Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

This book will cover the very basic but essential techniques you need to model an organic and functional object for 3D printing using Blender. Starting with pen and paper and then moving on to the computer, you will create your first project in Blender, add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. You will learn how modifiers can automatically refine the shape further and combine multiple shapes into a single 3D printable model. By the end of the book, you will have gained enough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a 3D printable object of your choice, which in this case is a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

The anatomy of a print


Now that the mechanics of FFF 3D printing are clear, it's time to take a look at how a print is built. If an FFF print is stopped partway through, or observed during printing, the following can be seen:

The following are the different parts shown in the preceding image:

  • Layers: FFF prints in layers, with each layer sitting on the one below it. Prints can be made with thicker layers so that they print faster or thinner layers so that they look better.

  • Outlines: When starting a layer, the outline of that layer will usually be printed first. FFF prints often have two or more outlines so that the outside of the print is strong.

  • Infill: once the outline is done, the rest of the layer is filled in. If an area of the print will not be seen from the outside when the print is done, a loose infill is used to save material and give layers above something to sit on. Top layers are filled in completely. Most FFF prints are largely hollow.