3D printing a scale model football stadium roof

Hi all,

Hope this is in the correct section.
I'm building a 1:250 scale model of a football stadium, this one in particular:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=a...UIBygB#imgrc=_
And due to the geometry involved, I'd like to 3D print the roof structure, however, being my first 3D print, I'm not too sure how to do it. I'm an architect grad so I've built many many models over the years, however, never anything this geometrically shaped and never anything 3D printed. I have modelled the stadium in sketch up and rhino, but I have a few questions for the printing.


1: can I print the roof as a whole, or would it be better in sections?
2. Can I print the roof shell with gaps and the triangular panels separately and then insert them on completion instead as printing them as one big piece? (There will be A LOT of the triangle panels though covering the roof)
3. Can I print the roof steel hollow so I can run wires through them for electrical lighting?
4. Will the electrical wiring affect which material I can use due to the heat involved?
5. Are there transparent materials so you can replicate opaque glass?


Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Thats a nice looking stadium!

The answers to all of your questions are yes but with a lot of "ifs" and "buts"

1. This depends how big the print bed is of your printer. If it is big enough to print as a whole you can do so but the likelihood is that you'll have to print your roof in parts.
2. You could print the roof without the triangles but this is going to be a very hard task for a number of reasons. Without the triangles the parts you are printing would be so small and thin that the printer is unlikely to give any good definition to it and it will be incredibly weak. I would recommend printing it as a whole (so including the triangle sections)
3. Whilst you could print the steel bits hollow this is going to dramatically affect the quality of your print. Because a 3D printer builds up layer upon layer it really needs solid structures to give the lower layers strength.
4. PLA starts to go soft at 60 degrees C so below this temperature any electrical wiring won't affect the print. If your electronics go above this temperature then 1. you have an extremely hot electrical circuit and 2. you would need to print from ABS plastic or something with an even higher melting point.
5. Yes there are certainly transparent materials to print with but these are not as common as colour materials.

Hope some of this helps.

That is a tremendous help, thankyou so much.

i did a little more digging and the print bed isn't large enough to print the entire roof so I will need to print it in sections, however, the steel frame of the roof at 1:250 will be 25mm in diameter for each tube and thick enough to be structural but allow me to hollow out the centre enough in order to run electrical wiring through where I need and still have enough thickness to be structural.

Thankyou so much

No worries, Im glad I could be of help.

We would be interested to see your stadium build so far. Do you have any photos?

I'm still at the early stages so I don't have any as yet. I'm still trying to work out appropriate dimensions for the 3D printing of the roof so I can build the rest of the stadium to that same scale so I need to make sure the scales are spot on due to the costs involved, but I will definitely put some photos up as i progress and once the printing is complete as well and then the complete project.
Im thinking about test printing 1 shell of the roof before I do the whole lot so as to ensure cost reduction and minimise mistakes. I need to ensure the holes for the LED lighting are also the correct dimensions for the led lights I can find, so I'm working on the rhino model as this point still. Too big and the led's will be too obvious and the cladding won't look right or it may leave a gap if the LED is smaller than the hole, too small and the led's won't fit. They need to look just right. Fingers crossed

Sounds good.

If you need any help or advice then please feel free to contact us at support@3dexfilament.co.uk

Cheers

This is a close up of the facade which I'm going to be printing. Any ideas on how I may approach it? I have modelled it exactly as it is, however, I'm unsure of whether it would print exactly like that, in terms of details, colours(the black is necessary as are the grey panels) and the steel beams on the inside which support the panels and the structural integrity of the whole roof. For the grey panels, I was thinking of printing the roof as is and then printing the grey triangles on acetate paper and attaching them onto the model.

first off - hollowing the supports is not an issue. I've printed hollow items as small as 4 mm across and they're pretty strong.

Also bear in mind that you can have variable infill in any 'solid' pieces. Which makes them stronger, lighter and less brittle.

Secondly what printer and slicing software are you using ?

For something like this you're best option would be full colour sls powder based system or a mcor paper/resin machine. As they will print any shape without support in any colour.
second best would be a standard nylon sls machine - only prints in white - but again will print any shape without supports, and nylon is very tough so good for small pieces and fine detail.

If you're stuck with an fff machine - you'll need supports for sections of the roof overhang and will need to paint the panels by hand after the print has printed.

Glueing acetate will work - but paint or marker pens will be faster and much easier :-)

Love the project, hope to see it finished.