3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle

Key Features

• Learn how to design a 3D printable model from an existing physical object
• Rekindle your mathematical mind to design perfectly interlocking complex pieces of a puzzle
• Personalize the puzzle’s design with a photo or shape of your own choice

Book Description

Jigsaw puzzles derive their name from when they were cut from wood sheets using a hand-woodworking tool called a jig saw back in the 1760s. Have you ever wondered how a model idea for a jigsaw puzzle is articulated, and how it was made with these traditional tools?

Through this book, you will master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. We will quickly introduce you to some simple and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. Through the course of the book, you’ll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender that allow you to edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes.

Finally, when the model is sculpted, you’ll learn some methods to cut the model and carve out multiple pieces of perfectly-fitting edges of different geometries to complete the puzzle.

What you will learn

• Design, manipulate, and export 3D models for 3D printing with Blender
• Master the art from creating meshes, scaling, subdivision, and adding detail with the Boolean modifier to sculpting a custom shape
• Cut a model into small pieces and learn to design complex interlocking joints

About the Author

Joe Larson, known online as “the 3D Printing Professor,” is one part artist, one part mathematician, one part teacher, and one part technologist. It all started in his youth, doing BASIC programming and low-resolution digital art on a Commodore 64. As technology progressed, so did Joe’s dabbling, eventually taking him to 3D modeling while in high school and college, and he momentarily pursued a degree in computer animation. He abandoned that and instead became a math teacher, and then moved to software development for 10 years before returning to education, teaching technology in college.

When Joe first heard about 3D printing, it took root in his mind, and he went back to dust off his 3D modeling skills. In 2012, he won a Makerbot Replicator 3D printer in the Tinkercad/Makerbot Chess Challenge, with a chess set that assembles into a robot. Since then, his designs on Thingiverse have been featured on Thingiverse, Gizmodo, Shapeways, Makezine, and other places. He currently produces weekly videos about design for 3D printing on his YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/mrjoesays.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. 3D Printing Basics
Chapter 2. Beginning Blender
Chapter 3. Sculpting the Face of the Sun
Chapter 4. Cutting a 3D Jigsaw Puzzle