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

Exporting an STL


Before they can be used in a 3D printer, 3D models created in Blender have to be changed to a file that the 3D printer can use. Blender's default file format isn't readable by 3D printers and can sometimes contain additional information that the 3D printers don't need.

Most 3D printers use a file format called STereoLithography (STL), which contains just the final shape of the object. To export a finished model to an STL for 3D printing, follow these steps:

  1. Select the model or models to be exported.

  2. From the Info panel, choose File | Export | Stl (.stl).

  3. Navigate to a chosen folder or directory.

  4. Give the file a name.

  5. Click on the Export STL button or press the Enter key:

Now, the STL file will be available to send to a 3D printer or printer service.

If multiple objects are selected, the exported STL will have the objects in the same relative orientation to each other; therefore, it's important that they don't overlap and are printable as oriented. It's often preferable to save separate...