Is Form Z suitable for 3D printing parts with real world dimensions?

[CMick]

Hi there,

Is Form Z suitable for creating 3d printed objects/models/parts that could be suitably put together in an assembly and actually fit together?

I believe this is the area of the Solids modeller, which I believe Form Z is.

Does anyone here have actual real-world experience they could share and advise if I am on the correct path or should I look elsewhere before investing too much time?

 

Best regards.

[Gary]

I have had parts and models printed from FormZ. Clean, solid modeling helps. 

[vva]

use the snap function and set the accuracy to 0.2mm .
to get "watertight" geometry.
I exported as .stp file and after prototype printing the same stp file went to China for production.

Good Luck!

vva

[nano]

I've done a lot of production work with models generated with FormZ. It usually produces pretty good STL and other geometry output. Depending on the eventual output system you might have to do some 'healing' with various mesh editors. Despite being constructed as solids the exterior mesh is still the main way they interact with output devices.

And also a lot of problems are introduced with the slicer or print driver that is used depending on the printer and materials and their resolution. eg aluminium vs PLA vs Stereolith liquids etc..

Same with various  CAM sculptors and drills, water jet and  plasma cutters etc.

I'd recommend you look at something like MeshLab to fine check and clean up or heal any issues in the geometry if you get any.

There are quite a few other good open source or free utility geometry checkers like the old Autocad Meshmixer or even something like Ultimaker Cura. They are pretty good now at identifying likely issues in the output or print process. 

I have had a few really odd issues with scientific geometry output from GIS and data capture systems that I could not totally fix in FormZ that had really odd things going on. eg A recent one where it was a data point cloud recording of audio spectrograph data from Antartica deep ocean audio devices that had to be converted to a solid model and then radial sliced for a sculpture. We eventually used the new shrinkwrap function in Rhino to wrap the data object and create a capped solid that would work, but all the other work was done in FormZ. I'd like to see that function added to FormZ so you could wrap a point cloud or other mesh structure and create a reliable solid to bypass mesh problems. I have attached an image of a transparent material walled version of one of those structures of a months worth of undersea data.