Shapeways has a an upper limit of 1000000 polygons per model.

A format that does not seem to have this limitation us the SVX format :
http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/17972-shapeways-launches-svx-voxel-file-format-for-3d-printing.html
described in : http://abfab3d.com/svx-format/

Sculpteo is less specific ; "tiny details in large files with excessive
numbers of polygons will not be rendered"

How hard would it be be to build an exporter for this format ?

SVX seems to be very poorly supported.

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I can't speak for Shapeways but my RepRap is unlikely to have sufficient
resolution to print 1,000,000 faces on an object the size of my print bed
(and for those faces to be distinguishable).

A better approach might be to work out the limitations of your print format
and output the correct resolution to match. There will be no discernible
different and file sizes will be smaller.

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hi all,

i'm trying to "cut" threads in openSCAD.  i'm using the threads.scad
module i found on thingiverse, like so:

use <threads.scad>;
...
english_thread(diameter=(632ScrewRadius*2),
threads_per_inch=32,
length=(coverDepth+coverThickness),
internal=true,
$fn=30);

gosh, is it slow!  i played a game of freecell and the progress meter
hasn't budged from "just started".  and now i've finished typing this
email and still no progress.

i put cylinders in the code to check for positioning and depth; once i
got those right, i commented out ONLY the first cylinder and inserted
just the code for the one thread above.  my res time (F6) was 45sec; now
it could be hours.  from one thread - and i have four to gen before
slicing.

i'm sure the lack of progress is due to threads.scad creating a
bazillion polygons.  i'm not trying to complain; i'm just trying to get
my stuff printed.

is there any alternative to threads.scad?

thanks!
yvette

First, it's 1million TRIANGLES, not 1m polygons.  If you upload a file made
out of polygons, it will first be triangulated, and then fail in the upload
process for having more than the limit of triangles.

Second, I believe that, rather silently, they upped it to TWO million
triangles many months ago. (or, at least some number more than 1m)

Third, the Shapeways file size limit is still 64mb.  But, SVX must be
zipped, so the compression will help you out on the size.

Forth, I'm not real happy with the SVX implementation, the model is uploaded
as voxels (cubes), but they render them out to polygons, and then apply a
polygon reduction operation to the outer shell of the model.  The polygon
reduction they apply has the effect of smoothing the model a bit too much
for my tastes.  It may well be within the resolution of the printer, but to
me the detail produced looks terrible.

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