3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

By Larson Joe

Learn to design and 3D print organic and functional designs using Blender

About This Book

- Learn how to make complex shapes by editing basic ones
- Make printable objects from multiple shapes and parts
- Learn how to design from scratch, without a reference to physical objects

Who This Book Is For

You should have basic knowledge of Blender and 3D printing and be interested in printing your first object.

What You Will Learn

- Get to know the guiding principles required to create 3D printer-friendly models
- Understand material characteristics, printing specifications, tolerances, and design tips
- Master the art of modifying basic shapes with Blender's powerful editing tools: extrude, loop cuts, and other transformations
- Learn techniques of editing complex meshes, smoothing, combining shapes, and exporting them into STL files for printing

In Detail

This book will cover the very basic but essential techniques you need to model an organic and functional object for 3D printing using Blender.
Starting with pen and paper and then moving on to the computer, you will create your first project in Blender, add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. You will learn how modifiers can automatically refine the shape further and combine multiple shapes into a single 3D printable model.
By the end of the book, you will have gained enough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a 3D printable object of your choice, which in this case is a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder.

Style and approach

This is a starter project designed to introduce you to your first real-world 3D printing designs, where you'll learn how to handle the fundamental principles of 3D printing design and have your hands on your reward in no time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781785887437

Book preview

Table of Contents

3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Octopus Pencil Holder

Planning the project

The basic shape

Editing the basic shape

Smoothing the mesh with modifiers

Bending the tentacles

Flattening the bottom

Renaming objects

Adding a pencil cup

Adding a face

Finishing touches

Summary

2. Prologue

3D printing basics

What is 3D printing?

The right software

Downloading and installing Blender

Setting up Blender

Scrolling the mouse wheel and number pad

Laptops with a touchpad but no number pad

What to design for?

Overhangs and supports

Supportless 3D printing

Y – gentle overhangs

H – bridging

T – orientation

Wall thickness

Summary

Index

3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

---

3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2016

Production reference: 1240216

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-517-4

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Joe Larson

Reviewer

Marcus Ritland

Commissioning Editor

Edward Gordon

Acquisition Editor

Vinay Argekar

Content Development Editor

Shweta Pant

Technical Editor

Vishal Mewada

Copy Editor

Stuti Srivastava

Project Coordinator

Kinjal Bari

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Priya Sane

Graphics

Kirk D'Penha

Production Coordinator

Shantanu N. Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu N. Zagade

About the Author

Joe Larson is one part artist, one part mathematician, one part teacher, and one part technologist. It all started in his youth when he worked on a Commodore 64, doing BASIC programming and low-resolution digital art. As technology progressed, so did Joe's dabbling, eventually taking him