4/30/2023 0 Comments 123d design shellThis was a slow process of using the brush selection tool to remove areas, before repeating step 2 with slightly thicker geometry. I wanted to create an interesting pattern when the light was turned on, so separated several areas of a copy of the original mesh to be used to create thicker sections.So that the shell would allow a lot of light through, I used a 0.7mm thickness for the overall design. Scale up the shell to the appropriate size, then use the “Extrusion” tool to thicken the skin into a solid shell.In Meshmixer, this simply involves using the “Inspector” tool under the “Analysis” menu. Fill any holes and errors in the 3D scanned sea urchin shell.The process took a little time, but has been outlined in 6 basic steps below: Additionally, it’s quite useful when you are working with 3D scan files, which are typically a mesh like a STL or OBJ. If you don’t have access to expensive CAD programs, good news this project was completely designed in free software! I’ve used Autodesk Meshmixer for many of my tutorials and posts, it’s a surprisingly powerful tool and a must for anyone involved in 3D printing. However, as anyone familiar with 3D scanning will know, this model is just a skin with no thickness or solid geometry, and was just the starting point for the design process. This resulted in a full-colour, highly detailed model of the shell, as shown to the right. I n this post I’ll go over the main processes and experiments I went through to get the finished product, but in case you’re just here for the big finale, here’s the link so you can download the final Sea Urchin Light exclusively from my Pinshape account and 3D print as many as you like! 3D ScanningĪs explained in further detail in my previous post, I used an EinScan Pro 2X Plus 3D scanner, which included a turntable to automatically capture all angles of the sea urchin shell. At the time I didn’t know what I’d do with it, but fast forward a year and I’ve found a perfect application turning the sea urchin shell into ceiling light covers in my house. ![]() About a year ago I posted about 3D scanning some shells, and as part of the scanning I captured a sea urchin shell. But then, it wouldn't have been mine (well, my son's), and I wouldn't have learned a darn thing.This project has been a little while in the making and it’s exciting to finally be writing about it. Something that I could have bought at Staples for a few bucks. My pencil cup (well, my son's pencil cup). I took a risk and let this print overnight - and by the morning, there it stood. The print was by far the longest so far - 8 hours and 38 minutes. I then repeated a similar, but slightly different set of diamonds for the bevels and the side walls of the cup. That left the diamond pattern you see on the front face. I then sunk them into the face of the cup so they were sticking out the front and through the back of that front wall - the "Subtract"ed them (that is a command in 123D which is by far the most useful thing in my projects so far). I positioned all the squared equal distance from each other and lined them up to be on the same plane. ![]() I took a simple small square, turned it 45 degrees to make it look like a diamond, then duplicated it a bunch of times. ![]() ![]() So I began making a grid of shapes that I would "subtract" from the face and sides, to make it more like a mesh. I also put a diamond shaped hole at the back in case this cup needed to hang on a nail or hook (I think of everything, 12% of the time). It is also beveled at the top to avoid any overhangs which might not print nicely. Then I adjusted the back to be 4mm (by "pull"ing the back face) so that I would have additional area for an indent in the back to hold magnetic strips. I'm finding that feature to be most useful - you select the face of the object you want to "shell" and then adjust the width of the remaining walls. Then I extruded that as a solid - 100 mm high - and then used the "Shell" command in Autodesk 123D Design - which hollows out any shape. First, I drew the bottom shape - a rectangle, basically, 30mm deep and 70mm wide, with clipped front corners to give it a bit of design. I wanted to avoid making it a simple hollowed out half cylinder (flat side to hang on the locker or wall), so I designed it from scratch. This post tells a bit more about how it was made. This was an idea my 8th grade son had - something he needed - so I took on this not-so-challenging challenge. My biggest 3D Printing project so far - a 100mm tall pencil holder which can be hung on the inside of a school locker (or stood up on a desk).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |