Hello-

Hopefully this explanation won't be too basic. 3D models are made from polygons, defined by vertices. The vertices are the "dots" that you connect to make the shapes. The polygons are the faces of the individual shapes. If you have more dots, you can have more faces and this will give you an overall smoother 3D model. Of course, the more vertices you have, the more calculations the computer has to do... which will eventually slow things down as your model gets bigger.

To fight this, we have a technique called smooth shading. It basically applies a gradient fill to each polygon that smoothly meshes with the faces next to it. You can read about it more here if you're interested: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shading[/url]. This is what Mecabricks uses to make the models look good on screen. But in reality the models have the blocky shape as the underlying geometry. If you zoom in on a helmet, you can see the blocky outline even though the surface looks smooth. If you want to see the lines, click on Settings in the top toolbar, then change your Edges to Wireframe and tick the All Edges option.

Here is a comparison of smooth shading vs flat shading vs modifying the geometry to smooth the model. If you're interested in how I modified the geometry, let me know.

Hello B1Trash !

Thank you for the reply ! (polygons was what i was meaning in by blocky lol!) I am not familiar with Blender somewhat 3ds max i am many years ago (have Blender installed but never used it lol) but from what I see makes sense I would love to learn the technique in how you do this !

Ok, so... I'm not familiar with 3ds Max or 3D printing, but I can help some with blender. The ultimate goal is to use a subdivision operation to create the extra geometry you need to see smoothness. First off, you need to choose your export type. If you're 3D printing, you will probably eventually need an STL file. Of course, you can export from Mecabricks directly to STL. The other option I'd recommend to try is the .zmbx file.

As far as I can tell, the STL export features a fully watertight model with a single surface made up of triangles only. The zmbx parts come in with multiple surfaces made with a mix of triangles and quads. I'd recommend trying the STL file first. If you don't like the results, try the zmbx.

For an STL file, I would import into blender and then in Edit mode, convert the Tris to Quads. You can find this command in the Faces menu, or [Alt]+[J] on the keyboard. From my testing, this improved the quality of the subdivision operation.

Next, I would apply a bevel modifier. I recommend using a distance of 0.0001 and 3 segments. The purpose of this modifier is a quick and dirty way to force Blender to keep these edges sharp. The distance is extremely small, which will help us later to get rid of excess vertices.

Now we can apply a subdivision surface modifier. This is what's adding the extra geometry. The default mode is Catmull-Clark, which will smooth out the surfaces. Tick up the number of iterations until the model is as smooth as you'd like.

Finally, add in a Weld modifier. The default value is 0.001. The purpose of this is to get rid of the bevels that we put in to make the sharp corners sharp. Because our bevel was done at 0.0001, any vertices added to do the bevel should be merged back together.

You should now be able to export the STL file. Hopefully this will work.

If you want to use the zmbx file, you will not need to do the Tris to Quads step at the beginning. However, because zmbx parts come in with unattached surfaces, the first step will be to attach them together. For this, you can use the Weld again. Usually 0.001 will suffice. Then do the rest of the stack. Again, I don't own a printer but in theory the welds should keep everything together. Do the bevel, subdivision, and weld again and you should be ready to export the STL file again. The biggest advantage here is that the computer isn't guessing on where to put quad faces, and this will typically results in the best subdivision results.

Hopefully this helps.

Cheers!