"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> How long and painful was your learning curve with that app?

Well, I was working with someone who had already figured it out, and tbh, I
didn't personally use it much - and it was quite a long time ago.


> Right. Once '3D slicer' creates the model as .stl, it could be brought into
> Poseray (and/or Meshlab?) -- I assume-- to convert it into a mesh file that's
> usable for importing back into POV-ray, if needed.

STL are files are essentially _already_ mesh files.   They just use different
keywords to denote the triangles.  I wrote my own spreadsheet (and IIRC, so did
Cousin Ricky) to convert STL to POV - but perhaps a macro or something could be
written to do the absolutely trivial "conversion".  I'm still gobsmacked that
such a thing isn't already a solid part of the POV-Ray toolkit.
Actually, I'm shocked that no one has simply implemented direct import of stl
files by POV-Ray itself, since it would be "just" ;) a minor cut-and-paste and
then a little modification to handle the slightly different file structure.

<HINT> A sure candidate for immediate addition to the yuqk fork </HINT>
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> One neat thing about my current process is that a complex model would probably
> need supports placed here and there, for the 3D-printing step. Those supports
> could actually be designed into the model in POV-ray (temporarily) which then
> show up in the initial .png 'slices' just like the model itself, and become part
> of the created .stl file ready for printing. To me, that seems a better way of
> doing it than relying on the final 'slicer' software (Cura et al) to figure out
> where the clunky supports should go. I haven't tried the idea yet, though; I'm
> still in the early stages of 'discovery' ;-)

Support material is tricky.
I've written G-code from scratch, which is what handles the CNC aspect of
driving the printing head - it's truly not that difficult.
Which leaves me wondering why some of the printing patterns, and construction of
support structures seems so poorly implemented.

- BW

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