Book Image

Blender 3D Printing by Example

By : Vicky Somma
5 (1)
Book Image

Blender 3D Printing by Example

5 (1)
By: Vicky Somma

Overview of this book

Blender is an open-source modeling and animation program popular in the 3D printing community. 3D printing brings along different considerations than animation and virtual reality. This book walks you through four projects to learn using Blender for 3D Printing, giving you information that you need to know to create high-quality 3D printed objects. The book starts with two jewelry projects-- a pendant of a silhouette and a bracelet with custom text. We then explore architectural modeling as you learn to makes a figurine from photos of a home. The final project, a human hand, illustrates how Blender can be used for organic models and how colors can be added to the design. You will learn modeling for 3D printing with the help of these projects. Whether you plan to print at-home or use a service bureau, you’ll start by understanding design requirements. The book begins with simple projects to get you started with 3D modeling basics and the tools available in Blender. As the book progresses, you’ll get exposed to more robust mesh modeling techniques, modifiers, and Blender shortcuts. By the time you reach your final project, you’ll be ready for organic modeling and learning how to add colors. In the final section, you’ll learn how to check for and correct common modeling issues to ensure the 3D printer can make your idea a reality!
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Combining objects together with Boolean Union

At this point, we have two separate objects making up our pendant—the profile that we made from a Bezier curve and then a torus to serve as a hook. We want to print them together as one, so we want to combine them both into a single object. It is tempting to highlight both objects and use the Object | Join menu option. It is convenient for Blender purposes: you can move them together, you can scale them together, you can edit them together. Unfortunately, it is not so great for 3D printing. When you use Object | Join, Blender keeps all the geometry for both the selected objects. If I join the profile and the hook, I can still see all the vertices of the torus inside of the pendant.

In Chapter 3, Converting a Bezier Curve to a Properly Sized 3D Mesh, we talked a little about face normals and how faces have insides and outsides...