#Printing in 3DStudio
32 messages in this thread
Hi, Has any one tried printing with 3DStudio or AniPro. I tried printing with
both these packages, but with out any luck, I used the print drivers that came
with the package. When I tried in 3ds it just rebooted the machine??? Whereas
anipro said that it had printed the job when it did not.. I was trying to print
using HP paintjet and using HP's new plotter 650 I believe. Any help will be
appreciated
Anand-
Been there, done that. If you want to print your fantastic (No doubt) images,
save them out to 24 bit TIF files, and either buy a Dye Sub printer (help, I'm
poor again), or go to your local photo shop that has a Xerox Color Laser
Copier. The places I've dealt with can accept 3DS's default Compressed TIF and
give me printouts that are so close to dye sub… it's fantastic. Natrually,
all these photo places seem to have nothing but MAC's, so you can't zip the
files. (Thus, use compressed TIF) OTOH, I recently found a dye sub printer that
doesn't cost $8000+…
Live and learn; Die and forget it all.
-/Robert/
Hey, did you (or anyone else) look at the PRIMERA printer that Infinity Design
Systems had at their SIGGRAPH booth? This printer can do both Dye-sub and
thermal wax (but not bikini wax) for — get this — $1,180!
The couple images they had printed looked pretty good, it comes with one
dye-sub cart (about $280 for 100 prints [includes paper]) and one wax cart
[about $48, I think] and a T-shirt transfer kit. Infinity offers a 30 day
money-back guarantee! I think we'll get one and see. On the plane home, I
found an ad in High Color for the same printer from LaserMaster for twice the
money.
Sounds too good to be true, eh?
Dave
A friend and lurker here, ChristianV, bought this printer last week. Although
200 dpi in dye-sub mode, it is continuous tone, after all, and looks *very*
good. The saturation and color quality seem to be on par with it's higher-res
cousins, although more testing is needed, I think. So why so cheap? From what I
understand, the printer is a bit hardware-challenged <g>. Not much in the way
of processing power or memory so the prints aren't exactly fast. But this is
how they kept costs down, I guess. The major issue here, I think, is the
emergence of *much* lower price-points for dye sub printers in general. Yay!
-Alan Iglesias
Hi Alan,
I felt obligated to jump in (since you partially mentioned my name). I got
my FARGO PRIMERA last thursday night and spent the weekend testing the baby. I
also used up all the paper and ribbon that came with it. Here are the basic
caracteristics of the printer.
Name: PRIMERA
Make: FARGO Electronics, Incorporated
Type: Thermal Wax Transfer or Dye Sublimation (upgrade kit)
Resolution: 203 DPI (How important can be the 3) <G>.
Print size: A, A4, A-long, A4 Long
List Price: $995.00 for the printer. $249.00 for the Photo-Realistic
upgrade.
Cost per print: Wax $0.45, Dye Sub (for photo quality) $3.00 to $4.00
The printer performs well, the output ranges from Good to Fantastic. I ran a
few test as soon as the printer was out of the box. The printer runs under
Windows Only (not a big deal since I uses CorelDraw to go out to print) so I
installed the printer driver and there I was ready to go.
Since the Fargo does not have any memory it relie on the computer to do most
of the work (well at least half). After few minutes of processing (depending
on the file size and the amount of memory on the computer) the print is done in
3 passes CMY or 4 CYMK depending on the ribbon used. The only draw back is
time it took me about 20 minutes to print the Stilife.tga from 3DSudio rendered
at 2000 lines. The finished picture is astonishing NO JAGGYES AT ALL the 203
DPI RES show its limitations only in Thermal Wax mode.
The Fargo Primera is the perfect tool for the artist who wants to show is
work without loosing the quality of the original image.
Chris.
Christian:
Thanks for the report! I think I could deal with the time frame just to have
the control and convenience "in-house" (not to mention that sending it out will
take more than 20 min, although you will have a machine tied up).
I think we'll look into one.
Dave
Thanks for the great overview, Christian. I'm sure many on this forum will be
happy to know all the details about this new, affordable, dye-sub solution! So,
when can I come down and do a little printing??<g> Seriously, maybe we could
get you to demo the printer at the next user group meeting.
Talk to you soon,
-Alan
Yo Maan What's up
As I said in the previous message all I got with the original order was 10
dye/sub and 30 thermal wax, most of it is now in between sheet protectors the
rest into the waste basket (you know how it gets when I get a new toy) so as
soon as I get some new supplies I'll call you for a Jam session I mean a print
session <G>.
I'll see you latter.
– Chris –
Great, Chris. Talk to you soon,
-Alan
And with little budget, you must add <g> I think this thing could be cool, but
I'm more thinking of how this will affect other dye-sub printers. I'm looking
for the new Kodak or Tektronix to buy next month, but I'll look for the Fargo
as well. I'm looking for quality, and if I like it, I'm thinking in some
solutions to free computers (i.e. establish a printer server in the network
just for the dye-sub works). Will be back with this issue in a couple of weeks.
Ana
Hi Alan,
I felt obligated to jump in (since you partially mentioned my name). I got
my FARGO PRIMERA last thursday night and spent the weekend testing the baby. I
also used up all the paper and ribbon that came with it. Here are the basic
caracteristics of the printer.
Name: PRIMERA
Make: FARGO Electronics, Incorporated
Type: Thermal Wax Transfer or Dye Sublimation (upgrade kit)
Resolution: 203 DPI (How important can be the 3) <G>.
Print size: A, A4, A-long, A4 Long
List Price: $995.00 for the printer. $249.00 for the Photo-Realistic
upgrade.
Cost per print: Wax $0.45, Dye Sub (for photo quality) $3.00 to $4.00
The printer performs well, the output ranges from Good to Fantastic. I ran a
few test as soon as the printer was out of the box. The printer runs under
Windows Only (not a big deal since I uses CorelDraw to go out to print) so I
installed the printer driver and there I was ready to go.
Since the Fargo does not have any memory it relie on the computer to do most
of the work (well at least half). After few minutes of processing (depending
on the file size and the amount of memory on the computer) the print is done in
3 passes CMY or 4 CYMK depending on the ribbon used. The only draw back is
time it took me about 20 minutes to print the Stilife.tga from 3DSudio rendered
at 2000 lines. The finished picture is astonishing NO JAGGYES AT ALL the 203
DPI RES show its limitations only in Thermal Wax mode.
The Fargo Primera is the perfect tool for the artist who wants to show is
work without loosing the quality of the original image.
Chris.
Alan:
I think your report was just the verification of quality I needed to pry the
plastic out from the hands of the office manager ("but you've already charged
the hotel and airfare! — No more, PLEASE!"). After all, I still have 30 days
to be disenchanted….
Dave
(by the way, I also have ordered the "Sculptura" program from McNeel&Assoc as
advertised in the latest 3D Artist. It's supposed to allow smushing and
squishing and warping and wrinkling of primitives with DXF out. For only $95,
I thought I'd see if it'd be handy for modeling soft forms. I'll let y'all
know — unless someone want's to tell me right now that I've wasted my
money!<G>)
Hey, that Sculptura thing sounds interesting, David. Please let us know
what'cha think.
-Alan
"Hardware-challenged" I LOVE it! I wish I'd thought of that. In fact, I think
I will have. <G>
He-He…Yeah, the printer really seems quite nice, considering the price. I was
just trying to describe the situation without sounding demeaning…Like someone
mentioned, it may take a while to print, but it's still faster (and a LOT
cheaper) than going to many service bureaus.
Glad you got a kick out of it. Go ahead and use it — if nobody laughs you can
always blame it on me!<g>
-Alan
Dave
I saw the Primera printer and also thought it was a good deal for the quality.
My understanding was that a 100 print cartridge/paper stack was $250. What I
didn't think to ask is if the cartridge was usable for everyday printing or if
it could be swapped in and out for a standard unit?
TedB
Hi Ted,
The Photo Realistic Kit for the FARGO Primera list for $249.95 and includes
– 1 new driver upgrade (Windows only)
– 10 pages of special coated paper
– 1 ribbon holder
– 1 Dye Sub ribbon (10 prints)
I do not know the exact price for ribbon and paper but it should be somewhere
about $3.00 per print. A this price it will be wise to proof using the Wax
transfer that only cost $0.45 for color and about $0.20 for B&W.
-Chris Vagnati
Christian:
Are you saying: >> – 1 Dye Sub ribbon (10 prints)
that the INCLUDED ribbon makes only ten prints, but that the subsequent
"purchased" ribbons make 100, or was the 10 a misstype? I guess the wax
ribbons cost about $45, right?
Dave
Hi Dave.
Sorry but it's not a mistake TEN prints that's all. You are right on the
money for the Wax 3-colour ribbon (115 prints) $45 and the same for the
4-colour ribbon (80 prints) they also have a Monochrome ribbon (400 prints) for
$40. I have'nt yet the list price for the dye/sub but I keep you posted.
Chris Vagnati
Gottcha. Thanks.
Dave
Christian
Thanks for the info.
TedB
If you mean "text" by the phrase "everyday printing", I think not. It only
does wax and dye-sub, but it looked as though you could just pop one cartridge
out and replace it with the other (they opened it and poped a cart out to show
how simple it was — ooooh!).
Dave
David
Oh yea, wax proposals or bills wouldn't be that impressive, would they?<g>
Thanks.
TedB
>>Oh yea, wax proposals or bills wouldn't be that impressive, would they?<g>
Oh I don't know… Christian said the wax is substantially less impressive than
the dye-sub, but for bills, I'm just reminded of a very old Peanuts cartoon
where someone notices that Linus has only polished the fronts of his shoes, to
which he replies, "I only care what people think of me when I enter a room, I
don't care what they think about me after I leave."
Dave (wearing non-shined tennis shoes)
Thanks David, I havn't looed at the Primera printer! Sound good though..
Thanks … Anand 🙂
I didn't think to mention how to get ahold of these Infinity folks:
Infinity Design Systems
6624A San Fernando Rd.
Glendale, CA 91201
Ph. 818-240-2011
Fax: 818-240-2015
Dave
Thanks David…
Anand .. 🙂
Thanks Rob, I was wodering if you had used the hardcopy feature 3DS. How much
do the photo places charge for a copy?!!
Anand,
If you have Corel Draw you can easily print to the DesignJet 650C using the
included Windows driver for the product. Just save in .TGA or .TIF (I like
.TGA) and import into Corel Draw. Then just pring it… Works great. The
output from the 650C is very nice actually. It's a fantastic plotter. Plus, you
won't need to go to a service bureau – unless you need very high quality
hardcopy.
Dave Mennenoh
Dave,
>> Then just pring it… Works great. <<
We just got one of these in the office today, and I can't find "pring" anywhere
in the manual. Is this a special process? <g>
John
Hi dave, I don't have Corel draw!.. But I was wondering if it was possible to
print using the print drivers supplied by audodesk?.. I do print using the
windows driver I usually convert it to a pcx file!??
Thanks …. Anand 🙂
Ananad,
You can print from any windows app using the HP supplied windows drivers. Corel
Draw is just nice as it can handle larger sizes than most others.
Dave