Tom Lum’s Multi-Colored Print

One thing I find absolutely invigorating– helping people out in the community. After my Simplify3D Print of the Week, Twitter user @TomLum1 reached out with some questions. Look how quickly he mastered and applied his new knowledge! Lovely!

Etsy Shop Cameo on Mailbox Monday

Aww, my Etsy Shop snuck into Abuzz Design’s Mailbox Monday Livestream last night.  I love seeing the growing presence of 3D Printing on Etsy.  My shop is just one that Lauren covers (all the links stolen from Lauren’s video description are below).  Be sure to check out and, if possible, support my fellow creators!

A big thanks to Lauren for always being such a supportive member of our great community!  Definitely check out Lauren’s shop at http://etsy.me/2raDpGy

A Pyro Design Etsy – http://etsy.me/2qm4Gop
Improper Engineering Etsy – http://etsy.me/2qpzMtr
3D Central VA – http://etsy.me/2qlZWiy
MaxCrft – http://etsy.me/2pPfoRA
JAT.MN – http://etsy.me/2rjQytB
VickyTGAW (ME!) – http://etsy.me/2qlIjjh

Simplify3D’s Print of the Week!!!

Well now, that was a surprise.  I started getting some unexpected Twitter and Facebook notifications.  I was surprised to find I was highlighted by Simplify3D for their Print of the Week.

 


 

This five color print is for a friend in Crookston, Minnesota.  I, of course, use my beloved Simplify3D Multiple Processes.  I believe it is my largest multi-colored print– it took up the whole bed of the MakerGear M2.

I’m glad Simplify3D enjoyed the print.  I hope my friend does as well!!! 🙂

Using Blender’s Particle Systems for 3D Printing

One of the things that gives Blender its reputation of having a large learning curve is it is geared towards animation. It has a lot of extra features or capabilities we don’t use for 3D Printing.

Or do we?

Homesick for the Appalachian Trail, I embarked on making rhododendron themed drawer pulls. It was a Blender animation feature helped me pull off my vision. I had never heard of “Particle Systems” before and with good cause. They are typically used for animating dust, smoke, water, and hair. Thanks to a wonderful tutorial video by Blender Facile, I learned how I could also use this feature to convert a single flower model into the trademark ball of flowers for the rhododendron.

My steps for using the Particular System were:

  1. First, I made a model of an individual flower. Thinking about how I wanted this to be sturdy for people to grab, I kept the petals thick and shallow.
    Individual Flower
  2. To convert my single flower into a ball of flowers, the first thing I did was add an Ico Sphere with 2 subdivisions to my Blender project.
    Create - Icosphere
  3. I went ahead and removed the bottom half of my Ico Sphere and gave it a flat bottom.
  4. Once I was satisfied with my Ico Sphere, I clicked on the Particle Systems icon
    PArticleSystems
  5. I clicked on New to create a new Particle System
    PArticleSystemsNew
  6. I changed Type to “Hair
    Type-Hair
  7. I checked the Advanced box which would allow me to change some rotation settings later
    ParticleSystem-Advanced
  8. Under the Emissions section, I clicked Verts.  This is telling Blender that each “hair” (aka flower) is going to be associated with a vertex in my model.  For Number, I put in 26.  This just happens to be the number of vertices in my modified Ico Sphere.ParticleSystem-Verts
    I also unchecked the Random box.
    ParticleSystem-UncheckRandom
  9. Under the Rotation section, I first checked Rotation and then for Initial Orientation, I picked Normal.  The system is going to rely on my Face normals (the direction my faces are) to determine which way to rotate my “hairs”.
    ParticleSystem-RotationChecked-Normals
  10. Under the Render section, I picked Object and for Dupli Object, I selected the single Flower model I made.  And then my flowers appeared on my sphere.
    ParticleSystem-RotationChecked-AddObject
  11. Under the Render section, I checked Rotate and my flowers oriented themselves accordingly.
    ParticleSystem-RotationChecked-Check
  12. Since this is a feature geared towards animation, there is a large Physics section that really does not apply to my purposes.   The one thing I did play with was the SizeBy adjusting this setting, I was able to get my flowers to a size that provided some good coverage over the Ico Sphere.
    Size
  13. Once I was satisfied with all my settings, I clicked on the Modifiers icon and clicked on Convert.
    ParticleSystem-RotationChecked-ConvertParticles
  14. All of my “hairs” (aka flowers) became official objects in Blender.  I was able to click on each one and manipulate it like any other Blender object.  For example, I went ahead and rotated my bottom row of flowers to better achieve the look I was going for.
    Rotate Individual Flowers
Eureka!  I had my ball of flowers!  My modeling journey was far from over, but the hardest part about that journey was done, thanks to an animation feature I never thought I would need.

Inaugural 3D Printing Lady Chat

This afternoon I had the delight of joining some of the female YouTube 3D Printing Creators for our very first Lady Livestream.

We all had a blast and hope to do it again next month.  In the meantime, you can catch the inaugural episode on Clare’s Make It & Fake It Channel at https://youtu.be/1Csy_5cv9Fs

Community Live Stream – Myths of 3D Printing

I had some Internet woes, but I did join some of the community members for this week’s 3D Printing Friday Night Community Hangout.  This week, we were on Zidim’s 3D Printed Trains Channel.  The topic was “Myths of 3D Printing”.

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p747ClxAdw8

Interested in future Friday 3DP Community Hangouts?  Be sure to follow @F3DPCH on Twitter for news of upcoming episodes.