Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Fun and Functional Projects

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Fun and Functional Projects

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

3D printing has revolutionized the way that global industries conceptualize and design products for mass consumption. Considered as the next “trillion-dollar” business, every industry is in the race to equip its personnel with techniques to prototype and simplify complex manufacturing process. This book will take you through some simple to complex and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. There is a comprehensive coverage of projects such as a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder, which will teach you how to add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. Furthermore, you’ll learn to use various techniques to derive measurements for an object, model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object with the help of a 3D printable SD card holder ring design project. The final project will help you master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. Through the course of the book, we'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender to create objects. You’ll move, rotate, and scale the object, and manipulate the view. You’ll edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. By the end of the book, you will have gained thorough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a real-world 3D printable object of your choice.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
3D Printing Designs: Fun and Functional Projects
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Smoothing the mesh with modifiers


This blocky octopus is fine for editing; it doesn't have many parts to keep track of. But it needs to be much smoother for the final result. Fortunately, there's a way to increase the smoothness of the model while retaining a simple geometry that is easy to edit. This is done by adding a Subdivision Surface modifier to the object.

  1. To add a Subdivision Surface modifier, click on the Modifiers tab in the Properties panel (the one that looks like a wrench):

  2. Click on the Add Modifier button, and in the menu that appears, choose Subdivision Surface from the list:

With the Subdivision Surface modifier on, the shape looks much smoother. While in Edit mode, it's clear that the original geometry is still there and acts as a sort of cage that defines the shape of the smoothed mesh. As long as the modifier isn't applied, the simpler geometry can be retained for editing.

Tip

Changing the View setting in the modifier will affect how smooth the mesh will be. Higher values...