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

Bending the tentacles


Time to begin adding some details to the tentacles and give the model some personality.

Before moving ahead, let's take a look at another powerful tool for editing meshes called loop cut or loop subdivide, which will be used when bending the tentacles. Loop cut adds points in the middle of an edge and all around a portion of the geometry. These points can then be transformed. Loop cut only works with edge or Vertex Select mode and will automatically switch modes when being used.

For our project, we'll be using loop cuts to bend the tentacles. Follow these steps:

  1. While still in Edit mode, switch to Vertex Edit mode (Ctrl + Tab).

  2. Begin the loop cut operation by selecting Loop Subdivide under Mesh | Edges from the 3D View menu or pressing Ctrl + R.

  3. Move the mouse over the edge of one of the tentacles. Notice the preview line showing where the loop cut will be:

  4. When the loop cut is where desired, click the select mouse button or press Enter. At this point, the loop isn't set...