matthew griffin design tools

Alot of Plastic by Cymon

screwless heart gears by emmett

Digital Bolex Xmas Ornament by digitalbolex

Golf in Miniature by Beekeeper Sphinx of Hatshepsut by OZAR Barrel Of Octopi by yeoldebrian

Octopod Underwater Salvage Vehicleby Sean Charlesworth

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Fenway Park by Objet’s Boston Team

Automatic Transmission by emmett

Industrial Habitat by Micah GanskeHead of a Horse of Selene by CosmoWenman

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Nelson Marshmallow Sofa by TeamTeamUSA SciFi Control Room by PrettySmallThing

Nuke Lamp by Maxim Films TIMESQUARE watch body by mifga

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Lamp T3 by Emmett LalishWinterfell by damm301

DiagridBracelet by Nervous System Maneval Bubble House Lamp by vinyl

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CAD & Animation Tools

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Polygonal: Box Modeling

Face Modeling 1/3 “Blocking Topology” Sergi Caballer

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Polygonal: Box Modeling

Face Modeling 1/3 “Blocking Topology” Sergi Caballer

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“Modeling A Female Head” by Jonathan Williamson (Blendercookie.com)

Polygonal: Edge/Contour Modeling

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“Modeling A Female Head” by Jonathan Williamson (Blendercookie.com)

Polygonal: Edge/Contour Modeling

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Digital Sculpting

“Head Modeling in Sculptris” by 333taron

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Digital Sculpting

“Head Modeling in Sculptris” by 333taron

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NURBSNon-uniform rational B-spline

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Surfacing Continuity

“Dreaded 3-Way Corner” by Adam O’Hern, cadjunkie.com

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Surfacing Continuity

“Dreaded 3-Way Corner” by Adam O’Hern, cadjunkie.com

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Procedural Modeling

Cellular Form Generation Test 003c5 by andylomas99Friday, April 26, 13

Procedural Modeling

Cellular Form Generation Test 003c5 by andylomas99Friday, April 26, 13

3D design apps for makers

• solid

• sculpting

• parametric

• polygonal (mesh)

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solid modeling (free)

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solid modeling (paid)

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sculpting

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parametric

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polygonal (mesh)

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STL Repair Utilities

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#1. Print often; learn something from every print.Text

Watching your draft — or a part of your draft print — will tell you off the bat a lot about the health of your design file. And if you are hoping what you produce will fit something in the real world, taking time early to knock a dirty imperfect draft out might save you a lot of effort later in the process of working the model: the question of tolerance

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#2. Save not only your design file, but also copy curves, faces, and solids you use to build

geometry and commit booleans for future fixes!

Create a safe way to be messy, to take risks. You will want to try multiple approaches A history tool doesn’t necessary take the place of your layer full of reference items — those represent ideas you tried and you might want to return to that reference elsewhere in your model. This is particularly helpful when you begin stacking boolean operations and other processes where it is easy to lose track of the steps you take as you switch into responding aesthetically to the results.

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#3. Document the steps you take preparing your models for printing.

Even if tuning the slicing profile to get gorgeous prints isn’t really your favorite part of the process, make sure to record what steps you do take. The reason being, it is important to separate the decisions you make designing your model form the settings for execute — or you will begin to deceive yourself as to how healthy your model is or how reliable your machine profile.

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#4. When selecting a software package, add the user community into consideration.

As the more popular design packages continue to gain new tools and add-ons to bring in the exciting functionality from the other options available, the liveliness of the community plays a bigger and bigger role in helping you solve decisions with your tool and generate the market for 3rd party plugins to extend your capability. Engage in your community — ask questions, share findings, and share love — and you will find that you are making connections for how to use your software and solve the endless unexpected use-cases crop up.

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#5. Don’t start empty.It is a known thing that the empty 3D design is far scarier than any blank canvas you might have started with before. The advice I hear time and time again is to cheat — don’t start empty, start with tools that you find helpful. For many people, this will be at the very least a scale model for the print surface of your target printer. But it is important to add enough constraint to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by the tremendous abundance of design opportunities available to you.

But there are other things to throw in there. Flat reference files grabbed from the web or a camera. Scan files for related objects, even if you won’t use them in your design. And a really helpful suggestion that I have started trying myself is to throw in both abstract noisy references (patterns, thresholded photos of asphalt) and references from nature (dense foliage, underwater images, etc.). Where these become helpful is when you are looking to add a little asymmetry or introduce a curve or a posture. Instead of trying to choose one, snatch one from your reference files and keep modeling — these tools help you get beyond your first instincts so that you can respond to what is happening in your design document, instead of what you WANT to happen there.

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Matthew Griffin

Writer, Design and Modeling for 3D Printing O’Reilly/MAKE (Sept 2013)

Director of Community, Support, & Evangelism, ADAFRUIT Industries

mattgriffin@tornticket.com

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