3D Scanning and Printing¶

Group Assignment

Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)
Document your work on the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned about characteristics of your printer(s)

Individual Assignment

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

Learning outcomes

Identify the advantages and limitations of 3D printing
Apply design methods and production processes to show your understanding of 3D printing.
Demonstrate how scanning technology can be used to digitize object(s)

Have you answered these questions?

Linked to the group assignment page
Explained what you learned from testing the 3D printers
Documented how you designed and 3D printed your object and explained why it could not be easily made subtractively.
Documented how you scanned an object
Included your original design files for 3D printing
Included your hero shots

Time Management¶

You can access my timetable here.

Group Assignment¶

You can access the documentation for our group project here. However, I also documented our work in my individual page.

3D printer¶

Our group assignment this week required us to test the design rules for our 3D printer. The 3D printer at our lab is the Prusa i3 MK3.

Image source

Machine and Specifications¶

Build volume : 250 x 210 x 210 mm | 9.84 x 8.3 x 8.3 in

Layer height : 0.05 – 0.35 mm

Max travel speed : 200+ mm/s

Max hotend/heatbed temp : 290 °C / 120 °C (572 °F / 248 °F)

Mainboard : Einsy RAMBo 8-bit board

MMU2S/3 support : Yes

Nozzle diameter : 0.4mm (default) / other nozzle diameters supported

LCD screen : Monochromatic LCD

Print surface : Magnetic heatbed with removable PEI spring steel sheets

Cutting Tool Chuck : Collet method

Filament diameter: 1.75mm

Tutorial on how to 3D print¶

To test the design rules for our 3D printer, we used the All In One 3D Printer test.

If this is your first time using a 3D printer, you can follow along here.

We are using the application Prusa slicer. This is what its workspace looks like.
Import your design.

You can also choose to tap on the cube icon or press ‘Ctrl + I’ to access it.

![](../images/week05/print_tut0.jpg)

On the toolbar, select the icon to place the bottom of the model to the base of the plate.
Make the necesarry changes to the print settings. Make sure to set the’supports’ to none, since we are testing the 3D printing right now.
Tap on ‘slice now’.
Export your G-code.
Now, store it in your SD card.
Take your SD card and insert it in your printer. Make sure to eject the card.

Here is a picture of us working on it!

Observation¶

Here is how the results turned out!

Diameter test

All the 4 diamters that we tested the printer out with, turned out pretty good. All of them were pretty sturdy and smooth. We can conclude that our printer is very good with printing holes.

Hole test

All three of the holes turned our very good. However, the letters indicating the size of the holes were not visible.

Bridging test

This test assesses the printer’s ability to bridge gaps between two points without the need for support structures. The filament turned our pretty smooth and sturdy for 2mm, 5mm, and 10mm. However, as the length increased, the bridge became weaker. It was not as sturdy and the filament was not well-filled. We can conclude that the filament deposition in mid-air not being stable suggests that the printer may struggle with maintaining consistent filament flow during bridging.

Overhang test

The Overhang Test evaluates a 3D printer’s capability to produce overhanging structures without the need for additional support material. In the 10 degree increment overhang, the overhangs crossing 60 degrees came out very shaky and the filment was not well-filled. For the 15 degree increment overhang, the print came out shaky after 45 degrees. In conclusion, the printer performed best brfore50 degrees overhang.

Vertical pillar test

This test assesses a 3D printer’s ability to accurately reproduce vertical features and evaluate dimensional accuracy and stability. As the height of the pillar increased, the stabilty also decreased. As you can see in the photo right above, the 20mm and 30mm pillar broke. This signifies our printer is unable to print tall stable pillars. This could be due to issues with layer adhesion, printer calibration, or cooling.

Reflection¶

This group assignment was quite fun for all of us to work on. Since all of us had forgotten how to use the 3D printer at our lab, this assignment helped us learn it all over again. Understanding the limitations of our 3D printer will be very beneficial and helpful for future projects involving the 3D printer.

Individual Assignment¶

Our individual assignment for this week required us to design and 3D print an object and scan an object. We started this week off by firstly understanding the difference between subtractive and additive maufacturing.

Necesarry information¶

Subtractive and Additive manufacturing¶

Image source

Subtractive manufacturing refers to a process where material is removed from a solid block (or sheet) to create the final shape. It uses methods like CNC milling, drilling, cutting, and grinding.

Additive Manufacturing a process where material is added layer by layer to build an object. It uses methods like Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA), and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS).

FDM printer vs SLA printer¶

In our local session, Rico also talked about the different printer types; sepcifically FDM printer and SLA printer.

Image source

FDM printer

Fused deposition modeling (FDM), also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF), or filament 3D printing, is the most widely used type of 3D printing at the consumer level, and the most recognizable for the average layperson, who may associate the broader concept of 3D printing with this ‘hot-glue gun’ method of building parts. -Formlabs.com

The material will be delivered as rolls of plastic filament and fed to the head of the printer. Inside the head, the plastic is molten and deposited through a fine hot nozzle onto the plate. The movement of the head in the x and y direction is computer controlled. The deposited material is cooled and becomes hard. The printer at our lab is a FDM printer.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Affordable & Accessible	Lower Detail & Surface Finish
Stronger & More Durable	Less Precision
Easier Post-Processing	Weaker Layer Adhesion

SLA printer

Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing was the world’s first 3D printing technology, invented in the 1980s. Despite this, SLA has taken longer than FDM 3D printing to achieve widespread adoption and awareness due to typically higher prices and a slightly more complex printing process. -xFormlabs.com

Unlike the FDM printer, the material will be in the liquid form and delivered in a bottle. The build area will consist of a small bath with a see-through area, which will be filled by the material.

Advantages	Disadvantages
High precision and detail	more expensive
can be painted w/out much sanding	requires post-processing
Better for Small, Complex Parts	Limited Material Strength

Prusa vs. Bambu Lab 3D Printers¶

Prusa and Bambu are 3D printer brands that use FDM but have different mechanical systems.

Image source

Prusa 3D printer

Advantages	Disadvantages
easier to troubleshoot	Slower Printing Speed
Open-Source & Customizable	Less Rigid Frame

Bambu 3D printers

Advantages	Disadvantages
Fast Printing Speed	can’t modify firmware
Multi-Material Printing	Not open-source, fewer DIY modifications.

3D designing and printing¶

I will be using the software Fusion 360 to design my model. Since the design should not be easily made subtractively, I decided to make

Create the base circle.
Select ‘offset plane’ from the ‘construct’ drop down menu.
Select the circle and drag it to the height of the cone.
Create a smaller circle on the new plane.
Under ‘create’, select ‘loft’.
Connect the two circles together.
I then made the other part of the body by following the same instructions.
Now, let us create the spiral cuts. Go to ‘modify’ and then ‘shell’. Select the whole body and then set the thickness to 2.
Create a sketch on the front plane. Draw a horizontal and a vertical line.
Now that we have the outer cover of the chess peice, we can create the spiral design. Go to ‘sweep’ under ‘create’
Make changes to its features.
Now let’s thicken the design.
Change its settings.

This is what it will look like.

To create the pattern:
Change its settings.

This is what it looks like:

To make it look more like a chess piece, I made the head more realistic.

Here are the final results!

Here is a link of all the tutorials I followed:

Now, lets print it.

After about 3 hours, it finally finished printing. This is what it looked like intially with the support.

Here is a video of me taking out the support material, and like my instructor mentioned, it was HELL.

This is the final result. Heroshot!

Why it cannot be easily made using subtractive manufacturing?

My chess piece cannot be made subtractively because of its hollow and spiral design. Since subtractive manufacturing (a laser cutter for example) involves moving a tool through material, it will not be able to mimic the spiral, circular, hollow design.

3D scanning¶

To 3D scan, I used the application, Scaniverse. It a a very user-friendly applciation which provides very good results.

Using Scaniverse¶

If you also want to use Scaniverse and this is your first time using it, you can follow along here.

This is what the workspace looks like. Press the ‘+’ sign to get started.
You will be provided with 2 options. I went with the 2nd one.
You will be provided with another 3 options. Pick the one that suits the object you want to scan best.
You are now ready to scan.

Here are the results!!

Scaniverse_2025_02_23_171602 by tsheyangPT on Sketchfab

Thank you!

The template for this website was provided by Mr. Anith Ghalley and used with his permission

Last update: March 17, 2025