3D printed architectural models and product prototypes
Massing models, product prototypes and presentation pieces printed in Barcelona. Scales, materials, minimum detail and client-ready finishes.
A printed model comes off the bed overnight and costs less than an afternoon of well-cut foamboard. That turns it into a design tool rather than only a deliverable: you can print three massing options in a day, put them on the table and decide by looking rather than by orbiting on screen.
Choose the scale before the material
Scale decides everything else. The practical rule: any detail that measures under 0.8 mm at scale disappears in FDM and has to move to resin or come out of the model. A 30 cm slab at 1:200 is 1.5 mm — it prints. A 6 cm window frame at 1:200 is 0.3 mm — it does not.
| Scale | What for | Technology |
|---|---|---|
| 1:500 – 1:200 | Massing and urban fit. No window detail. | FDM |
| 1:100 – 1:50 | Project model with openings and floor breakdown. | FDM, resin for details |
| 1:20 – 1:10 | Construction detail, material junctions. | FDM or resin |
| 1:1 | Product prototype, handle, light fitting, furniture part. | FDM; resin when feel matters |
How to prepare the model
- 1Give everything thickness. A wall in Revit or SketchUp may be a zero-thickness surface; the printer needs a closed solid. Minimum 1.2 mm real at the final scale.
- 2Delete what will not be seen: interior furniture, services, terrain layers under the building. Every cubic centimetre is billed.
- 3Split by floor or by block if the model exceeds the bed, and do it yourself: you know better than anyone where a seam can sit without spoiling anything.
- 4Export STL or 3MF in millimetres, already scaled. A full-size model with "scale it to 1:200" in the message is the fast route to a misunderstanding.
Contrast without painting
The cheapest way to make a model read well is to print the building in one colour and the base or context in another, as separate pieces. It costs less than painting, there is no risk of paint filling in fine detail, and it lets you reprint only the building when the project moves on.
What does a printed model cost?
It goes by the volume of material it consumes, so scale rules, along with whether the building is solid or hollow. Hollowing it drops the price a lot and never shows on a model seen from outside. Splitting it into pieces adds nothing: set-up is charged per file, not per fragment. Upload the model and move the scale until it fits your budget.
Can I send the Revit or SketchUp model directly?
Send it and we will look, but expect preparation to be needed. Those programs produce surfaces, and many have no thickness: a curtain wall modelled as a plane encloses no volume and cannot be printed. A model usually needs a simplified version, without services and with thin elements thickened.
Does the model arrive assembled or in pieces?
Whichever you prefer, and it is worth deciding beforehand. Assembled it arrives ready for the table but travels worse and is fragile at the corners. In pieces it travels in a flat box and, if the split is by floor, the model opens up and shows the interior, which in a presentation usually beats the facade. Say so when ordering and the joints get designed accordingly.
Where it works well
- Massing studies: the building in your hand, fast and cheap
- Competition models with façades, openings and floor-by-floor breakdown
- Product prototypes to validate form, feel and proportion before tooling
- Furniture parts and construction details at 1:1
- Terrain and topography from contour data
Where it stops
- Large single-piece models. Anything over 250 mm gets split, and a big model means many pieces and a lot of assembly.
- Detail below 0.4 mm in FDM. A 1:200 handrail will not print: that is what resin is for.
- True transparency. We do not print glazing; it is solved with an opening and cut acrylic.
- Modelling from a paper drawing. We need 3D geometry, or at minimum a clean DWG.
Recommended materials
Related guides
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