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)

Smoothing the mesh with modifiers


This blocky octopus is fine for editing; it doesn't have many parts to keep track of. But it needs to be much smoother for the final result. Fortunately, there's a way to increase the smoothness of the model while retaining a simple geometry that is easy to edit. This is done by adding a Subdivision Surface modifier to the object.

  1. To add a Subdivision Surface modifier, click on the Modifiers tab in the Properties panel (the one that looks like a wrench):

  2. Click on the Add Modifier button, and in the menu that appears, choose Subdivision Surface from the list:

With the Subdivision Surface modifier on, the shape looks much smoother. While in Edit mode, it's clear that the original geometry is still there and acts as a sort of cage that defines the shape of the smoothed mesh. As long as the modifier isn't applied, the simpler geometry can be retained for editing.

Tip

Changing the View setting in the modifier will affect how smooth the mesh will be. Higher values...