Dioramas of underwater scenes

[stepfen]

Hello,
The owner of my LDS has several digital 3d models of underwater scenes. From nice rock formations to wrecks (whole or parts thereof) and even caves etc
He got them by taking lots and lots of pictures of the scene and combining the pictures with a method called photometry or something.
Now he has the idea to 3d print them to make something like dioramas of these scenes for display.
His problem is that his models are like a floating and very thin 3d surface, hence he needs to somehow add a rigid base/substrate below them.
He has a 3d printer and experiment with it for some time but no clue how to do this.
Any ideas?
Even the name of the procedure would help as he could then Google it.
Thanks a lot in advance

 

[Khrissi]

Absolutely no idea-but is sounds a fab project ! K

 

[The Chairman]

https://www.selva3d.com/ might be what you're looking for. He might also search Thingiverse....

 

[JohnnyC]

If he's already got them as 3D files he just needs to import those files into his slicer of choice. Alternatively, he may need to convert them to .stl files depending on the file handling capabilities of whatever slicer program he's using.

 

[stepfen]

https://www.selva3d.com/ might be what you're looking for. He might also search Thingiverse....

View attachment 535866​

Ok we are getting there. Imagine you have something like the scene shown in this picture, but the sea floor in reality is tilted to say 45 degrees and not necessarily uniformly.

The nearest I could find in google is something like this:

His 3d models are a "floating" open 3d surface like the one shown here - not a rigid shape. How could he print this so it would be standing tilted correctly and not flat like in the picture shown by @The Chairman above? I'd guess that somehow he needs to add a rigid "base" where his surface would "sit" on.
Also because the edges of his models' top views are not nicely defined straight lines (just like the mountain above) he somehow needs to pad or crop them to get a nice rectangular base (if he wants his dioramas to have rectangular bases).

If he's already got them as 3D files he just needs to import those files into his slicer of choice.

He didn't tell me exactly the file type but he said it is a very common one, hence he can edit it with eg autocad or anything similar if needed.
I told him that people who know how to use autocad (or similar 3d design software) like architects, designers etc should know how to convert a surface to a 3d shape and should be able to help him.

I was hopping that this procedure would have a name that I could point him to for more info.

BTW for now he is spending his time experimenting with test prints with different materials, temperatures etc familiarizing himself with his new toy. Not to mention that it's peak diving season here and he does several dives daily, occasionally technical (trimix etc) and of course he is managing the whole diving center and his family (father of 3 young kids). I am amazed by him having all this energy to start doing 3d prints on top of all these.

Thanks anyway.

 

[stepfen]

I've got a much better example in youtube. So here is a model very similar to what this guy is trying to print:


I hope you can now understand what I mean by saying that the model is missing a "base" where it would sit.

 

[moose_grunt]

To bring this back (8 months isn't a zombie post, right?), did you ever find a solution? I'm in a similar situation--3d obj's from photogrammetry, but they're not solids and can't print.

Jim

 

[saxman242]

From Photos to Solid Geometry—Converting Photogrammetry to Viable Solid Models

 

[stepfen]

To bring this back (8 months isn't a zombie post, right?), did you ever find a solution? I'm in a similar situation--3d obj's from photogrammetry, but they're not solids and can't print.
Jim

It's not me doing the project - he is a friend of mine whom I tried to help. I don't know whether he has progressed or not.

I will pass the great link @saxman242 posted above to him. Unfortunately his English aren't that good, but I hope he can get some info out of it.

Thanks a lot