print your ships from kerbal space program · introduction this is a guide to show you how to print...

MatterHackers

Print Your Ships from Kerbal Space ProgramFan of the game Kerbal Space Program? Ever want to bring your customized space rockets tolife? Well look no further! This helpful guide will put those little rockets right in the palm of your

hand.

Written By: Tyler Anderson

Print Your Ships from Kerbal Space Program Draft: 2016-10-11Guide ID: 36 -

This document was generated on 2019-09-17 04:39:28 PM (MST).

© 2019 matterhackers.dozuki.com/ of 13

INTRODUCTION

This is a guide to show you how to print your ships from Kerbal Space Program, the game whereyou launch overenthusiastic little green men into space on rockets of your own design. We'll beusing Dasoccerguy's excellent KSPBlender addon to import the .craft files into Blender, where wewill clean it up and generate a .stl for printing. This guide was written with MatterControl in mind, butit is applicable to any 3D printing software.

Downloads

Kerbal Space ProgramBlenderMatterControlio_kspblenderio_object_mu




https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/111483-KSPBlender-Blender-Addon-for-importing-craft-files-(now-with-complete-mod-support!)

https://www.blender.org/

http://www.mattercontrol.com/

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

https://www.blender.org/

http://www.mattercontrol.com/

https://github.com/Dasoccerguy/io_kspblender

https://github.com/taniwha-qf/io_object_mu

Step 1 — Build a Ship

In this guide, we're going to use one of the stock ships from the game, the Kerbal X. We alsoprinted the Stearwing D45.

You may want to remove some of those struts. They are very thin, so they don't print well, andKSPBlender has trouble with them.

You can have as many boosters as you want, though.

Step 2 — Install Blender Addons

Open the blender User Preferencesby pressing CTRL + ALT + U orgoing to File > User Preferences

Go to the Addons page

Install both addons by clicking theInstall From File button andchoosing the zip file that youdownloaded

After you install each addon, enableit by clicking the check box to theright of its listing.

Save User Settings




http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Kerbal_X

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Stearwing_D45

https://github.com/Dasoccerguy/io_kspblender/issues/4

Step 3 — Set Your KSP Directory

KSPBlender needs to know where the game assets are in order to get the models and textures.

Because it is pulling the data directly from your game folder, it will work with any addons youhave installed as well.

If you are using Steam, you can find out where the game data is by right clicking and going toProperties, then hitting Browse Local Files under the Local Files tab

Put the location of your game folder into kspdir.txt

On Linux this file will be in ~/.config/blender/2.75/scripts/addons/io_kspblender-master/

On Windows it will be in C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\BlenderFoundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\addons\io_kspblender-master\

On the Mac its in the Blender application bundle




Step 4 — Import Your Ship into Blender

Delete the default cube from the scene by pressing A until all objects are selected, then X.

Import the .craft file

Go to File > Import > KSP Craft (.craft)

Browse to the game folder, then you will find your ships in the Ships folder.




Step 5 — Remove Parts You Don't Want Printed

Your ship will be imported with all possible parts, including things like parachutes and launchstability enhancers.

Actually, you might want to keep the launch stability enhancers, since they will help support theship during printing.

To delete an object, right click to select it. Then press K to bring up the KSPBlender menu andchoose Delete Part.

You can also delete a part by finding it in the Outliner, right clicking, and choosing DeleteHierarchy.




Step 6 — Configure Moving Parts for Printing

Moving parts may not be imported inthe configuration you want to print.These include landing gear, cargobays, solar panels, etc.

Select the object, then bring up theK menu and choose Toggle Deploy.




Step 7 — Scale and Rotate For Printing

The dimensions of the model are given in Kerbal meters, however the slicer will interpret the unitsas millimeters, resulting in a very small print.

Some parts are extremely thin. For instance the interstage fairing and engine bells. Make sure youscale the model large enough so that these things will actually be printed.

You can check whether or not a part will be printed correctly by viewing the G-Code inMatterControl.

Scaling can be done either in Blender or after you have imported the model into MatterControl.

To scale in Blender, press A until everything is selected, then press S. Either drag the mouse tothe scale you want or enter values in the pane on the left.

In order for the pane on the left to work, you may need to enable Global Undo in the Editingpage of the User Preferences.

You can also scale the model in MatterControl using the edit function.

If your ship is a spaceplane, you may want to rotate it so it prints vertically. Press R in Blender torotate.




Step 8 — Make 3D Printable

This function unifies all parts of theship into a single manifold mesh.

This is especially important to use ifyour ship has part clipping. Theslicer will not fill in the spaces whereobjects intersect.

Select a part of the ship, then bringup the K menu and choose Make 3DPrintable.

You may get an error regardingmulti-user content. You can fix thisby selecting everything thenpressing U to make everythingsingle user. Select object & Datafrom the menu.

An alternative to this step would beto run the exported STL through aservice like NetFabb orMakePrintable.




https://modelrepair.azurewebsites.net/

http://makeprintable.com

Step 9 — Export STL

Press A to select all.

Go to File > Export > Stl (.stl)

Drag and drop the STL file into the MatterControl Queue.




Step 10 — Recommended Slice Settings

Some of the engine bells are verythin on the end. To deal with this, wejust used bottom clipping, so itwould skip the first few layers whichare too thin to print.

Remember to turn off bottomclipping before your next print.

Support material will almostundoubtedly be required. Ourstandard recommended supportmaterial settings are...

Overhang Threshhold: 30degrees

Pattern Spacing: 2.5 mm

Interface Layers: 0

Z Gap: 1 layer

Detailed models like this are proneto stringing. To minimize this, havea look at our guide on optimizingretractions.




http://www.matterhackers.com/articles/retraction-just-say-no-to-oozing

Step 11 — Check the G-Code

The Layer View in MatterControl will let you preview the print so you can make sure it will turn outhow you like.

The print will have all the features of the actual in-game ship, including engines inside of stagefairings and things inside cargo bays.

It won't have the insides of cockpits or the Kerbals themselves, though.

There is a bug in MatterControl 1.3. If your print looks like a giant mess, try turning off DisplayExtrusions.

Check to make sure that thin parts will actually be printed. If not, you may need to scale up themodel more or print it in multiple parts.

If you can't or don't want to scale up the model, the only other thing you can do is edit the meshfor that part in Blender.

Many slicers have trouble generating support structures under the fins. This is because they arethin and pointy on the bottom. You can either try a different slicing engine, or print the finsseparately and glue them on.




Step 12 — Print!

The End




print your ships from kerbal space program · introduction this is a guide to show you how to print...

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