36 Plates Limit and the Diorama Contest

MakerWorld
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So I hit the 3mf file’s 36 plates limit with my model (link) for the Diorama Contest (link). Now, this is not a request to allow for more plates in the file, rather when your contest theme reads…

We’re looking for complete miniature environments that tell a cohesive story. Your entry should go beyond a single model—think layered landscapes, character positioning, environmental details, and scene composition.

…there should be a way to better organize such a “model of models” and we actually have it; it’s called a collection. Maybe next time we have a contest like this, we can submit a “main model” that includes a link to a collection for the rest of the models to create the complete contest submission. This way no programming is required. The collection cover photo could be the complete scene and the individual models will be linked from there.

That way I could have submitted the building frame with a link to a collection that included this model as well as one for interior walls and decoration, another for furniture, and one for figurines. In fact, I’m doing a similar thing at the moment already, so here are two examples of how I’d imagine it working…

https://makerworld.com/en/collections/6802515-applique-set-05
https://makerworld.com/en/collections/6802544-applique-set-06

We’re allowed up to five models per contest at the moment, so it could be a requirement that all other models in the collection be submitted to the contest as well. That takes care of people not linking to old models not eligible for the contest, because they were not created during the contest period.

So anyways, that’s my suggestion… I know others have used print profiles to split their models apart; however, that is actually against the print profile guidelines (link) #10 under “prohibited practices”… so you’re running the risk of having them taken down.

But you also have to consider the less experienced users. They see my global settings for layer height set to .08 even though on the first 5 plates the objects are set to .2 individually. It’s just easier with .08 because the rest of the plates will require it. Now less experienced users might start messing with the profile or start giving you bad profile ratings to begin with. AMS color is another thing… my “model of models” lists 6 at the moment, but no single plate uses more than 4 colors individually.

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A number of those plates could be condensed to a single plate or included on other plates

The limit is likely there to be in line with any other printers and slicers that might try to open it given this is based on prusa slicer those changes would likely need to happen upstream

There isn’t anything preventing you from adding a second or 3rd 3MF file once you post the original one as you can edit the model page and just upload them in the raw model files section as that entirely supports 3MF files, you would just need to tell people to download the additional files from the STL option, it would mean you couldn’t print the whole thing from the app but your alternative there is to create a part 2 of the model as a second upload entirely