If you have been following the online desktop 3D printing community for any amount of time, then you may have stumbled upon sets of tiny, bewitching scale furniture printing on a build platform or two — models that have become the hallmark for designer Kacie Hultgren, aka “PrettySmallThings.”
While attempting to tame her desktop 3D printers over the past two years into reliable production tools for producing the scale tables and chairs she needs for her career in scenic design, she has developed helpful strategies for designing with 3D printers in mind.
She worked with a team at MAKE to put together an online course Maker Training Camp: Design for Desktop 3D Printing:
Desktop 3D printers are powerful tools for designers and hobbyists, but these machines present a unique set of design challenges. Learn to harness the design constraints of a desktop 3D printer by optimizing existing designs, or creating new designs that bend the rules, and push the limits of what is possible.
This course starts with an overview of the 3D printing process, and proceeds to an in depth exploration of the strengths and limitations of desktop 3D printing. This class is a great starting point for designers who want to bring their work to life with desktop 3D printing, or DIY 3D Printer owners who want to take their designs to the next level. To get the most out of this class, you should own or have access to a Desktop 3D printer, and be able to print successfully. You should also have basic CAD skills in a program of your choice, or additional time to devout to learning outside of this course. The course is platform agnostic and concept focused – choose the 3D printer, slicer and CAD program of your choice.
This course is offered in conjunction with MAKE magazine, and is run as a cohort-style course. Typically, the course is offered on a monthly cycle with weekly live lectures and google hangouts that build on the pre-recorded content available here on Udemy.
She setup a coupon code “ADAFRUIT” to offer the Adafruit community an additional discount on the series: check it out!
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
