6. 3D Scanning and printing

  • Individual Assignment: Design and 3D print an object (small, few cm3, limited by printer time) that could not be made subtractively. 3D scan an object (and optionally print it).

  • Group Assignment: Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)

Group Assignment

This weeks group assignment was to test out our labs 3D printers by printing 10 files that would show us the strengths and weaknesses of each printer. At LCCC we have a pretty wide range of printers to test. Our results can be found here.

Individual Assignment

This week for our individual assignment I wanted to create something that I was sure couldn’t be made subtractively. My design is basically a coil with caps at both ends with a sphere suspended inside. Once the part is done I was intending it to either be a sort of noise maker when you shake or rattle the ball, or it could be a relaxation/meditation tool to rotate with your hands and watch the sphere ride the coil rails from one side to the other.

Designing

This week I decided to design my part in Fusion 360. I have become quite comfortable utilizing this software so I knew it would be the most time effective software for me to use this week. This design honestly only took me about 10 minutes from start to finish, but it got the job done. The design is essentially made of 4 bodies ( 1 coil, 2 cylinder caps, 1 sphere.) I made sure that I didn’t join any of these bodies and just allowed them to intersect so that I could assign different materials to the assembly later on in my slicer software GRABCAD.

Designed in Autodesk Fusion360

Once designed I decided it would be fun to practice my rendering skills to make a nice representation of what I plan on my part to look like.

Rendered in Autodesk Fusion360

Objet 260 Connex3

For this weeks assignment I printed my part on our Objet 260 Connex3 by Stratasys. The Connex3 is a great printer that we are lucky to have in our lab. This printer can create multi-material colored prints. This machine will hold 3 different materials plus a support material which allows us to print translucent, rigid, bio, or thermal resistant prints. When designing my part I knew this would be my printer of choice so I could assign different materials to varying parts of my assembly. I knew I wanted the coil to be transparent so I went with a material called VeroClear and for the caps and the ball I went with the material VeroGrey. Both of the Vero materials I used are rigid materials, but my coil design allows for my part to be flexed from side to side as well as being compressed.

Here is a data sheet of the PolyJet Digital Materials.

Objet 260 Connex3

Final 3D Printed Part

3D Scanning

For the 3D scanning portion of this weeks assignment I decided to use the Knockout 3D Scanner. This scanner is essentially an android tablet with an Xbox Kinect scanner attached to it. I really like working with this 3D scanner, it is easy to use and it also captures the colors of the object you are scanning which makes for a fun visual once scanned. Once you have your scanned part it is easy to export the file as a .OBJ or .STL file directly to your google drive account so that you can access the file from any machine.

Below is my final 3D scan that I uploaded onto Sketchfab. After it was uploaded I copied the embed link so that I could have an interactive 3D experience on my site.