As you may know, I’ve mentioned wanting to print a Voltron several times before.  I even tried to design one once.  Even after uploading a shoddy version, I kept on jabbering on about it.

Finally I’ve designed a printable Voltron of which I can be proud. It’s designed totally in OpenSCAD using just about every single OpenSCAD trick I know.  Additionally, I designed a hinge connector system that, I think, compliments Tony Buser’s Pin Connectors v2 system nicely. In fact, some of the connector pieces for this model are basically a Buser pin connector on one side and a hinge/joint connector on the other. The result is a snap-fit highly articulated/poseable model.

I wanted to share some of these design tricks with you over the next few posts.  Here’s a quick preview:

• How to sketch an object with OpenSCAD
• How to easily make regular solids – other than cubes and cylinders, like hexagons, pentagons, octagons, etc
• How to easily make symmetrical solids
• How to easily make irregular, but symmetrical solids

Stay tuned for these ideas!

I’ve shared the video before of Toronto agency Teehan+Lax making its first thing on a MakerBot. Now they have a new video focused on a smart milk carton that alerts you when you’re running low on milk, and they prototyped it on a MakerBot.¹

 

On one hand, having a MakerBot gives you the power to create things for yourself, and Thingiverse is filled with thousands of examples. But then you have people who use it to create things for others, especially the first-through-tenth versions of a new thing. Teehan+Lax is not just making pretty things, but also real world products, with The Replicator. Sweet!

I would say, “this is going to become a trend,” but it already has. I just saw this post from twitter: the Swedish design group People People now have a Replicator, too.

We are finally up and running with our Makerbot Replicator! It will be a great tool for us making prototypes in the various stages of the design process.

 

Look how they’ve marked their Left and Right extruders. Let’s hope People People will be showing us some sweet Dualstrusion sometime soon! Speaking of, I’d love to know what colors design agencies use the most when they’re MakerBotting.

 

1. hat tip Shapeways Blog [↩]

In this OpenSCAD tutorial series we’ve covered the basics of the OpenSCAD interface, how to make 2D forms, how to make some basic 3D forms, how to position those forms in 3D space, the different ways to combine forms, how to create mashups of one or more existing STL’s and OpenSCAD forms, how to use modules to reuse your code to make your life easier, how to extrude flat 2D forms into 3D forms, and how to fix design problems.  Although I described a few of the last tutorials as “intermediate” levels, that’s really only because you learned the basics so quickly from the first few tutorials.

Today I’d like to show you how easy it is to make some neat organic looking forms with OpenSCAD.  The secret behind doing so are two functions, “hull” and “minkowski.”  Let’s learn a little bit about what each of these functions do and try out some code.  More, after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »

The recent news of a process for creating balloons of any shape using 3D printed molds and sophisticated balloon deflating modelling, reminded me of two really cool ways for creating paper models.

First is TreeMaker by Robert Lang, an engineer and world-renowned origami master.  Lang’s free and open source program lets the user specify the number and ratio of major “flaps” and it designs a base that should collapse into a model with that number and ratio of flaps.  When folding an octopus, one uses a base with 9 flaps – 8 equal flaps for the eight legs and 1 shorter flap that forms the head.  A giraffe would probably use five really long flaps (for the legs and neck) and one very short one (for the tail).

The second is a type of software that assists with creating papercraft models by exploding a 3D model into a flat pattern that, when cut out and assembled using glue and tabs, would create a physical paper version of the 3D model.  There are several different programs that do this, but I’m not aware of any that are free or open source. ¹

If you know of any versions that are either free or open source – please share!

1. The wikipedia article provides several suggestions and links if you’re interested. [↩]

An interesting post just crossed my screen that I think our designer/tinkerer (and/or designer-tinkerer) readers would probably be able to shed more light on than me.

Dr. James Self wrote at Core77 about his doctoral research into the different processes industrial designers use to move from concept to object. When is a sketch appropriate and when does someone use a computer in the very early stages of conceptualizing?

Basically, it varies.

Findings indicate that sketching continues to underpin design activity. Professional experience also influences the use of sketching in support of design activity. Less experienced design students tend to lack confidence in their sketch ability and they find the dynamic, unconstrained medium at odds with an approach to design activity that errs towards fixation and attachment to concept.

As part of my research I visited practicing designers at their places of work and interviewed them about their use of design tools. Interestingly, the designers often juxtaposed the affordance of sketching against the limitations of 3D CAD tools. Like many in design education, practitioners stressed the explorative, divergent affordance of sketching over the more constrained convergent nature of CAD. Of course they understood the value of CAD, but spoke of a concern for the ways it may limit student creativity, ‘a student’s design being too influenced by the constraints of this or that software.’

There is more in the piece regarding the timeline for introducing design tools to students. I’m curious, though: how do MakerBot operators use design tools? Many of our operators are not designers at all, and perhaps not so great with drawing. Turns out, they’re not alone; neither are many of our in-house designers.

I just popped by our design studio to find out how our team works, and it seems the answer is: everybody’s different. Some of them sketch everything before diving into any CAD work, while Michael Curry, our Design Superstar, does the “sketching” in his head, because, simply, he sucks at drawing. When he does draw, it’s to test a mechanical idea, to run a structural experiment in 2D.

So what about you? Do you sketch before you SketchUp? Is the idea of drawing something a little too free-form for you, or conversely is CAD too complex to the point of inhibiting an idea?

I’d love to know your process. If you’ve got something to say, perhaps there’s room for your advice on this very blog. So chime in!

There is something really special about these condiment shakers: they are making use of the specific nature of how a MakerBot builds things as an integral design element.

In the case above, it’s utilizing the honeycomb infill by interrupting the print. In the case below, it’s by allowing the striated plastic to serve as a permeable layer.

Thomas at smArchitecture, a firm located in London and Doha, Qatar, explained the pieces and others in the series in his own blog post:

The designs aim to take advantage of the particulars (idiosyncrasies) of this fabrication process and it would not make sense, or be realistic, to realize them by any other means. Here the additive fabrication process and the conception of the design are inherently entwined…

It looks like these were printed on a Thing-O-Matic, but the picture is just too small to tell which number. Just another case of thoughtful design on a MakerBot to go along with all the thousands of awesome things on Thingiverse.

 

Welp, we blog-failed you. There was a super sweet design challenge going on over at 3DTin that we neglected to keep you posted about, but here we come with Lenten penitence! By way of post mortem, here are the results of a Replicator giveaway that brought out the creativity of a bunch of 3DTin users. 3D Tin is a great, user-friendly web-based 3D modeling tool. If this is all Greek to you, there is a wealth of information at our 3D Design Software 101 page.

The rules were fairly uncomplicated: use the 3DTin design tools and upload as many and as varied designs as you wish for the community to score. Most points at the end of the day won a MakerBot Replicator and the top three finishers received a lifetime 3DTin premium subscription!

Check out their blog for more details, but for your convenience, here are the winners:

2nd Runner Up — Phil Tran, who submitted a full arsenal of designs. Literally.

1st Runner Up –  Germán. These models also revolved heavily around a theme, but in  Germán’s case, it was cars:

And the winner, MrFisher! These models were all over the map, but certainly creative. It’s nearly lunchtime, so I’m drawn to this popcorn popper, but at about 6 o’clock, I’ll be dreaming of one of the bunkbed models in MrFisher’s portfolio. We can’t wait to see how these look once they’re printed on a Replicator and will be following up with pictures!

While 10 million people were downloading Angry Birds Space over the weekend, Thingiverse user xpekted was designing an Angry Birds chess set for the MakerBot/Tinkercad chess set design competition!

Who else is tempted to print these little guys and use them with this Thingiverse classic, the slingshot by Batist?

It’s time! Find out who has been lucky enough to win their very own 3D printer, courtesy of MakerBot Industries…

We collaborated with 3D Artist for the competition and giveaway and were charged with judging the 48 fantastic submissions. It was a tough decision, but we have winners!

The competition asked entrants to design their own pet monster – this could be an adorable companion or a fearsome critter; the idea was to encourage artists to use their imagination, to be innovative within a small footprint.

Artists could use any 3D software to design their monsters, but they had to generate a manifold (watertight) mesh suitable for 3D printing. This meant things like feathers, small joints and thin clothing was going to be a particular challenge.

Characters also had to be designed within 100x100x120mm, with the ability to have different parts printed in different colours. ‘Makerbotability’ was an important part of the design – and judging – process.

Runners up

Our three runners up have each had their designs 3D printed at the MakerBot Industries HQ, soon to be shipped to the talented creators. We can’t wait to see the photos of the winners with their new 3D-printed pets!

Runner up #1: Ben Malouf – aka BenitoSanduchi – with Fat Bunbun. 3D Artist says: “What a monstrously greedy bunny? We could easily imagine this little fella sat on the 3D Artist desks, munching away. Just as long as he sticks to carrots – we’ve got first dibs on the chocolate biscuits!”

 

Runner up #2: T. Shawn Johnson – aka Whystler – with Teacup Dragon Puppet. 3D Artist says: “This is such a clever idea! While a dragon isn’t a new concept, it’s been scaled down to live in a teacup designed to move: turn her head and make her speak using a tiny rod below her body.”

 

Runner up #3: Matt Thorup – aka Redbeard – with Pug Monster Pet. 3D Artist says: “This is adorable: cute from the front, nasty on the reverse! We love his quizzical expression and helpless pose – can we adopt him, please?”

 

And the winner is…

 

Andreas Böhler – aka andreas – with Pet monster Blobby. Andreas submitted a handful of charismatic monsters, making the hardest part of the judging process choosing which of his entries was the ultimate winning design!

Andrea submitted a lot of  awesome monsters to the contest! This one prints really well and got a lot of likes on Thingiverse!

Check out a bunch of other wonderful entries on Thingiverse.

Using the really excellent information over at Sandy Noble’s Polargraph website and with help from John Abella and a few others I’ve built a drawing robot.  While I’m very happy with the printed gondola John designed, I thought that it might be fun to have a gondola in the shape of a hand.  I have no idea if it would work well or terribly, but I do know it would be fun.  Here’s the challenge:

• Design an STL of a printable scanned copy of a human hand in the position of holding a pen for drawing/writing.
• The hand would need to have a way to attach to two lines of thin monofilament on the left and right.
• The hand would need to have a way to hold pens of slightly varying diameter.
• Upload your designs to Thingiverse with an open license and tag it “drawbothand“

The person who uploads a hand gondola gets 9000 internet points and, if they wish, a picture drawn by my robot!