3D Printing Badge

So you want to create some amazing things with the 3D printers? Excellent. This guide will move you through the very basics; see 3D Printing for more information.

Installing SketchUp and Extensions

To get started, we need to install SketchUp, a program that allows us to create 3D objects, and a few extensions that will help us print our creations.

When creating a 3D object on the computer, it is possible (and very easy) to create objects that are "impossible" in real life (imagine a balloon with a hole in it). Luckily, SketchUp users have created a few extensions that show us problems in our designs before we try to print them. Solid Inspector² is one of those extensions.

The second extension, SketchUp STL, will give us a file that we can print.

1. Download SketchUp here, or open it SketchUp Logo if already installed.
2. Download the Solid Inspector² extension, and the Sketchup STL exporter to a known location. The first will make sure your file is printable, and the second will allow you to export your 3D file as an .stl, which you will need later.
   
   

   Installing extensions in SketchUp 2016
   1. To install the extensions, open SketchUp then click the "Window" menu up top
   2. Click "Preferences"
   3. Click "Extensions" on the left
   4. Click "Install Extensions"
   5. Navigate to the location of Solid Inspector², then click open and click OK a few times
   6. Complete steps 1–5 for Sketchup STL

Create the Badge

I shamelessly stole this idea from OSU's Edmon Low Creative Studios. Check the link for an image of the badge.

File:SketchUpCreateCylinder.gif

Steps 1-3

1. Open SketchUp and play around with the tools for a bit. Scroll the scrolly wheel to zoom in and out, press the scrolly wheel like a button and move the mouse to orbit. Press shift while doing these for other movements
2. Create a circle with the circle tool by clicking on the ground, moving your cursor away from the center, and clicking again. Scale does not matter, because we will set final dimensions later
3. Choose the Push/Pull tool , click the circle, and drag up to pull it into a short cylinder
4. Create a second circle for the top loop away from the model (we'll move it into place soon)
5. Click the middle of the circle and press delete; you will be left with just the outline
6. Create one more circle perpendicular to the outline you made, and on the x or y axis (see video, muted). This will make a torus
7. Triple-click the torus (donut) and right-click, then choose "Make Group." This will allow you to move the torus into the cylinder without them combining
8. Align it with the cylinder as you'd like. You can resize either by selecting it and choosing the Scale tool
9. Once the torus is in place, right click it and choose "Explode." This will tell the program to stick it to the cylinder
10. At the moment, there are no edges between the torus and the cylinder. This is a problem, because we need to delete any piece inside another piece, but if you try to delete without edge seams, it will leave holes. To create the edges, right-click the torus and choose "Intersect with Model"
11. Right-click the face of the badge, then choose "Hide." This lets you dig in the inside without erasing the face
12. Click the part of the torus inside the cylinder and delete it. Delete the two circles on the inside wall, as well
13. Go to "View" in the menu, and select "Hidden Materials"
14. Right-click the grid that appears where the face was, and choose "Unhide," then go to "View" and uncheck "Hidden Materials"
15. Choose the "3D Text" tool, write your name, and style as you'd like. Choose a font where the letters do not touch, or divide your name where they do.
16. Make it as large as will fit on the cylinder, and set it on top.
17. Right-click the text and choose "Explode." Again, this will merge it with the materials it is touching
18. Orbit to the backside of your badge (use the scrolly wheel as a button and move the mouse)
19. Hide the backside as you did the front
20. Erase the backside of each letter. We are doing all this erasing to give the printer one single shell to print; imagine a very strangely-shaped balloon
21. Go to "View" in the menu, and select "Hidden Materials"
22. Right-click the grid that appears where the backside was, and choose "Unhide," then go to "View" and uncheck "Hidden Materials"
23. Admire your work
24. Run Solid Inspector², which will make sure everything is watertight. (Remember the balloon? If there is a hole in your model, it will pop and not print!)
25. Go to "File," then "Export STL"

Slice Your Model

1. Download/open Cura
2. Choose PrintrBot Play when prompted
3. Download settings file here. (It is safe; I made it.)
4. Go to "File," select "Open Profile," then locate the settings file you downloaded
5. Layer height should be .26
6. Shell thickness is always set to multiples of the nozzle size (.4 mm in this case), so reduce to .8mm
7. Reduce fill density to 10%
8. Support type should be "Everywhere"
9. Platform adhesion type should say "Brim"
10. Click your model, then play with the three tools on the bottom. The middle one scales the model
11. Pay attention to the time it will take to print your model; 30 minutes is fine. If it takes much longer, scale the file down. If it is really short, scale it up
12. With the model selected, click View Mode in the top right, and choose Layer
13. This shows the layers created by the slicer. Can you read the letters? If not, scale up your badge. If you scale it to the max and still can't read it, rebuild the badge with larger text
14. Press the save button on the middle top, and name your file with your name, a description, and the color you want, e.g. paul badge black.gcode

OctoPrint Your Badge

1. OctoPrint is located here. We use it to control the printer remotely
2. Login with your credentials. Ask Stallings
3. Open the folder on your computer containing the .gcode file
4. Drag the file into the left of the OctoPrint screen

Setting Up the Printer

1. See Stallings

Printing

1. Click on your filename in Octoprint. If nothing is printing, it will load the file
2. Click the big blue "Print" button
3. Head to the printer and watch the first few layers for errors