A couple of Zephyr free questions

[pcj]

Brand new to 3D modeling and Zephyr - so I was super impressed with how easy it was to take a bunch of photos, import, and get all the way to a semi-complete project!

I do have a couple of questions, that I wonder if anyone can assist with

1) The base my model is on - watching the tutorials, it looks easy to remove with the elastic select - in the video it was a simple click, delete - job done. I can't find this functionality in the Free version. Is that one of the limitations? Are there other ways I can remove it?

2) My model isn't quite straight on the x/y axis - there is a slight tilt to it. How can I resolve this one? Seems it should be a simple job, but I haven't figured it out yet.

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi pcj!

Welcome and thank you for your kind words!

1. In the latest version (4.3x) we have rearranged the menus a little bit. You must select the editing panel on the right side of the screen now to access all editing tools. Select "by hand" and you will find there the polygon tool.



A simple note in case you're editing the mesh: the selection will select *triangles* , which means that if you remove them, you most likely will have a jagged border. While you can easily fix that in other software too (e.g. blender) you can also use the cut with plane tool (on mesh only though - do it before generating the texture mesh!) so that you can create a neat, straight cut

However for small objects like the one you posted, consider using masking as you learn the software, so you can rotate the object which means you will be able to reconstruct the full object in its 100% form

2 - you can use the gizmo or the straighten up vector tool. I just replied here so i'll be lazy and link you the thread https://www.3dflow.net/forums/forum/...on-to-xy-plane

Cheers!

[pcj]

Many thanks! Next time I'm in front of that computer, I have some work to do

I've been 3D Printing for a whole 4 weeks, and the idea that I could model, and print my own stuff was the big draw - I researched a few alternatives, but nothing seemed approachable. I saw the Switch & Lever "How to copy (almost) any object" video, and within an hour, had the model above. Super easy to use so far!

[pcj]

Swinging back into this - wondered if I could pick brains again?

I've come to the realization I can't remove the base entirely - trimming it down by hand or with the polygon tool is too messy - next time, I need to try some masking and take more photos.

The bit I'm struggling with most though, is getting it orientated properly. I've tried the above link, but it's a bit light on detail - where I am now, is I've rotated it to what seems to be horizontal - but once I export the mesh, and bring it into Cura (via Meshlabs), my skirt support at the base is only under a small section of my model, with the rest of it seemingly free floating. This is the cura view - blue being the skirt support, thats meant to outline everything on the base. You can see it only covers a small portion.

How can I "level" my model better?

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi pcj,

you should try the cut via plane tool after you have aligned the vertical axis. That way you can have a clean cut (and eventually fill holes).

So, first thing first, align the up vector as i mentioned already using any of the straightening up tools.

Then on your mesh (not textured mesh - you'll have to use this tool first and then compute the textured mesh) right click and select filters -> cut with plane.




use the plane to clean cut your mesh, removing the base



once you press ok, you'll have your cut mesh ready for textured mesh generation.



Proceed normally to create the textured mesh on the correct mesh (if you had 1 mesh, using the cut tool will split it into two meshes in the workspace - make sure to select the correct one as source for the textured mesh generation)



And that should be enough if want, i can take a look at your dataset.