Roy (aka “The SmithBot”) fills us in on a implausible DIY vacation present thought – customized snowflakes that incorporate hidden names throughout the design. All made doable by the science of 3D printing (and 3D printers such as you).
Posted on December 18, 2015
by
Roy Smith – Visitor Contributor
You possibly can print customized 3D snowflakes with the names of your family and friends members magically hidden inside their snowy crystals! Comply with these simple steps, and your mates shall be impressed. So will you!
You want the next software program in your system:
- Adobe Illustrator, or a minimum of some drawing program that lets you convert textual content to outlines; a program that may flip, duplicate, rotate, and mix shapes into compound shapes, and that may save recordsdata in a format that your 3D software program can import.
- 3D software program: I’m utilizing 3DS Max as a result of it will possibly import Illustrator 3 recordsdata as splines. (That’s proper: Illustrator 3, not CS3. Old fashioned.)
- Your 3D printer software program. I’m utilizing a MakerBot Replicator 2 (MakerWare), printing with MatterHackers white PLA filament. MatterControl can be a fantastic software program selection for RepRap customers.
Step 1. In Illustrator (or different): Sort a reputation of a buddy. I’m utilizing “MatterHackers” for instance. Select a font that’s not too loopy and that’s daring sufficient to print nicely.
Step 2. Convert the textual content to outlines: Utilizing the strong arrow device, choose your textual content field, then beneath Sort > Create Outlines.
Step 3. In case your buddy’s identify has a lower-case “i” or “j” then the dots will fall off once you print. Each form should join nicely with each different form to provide a viable snowflake that you could proudly grasp out of your tree. Hold this in thoughts whereas continuing to Steps 4 and 5.
Step 4. Go to Impact > Distort and Rework > Free Distort; use your mouse to create a distorted form as within the instance right here. The end result ought to look about proper for half of 1 arm of a six-armed snowflake, then go to Object > Broaden Look. Save your work: You would possibly want to regulate this later. I do know I did! The “MatterHackers” snowflake took me two tries.
Step 5. Utilizing the Replicate device, select Horizontal and Copy. Holding the Shift key, transfer the ensuing form down, leaving some house between the right-side-up and upside-down variations of your buddy’s identify.
Step 6. Draw a protracted, skinny rectangle between the 2 names that barely covers the underside of the highest one and the highest of the underside one. Align and middle it rigorously to overlap the 2 shapes equally. Utilizing your Pathfinder palette, unite all shapes into one compound form.
Step 7. Utilizing the Replicate device once more, flip and replica the complete form on a vertical axis, and transfer the end result to the best, once more utilizing your Shift key to maintain every little thing in line.
Step 8. Choose all of your shapes, use your Rotate device at 60 levels, clicking Copy, after which do it as soon as extra. This offers you a snowflake form. Be certain corners overlap sufficient within the center to offer robust connections. Use your Illustrator Pathfinder palette to mix each form into one compound form. The ascender within the “okay” within the identify “MatterHackers” occurred to overlap its mirrored offspring. This will both contribute to the energy of your snowflake or completely confuse your pc, inflicting spurious outcomes. Hopefully your mates have shorter names with out too many ascenders or descenders or dots. If not, discover new pals with names like “Ron” or “Jan.”
Step 9. Save your file as an Illustrator 3 doc. For those who strive to reserve it as CS5 or no matter, traces of code shall be too lengthy. Your file format must be importable as an editable spline in your 3D software program.
Step 10. In 3DS Max (or different), select File > Merge, and discover your file. Perhaps this gained’t work. If not, again up a number of steps and take a look at a special font or alter your shapes. Perhaps your compound form wasn’t full? Attempt ungrouping and utilizing the Pathfinder device once more. While you’re assured that you’ve an extrudable spline, then extrude it about 0.1 inches.
Step 11. Export your file into .stl format, or no matter your printer prefers.
Step 12. My MakerBot is happiest printing snowflakes between three to 5 inches in diameter. This MatterHackers snowflake is 4.75 inches from nook to nook.
At first, once you present these snowflakes to your mates, they gained’t discover their names in any respect. This gives every kind of enjoyable alternatives so that you can step by step reveal these magically hidden crystalline phrases in no matter inventive methods you may think about!
