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)

Resizing the model


While sculpting the sun face, there was very little effort made to make the model conform to a particular size. However, this is an important consideration when building the model for 3D printing because of tolerance considerations, which will be covered in more detail later.

How big should it be?

Every 3D printer has a range of print areas that it can handle. Naturally, if designing for a particular 3D printer, this should be taken into account.

For this project, the model is going to be sized so that it will be too big for any printer to print. The smallest popular 3D printer on the market has a print bed of 120 mm squared, or about 4" on each side, so that one will be what this model will be resized for.

Scaling with properties

At the end of the previous chapter, the sculpted face was left in Object Mode. Before continuing, make sure that the project is still in Object Mode, or some later steps may get confusing.

Follow these steps to scale the model:

  1. In the Properties panel...