W05 - scanning and printing

1. Weekly Assignments ( -> what I did this week )

  • Group assignment

Test the design rules for your printer(s)

Document your work and explain what are the limits of your printer(s) (in a group or individually)

( -> I tried several printing parameters of Afinia H400 in fablab Kamakura with the group members. )

  • Individual assignment

Design and 3D print an object (small, few cm3, limited by printer time) that could not be easily made subtractively

( -> I printed my originally designed model car which has rotating wheel & shaft structure. )

3D scan an object, try to prepare it for printing (and optionally print it)

( -> I scanned my original hand-made object, by “Capture ( iPhone APP )”. )

Have you?

Questions from “Fab Academy 2020 Assignments and Assessment

3D Scanning and Printing

( -> my answers )

  • Linked to the group assignment page ( -> yes )

  • Explained what you learned from testing the 3D printers ( -> yes )

  • Documented how you designed and made your object and explained why it could not be easily made subtractively ( -> yes )

  • Documented how you scanned and prepared an object (for 3D printing) ( -> yes )

  • Included your original design files for 3D printing (both CAD and common format for 3D printing)

    ( -> yes )

  • Included your hero shots ( -> yes )

Link

I tried “test A”, “test E” and “test F” in the table below.

test A test B test C test D test E test F
High Quality Yes
Middle Quality Yes Yes Yes Yes
Low Quality Yes
setting : LayerThickness 0.35mm 0.25mm 0.15mm 0.25mm 0.25mm 0.25mm
setting : Infill 0% 65% 99% 65% 65% 65%
setting : Quality Fast Normal Fine Normal Normal Normal
setting : Support None None None None None Yes
setting : Raft Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
setting : Unsolid Model Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Material : ABS Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Material : PLA Yes
Model : All In One 3D Printer test Yes Yes Yes Yes
Model : clearance test Yes Yes
All In One 3D Printer test *1) clearance test *2)
3D-printtest-bridge 3D-printtest-clearance

*1) thingiverse site

*2) fab academy ( design rules, supports, clearance, stl )

3. Works, steps and some details

1) model-car on fusion360

I prepared the fusion360 file of ” model car ” which will be used as the part of my Final Project. This is a simple small car with two rear wheels with a shaft. The wheels and the shaft are connected and there is an appropriate clearance between the shaft and the body, so that the wheels can rotate.

model-car-handsketch1 model-car-handsketch2
model-car-section1 model-car-section2

Considering the result of the group assignment, the clearance was set to be 0.2 mm.

( In the above right photo, the pink and blue colored “wheel + shaft” are printed as one piece. )

model-car

“Open in Fusion360” button might not work on some browsers. To download the 3D model, please use the links in “5. Links to Files and Code” on the bottom of this page.

2) 3D-printer parameter setting

The printing parameters of Afinia H400 were set similar to the “test F” in our group assignment, which made a successful result for the “clearance.stl” file.

LayerThickness : 0.25mm

Infill : 65%

Quality : Normal

Support : Yes

Raft : Yes

Unsolid Model : Yes

Material : ABS

3) printing and finishing

In the preview window, the support material is shown as yellow, which is distributed in between wheel and body.

print preview, estimated time = 27 minutes printed object
printpreview-model-car finishing-model-car

To remove the support material, I used “nail-color remover” which contains acetone.

“nail-color remover” with acetone put the wheel portion in acetone
acetone acetone-model-car

It was almost successful, but the wheel rotation was very sticky.

After about 10 hours, the material was dried, carefully rotate the wheels, then the rotation became smoothly.

4) test for the Final Project

My Final Project is “Leg-powered Electric Generator + Drive Simulator”. So, taking this opportunity, I made the car for the simulator which will move on the table of the simulator.

I put one small washer under the body, and drag the car by using a magnet in the backside of the table. While the car is moving, the wheels were turning by the friction with the felt on the table.

small washer under the body drag the car by using a magnet
magnets-model-car driving-model-car

As the first trial, the result was successful.

5) Scanning

I tried scanning of “mini-taiyaki”, a small fish-shaped pancake by “Sense 3D scanner”.

Scanning was successful, bur I forgot to save the scanned data.

mini-taiyaki Sense 3D scanner
taiyaki scan-taiyaki

Then, I scanned my hand-made object (on 2020/07/05).

img_9319 img_9320

This time, I tried the iPhone APP below.

“Capture: 3D Scan Anything (iPhone APP)”

link to App Store

As described in the following site, it uses Apple’s TrueDepth front-facing camera system, and generate “.usdz” file.

“5. 3D Scanning and printing”, Fab Academy 2020 - Menghe “Yume” Xu

And, I uploaded the scanned data to the sharing platform.

( by opening the link below from iPhone, AR-like view ( placing the Virtual object on the Real table, etc. ) is possible. )

“scan.usdz” (USDZSHARE)

( The scanned model is flipped, maybe because “Capture” uses front-facing camera. )

img_9322

scanned_swan1 scanned_swan2

.usdz can be converted to .stl, by using Xcode.

( “file” -> “Export…” -> select “Standard Tesselated Geometry File Format” and Save )

xcode_stl

“Open in Fusion360” button might not work on some browsers. To download the 3D model, please use the links in “5. Links to Files and Code” on the bottom of this page.

4. Important Learning Outcome

1) Quantitative evaluation of the design rules of 3D printing

Although I had already known that there was some limitations of 3D printing such as the clearance value and the allowable overhang value, I did not have the clear number or the actual examples.

This time, I could make some results and examples which should be useful information for the further 3D modeling work.

2) finishing the 3D printed object

Removing the support material is a time-consuming work. Although using acetone is a good idea, melted material is sticky like glue. So, further optimization of support is needed, depending upon the shape and structure.

3) 3D Scanning

This is an interesting and useful technology, which might be applied to some artworks and 3D modelings.

I’ll try this to make some assistive equipments by scanning arms or legs, etc.

( to download the files, click here )

“model car” fusion360 file : model_car_wo_canvas v2.f3d

“model car” stl file : model car v9.stl

“scan.usdz” ; download

6. Appendix

All In One 3D Printer test

Afinia H400+ 3D Printer

Sense 3D scanner

“Capture: 3D Scan Anything (iPhone APP)”

link to App Store