3D Printing is for - Custom parts!

Just this weekend, I had the opportunity to help an elderly couple that deliver the local newspaper. They ride in the car together - Richard carries the papers in to stores, and Ginny puts papers into plastic bags for home delivery. She wanted a way to hold the bunch of plastic bags near her for easy access, so I printed them a custom hook.

Here's the design process in Sketchup, from right to left:

Here is the hook freshly printed:

...and in place in their vehicle:

They were delighted! Because I have a little desktop printer, the raw material only cost 12 cents, and was ready in one hour from start of designing to fresh, hot plastic hook.

For a simple project, this is a classic practical example of how owning a 3D printer can be useful.

We've seen the news stories - "3D printing will revolutionize manufacturing"...yadda, yadda...but what does that mean for those of us that have never used it? How is 3D printing useful for architects and other Sketchup users? How is Sketchup useful for folks wanting to get into 3D printing?

This thread is for folks to share Sketchup projects they have 3D printed. So post your projects, or just follow along and ask questions if you have any!

I have had a fair amount of experience with 3D printing Sketchup models and learning what works, and what doesn't work so well. Rich has made me a moderator in this sub-forum, so I'll do my best to help you with any questions!

Newbies, take note! After 6 years, the old classic tutorials are getting updated for SketchUp 2014. I just noticed they released a bunch of them today on the SketchUp Video YouTube channel.

For example, here's the new Arc Tool video:

...the rest are available in this handy playlist.

It's when you do great work that a client gives you free reign. Excellent job, Richard!

Is this the project you were thinking about 3D printing a model of?

All of the videos from Basecamp 2014 (17 of them right now) are in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJdFIYIYcao%26amp;list=PL-bndkJaV8A5pV_wb4kSy5tZTdII2OqXt

Most of them are not set to public on Youtube, so you need this link to watch them.

That's gold, Rich!

ThomThom's Boundingbox will make faces on the bounding box...then one small step to figure out the centers from there.

Just found this via Twitter and thought it may be of interest. There are a few more tidbits on the BIM classification, 64-bit, and performance upgrades.

Fun fact...the gold pendant in the image above was designed in Sketchup. It's called the Rod of Asclepius, and is an ancient symbol of medicine. Source: I made it

Thanks for always posting updates, dukejazz!

Thanks Richard. I'm happy to help you if it works out!

Depowdering the build is happening live right now! http://www.justin.tv/theobjectshop

I hope this isn't too boring for you guys...I know I get irrationally excited about 3D printing sometimes

I'm trying out a new print shop. They are printing a cabin for me right now, along with some other models. It'll be streaming live for the next 7 hours if you want to pop in a see how it works!

The printer is a Zcorp 650.

Here's the link to a live feed: http://www.justin.tv/theobjectshop

Andre, it is the full color sandstone material from Shapeways. I don't know the printer model, but you can find the specifications of the material here. Does that help?

@olishea said:

Thanks for the info. Do you think it would be OK to apply a gloss to that particular material?

Yes, I know other people have done it. A clear acrylic spray should work fine. The material is somewhat rough, so it would take a few coats to actually look glossy.

Thanks Tom and dukejazz!

Sure Oli, the cabin cost $150 from Shapeways. They're definitely cozy cabins in real life! Book should out in a couple of months.

Thanks Jason.

This cabin is the final project in an upcoming book I'm working on about 3D printing Sketchup models.

The original Sketchup model was commissioned by Tiny Green Cabins to create renders and construction documents for the cabin.

To keep the print costs reasonable, the model is scaled down. At 1:48 scale, by simply scaling down the model many of the features would be too small to print. This is a rebuilt model, meeting the requirements of Full Color Sandstone from Shapeways.

The final print turned out nicely! I made the roof removable so you can look inside.

@solo said:

... 6 years.

That long already?!? Wow...time flies

@miikka1978 said:

Could you specify the page where it starts?

Sure, the article is "10 Steps to 3D printing your Sketchup Model in Full Color" on p. 13, and the texturing portion starts on p. 16.
In the article, I show how to manually create a texture map and apply it to an object. For more info on how to edit the texture map in Photoshop, there is a good tutorial here: Use Image Editing Software Inside SketchUp.

In my Catchup tutorial, the unwrapping and mapping is done manually. There are plugins that may make the task faster like SketchUV and Fredo's ThruPaint, but I have not used them myself.

Hi Eli, it took 55 minutes to print at this scale (2" long). It's made of ABS plastic, the same stuff Lego blocks are made of.

If you want to get one made, I have attached the file I used to print. It is converted to an STL file and fixed up so that it's solid for 3D printing. You can send it to a print service like Shapeways, or even better find someone near you with a 3D printer. Here's a good place to look: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

As a bonus, I found a photo of a the same dragon made on a $200,000 printer

Talk about fine detail and SSS!

Dragon 2inch (repaired).zip