I love the visualization tool and the textures! So it will be really nice if we can export these textures to a STL/3MF file format and 3D printing them 
. Especially for metal looking designs…
It will be great if we can print this:
Hi,
Currently, Visualization doesn’t alter the geometry in any way. To print these finishes, it would need to change the model itself. So even if materials would be included in the export, the end product wouldn’t change.
Exactly! The idea is to be possible the integration between the texture AND the model, so the model surfaces are changed… This is more like production/prototyping oriented feature, but will be really amazing achievement.
It’s possible we might explore that in the future, however keep in mind, that way you could end up with extremely complex geometry, very easily (an example, a fine mesh finish would generate thousands or even hundreds of thousands of faces immediately, bounded by splines and complex geometric surfaces), which would be very, very taxing even to move in the modelspace.
As easy as it sounds at first, it’s actually a very complex challenge, so it’s not on our roadmap at the moment.
I know, it’s challenging… Just sharing my thoughts 
. I’ll try to (and I will) find a workaround 
. Thank you for your time, was a pleasure to talk!
You would need to generate bump maps for tha t finish, in a 3D modelling program such as ZBrush or other that have good 3D printing integration.
Hi Georgi,
there is no need to kill your CAD-Performance with such a feature, when you can add such “Texture” in the last step before printing (Slicing):
Ideamaker is a pretty good slicer, I used for several years until I switched to prusa-slicer and today I am using super-slicer (but working with STEP-Files directly - what is possible now in prusa-slicer - is very tempting to go back.).
Anyways - if you are willing to give Ideamaker a chance, let us know about the results.
HTH
Cheers Matt
Thanks Matt! I’ll give it a try.
