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)

Bending the tentacles


Time to begin adding some details to the tentacles and give the model some personality.

Before moving ahead, let's take a look at another powerful tool for editing meshes called loop cut or loop subdivide, which will be used when bending the tentacles. Loop cut adds points in the middle of an edge and all around a portion of the geometry. These points can then be transformed. Loop cut only works with edge or Vertex Select mode and will automatically switch modes when being used.

For our project, we'll be using loop cuts to bend the tentacles. Follow these steps:

  1. While still in Edit mode, switch to Vertex Edit mode (Ctrl + Tab).

  2. Begin the loop cut operation by selecting Loop Subdivide under Mesh | Edges from the 3D View menu or pressing Ctrl + R.

  3. Move the mouse over the edge of one of the tentacles. Notice the preview line showing where the loop cut will be:

  4. When the loop cut is where desired, click the select mouse button or press Enter. At this point, the loop isn't set...