Research and Inspiration
For the generative part of this project the majority of the intial research and inspiration took place in the generic Structure Synth examples. I found that I ended up learning a lot about the program and its capabilities just by playing around with the different rules, changing numbers and axes. While the results from these experiments were interesting I wanted to see what else was out there so I jumped on YouTube and GitHub to see what other examples might be out there. Maker’s Muse had a video that showed several different prints all modeled in Structure Synth, many of which created very interesting and inspiring results.
After some dynamic inspiration I continued my search on GitHub to see some code examples. A quick search of Structure Synth revealed a lot of repositories that just held a fork of the Source Forge application code. Digging a little deeper revealed a couple users who were creating some examples of their own. A user that goes by the handle ankurpawar had a wonderful repo with more examples to play with. While I didn’t play with all of these I’ve included pictures of my favorites below:
Inspiration for my second model came alot from just looking at my final Structure Synth model and imagining a way to connect them conceptually.
Process and Progress
I was able to complete my prints using both the Zortrax M200 and the Ultimaker 3 machines and I ended up doing 3 separate prints: one for my generative print, two for the print modeled in blender.
The process of modeling everything went pretty smoothly so I’m choosing to focus on the printing process of this project. The first print I wanted to tackle was for the base. It consisted of 3 seperate models joined with boolean unions in blender. There were several elements that needed support so I printed it on the Ultimaker 3 because I wanted to take advantage of the water soluble supports. This print took about 4.5 hours and came out pretty well. There was a hole that ran through about 3/4 of the model (going from the top down) that was filled in during the print. With my current level of experience I’m unable to ascertain why this occurred. At the same time I printed the stem on the Zortrax M200. In the excitement of getting two printers going at the same time I made a small mistake and forgot to adjust the filament material for this print. I had loaded the Z-ULTRAT but was still printing with a ABS profile. Luckily for me this print was tiny and the print time was under 10 minutes. I examined the first print and it snapped immediately when I tried to remove the raft (this was when I had my material profile lightbulb moment). I reprinted my model using the correct material profile and it came out much better.
A couple days later I had time to do the remaining print for my project: the generative rose. This was the model that came out of Structure Synth so it definitely needed a lot of support. So again it was time to use the Ultimaker 3. I also wanted to physically connect all my models so it was necessary to print them all at an exact scale. This print took a little under 3 hours and came out smaller than I expected, but that seems to be my current modus operandi for 3D printing 🙁
Once all the supports were removed from the rose I was able to connect it to the other printed components and I’m excited for how it came out!
The downloadable model can be found here.
Reflection
Again my biggest takeaway is that I have no point of reference for the size of the printed model. With the time limit on the prints I just had to scale my objects so they would fit within the alotted time. I think in the future the way to make sure everything comes out properly is to model with the final print’s real size in mind (to model using those exact measurements).
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to use the Ultimaker 3 because of its increased capability with the PVA supports. It’s also captivating to see the transformation of supported to final model just by sumbersing it in some water for several hours. I found that warm water worked better and creating a cleaner end product.
This project has also inspired me to research 3D printers in general and to see the different technologies out there as well as what other people are making. I know that discovering the possibilities will only help me get better at my own modeling and printing.
One reflection I wanted to add post critique was regarding a comment about how the black filament is able to absorb all the light and makes it difficult to see details. I feel like this is the type of knowledge I look forward to gaining as I continue to experiement with my 3D printing activities.