ZBrush for Digital 3-D Printing - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 753

Exporting the Geometry for Print
We will now export the geometry for print. Remember that 3-D printers do have a file-size limit. If you
were to decimate the subdivision levels to make a smaller file, you would lose resolution—we want to keep
detail while lowering file size. Luckily, Pixologic has a free plug-in to do just that— it is called Decimation
Master. They also have the 3-D print exporter to allow you to export STL files at a real-world size.
Decimating the Figure
Decimation Master and 3D Print Exporter are both available from Pixologic.com for free download. Extract
them into the ZStartup/ZPlugs folder and restart ZBrush to access them. Here, we discuss how to use Decim-
ation Master.
Before you can complete this section, you need to be sure Decimation Master and 3D Print Exporter are
installed.
1. From the DVD or download files, open the ZBrush project posed.zpr.
2. The project will open with the final posed figure including the base and all SubTools. Open the Decim-
ation Master plug-in by clicking ZPlugs ⇒ Decimation Master ( Figure 11-70 ) . Click the radial button in
the ZPlugin menu to dock it to the side of the screen for easier access to the settings.
Figure 11-70: Open the Decimation Master menu. Dock it to the side of the screen.