Blender 3D Printing by Example. E-Book

Vicky Somma

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 291

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Blender is an open-source modeling and animation program popular in the 3D printing community. 3D printing brings along different considerations than animation and virtual reality.

This book walks you through four projects to learn using Blender for 3D Printing, giving you information that you need to know to create high-quality 3D printed objects.

The book starts with two jewelry projects-- a pendant of a silhouette and a bracelet with custom text. We then explore architectural modeling as you learn to makes a figurine from photos of a home. The final project, a human hand, illustrates how Blender can be used for organic models and how colors can be added to the design.

You will learn modeling for 3D printing with the help of these projects. Whether you plan to print at-home or use a service bureau, you’ll start by understanding design requirements. The book begins with simple projects to get you started with 3D modeling basics and the tools available in Blender. As the book progresses, you’ll get exposed to more robust mesh modeling techniques, modifiers, and Blender shortcuts. By the time you reach your final project, you’ll be ready for organic modeling and learning how to add colors. In the final section, you’ll learn how to check for and correct common modeling issues to ensure the 3D printer can make your idea a reality!

Leseprobe

Blender 3D Printing by Example

Learn to use Blender's modeling tools for 3D printing by creating 4 projects

Vicky Somma

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Blender 3D Printing by Example

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2017

Production reference: 1191217

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-78839-054-5

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Credits

Author

Vicky Somma

Copy Editor

Safis Editing

Reviewer

Fernando Castilhos Melo

Project Coordinator

Hardik Bhinde

Commissioning Editor

Kunal Chaudhari

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Acquisition Editor

Noyonika Das

Indexer

Francy Puthiry

ContentDevelopmentEditor

Aditi Gour

Graphics

Jason Monteiro

Technical Editor

Shweta Jadhav

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Vicky Somma started 3D printing her Blender designs in 2014, empowered by the 3D Printing Service Bureau, Shapeways, a full year before owning her own 3D printer. In November 2014, she was named one of the winners of the White House 3D Printed Ornament Design Contest. Her ornament, designed in Blender and inspired by the Library of Congress, hung in the East Wing of the White House and is now part of a Smithsonian Collection. For the 2015 and 2016 Holiday Seasons, she had Blender-designed 3D printed ornaments hanging in the Virginia Executive Mansion.

In addition to Blender, Vicky also designs OpenSCAD. She prints on a MakerGear M2 and a Wanhao Duplicator i3 to make a line of designs that she sells at craft shows and Etsy. She teaches TinkerCad and 3D printing classes for local librarians. She maintains a 3D printing blog and makes regular appearances on the Friday 3D Printing Community Hangouts (#F3DPCH).

Vicky's 3D printed Blender designs have been featured on NBC's TODAY, CBSNews, the Washington Post, Michelle Obama's Instagram, and websites such as 3DPrint, 3DPrintingIndustry, and 3Ders. Her designs have been highlighted by Thingiverse, Simplify3D, and Shapeways.

Acknowledgments

The supportive Shapeways staff and their designer community; "real" designers such asOntogenie's Kimberly Falk,Universe Becoming's James Kincaid,Melange'sMichael Williams, andLikesyrup's Scott Denton took the time to offer feedback, share words of encouragement, and answer questions to a brand new, fledgling 3D modeler such as myself.

The YouTubers who work tirelessly to share their knowledge and friendship. Joel Telling from 3D Printing Nerd, Joe Larson from 3D Printing Professor, and Tessa Nesci from SparkyFace5 all taught me skills that immediately improved my workflow. He does not know me or my name, but I will always be grateful to CG Cookie's Jonathan Williamson and his impeccable Blender tutorials that got me started.

The embracing maker and 3D printing community, particularly the very first ambassadors who made me feel immediately welcome—Matt Gorton of Printed Solid and 3D Central's Chris Caswell and Andrew Sink.

The educators who are determined to bring 3D printing and design to our public schools and libraries, such as Design Make Teach's Josh Ajima and Fairfax County Public Library's Margaret Kositch. Their work is inspiring and motivating. They teach me how to teach.

The business owners of Occoquan, Virginia, and their sharing of leads and ideas. The Coordinate Bracelet from chapters 5 to 7 was the suggestion of The Polka Dot Diva's Kristyn Gleason.

The friends who encouraged me to take on this intimidating and time-consuming project—Aaron Evans, Ann Bowman Jones, Brian Nenninger, and Mark Duncan.

My boss at my day job at Management Solutions of Virginia, Larry Bowman; he endlessly mocks my 3D printing, but I know he is secretly proud of me.

The editing staff at PacktPub who worked just as hard, possibly harder, than me.

My family on the front line. My mother, Anne Sawyer, took on extra chores without complaint or hesitation. My two sons, Sagan and Dyson, not only weathered Mommy's divided focus but patiently posed for pictures again and again and again (and again). My nephew, Lincoln, appears in Chapter 2, Using a Background Image and Bezier Curves, thanks to the permission of his parents, Brittany and Chris Neigh.

Finally, my husband, Ryan; from blogging to my embarrassing attempts in college to emulate Kurt Vonnegut—when I write, I write with him in mind.

Photo credits:

Chapter 2, Using a Background Image and Bezier Curves, Roy Lichtenstein House 1 Photos by Aaron Evans

Chapter 3, Converting a Bezier Curve to a Properly Sized 3D Mesh, Quilt Square photos by Heidi Elliott

About the Reviewer

Fernando Castilhos Melo lives in Toronto, Canada, and works as a software developer. Since 2009, he has worked on 3D modeling using Blender. He has given some lectures about Blender and 3D modeling at several Brazilian free/open source software events. Fernando holds a degree in computer science from UCS (University of Caxias do Sul). This is the third Blender book he has worked on. The other ones were Blender Cycles: Lighting and Rendering Cookbook in 2013 and Blender 3D by Example in 2015. He developed an integration between Blender and Kinect named "Kinected Blender" to generate a 3D animation. This project is currently in alpha version.

I want to thank my wife, Mauren, my parents, Eloir and Miriam, and all my friends for their support during the review of this book.

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Table of Contents

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

Thinking about Design Requirements

Thinking about printing processes

Home printing – Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) printers

Overhangs

Detailing

Layer height

Extrusion width

Wall thickness

Other considerations – flat bases

Home printing – Stereolithography (SLA) printers

Overhangs

Detailing

Wall thickness

Other considerations – drain holes

Service Bureaus – Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and more

Overhangs

Details

Wall thickness

Other considerations – escape holes

Comparing the Requirements

Thinking about size

Sizing for the printer

Sizing for function

Sizing for yourself

Summary

Using a Background Image and Bezier Curves

Getting started

Adding a background image

Finding a good photo

Adding the background image to Blender

Switching to Orthographic View

Perspective View

Orthographic View

Tracing with Bezier curves

Moving the 3D Cursor and adding a new Bezier curve

Changing Object Interaction Mode and editing the Bezier curve

Moving control points

Adjusting the shape of the curve with handles

Adding additional control points

Changing handle types

Checking your work and finalizing your curve

Deviating from the photograph

Toggling Cyclic to close your curve

Summary

Converting a Bezier Curve to a Properly Sized 3D Mesh

Converting a Bezier curve into a mesh

Selecting vertices and making a new face

Extruding to make 3D objects

Understanding and viewing face normals

Using Extrude Region

Scaling and sizing the mesh

Converting to the metric system

Reading the current dimensions and scale

Scaling a model by typing dimensions

Fixing proportions by updating scale

Summary

Flattening a Torus and Boolean Union

Creating and laying out a torus

Adding a new torus object

Positioning the torus

Rotating the torus (for Service Bureau)

Giving the torus a flat bottom (for home)

Toggling vertex visibility and using border select

Using Scale to align vertices

Combining objects together with Boolean Union

Exporting your work for 3D printing

Summary

Building a Base with Standard Meshes and a Mirror

Working with a cube and cylinder

Resizing the default cube

Adding and sizing a cylinder

Using Object Origins to line up objects

Understanding Object Origin points

Moving the cylinder into place

Making the base whole

Understanding the mirror axis

Updating an Object's Origin to a specific vertex

Adding a Mirror Modifier

Summary

Cutting Half Circle Holes and Modifier Management

Duplicating and sizing a cylinder

Placing the hole and preserving wall thicknesses

Positioning with subtraction

Positioning with a reference cube or ruler

Mesh modeling to make a half cylinder

Using Shift to multiselect

Using Ctrl to multiselect

Deleting vertices in the cylinder

Creating new faces

Making a hole with Boolean difference

Changing your object with modifier order

Summary

Customizing with Text

Adding a new text object

Changing the text

Changing font settings

Finding the font filename

Picking a new font

Adjusting font size and line spacing

Converting the text to a 3D mesh

Using the text object properties

Using the Extrude tool

Finalizing the bracelet

Summary

Using Empties to Model the Base of the House

Using Empties for reference images

Adding Empties

Rotating the Empties

Scaling empties and adjusting for differences in pictures

Setting Transparency and X-Ray Mode

Modeling the base of the house

Using Extrude and merging vertices

Using Loop Cut and Slide

Summary

Mesh Modeling and Positioning the Details

Modeling windows

Creating a window as a separate object

Adding shutters with a multi-cut Loop Cut and Slide

Starting window panes with Subdivide

Subdividing edges

Controlling the number of cuts

Finishing window panes with Inset

Noting and applying exact thicknesses

Raising the details with Extrude

Renaming and copying windows

Perfecting the positioning with Snap

Summary

Making Textures with the Array Modifier and Scalable Vector Graphics

Making brickwork with the Array Modifier

Adding an Array Modifier

Picking the Fit Type

Understanding the impact of scale on the Array Modifier

Setting the Offset

Nesting Array Modifiers

Importing a Scalable Vector Graphics file for stonework

Using the Outliner and Properties Shelf to find objects

Scaling, rotating and converting to 3D mesh

Combining with the Array Modifier

Summary

Applying Textures with Boolean Intersection

Making template shapes

Duplicating and separating vertices

Joining and separating objects as a shortcut

Joining and making new faces

Deleting unnecessary faces and edges

Adjusting vertex coordinates

Creating new edges and filling faces

Taking an intersection

Adding a Boolean Intersection Modifier

Previewing modifiers

Switching viewport shading to wireframe

Hiding the supporting object

Making adjustments

Applying and placing the Intersection

Finalizing and exporting the house

Summary

Making Organic Shapes with the Subdivision Surface Modifier

Thinking about overhangs and flat bases

Making a low-poly hand

Adding in reference images

Modeling a low-poly hand from a cube

Planning ahead for fingers with Loop Cut and Slide

Shaping with Extrude and Scale

Rotating faces and making manual adjustments

Extruding and scaling fingers

Modeling a low-poly hand from a plane

Adding a Subdivision Surface Modifier

Summary

Trial and Error – Topology Edits

Preparing yourself mentally

Embracing failure

Aiming for quads

Adding extra edge loops

Controlling rounding

Shaping details

Flattening the base

Flattening with Loop Cut and Slide

Flattening with Mean Crease

Moving vertices and edge loops

Selecting edge loops

Sliding edges

Rotating around the 3D Cursor

Using Proportional Editing

Modeling fingernails and wrinkles 

Using Inset and Extrude for fingernails

Using edge loops for wrinkles

Summary

Coloring Models with Materials and UV Maps

Using materials

Adding a material to the whole object

Adding a material to specific faces

Reusing existing materials

Coloring with UV Maps

Adding a new panel to Blender

Unwrapping an object into a UV Map

Marking and clearing seams

Preparing to Texture Paint

Painting in Blender

Using the Fill Brush

Painting in the UV/Image Editor

Editing images outside of Blender

Exporting and uploading X3D files

Zipping up the model and image files

Checking the renders for CMYK issues

Summary

Troubleshooting and Repairing Models

Removing duplicate vertices

Flipping face normals

Finding and fixing non-manifold edges

Exploring examples of non-manifold edges

Faces without thickness

Missing faces or holes

Inconsistent face normals

Overlapping and unconnected geometry

Highlighting non-manifold edges

Turning on and using 3D Print Toolbox

Correcting non-manifold edges

Repairing models with 3D Builder

Summary

Preface

My very first 3D print was a pendant I designed for myself in Blender. It was about a year before I owned my own 3D printer. I uploaded my model to a 3D Printing Service Bureau to do the printing for me. About a week later, I was holding my creation in my hand. My idea had become real. I was no longer bound to buy what someone else decided to mass produce and market. I could design and make what I wanted to make. I was instantly hooked.

With this book, I hope to empower you with the ability to make what you want to make. Blender has served me well. I hope it does the same for you.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Thinking About Design Requirements, gives you a moment to answer some questions about your project. What kind of printing process will be used? Are there any overhang or thickness requirements? How big do you want the piece to be?

Chapter 2, Using a Background Image and Bezier Curves, describes how to import in a photograph as a background image and how you can use Bezier curves to trace out a person's profile.

Chapter 3, Converting a Bezier Curve to a Properly Sized 3D Mesh, is about turning a 2D curve into a 3D object. You'll learn to set specific dimensions and how to preserve proportion with scale.Chapter 4, Flattening a Torus and Boolean Union, explains how a torus object can serve as a hook for a pendant. You'll learn about rotation. You'll also learn a scaling trick to flatten the back. Finally, you'll learn about the Boolean Union Modifier and how it can combine two objects into a single clean mesh for 3D printing.

Chapter 5, Building a Base with Standard Meshes and a Mirror, shows how standard shapes such as cylinders and cubes can be resized and combined to make a new shape. The Mirror Modifier is used to keep the work symmetrical.

Chapter 6, Cutting Half Circle Holes and Modifier Management, shows how you can delete specific parts of a standard shape to make a new one. You'll also learn how to use the Boolean Difference Modifier to subtract one object from another to create holes. You'll see firsthand how the order modifiers are applied can impact the final product.

Chapter 7, Customizing with Text, illustrates how an embossed message such as coordinates can be added to personalize a piece.

Chapter 8, Using Empties to Model the Base of the House, presents another way to add and use reference images in Blender. You'll practice techniques such as extruding and merging vertices as you model the base shape of a house.

Chapter 9, Mesh Modeling and Positioning the Details, dives further into mesh modeling techniques as you learn about subdividing and insetting to make windows for a house. Blender's Snap tool is introduced to perfect the placement of those windows.

Chapter 10, Making Textures with the Array Modifier and Scalable Vector Graphics, illustrates how you can build textures within Blender with the Array Modifier and outside of Blender by importing in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files.

Chapter 11, Applying Textures with Boolean Intersection, introduces you to the power of the Boolean Intersection Modifier. By taking just the overlap of two shapes, you get texture detailing that is the right size and shape for your house.

Chapter 12, Making Organic Shapes with the Subdivision Surface Modifier, exposes you to another side of Blender. By adding a Subdivision Surface Modifier, you'll see how a simple structure can become more organic in appearance.

Chapter 13, Trial and Error - Topology Edits, arms you with techniques for making topology edits. You'll learn about edge slides, more advanced rotation, and how to use Blender's Proportional Editing tool.

Chapter 14, Coloring Models with Materials and UV Maps, explains how you can add color to your models for full color printing services. You'll learn about adding materials to objects or faces. You'll also learn how to unwrap your object into a UV Map for more advanced texture painting.

Chapter 15, Troubleshooting and Repairing Models, describes common modeling issues such as flipped face normals and non-manifold edges. You'll learn how to remedy these issues within Blender and outside of Blender with applications such as 3D Builder.

What you need for this book

The only steadfast requirement for this book is to install the free, open-source software Blender. It can be downloaded from https://www.blender.org/.

You do not even need a 3D printer to begin. Companies such as Shapeways and Sculpteo can do the printing for you. You may have a nearby library or makerspace with 3D printers available to the public. Finally, you can find local printer in your area with websites such as 3dhubs.com or makexyz.com.

There are two additional tools that are optional, but may be helpful:

A ruler or calipers to help judge the sizes of your piece

Image editing software such as Photoshop, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), or Microsoft Paint may assist with coloring models

Who this book is for

This book is for designers, artists, and crafters who would like to use Blender to make accurate models for 3D printing. Although previous experience with Blender would be helpful, it is by no means required.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Before converting your curve to a mesh, you may want to make a backup copy of the curve or your entire .blend file."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Under Tools, click on the Ruler/Protractor button."

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

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If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

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The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Blender-3D-printing-by-Example. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Downloading the color images of this book

We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Blender3DPrintingbyExample_ColorImages.pdf.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books-maybe a mistake in the text or the code-we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.

To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.

Piracy

Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

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Questions

If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at [email protected], and we will do our best to address the problem.

Thinking about Design Requirements

In this book, we will walk through four custom 3D printing projects in Blender. First, we will use Bezier curves to make a custom shape, the silhouette of a child, for a profile pendant. Our second project, a coordinate bracelet, illustrates building with standard shapes and how text can be used to personalize models. You'll get more acquainted with mesh modeling tools and Boolean intersections in our third project, creating a textured house figurine. Finally, you'll learn how Blender can be used for organic shapes as you work on modeling a human hand.

Before you build a house, before you sew a quilt, the process begins with a plan. The same is true with 3D modeling and 3D printing. When you model with your design requirements in mind, every measurement, every angle, every click of the mouse, all work toward your end goal. This chapter will cover some key questions to reflect on before you begin to model:

What type of printing process will be used to make your design?

How does that process impact design elements such overhangs, detailing, and wall thicknesses?

How big do you want the final piece to be?

Thinking about printing processes

Not all 3D printers work in the same manner. The printers at the Service Bureaus, such as Shapeways, Sculpteo, and iMaterialise, use different types of technology than what is typically seen with at-home desktop printers.

All 3D printers will start with your 3D model and use an additional piece of software called a slicer to cut your object up into small cross sections, or layers. From there, all the printing processes will create your object one layer at a time. Different types of printing, however, add the material in different manners. Those differences in production processes can impact how you approach your design.

Home printing – Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) printers

Currently, the most common printers you would find in a home, library, makerspace, or neighborhood 3D Hub are what are called the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) or Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers. I often describe these printers as similar to the hot glue guns you would see used for crafting or electronics projects. A spool of plastic string (filament) is fed through a hot end that heats the plastic up to the point where it is malleable and the printer can draw with it. The printer will print one layer of your object directly on a platform called the built plate, move up, print the next layer, and so on until your piece is finished.

Overhangs

With the exception of the Made in Space printer on the International Space Station, FFF/FDM printers are subject to gravity. Higher portions of your model will need a foundation or support from the lower ones. As a design consideration, you'll want to be conscious of the slopes in your piece, the overhangs. The angle of those overhangs impact how far a layer extends over the previous layer one. If a layer extends out too far, the filament could droop or curl up, causing imperfections, or worse, a failed print.

For most FFF/FDM desktop printers, the rule of thumb is 45 degree overhangs. If you keep your slopes and curves to 45 degrees or less, each layer will have a good foundation with the layer underneath. When you look at larger angles, you can see how layers may have trouble supporting their own weight. The following image shows the difference between 45 degrees and the more troublesome 85 degrees:

Layers at 45 degrees or less can be reliably printed by FFF/FDM printers. As the angle increases, it becomes harder for the plastic lines to support themselves.

The human hand model later in the book is one where thinking about overhangs will be important. If one of the fingers was angled more than 45 degrees, you can see in the slicer preview how the printer would be drawing lines with nothing underneath it. For other portions of the finger that are more upright, you would see that each layer has good contact with the layer underneath:

Portions of the tip of the finger will be printing over air with nothing underneath. Earlier sections of the finger are better angled for printing.

Find out your printer's capabilities If you want to put your particular printer to the test and get an assessment of its overhang capabilities, try the Massive Overhang Test by thingster on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40382.

There is a lucky exception with overhangs. When the printer starts a layer, it usually starts by printing perimeters, sometimes called outlines, of your object before filling in the inside. The molten plastic likes to stick to itself. That is exactly why FFF/FDM printing works. If your printer draws its outlines from the inside of your object to the outside of your object, the last outline, the part of your object that is visible, sticks enough to the earlier outlines that it can support its own weight. That gives the printer the ability to do small, unsupported 90 degree (completely horizontal) overhangs, a handy behavior for detailing of your model, giving it texture or personalization:

You can put small, completely horizontal overhangs in your design. When the printer works inside out, outer lines can stick to previously printed lines for that same layer, permitting fine detailing for your model.

How far can those details come off a vertical face of the print? It will depend on the nozzle size of the printer. I have found 0.5mm to work great with both 0.35 and 0.4mm nozzles.

Find out your printer's capabilities If you want to get an idea of what kind of unsupported details you can achieve on your printer, the Vertical Embossed Detailing - Remix by SpikeUK on Thingiverse is a good print to get an assessment: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2462735.

If you do have a design that requires large overhangs, you do not have to necessarily despair and abandon the idea. The slicer can tell the printer to print some extra columns called supports to assist your object. This is extra work for the printer that will add to your material usage and printing time. In addition, supports can leave markings on your piece, requiring sanding and cleanup to be done afterward. You don't have to avoid large overhangs when modeling, but it makes the printing process a lot cleaner if you do:

An example of temporary supports the printer can use to assist your object.

Detailing

If you were to crochet with thin embroidery floss, you could achieve a much more intricate level of detail than if you were working with thick yarn. The width of the thread being used plays a key role in what can be achieved in the final product. You can think of FFF/FDM printing as also using a thread, a small thread of plastic. With FFF/FDM printing, there are two dimensions of that thread that impact our detailing.

Layer height

When the slicer is cutting up your file into small cross-sections for 3D printing, the height of those cross sections is called the layer height. This can not only vary from printer to printer, but it can also vary from print to print. A smaller layer height would cut your model up into more cross sections. It would be a longer printing process, but at the same time would give your object a greater level of detail and resolution. In my prints, the layer heights tend to be between 0.10mm-0.25mm layers.

The following image shows the same piece with three different layer heights. As the layer height increases, the level of detail decreases:

As layer height increases, you will have faster printing times, but less detail.

Thinking ahead about layer height is a worthwhile venture when embarking on a 3D modeling project, particularly if you are planning small detailing. Consider the house figurine that will be highlighted later in the book. If the window panes are shorter than the planned layer height, the slicer (and therefore the printer) will skip that detailing, as shown in the following image:

In this example, a window pane is smaller than the layer height and is skipped by the slicer and printer.

Extrusion width

As your printer lays down lines of malleable plastic to bring your model to life, the hole in the nozzle impacts how wide those lines are. You can also think of it as your thread width, how wide the thread of plastic that comes out of your nozzle is. A more technical term is extrusion width, how wide the extruded plastic is. That width isn't necessarily equal to your nozzle size. For example, a nozzle with a 0.4mm hole may be using a 0.42mm extrusion width.

Find Your Extrusion Width You may be able to look up your extrusion width in your slicing software. Different slicers use different terminology. Three examples are:SlicerSettingSimplify3DExtrusion WidthCuraLine WidthSlic3rExtrusion Width If you aren't able to look up your specific extrusion width, start by designing for your printer's nozzle size instead.

Extrusion width is important to consider during design as it can also impact the detailing of your piece, which is most readily visible on the top. Later in the book, we will create a bracelet with custom coordinates on the top. If that piece was printed flat on the bed and portions of text were thinner than the extrusion width (such as part of the number 4