Description
Preface
3D printers have arrived! Complex and beautiful objects are available at the touch of a button in our schools, libraries, or even our homes. Whether or not you have a 3D printer, learning how they work and how to design for them is the best way to be a part of this new industrial age. And the best part is it doesn’t cost a penny to learn to design for them.
This book will teach you the things you need to know about 3D printers. Then, you will use the robust and free software, Blender, to follow step-by-step instructions through several planned projects. You will gain the tools, techniques, and skills you need to make your own projects that you can print by yourself on a 3D printer near you and share with others online to print around the world.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, 3D Printing Basics, will help you understand 3D printing basics, types of 3D printing, and how FFF printers work.
Chapter 2, Beginning Blender, will introduce Blender, how to set it up, and some basic and mid-level functionality. Knowing the content of this chapter will get you over Blender’s infamous learning curve and provide the basic knowledge and reference necessary for following along with future projects.
Chapter 3, The Octopus Pencil Holder, building this simple project, an octopus pencil holder, will involve simple selection techniques and modification commands of basic shapes in Blender’s Edit mode, and applying modifiers to soften and combine shapes. This technique alone can be used to make an unlimited number of cool things once mastered.
Chapter 4, Measuring Basics, mentions how it is very important that accurate measurements must be made when planning and applied to the modeling of a 3D object. In this chapter, we deal with different techniques of taking measurements: measuring with a ruler or calipers, the grid paper trace method, and 3D scanning.
Chapter 5, An SD Card Holder Ring, walks you through the process of making a cool 3D printed project an SD card holder.
Chapter 6, Sculpting the Face of the Sun, teaches you how to use the sculpting tools in Blender to transform a basic shape into a complicated design.
Chapter 7, Cutting a 3D Jigsaw Puzzle, further modifies the model created in the previous chapter by creating the puzzle pieces and then applying their shape that to the sculpted model model to create the individual pieces, combining two of Blender’s powerful editing styles to create a finished product.