Book Image

3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

Jigsaw puzzles derive their name from when they were cut from wood sheets using a hand-woodworking tool called a jig saw back in the 1760s. Have you ever wondered how a model idea for a jigsaw puzzle is articulated, and how it was made with these traditional tools? Through this book, you will master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. We will quickly introduce you to some simple and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. Through the course of the book, you'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender that allow you to edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. Finally, when the model is sculpted, you'll learn some methods to cut the model and carve out multiple pieces of perfectly-fitting edges of different geometries to complete the puzzle. ------------------------------------------- Note from CM - [Page count: 60] [Price: $9.99 eBook | $19.99 print]
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

The best settings


Blender has a reputation for being difficult and unintuitive to use. This is true for the default settings. However, Blender is also very easily adjustable with a few settings and can be made much easier to use. How you set up your instance of Blender will depend on what your setup is like.

To access the settings, in the top menu select File | User Preferences. In the Blender User Preferences panel that comes up, select the Input tab button:

A scroll-wheel mouse and number pad

The recommended setup for Blender is to use your keyboard and a mouse with a scroll wheel. In this case, there is only one setting that is recommended to be changed from the default:

  1. Click on the button that says Left under the words Select With.

  2. Click on the button that says Save User Settings:

Changing this one setting will make Blender much more intuitive to use.

Because the default is for the right mouse button to be the select button, and some may prefer to keep this default, this book will refer to...