5. 3D Scanning and Printing¶
Group assignment: Test the design rules for your printer(s)¶
We printed some test pieces on Ultimaker2GO and on the Prusa I3 using general PLA filament. Parts came out relatively fine and comparable on the 2 printers.
We wanted to do a testprint on the EOS and the µPrint also, but they were buys printing the last couple of days. So maybe later.
We downloaded a torture test file from thingiverse, the MINI All In One 3D printer test by majda107.
We printed it with 100% infill, no supports and 200µm layer height. As was recommended by the author of the part.
During the print the part curled up in the corners. This could be due to the 100% infill used.
For the Prusa printer we used the Prusa slicer software and Cura for the Ultimaker.
Both are advanced slicing softwares and support lots of different printers by now.
We used comparable settings in both software.
On the prusa we also did a 3D benchy test, this is a little boat designed so that it includes most of the difficulties you can encounter printing with an FDM print.
For the Ultimaker2Go we did a Stanford bunny print.
Results:
- overhang came out really well on both machines
- there was almost no stringing
- text was readable
- dimensions: we have an average of about 0.2mm offset in both directions. So to make accurate parts we should compensate for 0.1mm in each direction.
Design and 3D print an object that could not be easily made subtractively.¶
I print objects almost on a daily basis. So first i thought i pick one of those. But most of them are not my designs.
I did some nice prints based on medical scanning however
So I did start a small exercise in Fusion360 and drew a ball inside a box, and also a box in a box. Those are pretty hard to make substractively. And were fun to draw and print
I used to create some designs in openScad aswell that would be impossible to make without 3D printing. And I saw that Tinkercad now also has something similar to scripting. They use the block-based programming, kinda like scratch.
I always use Tinkercad to teach kids and teacher to design things for 3Dprinting. And we also use a lot of the block-based systems with children to learn to program or code for robots. So this would also be a nice variant to combine the coding and the 3D printing.
So I started out with one of the examples and made something similar. Also introducing some random variables, so the outcome of this code always gives a bit of a different 3D design.
I first made sure the model is closed and printable in Netfabb
I will try to print this on the Prusa also.
Because of the geometry of this design it will not be easy to print on a Prusa without special support material. So I tried the paint-on support feature to make supports on the places where I thought were best. Without having to print support everywhere in this model, which would be to difficult to remove afterwards.
And it seems the print is going to succeed. At least it looks like it for now 😉
And the final result is not bad. This would be better to print in a printer with soluable support material or SLS or SLA printer.
But I’m happy with it.
Design files
- ball in cube stl
- cube in cube stl
- ball and cube in cube Fusion360
- random_triangles
- random triangles codeblocks link
3D scan an object, try to prepare it for printing (and optionally print it)¶
We had to scan something. Obviously first thing we did was try that out on Mysa, the dog. She did a good job of staying still, most of the time 😉.
Although obsolete, we used the Cubify Sense scanner. Because that is what we have in the lab. You can still activate the device and download the software to use it.
Once I told my youngest sons at home we had to do some 3Dscanning for class this week. They were thrilled to have a 3D print of themselfs. So this weekend we did some sitting still and scanning 🙂
Scanning with the Sense is pretty straightforward. To start you choose what you want to scan based on the size. Then you aim at the object and slowly go around it with the scanner.
Make sure you keep the same distance and the object in the circle on the screen. When the software loses track, you can go back a bit and continue.
After the scanning the Sense software let you do basic cleaning and deleting parts you don’t want. After that it solidifies the scan and you can do basic touch-up before you save it.
To prepare the scan for printing I cleaned up some parts of the hair and hands in Meshmixer. And did some repairing in Netfabb.
I use Netfabb all the time to make designs printable, closed and watertight. It is a really powerfull software to repair and prepare files before printing.
And of course now that we have a half decent scan we Obviously have to print it. DUH!
Scan files
- Viggo obj
- Mink obj