Week 5 - 3D Scanning and Printing

Assignment

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)

Design

I started by designing the model using SolidWorks. After launching the software, I selected the Front Plane and proceeded to set Global Variables for the measurements I planned to use.

Using the Line Tool, I sketched half of a cylinder, adding height and width measurements. I applied a 5mm fillet and used the Offset Entities tool to create an inner boundary before closing the shape.

Next, I applied Revolve Boss/Base to the sketch, forming a fully defined cylinder.

To facilitate further modifications, I created a new plane positioned 10mm above the top plane.

Using the Convert Entities tool, I generated a copy of the circular edge. Then, with the Helix/Spiral tool, I created a helical curve along the cylinder’s surface.

At the endpoint of the spiral, I sketched a 10mm rectangle to serve as a cutting profile.

Exiting the sketch, I used the Swept Cut tool to carve through the cylinder.

After cutting, I applied a Face Fillet to smooth the edges.

Next, I used the Circular Pattern tool to create multiple cuts around the cylinder, initially setting 25 gaps.

At this stage, the cylinder was fully designed, but it was too large.

To resize it, I adjusted the Global Variables, reducing both height and width to 5mm.

This modification affected the previously created circular pattern—the 25 cutouts exceeded the cylinder's surface.

To fix this, I edited the circular pattern and reduced the cutouts from 25 to 15.

I then proceeded to design a ball inside the cylinder by drawing a centerline and adding a semi-circle at the middle of the cylinder.

Applying Revolve Boss/Base, I finalized the design, a cylinder with a ball inside.

After completing the design, I saved it as an STL file to prepare for slicing.

Slicing with Creality Slicer

Creality Slicer Download

To prepare for 3D printing, I opened Creality Slicer and added my printer (Creality CR-200B). The software allows adding multiple printers if needed.
After configuring the printer, I imported the STL file from SolidWorks.

I went on with printing settings where I set my material as PLA and chose Standard Quality and edited its settings to have a good printed object I used 0.8mm walls, added brim and support to hold upper parts to prevent defects during printing. Also changed the fill in percentage to 20% to my object light and reduce printing time.

After defining my settings, I sliced and reviewed my object then saved it to the removable disk

Printing

Moved to my Creality CR-200B, turned on and inserted my removable disk with the sliced object. I first checked the printer leveling and it was okay. Heated the nozzle to test the filament then loaded my job from the disk
Started printing. My PLA heating was 220 ℃