Fixie have launched a model making survey in their efforts to understand the appetite for models in the contemporary design process. Central to their study is where 3D printing fits within current processes.

SURVEY

The 2-minute survey is open to anybody within the industry who has an opinion! We’re sure that makes a few of you. Fixie are offering a draw for £5,000 of 3D printing services and separately a Chisel and Mouse Model to those who submit and wish to enter our draw.

We’ll be sharing our insights gained with the industry once all results are assessed.

If you have any further comments that aren’t covered by the survey and would like to share your thoughts please get in touch directly.

Thank you for your contributions.

Michelle Greeff and Fixie Team.

How 3D printing can influence

the architectural design process

Issue 309, February 2020, P. 102-103

Architecture Ireland Article - link

Many architects will have a complicated relationship with making models. Fond memories of simpler times quickly give way to what were actually coffee-fuelled, red-eyed, all-night marathons where fingers could be both glued together and covered in scalpel cuts in equal measure.

However, the relationship between the act of physically making and the design process formed a key part of our education in helping us to understand space and scale. Dr Simona Valeriani, who is leading an international research network on ‘Architectural Models in context: creativity, skill and spectacle’, highlights the critical relevance of models to the design process as ‘tools for thought and communication’. She says that they help us ‘to make invisible design processes visible’ and to document ‘moments of communication that are otherwise ephemeral’. According to Dr Valeriani, unlike any other media, models ‘directly convey the embodied 3D qualities of a building and have, since the Renaissance, been seen as the most comprehensible form of architectural representation’.

However, this pivotal role in the design process hasn’t prevented many of us laying down our scalpels and repurposing our cutting mats as mouse pads in recent years. This has been less a defiant downing of tools but rather a laying down of arms – a surrender representative of the wider shift from physical, hands-on skills to digital competencies. Emerging graduates and young architects are no longer tasked with making concept and competition models. Their literacy in quick and accurate computer modelling, along with creating effective visuals, allows for the leapfrogging of a traditional pillar of the architectural design process.

“What we lose from this digital allegiance are the venerated ‘happy mistakes’ that might arise in exploring a design through model making.”

This shift in skillsets is only one of a range of contributing factors that explains an increasing emphasis on visuals rather than physical models. The comparative ease of delivering CGIs and animations, along with the fact that visual images can be more justifiably charged to clients (both because of their efficiency and defined value) creates a case for residing within a digital bubble. Furthermore, visuals require little explanation. Whereas models allow viewers to read between the lines, visuals immediately speak the client’s language. It’s clear the choice comes down to ease and simplicity; presenting visuals to communicate design is more in tune with current workflows. What we lose from this digital allegiance are the venerated ‘happy mistakes’ that might arise in exploring a design through model making.

Such a move from manual/2D workflows to digital/3D methods does not mean that we need to sacrifice architectural models entirely though. 3D printing technologies allow us to take advantage of these new workflows in producing quick, affordable, and highly detailed representations of our digital designs. Critically, we can now make 3D models directly from 3D design data, as opposed to traditional model-making methods which require a return to 2D drawings to then produce a 3D model.

Prototyping through 3D printed models for Corstorphine + Wright Architects

3D printing is probably better known in its role as a prototyping tool, rather than as an approach to architectural model making. However, model making is undeniably a prototyping exercise, we’re just used to softer terminology for it. If we can begin to alter our perception of 3D printing in the architectural domain to begin to actively experiment with this new medium, both as a presentation method but more importantly, as an iterative design tool, it could present new ways to think about structure, form, and the construction process. We can begin to expose new ‘happy mistakes’.

In direct comparison with traditional model making methods, 3D printing technologies offer a range of new materials with varying qualities: transparent v. opaque, flexible v. rigid, smooth v. coarse and layered, full colour v. monochrome. Much like traditional model making, the choice of one or a combination of many helps to reflect the desired design; with the aid of technology though, many more options and varieties can be tried and tested prior to making a final design decision.

3D Printed Organic Forms in various finishes.

3D printing has the advantage of creating organic shapes and delicate structures with ease. However, it also has its own constraints, which are individual to each technology. Each constraint will influence your model design choices and consequently the overall design, whether that be the size of the printing bed, the strength of the material, detail achievable, appearance, or the post-processing methodologies.

On a practical level, for example, only being able to 3D print a facade element at an oversized thickness might affect your resulting detail, while the monolithic aesthetic of some materials and processes might lead you down the path of more massive structures. On the more theoretical side, the ability to easily create elaborate, complex, organic physical forms has the potential to test and experiment with solutions that would previously have been difficult to make or even imagine.                

To illustrate the influence of 3D printing on how architects might think and make, some examples which actively utilise these processes are discussed below. Critically, cases involve both the prototype scale and 1:1 built forms.

Make is a different kind of architecture practice. The employee-owned firm aims to "design the best buildings, places, and spaces in the world". Make's Ultim...

Make Architects, headquartered in London are – somewhat evidently from their name – focused on design through making. While they are encouraged to work with their hands, they have also invested in a bank of twelve Ultimaker ‘desktop’ 3D printers which allow for continuous 24/7 design development. It’s an approach that saw them shortlisted in the Best Use of Technology category in the AJ100 Awards (You may recognise the 2019 version of these awards)

We set up Fixie, the architectural 3D printing specialist with a similar aim to help build up a greater knowledge base of 3D printing within the architectural ecosystem. By making ourselves available as the ‘architect's 3D printing assistant', we hope to inform architects of the benefits and constraints of this technology. We know that architects are thinly spread and 3D printing can be a daunting additional task to approach; our aim is to make complex digital designs 3D printable. This involves a process called ‘file fixing’, where model files are edited to ensure that they print in the specified technology, with the desired detail, and that they survive any post-processing and finishing tasks. Architect's files need this special treatment as they're predominantly works-in-progress, not the finished articles that 3D printers normally encounter.

Until now, this article has discussed 3D printing solely with respect to the production of replicas and scaled working models. However, there are already numerous organisations who are thinking bigger; thinking about how 3D printing can offer an alternative to current methods of construction – allowing for decentralised, disaggregated, and more sustainable production methods.

Find out more about Ai Build's large scale 3D-printing technology at www.ai-build.com

AI Build emerged out of Zaha Hadid Architects. They have developed large-format robotic 3D printers that can create intricate parametrically modelled forms (akin to Zaha Hadid’s designs). These printers can create usable furniture and sculptures modelled in such a way that the structure is self supporting. Because of this integral strength, multiple parts can also be pieced together to create elaborate, expansive forms – 3D printing being a potential catalyst for more organic and efficient structures.

3D printed facade elements designed by DUS Studio for the Dutch Embassy Building.

DUS Architects, based in the Netherlands, have also created their own 3D printer – XL 3D Printer – in collaboration with Ultimaker. They’re using this 3D printer to create 1:1 building elements, including facade details, benches, and even a micro-home. Using 3D-printed elements, in combination with traditional building materials, they’re creating practical design solutions.

Aectual has emerged from DUS to pursue this avenue of thinking; they’ve turned the approach on its head by, among other things, using 3D printing to create formwork for more experimental concrete structures. Here, 3D printing is offering a way to reinvent existing materials.

XL 3D Printer used by Aectual to 3D print the floor of Schipol airport

However, you don’t have to be changing an entire industry with your explorations into 3D printing; architects can benefit through quietly and quickly exploring facade detail options or massing proposals without the fear of scalpel blades. Although it is an engineered response to a traditional task, 3D printing is open to exploration, to pushing rules and boundaries, and to leading you on an unexpected journey.

The regular trips across the Irish Sea over the last few months have paid off. No, we’re not running because of Brexit - we’re growing in spite of it! Fixie is now –in an extremely timely fashion– both a UK company and a European company, more specifically an Irish one. 

Fixie Co-Founder, Ronan O’Boyle has been relishing the opportunity to work from Ireland again. ‘It’s been a number of years since I’ve been properly on the ground in Dublin, there’s a tremendous buzz and we’ve had such a positive reception for what we’re offering.’  

Fixie has plans beyond it’s day-to-day offering (for those wondering: fast turn around, beautifully detailed and affordable architectural models delivered through a combination of 3D printing and traditional methods). We’re excited to explore and contribute to ongoing initiatives in Ireland in an effort to improve the communication of built environment issues and the delivery of quality solutions. Ireland is suffering from a housing emergency and communicating possible solutions effectively to all stakeholders will be a first step to solving some of these issues. 

Fixie 3d Architecture

Fixie 3d Architecture

Fixie 3d Architecture

Fixie’s Irish operations will be centred in Dublin’s ever changing Docklands with an encouraging Start-Up ecosystem at Dogpatch Labs. To celebrate our new location guess what we did - we 3D printed one of the local landmarks of course: Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava that opened in 2009. We’ll be happy to see the real thing every day on the way to work.

Michelle Greeff, Fixie CEO, has been encouraged by her interactions in Ireland. ‘The Irish economy seems to have recovered well and the construction sector is alive here. What I’ve found remarkably refreshing here is how open and engaged architects are in our new ways and new possibilities of delivering architectural models.’ Michelle believes that our experience working with all scale of architectural and property development firms in the UK will assist in meeting the varied and particular needs of Irish clients. ‘Our expertise in preparing all manner of architectural files should offer Irish architects a new means to communicate their projects.’

Although our Irish home will be in Dublin, we will be serving the whole country and visiting the other major cities over the coming months and looking forward to meeting existing clients and new on these trips in person. 

If you want to learn more about our services and 3D printing solutions please reach out to Ronan at info@fixie3d.com or call the Irish office on +353 1 960 9604.

“Let's talk about fixing, for 3D.

Let's talk about your file, and see.

Let's talk about all the good things and the bad things, that may be.

Let’s talk about…”

Inspired by Salt N Pepa

We most likely have your attention now, which is important because the scintillating subject of architectural file preparation for 3D printing awaits you; a few simple steps that will save you from many a restless night (‘Did I really turn off all the layers?’). If you follow this procedure closely then 3D printing will be as much a compliment to your design process as Salt was to Pepa.

Whatever the design stage or the audience, a model is a powerful decision-making tool: offering the ability to see your design in the real world; to touch it; interrogate it and compare it. Unfortunately understanding what is possible, within the timeframe and especially within the budget is not always black and white. To provide you with these answers we need to be supplied with relevant design information and your preferences for how your design should be communicated.

Providing Information for an accurate Quotation

This won’t be the last time we mention this, but we have built a web-based tool for exactly this purpose.

1_HOUSEKEEPING

First things first, it’s important to be organised to help avoid any confusion with ongoing design work, so save a copy of your design file.

a_Create a New Folder:

e.g. “Fixie Quote”

“Fixie 3D Printing Quote”

“I Heart Fixie”

In this folder save a packaged file of your model here. This will ensure that all referenced drawings that are relevant for a quotation are also included in the information that you send to us. 

b_Name the file appropriately:

Naming the file for quotation differently will always help to avoid confusion.

e.g drawingname_fixiequote.extension

2_Taking out the TRASH: File Clean-Up

Now it’s time to clean up this new file - all of these steps will help speed up the quotation process and, later on, the fixing process itself. It will also ensure that no unwanted information is printed or equally that no time is wasted working on elements which aren’t important.

We all know what makes a file heavy, even if we try to turn a blind eye to the beautiful million polygon trees we’ve imported for “atmosphere”. Let’s run through some of these items:

a_people

No

b_furniture

No again

c_toilets

Noooooooo

d_Sculptural artwork you’ve downloaded from 3D warehouse

😐

In general, the message here is to think about the relevance of the information provided to achieving the final print. If you have a tight deadline, then the sooner we can assess the file and get fixing, the more likely that deadline will be met. A lighter file allows this to happen, so turn off, or preferably delete, those unwanted layers and detail (sometimes non visible/turned off layers will still be imported into our software).

e_trees

Not unlike the superfluous details above; trees can really slow down files and more often than not they’re actually 2D components and therefore will not print. Depending on whether you want trees included in your model or not, the following approaches apply:

3D Printed Trees: Supply trees in the model (up to 1-1000)

Traditional Trees (added by hand): Do not supply trees in the model - a separate tree plan will suffice.

No Trees: Do not supply trees in the model

f_context

It’s pretty amazing that we now have entire cities modelled in 3D. A lot of time can be wasted zooming in and out on a Friday afternoon whilst trying to look busy. However, we don’t need all of London to be uploaded for you to get a cost for your 3D print. And don’t worry we’re still very impressed with the size of your data.

Any and all context data that is not going to appear in the print should be removed or it will add time to delivering at each milestone.

3_SIZING IT UP

Scaling your design to the size it will be replicated at is a useful method for understanding how much time to concentrate on any particular detail. We all get bogged down in making things perfect, but if you realise that the element you’re painstakingly correcting is .1mm when reproduced then you may feel less obliged to put that strain on your eyes.

The first thing we do when fixing a file is to ensure we understand the level of detail we’re looking to print at - this starts with confirming the right scale and size which you can do directly in the viewer.



4_SETTING BOUNDARIES

If the steps above have been followed, then we should be dealing with a clean and easy to assess file. Some key questions remain - what are the extents to the model and if you have a site plug, what is the boundary to this?

The best way to communicate this to us is, coincidentally enough, in 3D - if you draw a box or volume covering the area of the intended print and any plugs, then our software will easily be able to interpret this, we will be able to quickly cut to size without any chance that we’ve missed a key landmark or cut off a relevant adjoining building.

5_PACKING IT UP

Our clients work across all CAD software. Our preference remains the same with each, that we are supplied with one or both of the following file formats:

.OBJ (wavefront)

.FBX (Motion Builder)

.SKP (SketchUp)

Receiving multiple formats is ideal as exports of complicated designs can lead to temperamental outputs. It also allows us to compare these file types if something looks amiss in one, removing the need for multiple emails.

(even though .STL is the recognised 3D printing file format, exporting from your native CAD software to .STL will often not be possible if you haven’t built the model with 3D print in mind - more on how to model for 3D Print)

6_Sending IT ON Its Way

Since you have already saved a new file all you need to do is resave/export the file and upload it to our online platform.

The use of messenger pigeons is not advised.

7_WAITING WITH BAITED BREATH

After you’ve specified your project details within our web-app and placed your order, we’ll confirm receipt and approval of the project. If your run into any trouble during the process reach out to us with the in-app chat.

As always, any other questions can we’re here to help.

“But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you,
Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all”

Ten Things I Hate About You

When first hearing the term ‘reversed’ or ‘inverted’ normals you’d be forgiven for having flashbacks to your early teenage years when you were unceremoniously divided by your peers into two distinct categories: normal and not-normal (also commonly known as a weird-o).

It’s hard to imagine the ignominy that would have come with being labelled a ‘reversed normal’ during these formative years - some part of you is normal, you were so very close, but then you had to go and mess it all up. Typical.

As this fixing series progresses, it seems like each error we encounter exudes a similar stereotype, as if they could be defined by who they hung around with in High School. You remember the movies - there were the Jocks, the Cheerleaders, the Nerds (with many subcategories), Goths, Stoners, Hicks, Creepily Mature Students, Anarchists…the list goes on.

So far we’ve encountered the Bad Edges, who are to be avoided at all costs; the Holes, whose vacuous presence contributes as much to proceedings as the Stoners and now we have the Reversed Normals who elicit images of a student forced to face the corner of a room with a dunce cap on.

Obviously, we need to be a little more sensitive in our treatment of reversed normals these days. After all, they’re just faces looking in the wrong direction. Most softwares will give you the opportunity to highlight the direction of faces/normals. However, rather than making a show out of them, or out of yourself for your hasty modelling, they just need to be given a little nudge in the right direction. It’s imperative that all normals be facing the right direction so that the 3D printing software recognises the areas that are internal, between two external edges and thus communicating a solid printable volume (remind yourself of some of the guiding principles of 3D printing).

If Ten Things I Hate About You taught us anything (and it most certainly did), it would be that first impressions do us no favours. With a little bit of patience, encouragement and self-reflection, any file can be made printable.

So, even after the mess you arrived in and our initial opinion of you, we need to own up to the fact that this was a superficial appraisal. We do not in fact hate you. Now we see you. We see the 3D print you could be. We don’t even hate you a little bit, not even at all.

*Annnd cue: slow clap*

When Fixie gets invited to dinner we like to leave a good impression. This doesn’t mean grabbing a £5 bottle of wine from our local Aldi... you know who you’re! With the AJ100 Annual Awards ceremony approaching, we thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to leave something with our fellow guests to remember us by.

Our starting point was the undeniably recognisable AJ100 logo and a simple premise: how can we generate a 3D version that would make the best use of 3D printing technologies. We have to admit, things got a bit out of control there for a time (respective exhibits below), but we reeled it in and got back to basics to come up with an elegant, yet unapologetically 3D, version of the logo.

AJ100 Housing - 3D model by fixie3d (@fixie3d)

Once the design had been settled we broke it down into separate parts. This is necessary to ensure that any uncured resin and support structures can be removed after the SLA printing process. This was also useful for our colleagues at Kandor Modelmakers to be able to spray finish the parts to match the distinctive colours of Architect’s Journal.

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Only two weeks to go! What are we creating? . . . #aj100 #aj100awards #architectsjournal #ukarchitecture #londonarchitecture #londonarchitects #londonarchitect #londonigers #igerslondon #londontech #techcity #ukarchitects #archimodels #archimodel #architecturalmodel #architecturemodel #architecruremodel #architecturalmodels #3dprintedmodels #3dprintedmodel #3dprintedarchitecture #3dmodels #archilover #archilovers #archilife #londondesign #fixie3d #fixie3dprinting

A post shared by Fixie (@fixie3d) on Jun 5, 2019 at 1:25pm PDT

The SLA printing process can be a mesmerising thing. It’s somewhat like watching a fire in the depths of Winter; your mind seeks out patterns in the chaos. When you know what the design is, it can be even more tantalising as you spot flashes of what it could be...When the parts are finished, they ceremoniously rise from the depths of the resin to gracious applause from the onlooking crowd. At least this is how we like to honour the occasion.

The parts are then cleaned up and bead blasted to give them a nice smooth surface. SLA resin printing does not produce colour parts, depending on the resin parts are either semi-transparent or monochrome. Therefore, we need to rely on trusted traditional finishing techniques to make details of models pop (although, not unsurprisingly, architects often prefer the clean minimalism of a single colour model).

Of course, now would be the time to show you the final result; the fruits of our labour. But with the event not until next week, we wouldn’t want to disrupt the grand unveiling. We hope that all the worthy winners will appreciate the journey these trophies have taken. It would put a big smile on our faces to see them in pride of place the next time we visit your offices!

At Fixie, we often feel like we’re straddling a thin line between the digital and the physical; walking a delicate tightrope between the virtual and real worlds.

To the newcomer, the ability to conjure physical forms from ones and zeros might appear like an act of wizardry: we take plans, sketches, concepts and designs and make them come alive so that they exist as something you can touch, pick up and interrogate and without an ‘Expecto Patronum’ or ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ in sight.

Even to those seasoned in 3D printing, there are days when you have to step back and remind yourself how remarkable this is: if you can think it up,  you can 3D print it and make it real (We’ve heard that making real buildings is just as magical an experience).

With all of the benefits that scaled models provide for our comprehension of a space or a scheme, there are the other occasions when we need to get deep into the corners of a design at a scale of 1:1. We’re probably reminded of Derek Zoolander’s famous exposé of scaled models when he determined that only ants could really benefit from them...Depending on the customer and the conversation there may be an element of truth in this.

As models and designs are being created digitally then there is simultaneously the opportunity to create visual content and experiences that complement physical models, allowing a more comprehensive understanding of design progression and objectives. Virtual Reality offers a hitherto unheard of opportunity to explore a development at a human scale and get a real spatial understanding of a project years before it is built. 3D printing and 3D visualisation, therefore, go hand in hand as design communication tools.

Soluis Group is the UK’s most established visual communications agency for the built environment. They have been crafting beautiful and engaging experiences for almost twenty years. For Soluis, technology is a storytelling tool. Their experience has taught them to make the best use of the emerging tools available to them whilst always focusing on delivering the most memorable, informative and engaging content.

Fixie and Soluis will be championing the development of solutions that make the best use of our combined expertise - utilising 3D printing and emerging visualisation technologies to bring models alive. This could mean utilising 3D prints as triggers for Augmented Reality experiences, projection mapping visuals onto a 3D printed model or overlaying data onto masterplan models. The opportunities remain endless, creating enhanced models that become an even more valuable communications tool.

By combining forces we also have the ability to offer our respective clients a broader range of options and expertise - for anybody who is attending the AJ100 Awards dinner next week, you may get a sneak preview!

Fixie wants to ensure that our clients have access to the best knowledge and resources in the 3D printing and architectural model making industry. We’re striving to build a team that facilitates this. We’re therefore delighted that Lee Bassil, former Business Manager of Hobs 3D, is joining Michelle Greeff as Co-Founder and will head operations drawing on over 10 years of experience in various roles across the industry.

Lee has made his life 3D printing for the AEC sector. Together with Michelle (and starting with one single printer), he made Hobs Studio’s unique offering a reality - initially as a 3D Technician and then as Business Manager. Over the course of his career across the sector he has forged relationships through consistent, dedicated service with all of London’s top architecture firms; their print and model shops, along with other 3D Printers and Modelmakers.

Fixie will benefit from Lee’s experience establishing and growing numerous 3D printing departments. He will be pivotal in enabling Fixie’s bureau operations so that we can begin to print more of the files that we fix. This will allow us to self-sustain faster and also generate revenue to advance our objectives for the development of our online platform and international expansion. In the initial months, Lee will be getting his hands dirty once more, but as the business grows he will oversee all elements of production and operations as has been his long-held role until now.

Lee, with his father and Didi Hamann in Madrid at the 2019 Champions League final.

Lee’s first week with Fixie was on the back of his trip to Madrid to watch his beloved Liverpool win the Champions League - his first week has been a slow one.

“Bad Edges, Bad edges, Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you?”

Inspired by Bob Marley

Bad Edges, are next on the list of potential errors that could affect your 3D print. For those not used to the terminology these sound like the types of shady characters your parents warned you about. The kind that would hang around the back of the school smoking cigarettes. If left to their own devices Bad Edges, like true troublemakers, will also lead you down the wrong path.

Bad Edges, as touched upon in our introductory post on model errors are a result of faces or more specifically triangles, not fully ‘knitting’ together. They’re so very close together that the gap between them is potentially not visible to the human eye.

Perhaps worthy of an analogy to drive the point home: Friends Season 3 Episode 2 - “The One Where No One’s Ready”. Chandler places his hand in front of Joey’s face, it’s definitely an invasion of his personal space but crucially it isn’t touching and therefore Joey can’t get mad. In a similar vein edges can be excruciatingly close but if the software doesn’t understand them to be touching then it cannot react in the necessary way.

So close, but not touching.

There are two main causes of Bad Edges, the first is likely to occur during the course of modelling: copying and pasting of parts and multiple iterations can easily lead to elements being microscopically misaligned. Secondly, bad edges can appear during the conversion of models between softwares. Some software may read the same information in a different way: what might work in one modelling programme may not for another - especially when we refer back to one of the key objectives of working with 3D printing software as opposed to building design software: to have a watertight model.

If not dealt with, Bad Edges mean that parts of your model have non-manifold edges (in this instance meaning that edges are connected to less than one face). 3D printing software requires that all edges are manifold: connected to two faces only. In practice, if this rule is followed your model will be watertight and have a thickness throughout (so you don’t need to worry about the terminology, just the process).

Although we often won’t be able to see these bad edges 3D printing software does. It highlights these minuscule gaps and facilitates a clean up process.

We’ll lead you down the right path to 3D printed model perfection, get in touch.

As a new company, we’ve been emboldened and encouraged by all of the conversations we’ve been having both with clients and potential collaborators. We’re continuing to define and refine what we offer - keeping an open mind has allowed many unexpected and rewarding discussions!

With Fixie we have our own independent aspirations of being the go-to solution for architectural 3D printing. Not only in London or the UK, but also building on the unique experience of creating the market in the UK to expand to cities worldwide.

We’re at the same time also keenly aware that 3D printing alone may not be the appropriate solution for all architectural models. We recognise the warmth and narrative that a hand finish adds to a detailed 3D print.

Modelmaking tradition: James Stirling inspects a model with a young(er!) David Gomm, now a Director at Kandor Modelmakers.

Kandor Modelmakers have been working with the architectural sector for 40 years. Their wealth of experience and the quality of their craftsmanship has seen them help to communicate the visions of all leading architectural firms, time and time again.

Kandor and Fixie have a mutual understanding of the reciprocal need for technology to support craftsmanship and skill to complement efficiency. We’re therefore combining our resources under one roof.

Fixie and Kandor will be cohabiting in a 15,000 sq. ft. model workshop in Stratford. We will be offering the entire scale and spectrum of architectural model making utilising the most appropriate techniques and technologies for each project.

Our research is teaching us that architects don’t just require a 3D printing assistant, but are also in need of an architectural model making assistant that has a full working knowledge of 3D technologies. This means that architects can get support in the entire model making process irrespective of the software and processes they use internally.

By joining forces with Kandor we can easily transform the rigid precision of 3D printed models into warm and welcoming models that better help to tell the story. Along with undergoing a modernisation and rebranding process Kandor will be able to supplement their unrivalled model making capabilities with 3D printed elements and techniques.

If the project requires a simple 3D printed sketch model or a fully operational, interactive marketing model (or anything in between), we’re now proud and excited to be able to assist on any scale of project.

Looking forward to sharing more from our new home!

Michelle Greeff

Founder

“There’s a hole in my bucket Dear Liza, Dear Liza”

Harry Belafonte / Odetta Felious Gordon

Indeed, a hole in a model can cause all sorts of problems for 3D printing, but to understand why you will first need to understand some of the main principles of 3D printing and the file format that it uses - STL.

STL is short for Stereolithography, one of the earliest 3D printing technologies. Another definition “Standard Triangle Language” is perhaps more helpful in understanding the format. When a model is converted to STL format all surfaces are converted to a triangulated mesh, or in other words, many surfaces made up solely of triangles.

Triangles forming a mesh.

Triangles showing their surface directions.

The STL format interprets each triangle as having a back and a front side, or an inside and an outside surface. If the triangles are facing the wrong way they’re known as flipped triangles. All of these need to be oriented in the right direction for 3D printing software to print as planned - it needs to know what is the inside of the model and what is the outside. We do not mean the inside and outside of a building or a room, but rather the inside and outside surface of a wall or other object that will be printed. This introduces us to another inherent characteristic of 3D printing - elements must have a thickness.

A helpful way to think about this is when you look at the section of a building. The thick lines of a wall or floor outline the volume that will be printed. The external edges of the walls face the open/void space of a room or the exterior of the model and the inside is the edge of the solid printed volume. (We explain more on basic file preparation of your model in an earlier post).

Each triangle should be facing the right way in the model mesh. Each should be knitted together (aka no gaps between them) and on a similar note there should be no holes or missing triangles.

Triangles not correctly stitched together, opening up gaps in the mesh. The broken edges this error leaves are called ‘bad edges’.

Large openings exposing the interior of the mesh. A hole also leaves bad edges as inevitably there will be edges not stitched together.

All of this relates to the fact that, to be printable, a model must be ‘watertight’. Take as an example your favourite mug (we also ‘Fix’ a lot of cups of tea and coffee at Chez Fixie)! The mug is undoubtedly watertight and has a good thickness to it. If the mug were an STL file all of the surface (inside and outside of the mug) would be covered with triangles showing their outside surface only. All would be correctly stitched together, with no missing triangles. If the mug were made up of no thickness, just a single face accounting for the interior and exterior of a mug then you’d quickly spill your tea.

To be printable:

• A model must be solid

• A model must have a thickness

Therefore, it must not have:

• Gaps

• Holes

• Undefined or unreadable surfaces.

I think that’s enough for today, but we’ll soon share detailed information about holes and other issues and what they mean for your model. Generally, it’s not pretty!

Please get in touch directly with any related queries - fixers@fixie3d.com

At Fixie, we’re determined to advance (or fix…) how the 3D printing industry interacts with the AEC sector. From listening to our clients across the architectural, construction, engineering and property industries we have uncovered two main frustrations:

The first comes from the client side and is often due to a lack of understanding of what is involved in the production of 3D printed models. This highlights the need for further education and the desire for transparency at all stages and in all aspects of the process.

It’s the experts’ role to help clients feel comfortable in the knowledge that they have a high level understanding of how a project should progress and of what potential obstacles may arise. The key aim should be zero surprises!

Another major frustration conveyed was around how the project and communications are managed between external stakeholders and internal production teams. Improving these channels of communication will help alleviate the aches of the first point above. This improvement is heavily reliant on efficient internal working processes.

Our clients will have full control and approval will be as easy as pressing (3D) print

At Fixie, we enjoy growing the community of 3D printing enthusiasts so we’re always actively educating our clients about the processes. However, we knew that the second frustration around transparency and frequency of communications could be tackled with a fresh injection of technology.

That’s why we’re thrilled to be introducing our new project tracking tool to the market. It’s our first innovation aimed at reducing friction in the 3D printing process - part of our plan to encourage greater adoption of 3D printing as the go-to solution for design communications. We’ll be sharing updates on progress over the coming weeks, but it’s fair to say that we can’t wait until we’re finished and can begin testing it with you on live projects.

We’re happy that Fixie are featured today in 3D Printing Industry!

It has taken a lot of long days and late hours of work to build Fixie from scratch. It’s nice to be able to share that work with the industry. We’re only getting started, but it’s nice to see the hard work paying off little by little, day by day.

3D Printing Industry summarised the first development of our service:

The Upload and Briefing tool generates quotes as well as consultation on the most relevant additive manufacturing processes for a building model. This includes Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), ColorJet printing, Stereolithography (SLA) and hand-finishing post-processing. Once satisfied, the company’s 24/7 file fixing service transforms the given digital designs into an optimized 3D printed model.

This reinforces the point that streamlining the briefing/information gathering stage is a vital part of improving the customer experience. It reminds us that our role is that of the consultant, the expert in our field and we need to guide you on the journey to finding the best solution before we can get our hands dirty with your file!

As you may have seen on our Instagram we were recently working with a colourful interior fit out model. It brought up a few more issues than we anticipated and we’d therefore like to share how we overcame them.

(This is a specific use case of how a file is fixed - for a less technical description please follow our Fixing Series which supports live project descriptions with a more general overview of 3D printing and file fixing principles).

Starting Point

The model was originally created in SketchUp and imported directly into our file preparation software. The textures/colours applied in SketchUp are also conveniently imported (This can be both a blessing and a curse, as often heavy textures can slow down our software).

The imported model is run through a diagnostics check. This reveals all the errors in the model which have to be fixed before it is printable. As you can see in the image below this model has multiple errors indicated by the coloured lines: Bad Edges, in yellow, which occur when triangles/surfaces are not properly connected leading to gaps in the model mesh and Flipped triangles/surfaces are in red.

Single surfaces will not survive post processing or even print at all. All surfaces need to have a thickness in order for them to work in the 3D printing process. Part thickness is determined by all the connected surfaces creating a shell. All parts must be one complete shell with no bad surfaces or holes in order for them to print.

A model can be made up of multiple shells like those displayed in the image above in green. Even a simple object like a chair can be made up of multiple separate shells (the legs, the back, the cushion, right down to the screws if you have sent us some delightfully detailed information). In order for the part to print correctly and not fall apart in the process, shells will need to be unified to make one single shell.

The ultimate goal for any model is to create a single shell with no holes, bad edges or no inverted surfaces - in other words: no errors whatsoever!

File Fixing, like life, is all about breaking things down into manageable chunks to make it all seem achievable. Once the model has been split into manageable parts, each can be fixed individually, one at a time.

POST PROCESSING

Breaking down a model can also help to improve the overall finish of the model as it allows access to areas that require post possessing (hand finishing and brushing) after printing. All parts can be finished individually and assembled to bring the model together. We do also 3D print models all in one piece, but breaking them down like this gives flexibility to do more with a model.

Another benefit to breaking the model up in CJP gypsum powder printing is what we call Infiltration. This is the process of letting glue seep into the porous powder to give it strength and also make the saturated colour come to life!

When gluing a model it is vital that all surfaces have been brushed meticulously in order to remove any surface material that has not been removed using compressed air. If the uncured surface material is not removed the end results will show up as very patchy and give a bleach like stain on the models surface.

It’s equally important that when parts are being infiltrated with cyanoacrylate that the process is done quickly and efficiently to avoid the the infiltrant drying at different speeds. This would result in shiny patches also referred to as Double Gluing. All excess glue should be removed from the surface before drying to reduce the possibility of the shiny effects mentioned.

Infiltrated parts should be left to dry thoroughly before handling. Moisture will react with the drying process and can result in white patches on the model (the natural oils on your fingers can leave a mark at this stage, so keep those hands off!)

As for aftercare, it’s important never to get a CJP gypsum powder model wet. Water will react with the material and again cause a bleaching effect (white spots). Similarly, placing the model in direct sunlight will cause a CJP 3D printed model to discolour over time.

We hope that wasn’t too much to take in and that with our supporting blogs will help you make sense of the work that we do for your models at Fixie. If you’d like to know more, we’d love to hear from you directly on info@fixie3d.com

Over the past number of weeks we have been happily at work on our first projects at Fixie! Some have been complex and involved, whilst others have only required a quick fix. However, in all cases we’ve noticed the same issues during the early stages. These are caused by the condition and content of the model supplied. They cause the entire quoting, fixing and printing process to be slowed down. We thought it would be good to share the key steps that can be taken prior to supplying your model to us in order to avoid this.

Before you start:

We recommend that you save a copy of your working file and label it ‘to print’ or similar. This ensures that any of the changes you make, that are purely to speed up the 3D Printing process, don’t affect your ongoing work.

1_Remove unnecessary layers

In the new file you have created take a quick look at the model to eliminate anything that isn’t needed in the print. This could mean sketch and draft elements and obviously any layers that are turned off, as you don’t need them. This is an important distinction as all layers in a model will be imported and turned on in our File Fixing software. This can often prolong the process as we need to identify what is actually required in the print. A little housekeeping at this stage will make a big difference.

2_Trees

Trees are very pretty. We like to see them in your designs. However, these have often been placed in the model as 2D elements, which are not printable, or as heavy and complex 3D elements. Both slow down the model assessment stage as they can make the file unworkable.

Trees can be printed at certain scales and SLS printed trees are pretty special. However, generally if you wish to have trees in a print we add these by hand afterwards. This creates a nice contrast and the only information we need for this is a tree plan - easy!

This process may be making you feel a little uncomfortable as it holds up a mirror to your modelling techniques, brutally exposes them to the cruel light of day and leads you on an unwanted introspective journey…But fear not, we’re all in it together and it’s the little things that go a long way to making the 3D printing process easier for all.

3_People/Animation

Not dissimilar to trees: people and vehicles are placed into your digital model to add life. However, people are often too small to print (1:500, or 1:750 at a push, are probably the smallest scales that you would look to place people in a model). And depending where you took your vehicles from they could have the entire engine intricately modelled - this is the key point, if you can’t see it or it is an unnecessary level of detail then it shouldn’t be in the file!

4_Detail

Whether it’s Fork Handles or Four Candles: both are likely to be unnecessary in your model. In fact, if you’re only printing the exterior you can delete everything that’s internal (but don’t waste too much time on this as our software does it quickly - just delete those IKEA furniture layers!).

The main point with detail is to realise that if you have 500 door handles in a model, there are likely many other unnecessary elements that will slow down the process and ultimately add cost. To understand this point and what will actually appear at the scale you are printing, will also go a long way to understanding what is possible in 3D printing and what makes it possible.

If you have any related questions, please contact us at fixers@fixie3d.com, we’re here to help.

Fixie - it’s all in the name really: your design files need to be fixed before 3D Printing.

That’s why we set up Fixie, to scratch this task off your ever-expanding list. You’re the building specialists: we’re the 3D Printed model specialists!

Whilst sometimes there is only a small amount of file preparation, there are multiple factors which cause issues. This could be caused by how the digital model was originally made, how it was imported and interpreted by our 3D printing software and also how you would ultimately like to see your design represented. The requirements to make detailed features printable at different scales varies greatly. We don’t think it should be your job to worry about whether your design will 3D print or not!

We want to share all of these factors with you to help you understand the work we do at Fixie to get your model print ready, according to your specific brief.

Over the coming posts we will share our expertise on:

• Errors (Holes, Bad Edges)

• Fixes

• Pre-Emptive Measures (some discussed here already)

• Dos and Donts

If you’d like further information, we’d love to hear from you directly.