Book Image

3D Printing Blueprints

By : Joe Larson
Book Image

3D Printing Blueprints

By: Joe Larson

Overview of this book

A new industrial age is here. Machines designed to build useful and interesting objects have moved from the factory to the home. Whether you have a 3D printer or not, learning how to design your first 3D models is the best way to become part of the 3D printing movement. 3D Printing Blueprints will teach you, step by step, the tools and techniques of using Blender, a free 3D modelling program, to build 3D models for printing with simple and fun hands-on projects.3D Printing Blueprints uses engaging and fun projects that teach Blender modeling for 3D printing through hands-on lessons. First you'll learn basic modeling and make a small simple object. Then each new project brings with it new tools and techniques as well as teaching the rules of 3D printing design. Eventually you'll be building objects designed to repair or replace everyday objects. Finally you'll be able to even tackle other people's models and fix them to be 3D printable. Through the course of doing the blueprints you will custom build one-of-a-kind objects that you can call your own. Starting from a custom vase formed from a picture, lessons will progress to a multi-part modular robot toy. Then simple machines will be designed with custom gears and functions. Eventually you'll learn how to download models from the Internet and make custom objects. Finally you'll be able to build models with near real life specifications and make a print that can be used for small object repair. 3D Printing Blueprints will teach you everything you need to know about building custom 3D models to print successfully on modern home 3D printers.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
3D Printing Blueprints
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Printing the bracelet


With the flat top and bottom, the model may not look much like a bracelet as-is. If printed with normal settings it certainly wouldn't be. However by manipulating the settings on the slicer, the program that prepares models for 3D print, this model can easily be made into a bracelet. How the settings are edited depends on the slicer. There are many slicer programs, just as there are many 3D printers. Makerbot has two official slicers that it recommends, ReplicatorG and Makerware. To keep the conversation simple only these two will be discussed, but in general the goal is to locate the fill layers and set them to 0 units.

Editing the settings in ReplicatorG

The following steps help to edit the settings in ReplicatorG:

  1. In ReplicatorG, first navigate to File | Open and locate Bracelet.stl.

  2. In the menu, navigate to GCode | Edit Slicing Profiles....

  3. From the Edit Profiles menu, choose whatever default profile is normally used and press the Duplicate button:

  4. Name the new profile...