Shapeways - Frosted Extreme Detail (FXD)

[JBModels]

Hey,

Whilst I was aware of the FXD announcement when it was actually announced, I was not aware of the various printing specifications for it. However by luck I did stumble across the page today and this is what I saw.

Bounding box: 50mm x 50mm x 200mm
Min. supported wall thickness: 0.3mm
Min. unsupported wall thickness: 0.6mm
Min. embossed detail: 0.1mm
Min. engraved detail: 0.1mm

Is this something new? From my memory I always thought wall thickness was 1mm, and embossed & engraved detail was 0.3mm. So has this actually improved? If so then this means we can have some better T gauge models.

Cheers!
JBModels.

[NeilM]

This is exactly the same limits as for Frosted Ultra Detail, except for the bounding box size which has changed. So no real change to the design limits, just a promise of smoother surfaces.

As of yet I have not tried a print in FXD, so can not say if it is visibly better than my default material of FUD.

[JBModels]

Hi NeilM,

I am very much aware that the specs are identical to FUD apart from the bounding box but I wanted to know if the specs have been more refined? Has the detail limit reduced and wall thickness reduced as well? (Refer to the latter part of my post.

Cheers!

[mattd10]

As Neil says the limitations haven't changed, it's just the higher resolution and smoother sides that are of interest to us. As nice as it is to strive for high quality models, you end up with barely visible details that aren't worth the effort.

To explain what I mean, here is an image of a class 168 I designed ages ago with highly accurate windows and doors with both embossed and embedded details



And here is is again at a more realistic viewing distance



Now the details are there, but painting that would be an almost impossible task. So then we resort to vinyls or decals which are all thicker than most of the scale details and will give a better finish.

Since then, all of my modern multiple units have been designed with either open windows or completely flush sides ready for decals.

These are just my thoughts on it all, I'm not obsessed with the finest details (never have been in any scale) just want something that looks right.

[JBModels]

Hi mattd10,

Those look absolutely wonderful. Great work. I will be using decals for windows too.

Cheers!
JBModels.