3D printing in our Full Color Sandstone material allows you to print multiple colors or textures in one single print. Read below to see how you can upload your model successfully to Shapeways with the textures included.
1. Make sure your model has its textures or vertex coloring set up correctly:
In this example we're using this small flower, which has a red and yellow texture file.
2. Go to your Export function in 3ds Max (File -> Export) and change the file format to our recommended file type .WRL and set the file name:
3. Click on "Save," which will show you the export settings:
Make sure "Use Prefix" at Bitmap URL Prefix is set to disabled. When you don't disable this, your .WRL file will always be looking for a specific path to find the textures, a path that Shapeways is not able to access after uploading.
4. Then click on "OK" to begin exporting:
5. Go to the folder where you have exported the 3D file in .WRL format, and copy your textures to this folder for convenience.
6. Select the 3D file and the textures and compress them into a .ZIP folder. Make sure when zipping these that they are located in the root of the .ZIP, your .ZIP file should not contain any folders.
7. You can now upload your .ZIP file to Shapeways. You will be able to see the uploaded model in all available materials, including Sandstone:
If your 3D model doesn't show any colors or textures after uploading, this means that something went wrong with your file and it will not have any colors if you order it. Make sure to check in with our customer service team for help.