[x3d-public] Fitness of X3D for 3D Printing?

[Alekseyev, Vsevolod (NIH/NIAID) [E]]

X3D support is coming to Cura in the next release: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/pull/914https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/pull/914 . There's no support for NURBS geometries, or any kind of curved geometry for that matter. Cura was built with STL in mind, its internal mesh format is a triangle set. I didn't feel like hand-tesselating NURBS.

Other slicers that are based on Cura code might follow suit. I also have X3D import code for CuraEngine (distinct from Cura proper), which some slicers are using, but haven't submitted it anywhere yet.

X3D import/export modules for Blender don't support NURBS. Blender, as far as I know, does support NURBS in some way, so there might be a way to implement import/export with relatively little effort. I didn't explore the possibility so far.

As for the color mixing, I'll let the more knowledgeable people speak of what is and what is not in the standard.


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From: patola at makerlinux.com.br [patola at makerlinux.com.br]
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2016 10:09 AM
To: x3d-public at web3d.org
Subject: [x3d-public] Fitness of X3D for 3D Printing?


      Hello all, I am a new member, I was just subscribed to this list. I am a 3D printing professional in Brazil (for low-cost, mostly open-source 3D printers). I searched thoroughly through the list archives but could not really find my answer. I am looking forward to try and implement import and export plugins in Blender for a 3d-printing friendly format. I looked into the standards for both AMF and 3MF, and they do not seem really appropriate. 3MF is nice and full of stuff but does not have any kind of curves, splines or NURBS. AMF has curved triangles and also allows you to specify a formula for the curve, but this seems kind of out of hand compared to "real" NURBS. And since some artifacts - specially in the amount of material extruded - appear from the interpolation of triangles to approximate three-dimensional curves, actual NURBS support would be essential for precise 3D prints.

      Then I stumbled upon X3D, which is already implemented in Blender. The latest status of the x3d support seems that from 2015: http://www.web3d.org/news-story/improved-blender-import-x3d-scenes

      However, it was not very clear to me if X3D, and its blender import/export addon, would support something fit for material mixing. FDM 3d printer extruders with the capability to additive mix of colors are being sold right now, and support for mixing them is already being implemented in firmware too (with "virtual extruders" for the mixing). Both 3MF and AMF have proper support for this, AMF having even coordinate-dependent mixtures support. I have read in the specs that currently X3D only supports subtractive light, and also no gradient or mixing for materials, is that right?

      Does anyone else on this list deals specifically with 3D printing? I am not aware of X3D support in any slicer currently. I am curious as to the fitness of this file format for this task. Am I asking too much? Or maybe it just does not fit its intended purpose?



      Best regards,

      Cláudio (Patola)


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