

Scale to preferred size: Click on “Update Size Ratios” to capture the ZTool’s bounding box size.Open the plugin: With your model selected, open ZPlugin and select “3D Print Exporter” from the menu.This plugin is very intuitive and only takes a few minutes to use. The final step before 3D printing your ZBrush model is carried out by the 3D Print Exporter plugin, which is already included in the ZBrush 4R7 installer. 3 rd Step: Export Your Design as a 3D Printable File While this dramatically reduces the file size, the level of detail practically stays untouched.ġ1,000,000 vs. In the image below you can see an original ZBrush file with a poly count of 11,000,000 (left), and an optimized 3D model with a polygon count of 750,000. We have a dedicated tutorial about file resolution here, in case you want to learn more about this. Avoid increasing the file resolution to more than 0.01 millimeters, however, in order to make sure that the triangles which make up your design won’t be visible. Printers typically do not need any detail information that is smaller than 0.01 millimeters since they cannot print at this level of detail anyway. In a nutshell, this plugin allows you to greatly reduce the poly count of a model while preserving the high-resolution detail.ĭon’t worry about losing detail information for your 3D print. That’s where the freely available Decimation Master plugin comes into play. With i.materialise for example, your file size should not exceed 100 MB.
#Zbrush sculpture software#
While this is perfectly fine when modeling within ZBrush, it can make things tricky when you want to export your file to different software or if you want to 3D print it. Your ZBrush 3D model typically has an incredible level of detail – and is therefore also quite heavy. 2 nd Step: Optimize Your Design with the Decimation Master Plugin Take a look at your handy file preparation checklist to ensure you will get the exact result that you wanted. However, we also encourage you to do an overall check. We’ve got a good summary about this right here.Ĭhecking the four points mentioned above are vital for a great print. Hollowing out your model might help you to cut down 3D printing costs. Besides creating a single continuous mesh, Dynamesh can also help you to hollow out your design.
#Zbrush sculpture how to#
You can learn how to use this tool in this explanation by 3DHubs. You can check if your object conforms to the minimum wall thickness by using ZBrush’s transpose or move tool. Wall Thickness: It’s important that your model sticks to the minimum wall thickness required for your material ( learn more about minimum wall thickness here).Sometimes this process is also called ‘creating a manifold model’. Ask yourself the question: if I were to put water inside my model, would it flow out? If that’s the case, then you need to find those holes and close them. Watertight Model: Your 3D mesh needs to be watertight.You can find these restrictions for i.materialise’s materials right here. Material Guidelines: If you know which material you want your 3D model to be printed in, be sure to learn more about the specific design rules for the material of your choice.1 st Step: Preparing Your Design for 3D Printingīefore being able to print your model correctly, you will need to prepare your design and adjust some things here and there. … and then turned into a stunning Sterling Silver 3D print. So let’s look into this in some more detail now. With 3D Print Exporter you will be able to export your 3D model as an STL, WRL, or OBJ file. 3 rd step: The last thing left for you to do is to export your design as a 3D printable file.This will allow you to reduce your poly count while keeping a high level of detail. 2 nd step: After the modeling part is done, you can optimize your design with the freely available Decimation Master plugin.This includes checking wall thickness, merging objects together, and hollowing the model (if needed). 1 st step: It all starts with you sculpting your piece of art with ZBrush and then adjusting it for 3D printing.Some users have trouble turning these 3D models into 3D prints – and that’s where we come in! In this hands-on tutorial, we will show you step-by-step how you can prepare your ZBrush models for 3D printing.ģD printing a ZBrush model typically requires three steps:

That’s why this program is mainly used for designing figurines, sculptures, game characters, or any other design that needs an organic shape. ZBrush is hands down the most popular and powerful digital sculpting software out there.
