Sometimes, 3D printing needs to be precise and practical, and sometimes, it just needs to be fun. Like the wood-cut puzzles your grandpa may have made in his garage, 3D printing lets you make similar toys, but with a whole new dimension. Perhaps more than any other tool available, only Blender provides the combination of organic sculpting and robust geometric shape modeling together that makes such projects possible.
You will begin by learning the basics of designing for modern, economic, home 3D printers. Then, you'll learn what you need to know about the 3D modeling and animation tool, Blender, to get you started. Then, we'll start using Blender's sculpting tools to create a shape with actions as simple as drawing. Finally, we'll use Blender's shape-editing tools to make the basic puzzle shape and combine that with the sculpted model to create the final piece.
Chapter 1, 3D Printing Basics, will help you understand 3D printing basics, types of 3D printing, and how FFF printers work.
Chapter 2, Beginning Blender, will introduce Blender, how to set it up, and some basic and mid-level functionality. Knowing the content of this chapter will get you over Blender's famous learning curve and provide the basic knowledge and reference necessary for following along with future projects.
Chapter 3, Sculpting the Face of the Sun, teaches you how to use the sculpting tools in Blender to transform a basic shape into a complicated design.
Chapter 4, Cutting a 3D Jigsaw Puzzle, helps you prepare the model, followed by creating the puzzle space and then applying that to the model to create the individual pieces.
A computer with at least a 2-GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and, of course, Blender.
This book is for anyone with an interest in home 3D printing and a desire to learn the basics of design along with the tools that can make their ideas a reality.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: Now, find Ch10 Scanned Image.jpg, and right-click to save the image.
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: Start Blender and, as usual.
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