Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Design an SD Card Holder

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Designs: Design an SD Card Holder

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

Want to model a 3D printed prototype of an object that needs to be replaced or broken? This book will teach you how to accurately measure objects in the real world with a few basic measuring techniques and how to create an object for 3D printing around the objects measured. In this book, you'll learn to identify basic shapes from a given object, use Vernier and Digital calipers and grid paper tracing techniques to derive measurements for the objects. With the help of measurements, you'll see to model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object, which in this book is a 3D printable SD card holder ring that fits your finger.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Making a test print


If you are just learning to design without access to a 3D printer, then you can skip this step. However, since this print is so small, it is cheap, even through 3D-printing services. The ability to quickly make things for testing is one of 3D printing's greatest strengths, but it's not strictly necessary to learn how to design for them.

It's always good, especially when matching things to real-life objects, to test whether the fit is right. Some 3D printers print things smaller or larger than the file dictates. So, while the thing is small, and since 3D printers are so good at quickly testing things, test the ring you've made.

Export an STereoLithography (STL) of the ring through the Export STL option under File | Export. Name the exported file Test Ring.stl. Then, print the test ring and try it on:

It might come as a surprise that the ring doesn't fit. If printing in ABS, the plastic may have shrunk when it cooled, as that is one of the properties of ABS. Or there may be...