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From the 20th to the 22nd of July Milan hosted the first Italian stage of Campus Party, the world’s leading open innovation event. Three days of full immersion in innovation and technologies of the future, with hackathons which engaged thousands of young campuseros, plus hundreds of talks and workshops held by leading experts in the areas of creativity, technology, coding, science, business and entertainment.
Among the numerous initiatives that involved Protocube Reply as an official partner of Campus Party was the workshop A night with 3D printing where Marco Cravero engaged many passionate attendees in the 3D modeling of a fun robot focused on the general theme of the first edition of the event: Feel the Future.
The robot was subsequently printed in 3D as part of the joint initiative Meet 3D Printing undertaken at Campus Party in collaboration with Treddi.com.
Through some slides used during “A night with 3D printing” we see the details of the creation of a creature that, despite its conceptual simplicity, synthesizes the most important fundamentals of modeling for 3D printing.
A night with 3D printing developed two fundamental themes. 1) The basic concepts of 3D printing and 2) the modelling for 3D printing of a robot on the theme of “Feel the Future” the claim of Campus Party 2017. (credits Protocube Reply)
The workshop was designed to welcome a diverse audience, composed of both users who already possess a basic knowledge of 3D printing and of newbies to this topic. (credits Protocube Reply)
The definition of the scale of representation provides the size of the final model and its level of detail and also dictates the choice of the most suitable 3D printing technology to achieve the expected result. The Campus Party robot was produced in resin with a Formlabs 2, one of the most popular desktop printers on the market, thanks to its exceptional price-performance ratio and to its portability. (credits Protocube Reply)
Modeling for 3D printing requires that all surfaces be closed and that all elements have a minimum thickness. The choice of these parameters depends largely on the size of the object, the material and the printing technology used. The goal is finding the best compromise between the level of detail permitted by the print resolution and the amount of material used. (credits Sculpteo)
In defining the minimum thickness of the model (minimum wall thickness) the functional aspects must also be taken into account by implementing proper precautions for the most stressed areas. (credits Protocube Reply)
Some parts of the model, whose outward appearance is essentially compact requires the creation of hollow areas in order to optimize the amount of material used. It is possible to achieve this result in several ways. Directly from the modeling, using procedures like “loft” or “revolution” of the profile of the object, or by subsequently “emptying” a solid object thanks to the use of software that can automatically perform this operation. The digital model to be emptied must include measures (e.g. holes in the object) that allow the pieces of material that are not consolidated during the printing process to be removed. (credits Protocube Reply)
The level of detail of the mesh must be defined in order to achieve clearly defined objectives, seeking the optimization between the weight of the file and the level of detail of the model slated for printing. This is very important especially when you define your project using a NURBS modeller (e.g. Rhinoceros), where you need to convert to mesh during the export process. A mesh with a “dirty” topology, like the one we see on the left in the image, can easily generate errors and artifacts during printing. (credits Protocube Reply)
For in-depth articles on modelling for 3D printing:
3D Printing and Interior Design: communicating the project
3D Models and Architecture: Design, Marketing, Culture
This post is also available in: Italiano
