in Pro Engineer CREO. Some of the parts (the Heroscape trees) are from VirtualScape files. Most of the complex parts (tree trunk, etc...) are taken from the internet (mostly thingiverse.com and yeggi.com) and altered just slightly by me in Blender.

The .stl files of mine that are scanned are the Heroscape figures. A group of us took a suite of pictures of each figure and used 123D Catch to turn them into .obj models. Then we used Blender to clean them up and add bases. Unfortunately 123D Catch by Autodesk has been discontinued. I heard that 3DF Zephyr can convert photos to 3D models as well, but I haven't tried it.

[JairEmia]

Hey I am sure its been asked before, but have any of you found a clear blue pla that is close in look to older sparkle water tiles? would like to print up some waterfalls on my ender 3 but would rather they matched. I appreciate any help you can give me.

[Dad_Scaper]

JairEmia! Where did you come from???

Good to see you looking in on us, friend.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by JairEmia

Hey I am sure its been asked before, but have any of you found a clear blue pla that is close in look to older sparkle water tiles? would like to print up some waterfalls on my ender 3 but would rather they matched. I appreciate any help you can give me.

Not me. I haven't tried to match the water tiles yet.

[MementoMori]

I have the feeling that it might be easier to match color with PET than with PLA

[japes]

I have a quick question. I'm getting ready to add an Ender 3 to my Christmas wishlist. What type of filament would you recommend for a first timer that is planning on printing some figures and perhaps some terrain?

[Tornado]

I will ask my friend what he got, it seems to work pretty good.
I know the gray was pretty awesome and looked great for terrain, like ruins.
He has been on a huge glow in the dark kick, printing out a bunch of different colored dragon heads.

[Yodaking]

White/black/grey are all good base colors for mini painting. As for the different plastics, I'm not familiar enough with both to recommend one over the other but I've seen people in the past say they get better results with one (don't recall which one though) with their printer and paints.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by japes

I have a quick question. I'm getting ready to add an Ender 3 to my Christmas wishlist. What type of filament would you recommend for a first timer that is planning on printing some figures and perhaps some terrain?

I like white PLA for miniatures and black PLA for items I don't plan to paint. The white shows off the details better. The black looks better as a finished product.


I've used other colors, but just for specific things. (Green for pine trees, brown for bases, etc...)

[japes]

Originally Posted by White Knight

I like white PLA for miniatures and black PLA for items I don't plan to paint. The white shows off the details better. The black looks better as a finished product.


I've used other colors, but just for specific things. (Green for pine trees, brown for bases, etc...)

I wasn't too far off. My initial but was clear PLA since I thought it was versatile.