Will it Print?

This is a 3D printing design tool that will analyze a 3D geometry and tell you based on the available materials if it is feasible to print. It will tell you the approximate time needed to print the geometry, how much material is needed, if supports will be needed, and the cost to print the geometry.

General Inputs:

Choose Material (0 - PLA, 1 - ABS, 2 - PETG, 3 - TPU)
Material Availability (kg) - One node for each of the materials supportedP
Layer Height - how tall will each of the layers be?
Wall Thickness - how thick will the inner walls of the print be
Infill Percent - how dense will the infill of the print be?
Printing Speed - how fast will the nozzle travel

Example Geometry Inputs (two polygon loft):

Polygon Radius
Num Polygon Sides
Height - distance between bottom and top profile
Rotation - rotation angle between bottom and top profiles
Test with Cutout (boolean) - cut out a scaled version of the geometry from the bottom

Used to test overhangs

Scale Cutout - what percentage of the original geometry will be cutout

Outputs:

Chosen Material Details

Type Chosen
Recommended Nozzle Temperature
Estimated cost/kg
Material Density (g/cm^3)
Recommended Print Speed

Print Details

Filament Consumed (g)
Material Availability - do we have enough of the chosen material?
Alternate Materials - List all materials with sufficient material to print the geometry
Cost ($)
Print Time (min) - takes into account nozzle heat up time, and actual printing time

Overhang Checks

Checks that there’s one face that’s on the ground plane
Checks that if there are other faces that have overhangs greater than 45 degrees that the bridging/distance of the overhang is within an acceptable range
Tells us if supports are needed

Video Demo: Since I was working on the cluster computers, I was not able to record the demo showing the actual tool in action. The video provides a high level overview of what’s being input and output. The screenshots following show what happens when you change some of the inputs.

Google Docs 3units_ElisseChow_Module8.mov