What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with 3D Printing, will get you moving quickly by 3D scanning some common everyday objects with an ordinary digital camera and Autodesk 123D Catch. We'll move into 3D printing our 3D scanned objects and take a basic look at the mechanics of the process.

Chapter 2, Optimizing the Printing Process, will introduce us to Meshmixer, a surface-modeling program that will help us clean up our 3D scanned objects and optimize them for better printing. We'll move into 3D printing by looking at how we can control the interior of our models. By experimenting with the infill of a 3D model, we'll see how different infill patterns are created and how important the surface perimeters are for the structure and surface details.

Chapter 3, Scanning and Printing with a Higher Resolution, will introduce us to 3D scanning with an ordinary, inexpensive red laser, a webcam, and a DAVID Laserscanner software. MeshLab, a very powerful mesh editing program, will be introduced. This will help us with our final 3D scanned results. We'll move into 3D printing by learning how to adjust our printing resolution for finer results.

Chapter 4, Modeling and Printing with Precision, will introduce us to SketchUp Make. It's a 3D modeling program that has an easy learning curve for making precision mechanical parts. We'll move into 3D printing by learning how we can control a slicer and mechanical functions for higher precision printing.

Chapter 5, Manipulating Meshes and Bridges, will introduce us to TopMod. It's a 3D modeling program that works by manipulating the mesh structure. MeshLab will also be examined more closely for its mesh manipulation tools. We'll move into 3D printing and learn how to achieve the difficult task of bridging, the task of printing filament over an empty space.

Chapter 6, Making the Impossible, will examine the tools of TopMod in more depth. We'll move into 3D printing by learning how to create a removable support material for complex models.

Chapter 7, Texture – the Good and the Bad, will examine an easy method to create textures and patterns on our models using Meshmixer and Paint.NET. We'll move into 3D printing by learning how we can control and eliminate some of the unwanted textures created by the 3D printing process.

Chapter 8, Troubleshooting Issues in 3D Modeling, will examine common issues such as inverted face normals and non-manifold geometry that arise in 3D modeling.

Chapter 9, Troubleshooting Issues in 3D Printing, will review the basic systems that make a 3D printer work and how we can troubleshoot some of the issues that occur.

Appendix A, Understanding and Editing Firmware, provides information on how to upload firmware and make some basic changes.

Appendix B, Taking a Closer Look at G-code, provides information on how to access G-code and make some basic changes.

Appendix C, Filament Options for RepRap Printers, is a list of filament materials and their characteristics.