Deborah R. Fowler
3D Printing
Posted on Feb 16 2020
3D printing is becoming more and more affordable. I ran across a "scratch-like" program that produces models using simple code blocks called blocksCAD. Quickly creating an example similar to a Houdini introduction I created some simple code to show a line of spheres. File below is saved in sphereline.xml
Since there was a generate stl button, I created an stl file which is one of the standard file formats for 3D printing. Curious to know, I took it into Houdini and it worked beautifully. File node read.
Then the question was - can I output to stl. Yes! So 3D printing is at your finger tips ... now my search to find a vendor that prints at a reasonable price or purchase a desktop 3D print.
Note that it is very important to pay attention to your topology when 3D printing. This is nothing new to Houdini and people have been curious about this (see forum thread from the early 2000's). This forum post pointed to an artist, Kevin Mack, who has 3D prints from Houdini on his website. According to the forum post Houdini was used.
Here is an excellent article about determining proper resolution for your stl file and how to reduce cost.
https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/3d-printing-stl-files-step-step-guide/#step-1
https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/how-reduce-cost-3d-printing/
The file that was generated from blocksCAD potentially could be polyreduced and printed. Now I just need to find a printer ...
With the new photogrammetry workflow ...
Code blocks versus code
In the above program you can download your project blocks - it save it in .xml format and you can read it back in.
You can also save the code in .scad format but it cannot be read back in. However, there is a program at openscad.org which allows you to read and write openscad code.
Phyllotactic Example written in OpenSCAD - phyllo.scad (need OpenSCAD installed on your machine to open this file). I also created it using blocksCAD code blocksPhyllo.xml
and the corresponding generated code - the original output contained an error (a comma instead of a semi-colon - easy fix and result) blocksPhyllo.scad
