Trekmeshes.eu

Hello everyone,

my name is Marcus, I'm from germany, and I stumbled upon this website and forum as I am currently thinking about 3D printing a large (ambient light) lamp for our living room:
The Enterprise / NCC-1701-D, though we haven't made up our mind quite yet as we also like ENT and TOS.

It should be 1-1.5m long (3'3"-5'), this depends on material cost and afirst cardboard cut-out we'd use to evaluate position and orientation... and material cost!
At 22€/KG ($30/2.2lbs) plastic has become rather cheap, still, even as thin outer shell (1.5-2mm thick) I end up around €60-100 (~$80-140) plus failed prints and support material.

The problem with this idea is that I need a detailed model that's "water-tight" and has all the details modeled instead of using bump-maps and textures.
Also I would not be printing it in one piece, I wish I had that kind of printer! 13,5cm squared on the "UP", close to 15mm squared on my Printrbot LC... SO lot's of segments to assemble

I would use LED (stripes) to iluminate it from the inside, probably using color plastic or transparencies for blue and red lights.
There is silver-gray ABS (and PLA) available, but I suppose spray-painting it would be the best choice.

- I browsed through some of the 3D models, is there a particular one that would suit the task and is detailed enough?

- Has anyone ever printed a large enterprise and experience how to fit the segments together and how thin you can go?

- Are there large commercial models like that?

I've seen some large, hand build models before, I wish I had that skill, patience and tools
Wood working would be no option for me.
I'd appreciate any comments and ideas, and this is probably one of those projects we wanted to do for a while now, and probably not going to do nor finish in a week, but I'd really like getting the materials together and try it

Wow, that would be an awesome project. But there would be a lot of modifing involved as the 3 models usualy dont have a thickness to the geometry. Unless that could be set in the printing program. Raul's models are highly detailed and have most paneling lines in the model as real geometry. Like http://www.trekmeshes.ch/meshes/meshesd ... ame=ENTTOS

You would have to cut the model into cubes the size your printer can handel. Then make a real thickness to the faces. And add some extra parts for glueing. I Don't know how thick it would have to be, as i dont have any experience with 3d printing. But i would think you can add some extra geometry inside (like cylinders) to give it additional strengt.

Also i would not start with a model that big. I would start with a smaller project to test thickness and cutting it into cubes.

Maybe this can help too http://3d.about.com/od/Creating-3D-The- ... -Steps.htm

Hello Chainsaw_NL,

that TOS model looks awsome, though I think we will probably go for TNG

If the model is solid, it is relatively easy to create a "shell" from the volume / hollow it out.

CUtting the model into cubes is not a big deal either, there are a few possibilites with Netfabb, Meshlab and OpenScad scripts.
I have printed models from 3mm to 50cm length, with 5mm wall thickness I can even attach my telescope or DSLR
For the ship I would go much thinner to save cost.
Yes, creating a inner structure is a good idea, I already though I'd make a frame from aluminum profiles or something like that
Ideal would be 2.5mm thickness regarding cost/weight/stability with a inner structure, and of course I will print one or two "slices" before printing the whole model.

Thanks for the link, but I am familiar with the whole process and also have converted a few models from (former) google warehouse that where not ment to be printed into solid models. Though of course if I can avoid this, I'd be happy...
8)

In my opinion this is the best Enterprise D model is by prologic and the textures by knightrider (dave Metlesits)

Hello,

textures can't be printed like this.
Sure, there are several tools to use a texture to change the objects actual surface, but especially for windows, hatches and so on a modeled version would be nice
I will take a look at the model when I'm on my desktop and take a closer look at it, my old netbook is unable to cope with it