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Post by jennifer on Feb 25, 2016 0:40:26 GMT
jennifer can you point me in the direction of a good tutorial on how to work in blender -- with measurements on? All the tutorials I've stumbled on are mushy -- I want to be able to make something that has hard dimensions, like 2x2", etc. Many thanks in advance! I just imported an STL file into Blender, which I created from a Sketchup drawing at 2x2 inches. Observed the X and Y values for this in Blender after import and it says: 50.8mm for X and 50.8mm for Y. So it converted that 2" x 2" to metric in millimeters. 50.8mm x 50.8mm is exactly 2x2 inches. However, when I hand create my stuff in Blender I use 2.0 for X and 2.0 for Y. This keeps it in inches. And then I just use fraction of inches for the rest. Then when I export that blender project to an STL and open in MakerBot Desktop it asks me if I want to re-scale because it is so tiny. I say yes and it figures it out. It converts that 2x2 unit blender project into 50.8mm by 50.8mm. So it figured out automatically somehow that I meant the 2 x 2 units to be in inches. Then you can save the STL file from MakerBot Desktop as STL and it'll stay at 50.8mm x 50.8mm without asking you to re-scale it in the future. |
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Post by jennifer on Feb 25, 2016 2:16:39 GMT
.. So I used both sketchup and blender to create the following..  Once I am done printing it, I'll share some photos then put it up on Thingiverse. I think the plinth turned out really well -- I'm happy with it. I had to re-print it with supports because the top got warped badly without. It was a real pain cleaning out the supports and there are some residual bits even now -- but a stippling dry brush conceals it all at least (including any print rings). A brave knight enters the room and notices a tall statue (on a gorgeous looking plinth) off in the dark corner.  Uh oh! He's disturbed things.. Gahh.. The statue starts creaking and crackling, dust filling the air; the statue then makes it way off its plinth, towards the now frightened knight:  Thingiverse link:  www.thingiverse.com/thing:1368675I am also sharing the sketchup and blender files. I'd say it took me about 2 hours total to design it -- learned a lot of things about Sketchup and Blender in the process, which is good. Next time I can design something similar in much less time. |
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Post by jennifer on Feb 25, 2016 2:52:41 GMT
How I made the cylindrical part of the plinth: I used sketchup and added several guidelines (the dashed lines as you can see) -- using the measuring tape / guide tool. Used the pencil tool to draw a cross section of it.  Then I drew a circle of the same radius as the other part I just drew with the pencil, as well. Then I used the "Follow Me" tool to quickly and easily generate the following. You just click the "follow me" tool, then click anywhere in the closed off penciled area, then finally click the circle's outer edge (on the line) in the right spot. Then you get:  Then I exported that as STL and imported into Blender and added a cube. (SHIFT A for Add shortcut -- cube is under Mesh submenu.) I resized the cube to the right dimensions (press N to see panel to edit the x y z dimensions) and the tilted the cube to my liking and pushed it in. (Tilt by pressing R key for rotate then the letter of the axis you wish to tilt on .. in this case it was the Y axis I believe.) I then copied and pasted it (using SHIFT D to duplicate, but before stamping it down press R and axis to rotate -- this case Z axis). When I pasted it I set the pivot point for the rotation to be at the cursor (with the period key -- you can change back to selection pivot with the comma key). I had set the cursor to the center of the plinth at 0,0,0. (You can set the cursor to center by pressing SHIFT S and choose from the menu -- it easily gets moved accidently, so do this before copying and pasting the cube for rotating.) Hope this didn't confuse anyone! Try it and ask me if you have any questions, so I can help clarify. |
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Post by jennifer on Feb 25, 2016 9:29:59 GMT
Xin, the cool guy's miniatures I modeled the plinth off of, was kind enough to blog about my plinth  xinslair.blogspot.com/2016/02/update-to-my-statues-post.htmlThanks Xin! Wow, looking at his blog some more.. he does REALLY nice paint work! I have much to learn! EDIT: I just now realize this is the guy that has that huge board of Frostgrave terrain. One piece of which I modeled off of (looks like I'm copying him a lot!). His:  My copy of his:  |
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Post by adamsouza on Feb 25, 2016 15:02:09 GMT
Would printing that top disk as a seperate piece eliminate the need for supports ?
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Post by jennifer on Feb 25, 2016 15:05:49 GMT
Would printing that top disk as a seperate piece eliminate the need for supports ? Yes. I am going to work on slicing it off and providing an additional STL file for download on thingiverse, where the top piece prints off to the side -- then you glue it on. |
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Post by adamsouza on Feb 25, 2016 15:08:08 GMT
If you make the base hollow, like a tube, you could add a peg/disk to the underside of the top disk of the same diameter as the hole, so they could plug into each other, and avoid the need for glue at all.
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Post by jennifer on Mar 1, 2016 3:29:05 GMT
How useful is a 3D model of a flying stand? Here's one I drew really fast in Blender for 28mm. I just got a spool of transparent filament and was thinking it might be nice. I don't know how much these stands normally cost from gaming suppliers.  |
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Post by adamsouza on Mar 1, 2016 15:46:01 GMT
They cost enough it's annoying to have to buy a 10 pack when you only need 1 or 2.  |
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Post by jennifer on Mar 1, 2016 20:01:46 GMT
They cost enough it's annoying to have to buy a 10 pack when you only need 1 or 2. How much does a 10 pack cost ya? |
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Post by adamsouza on Mar 3, 2016 6:16:09 GMT
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Post by tauster on Mar 3, 2016 6:50:11 GMT
How useful is a 3D model of a flying stand? Here's one I drew really fast in Blender for 28mm. I just got a spool of transparent filament and was thinking it might be nice. I don't know how much these stands normally cost from gaming suppliers. I once bought a set of 6 of those cheap plastic champaign glasses where you can take the stand off. I then sawed a transparent curtain rod to length (less then 10cm in my case), rolled enough tape around one end to stick it into the stand and glued a neodym magnet on the other end. Instant fly stand that can be taken apart for better storability! www.partycity.com/product/plastic+cups+and+stemware.do |
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Post by jennifer on Mar 5, 2016 2:11:01 GMT
Would a moderator kindly move this thread to the new 3D crafting sub-forum? Thank you! |
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Post by jennifer on Mar 5, 2016 2:13:58 GMT
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 5, 2016 3:53:09 GMT
Scroll books were common, historically, but not so much in fantasy games. Love it! Love the mixture of bound books, and scrolls. Fantastic stuff. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
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Post by jennifer on Mar 5, 2016 4:02:40 GMT
Scroll books were common, historically, but not so much in fantasy games. Love it! Love the mixture of bound books, and scrolls. Fantastic stuff. Thanks for sharing. Cheers! They are somewhat common in my Frostgrave universe If all those scrolls vanished, the characters would be puzzled and wondering where they all went instead of concentrating on killing each other, lol. Anyways, Joe McCullough (the creator of Frostgrave), responded to my thread about them on Lead Adventure forum and said: "I absolutely love that scroll shelf!!!" Joe wrote a scenario in the first Frostgrave book called "The Undeground Library". Calls for a massive library taking up most of the game board.. say about a 2 foot by 2 foot library. I want my library to be more interesting than just books.. so thinking of other things. Joe also suggested stone tablets and etched bones.. I am going to add them as well.. at least one case of each. I might make another style shelf in blender for the stone tablets. (same outer dimensions). Anyways, thanks for the complements. |
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 5, 2016 4:57:36 GMT
The Hittites used clay tablets, which they scribed with cuneiform. In time, the clay hardened. Said Hittite tablets have been found, and their Cuneiform language deciphered. You are on track, historically. History is often more intriguing than fiction... Cheers!
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Post by margaret on Mar 5, 2016 5:34:57 GMT
Clay and even bone, maybe, but I would forgo the stone. Only part of the Rosetta stone survived, but that one part weighs about 1680 pounds [760 kilos]. Not exactly light reading!
Or - now here's a thought for a fast library maze for Frostgrave - grab that rolling pin that Tauster was using and make clay sections to use as slabs for an entire library of engraved stone slabs! Then you can make a maze of stone walls
I like your bookshelves and scroll shelves better, though
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Post by jennifer on Mar 5, 2016 13:33:31 GMT
Clay and even bone, maybe, but I would forgo the stone. Only part of the Rosetta stone survived, but that one part weighs about 1680 pounds [760 kilos]. Not exactly light reading! Or - now here's a thought for a fast library maze for Frostgrave - grab that rolling pin that Tauster was using and make clay sections to use as slabs for an entire library of engraved stone slabs! Then you can make a maze of stone walls I like your bookshelves and scroll shelves better, though Oh brilliant idea Yeah this is a lot of work. Working on the shelves all day I can only probably finish 6. So it's gonna be about 50 hours total for 36 shelves. maybe longer. lol. For the bookcases (which is most of the shelves), I am seriously thinking about populating 70% of them or so with friction-fit foam inserts w/ color laser print of books glued on. That way I can pop one out every so often and populate that particular row with lil books--over a few months I'd probably have the library finished fully, but at least it'd be playable asap. |
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Post by stroezie on Mar 5, 2016 13:48:16 GMT
Love the idea of the huge library!
For some reason I keep imagining it with the gravestones of past librarians worked into the floortiles like you see in old churches.
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Cheers!
Cheers!