Applying Colors to Your Model Using SOLIDWORKS, Adobe Photoshop, and Rhinoceros
Being able to print in full color, including gradients and textures, is one of the many advantages of the Stratasys J750 3D Printer. This best practices document provides instructions for color selection with the Stratasys J750 and includes procedures for models designed with SOLIDWORKS, Adobe Photoshop and Rhinoceros software.
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Step 1: SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS supports saving shell-based, colored model designs in VRML format.
When saving an assembly in SOLIDWORKS you can apply different colors to each part of the assembly and save them. In addition, you can apply different colors to different faces of a model and save all of them together.However, even though it is possible to apply color textures to models, SOLIDWORKS doesn’t export them.
To save the model:
STEP 1: From the File menu, click Save As. The Save As dialog box opens.
STEP 2: From the Save As drop-down menu, select VRML (*.wrl).
STEP 3: Choose the location to save the file.
STEP 4: Click on the Options button.
STEP 5: Change the VRML version to VRML 97.
STEP 6: Click OK.
STEP 7: In the Save As dialog box, click Save.
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Step 2: Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop allows you to apply colors and textures to your model in different ways and export all of them into a VRML file.
STEP 1: From the 3D menu, click Export 3D Layer. The Export Properties dialog box opens.
STEP 2: From the 3D File Format drop-down menu, select Virtual Reality Modeling Language - VRML.
STEP 3: From the Texture Format drop-down menu, select BMP (best fit to the VRML format).
STEP 4: Click OK.
STEP 5: Choose the location to save the file.
STEP 6: Click Save.
STEP 7: Choose Windows file format and 24 Bit.
STEP 8: Click OK.
If your model is an assembly or if it has multiple textures, you can combine all the parts and color textures into one VRML file using the following steps.
STEP 9: From the 3D menu, click Unify Scene for 3D Printing. This will combine all the parts of the assembly into one mesh.
STEP 10: From the 3D menu, click Generate UVs. This will combine all the textures into one.
STEP 11: In the window that appears on the screen, click OK.
STEP 12: To make the color texture resolution as high as possible, change the value in the drop-down menu to 4096x4096, then click OK.
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Step 3: Rhinoceros
In Rhinoceros 3D, you are able to design models and apply different colors and colored textures. There are two ways of saving a VRML file.
3.1 Saving all the parts of the model
STEP 1: From the File tab, click Save As. The Save As dialog box opens.
STEP 2: From the Save As drop-down menu, select VRML (*.wrl).
STEP 3: Choose the location to save the file.
STEP 4: In the Save As dialog box, click Save.
STEP 5: After pressing the Save button, a new window opens.STEP 6: Verify that version 2.0 is selected and if textures were applied to the model, mark the Texture Coordinates as well.
STEP 7: Click OK.
3.2 Saving specific parts from the models
STEP 1: Select the relevant part you wish to export from the model.
STEP 2: From the File tab, click Export Selected.
STEP 3: Proceed with steps 2-7 from section 3.1 above.
