Large 3D files (>2Go)

Hi, I want to print very large 3D files, of size >2Go. I have tried to load such STL on a formlab form 3 prnter, but this is too big.

In fact, the STL files comes from volumic binary images that I obtain from Xray tomographic reconstruction. The data is thus already sliced in a set of 2D layers of small size that I could print sequentially with a LCD printer. I can for sure adjust the resolution of images to match the LCD screen.

My question is : Is there a way or a printer that would accept a sequence of 2D binary/grayscale images (png,tiff,etc) as input ?

Thanks you very much for your help, Joris

Sorry, I am new to 3d printing so don't know about printers but have you tried reducing the size of the STL file? You can retopologize/remesh the STL models to reduce the complexity (size) of the mesh. Meshlabs and Blender3d are two free programs capable of doing this.

Also, there are several programs that can convert grey scale height map images to geometry (STL or other format) which can then be used in 3d printers. Fusion 360 with Image2surface add-on as an example.

Hi OG56,

Thanks for your answer. The problem do not come from generating/simplifying the STL. The geometry is extremely complex and porous so that any STL is >1Go. The use of 2D image slices is much more adapted for such type of model. In comparison, a compressed 3D BW image 1000x1000x1000 has size ~10Mo (100 times less than the STL)

I have found a possible way, that may not be the most efficient but may work. The Zip format of old Phrozen printers contains a sequence of png images as well as a gcode file. Adapting this zip file and loading with chitubox to convert it into CTB may potentially work.

Best,
Joris

Printing several times may be a solution, but I don't know how well the pieces would stick together. I have succeeded with Zipping a B&W image sequence of slices together with a gcode file, and opening it in chitubox. The resulting zip is less than 10Mb for more than 2Gb in STL !