Book Image

3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

Jigsaw puzzles derive their name from when they were cut from wood sheets using a hand-woodworking tool called a jig saw back in the 1760s. Have you ever wondered how a model idea for a jigsaw puzzle is articulated, and how it was made with these traditional tools? Through this book, you will master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. We will quickly introduce you to some simple and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. Through the course of the book, you'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender that allow you to edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. Finally, when the model is sculpted, you'll learn some methods to cut the model and carve out multiple pieces of perfectly-fitting edges of different geometries to complete the puzzle. ------------------------------------------- Note from CM - [Page count: 60] [Price: $9.99 eBook | $19.99 print]
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Building a puzzle piece


Now, let's build a basic puzzle piece that can be used to turn the sun into a puzzle.

Building the basic shape

Let's get started with the basic shape of a puzzle piece:

  1. On the menu at the bottom of the 3D View, locate the layers pane, which looks like an array of connected boxes. Each box is a separate layer.

  2. Click on an empty layer:

The sun will disappear, but that's simply because it's on another layer, the one with the orange dot in it. Organizing objects in different layers in Blender is a great way to ensure that things don't quickly get out of hand and to ensure that there is no need to hide or unhide individual objects. In addition, multiple layers can be viewed at once if desired, so you can work on related objects. For now, we'll use this empty layer to start building our puzzle object:

  1. Add (Shift + A) a Grid object:

  2. Under the Tool Shelf to the left of the 3D View are the properties of the new Grid. Before clicking on anything else, change the X Subdivisions and...