3D Printing

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Concepts

Printing Technologies

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

FDM is the most widely used 3D printing technology. It is an additive manufacturing process that builds an object layer by layer.

Digital Light Processing (DLP)

DLP uses Vat polymerization to create a 3D object. Typically, it uses a photopolymer resin which is then cured when exposed to a lilght source.

File Formats

STL

STL is the De Facto Standard. It is an old format and as a result, it is universally supported. STL stores 3d models geometry as polygons through the process of tessellation. Lots of 3D objects are shared using the STL format, including at Thingiverse.

Limitations of STL are:

  • it only works with a single material (and as a consequence, a single color).
  • Unique shapes such as a smooth surface are stored as polygons with flat edges.
  • The file format is also inefficient and bloated compared to newer formats.
  • The format also does not enforce that a surface is closed, requiring repairs to be made

Utilities that work with STL include: VIewSTL, GLC-Player, FreeCAD, Netfabb

OBJ

OBJ originally was used to share 3D graphic models and was later used as a printer file format. The format is open source. Geometry data includes its color, material, and textures. Geometry can be stored as tessellated polygons (like in STL), or with free-form curves / free-form surfaces to allow encoding curved geometry without losing fidelity.

Colors and texture information are stored in a separate Material Template Library (MTL) file.

Limitations with the OBJ format:

  • More complicated format; Fixing broken OBJ files is tricky
  • Data comes in pairs of files (OBJ and MTL)
  • Most CAD software can open, but is less widely supported overall

OBJ files can be found at TurboSquid, Free 3D, GCTrader, Archive3D, Clara, The Free 3D Models, and Oyonale.

AMF

AMF is a 3D printer file format designed by the ASTM. It is designed to address all the limitations with STL and add additional features such as color, materials, lattices, duplicates, orientation. Objects can be represented as triangular meshes like in STL but allows for curved surfaces. Multiple objects can also be placed in the same file the 'constellation' feature.

3MF

3MF is a 3D printer file format designed originally by Microsoft and later by the 3MF Consortium. It is an alternate to AMF.

3MF ensures that models have no cracks or overlapping triangles.

Software Tools

Slicers

Name Price Open source? Website
Ultimaker Cura Free Yes https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura
Slic3r Free Yes http://slic3r.org/
PrusaSlicer Free Yes https://www.prusa3d.com/prusaslicer/
OctoPrint Free Yes https://octoprint.org/
Repetier Free No https://www.repetier.com/
KISSlicer Paid ($35) with free option No http://kisslicer.com/
SelfCAD Paid ($15/mo) No https://www.selfcad.com/
Simplify3D Paid ($150) No https://www.simplify3d.com/

OctoPrint

Load OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi to remotely manage and see (via a webcam) the progress of a print.