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3DSlash integrates with YouMagine

We’re proud to announce that 3DSlash has integrated with YouMagine. 3DSlash is an easy 3D modeling application that lets you build by adding or destroying blocks. 3DSlash is fun and a great way to quickly make things or adapt STL files. You can import an STL to it and quickly adapt it by adding blocks, removing them or by removing many blocks.

3DSlash a browser based 3D modeling tool & also a downloadable application with more features. You can select several different tools that can remove a single cube, remove slices of cubes, add lines of cubes or drill out an area. In the application version you can also fill, fuse, push, pull and extrude. Both versions are free and you can use or download them here.

You can now save your 3DSlash design on YouMagine and upload them to share them with the YouMagine community. Your designs will initially be in their “unpublished” state and you can decide to publish them.

Here is a tutorial showing you the basics of 3DSlash.

With 3DSlash you can also import a picture, make it the right size and then create an object that is also the right size. The tutorial below shows you how to make an iPad stand. We think it is a wonderful tool and can’t wait to see how everyone uses it!

YouMagine Community Member Interviews Chris Payne

I’m interviewing members of our community to find out what kind of things they make, how they make them and why they make. If you have a suggestion as to someone you’d like interviewed or have a project you’d like to get others involved in please email joris at youmagine.com. Chris Payne is Cpayne3D on YouMagine, his Single Bat ATSC Digital HD TV antenna caught my attention and I reached out to him to find out more about it.

Chris & his Single Bay ATSC HD TV Antenna

Why and when did you get involved with 3D printing?

Around three years ago a friend of mine was flying an R/C multi-rotor aircraft in a park near where I live. I fly R/C electric planes so I was very curious about this. I asked where he purchased the multi-rotor and he began to tell me that he printed it on a 3D printer that he built. I knew instantly that I had to build one of these 3D printing machines.

Why did you need a 3D printer?

I have always been a tinkerer and have so many different hobbies. My hobbies generally require that I custom build parts and jigs, that I would normally create out of wood, plexiglass-plastic or metal. Now there was a way to create more complex parts without glue or screws.

What were some of the difficulties when you started?

The 3D printing phenomena has many challenges. Every step of the process seems to have a road block or two that could put a person off of getting involved.

At the start of my journey, I found printer designs on the internet that were comprised of nearly 50%, 3D printed parts. You couldn’t make a printer unless you already had a printer. This was a sobering thought for me. My friend who I recently discovered had a Mendel 3D printer gladly produced parts for the original MendelMax that I could build. It took a lot of time to print these parts, which was another revelation for me. After receiving the printed parts and sourcing the vitamins from local industrial suppliers, I was beleaguered one more time. The additional parts proved to be hard to source and also were expensive unless bought in bulk. In the end my MendelMax had issues due to imperfect smooth rods. I nearly gave up at that point.

My friend then showed me a web site that was selling kits made with makerslide aluminum rail. It looked professional, and there were no smooth rods. I ordered the mechanical platform kit (minus the electronics). A couple of weeks later the parts arrived undamaged. This is the kit that I am running to this day, although I have exchanged the extruder and hot end several times until a fool proof configuration was built.

In 2015, the marketplace in for 3D printer vendors has improved tremendously. The machines are available everywhere, and even at retail stores where you wouldn’t expect to find prebuilt 3D printers. What a difference a few years can make for this technology.

What tools do you use to design?

I use a combination of tools to create my designs. It all depends on whether I have the foresight to post the parts online or not. Any part or project that I intend to share online will be create in OpenSCad. This way the one who downloads the files can make alterations if necessary. Otherwise I may prototype a part very quickly using TurboCad 8 for MAC. I only have MAC computers at home, so this tool works very well.

What kind of things do you make?

I am very hobby driven, and I am always trying to solve every day problems. It is safe to say that I make things that other people may not make. I have quite a list of upgrade parts that I have created for 3D printers, repair parts for things that break around the house, a really great LCD controller housing for 3D printers, and finally a 3D printed implementation of an “over the air” UHF HD TV antenna.

Why an antenna?

A couple of years ago I had been keeping an eye on the North American transition of the over the air television broadcast from analogue to digital format. When the conversion deadline occurred in Canada, I decided to research the UHF information online. I discovered a long range UHF antenna element design created by Doyt Hoverman (born 1913) of the USA. This was very coincidental as his design was put into the public domain under the GPL license a few years earlier. I built an antenna using the Hoverman element with a home built wooden frame. I then installed the antenna into the attic at my home (all 20 lbs of it) and it worked great.

Since then I had the idea to make the HD TV antenna lighter and easier to build. And quite a few people that I had spoken to since the 2008 economy crash reluctantly had to cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions out of necessity. This was not lost on me.

I found myself with some vacation time, and that was all that I needed to initiate a rough design for a 3D printable TV antenna in OpenSCAD. I challenged myself with two goals:

1 – build a lighter antenna to replace the heavy one in my attic
2 – build an antenna, with a minimal number of fasteners that anyone could build. Inexpensively.

You’ve built on top of other people’s projects. Who and why?

I have designed this printable antenna to accept the existing wire element designed by Doyt Hoverman. The element has proven to function very well, and it is simple to make without any complicate tools. Also, the element shape can be made from new or recycled aluminum material that you may have on hand. It was important to keep to the primary goals to make sharing of this antenna doable.

What can I do with the antenna?

Anybody who has access to a 3D printer will be able to print the parts in less than 9 hours. Assembly is very simple and required only screws and a screwdriver. Install this antenna in your attic, or outdoors in an area protected from high winds and it will receive UHF television broadcasts from ground based transmitters ranging from Channel 2 to 69. You can connect the antenna to an HD TV equipped with a digital tuner, or to a digital tuner box or USB tuner on a computer or laptop. This antenna can be provisioned with a rotor to make it tuneable to receive even more channels. I should also note that it is incapable of picking up satellite transmissions, as this is a question that I often get asked.

What should I pay attention to when making this?

The project prints very well, no supports required. However, here are some things to keep in mind before you start printing:

Print with ABS filament.
No need for a raft.
Any warping of your prints will not affect the assembly.
Ensure that your first layer adheres properly to the print bed, or the base block may break free of the bed during printing. I print ABS on blue painters tape with the bed heated to 110c.
Ensure that your printer is able to successfully print short bridging spans (~ 6mm).
Print the “BOLT & Nut” test strip first. It takes 19 minutes to print but it will ensure that your fasteners fit properly before you invest the time to make all of the parts.
Edit the SCAD file and set up your custom fastener measurements. It will accommodate your selected fasteners!
The [OUPUT = variable] allows you to choose which parts to export for printing.

Tips for selecting screw lengths before printing:

Here is a safe method for selecting the long screws.

Select the pole to mount your antenna. (eg: 1 inch, or 25.4 mm PVC).
Take note of the default fastener length for the printed parts (1.5 inches, or 38mm)
Add the two measurements:
1 inch + 1.5 inches = 2.5 inches (25.4 mm + 38 mm = 63.4 mm).
In this example the fastener length required is 2.5 inches, or ~63mm.

I really hope that people do find this project beneficial. It is very exciting to be able to create and share 3D printed objects that have a real world impact. To date, this antenna has been downloaded by users from USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and all over Europe. It is great to be able to witness just how easy it is to make a difference in the world through 3D printing.

Out-of-the-box upgrades: Z-Unlimited

Projects and 3D printing companies like Ultimaker and Printrbot who share their design files online (1, 2) allow anyone, without having to ask, to think of improvements and actually implement them. Whether it’s a little tweak or something that turns the whole printing experience upside-down is up to you.

Joris van Tubergen is someone who does exactly that, on a regular basis.

Printing bigger, faster, in a different way and with sweet new materials or new appearances has always been Joris’ trademark. He started experimenting with an existing Ultimaker allowing it to print huge objects, like this elephant:

Z-Unlimited – now on Kickstarter – allows you to print much bigger things than the 3D printer that makes it. How? Joris van Tubergen an out-of-the box thinker with a mentality that an Ultimaker is a device that can be changed to do exactly what you want it to do. He put the Ultimaker upside down, pointed the printhead outward again and let it lift itself up while printing.

You might ask, who is Joris, how does it work and how can I start printing like this? We will have to make it happen together, because Joris needs your support! You can back it through Kickstarter and get your own Z-Unlimited:

Print tall with Joris’ Z-Unlimited!

Want to know more about Joris? Did you know that he…

makes regular appearances on Dutch TV?
played a pivotal role in creating the Kamermaker with DUS Architects and Ultimaker,
prints challenging prints more easily because he’s not afraid to hack some GCode parsing scripts together with programming Blender, even though he’s not a programmer by education?
the 3D printed elephant actually had tiny names inscribed into the surface, part of the huge 3D model?
works for the legendary FabLab “Protospace” in Utrecht, as the first Lab manager on site. Joris helped make the first RepRap and Ultimaker workshops possible, even before Ultimaker existed.
made the Fairphone + 3DHubs Phone covers possible?
has published most of his 3D creations on YouMagine? Check out his profile here.
applied Augmented Reality with QR codes to his 3D printing (yes, lots of buzz words!)
embedded the source code of a 3D object into an RFID chip, physically embedded into the printed object. Source code inside!
And even more about Joris here…

It’s not secret: We’re big fans of Joris and all other makers that are redefining what 3D printing is! We’d love to see what he comes up with next!

New Improvements to YouMagine

Dear Community,

We’re continuing to improve YouMagine for you based on your feedback. We are sorry to have to report that over the past weeks we had two uptime issues relating to our server architecture. This problem should be resolved shortly and we’re sorry to have been unavailable for some of our Community. On the upside we’ve improved the overall performance of the site. YouMagine is now faster than before. File upload is now also quicker and more stable. We’ve also upgraded to Rails 4 and fixed some bugs across the site. One of the most requested improvements was to fix the aspect ratio of the images. We’ve improved this so the images are no longer cropped on the design pages. We hope that you enjoy the changes and really would like to have your feedback on further improvements!

Merry Christmas from YouMagine!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a great new year from all of us at YouMagine! Ronald, who heads up education for YouMagine made a Christmas tree for the office on the office laser cutter. I’d never seen a laser cut Christmas tree before but, days after, Bibliolabs uploaded another.

Laser Cut Christmas Tree

Lots of other community members made lovely Christmas things as well! We hope you all have a great time with your families during the holidays! Maybe you have time to print this lovely tree by Blecheimer or perhaps you still need a topper like the one made by Ashleywebster? All the best from YouMagine. Happy 3D printing!

3D Printed Christmas Tree

3D printed Christmas Tree topper.

Interview with YouMagine Community Member Flowalistik

Augustin Flowalistik

Augustin Flowalistik is a YouMagine Community Member and award winning designer who has made waves with his low poly 3D printed designs. Augustin is originally a graphic designer but now works extensively with 3D printing. We love his work. Furthermore Augustin shares his designs for free on YouMagine but people have been selling these designs or derivatives of these designs. He finds himself at an interesting point in time where 3D printing is gaining a lot of traction but we haven’t figured out how to properly regulate and guide sharing. Due to our deep interest in Intellectual Property and 3D printing (and because he makes cool stuff!) we asked him for an interview. You can check out Flowalistik’s YouMagine profile or his home page here.

Why did you go from graphic design to 3D printing?

I’m currently studying a Design Degree in the Complutense University in Madrid. It’s mostly focused on graphic design, although I’ve had some subjects focused on object design. Any of my teachers have ever talked about 3d printing, but as I love technology, I knew 3d printing would be something important in the near future. Until 2014 all my projects were focused on graphic design and illustration as I didn’t have the possibility to design and create my own objects. It wasn’t until Sept 2013 that I purchased my first 3D printer kit, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

What tools do you use to 3D print?

I’ve got a Prusa i3 and an Ultimaker 2. I usually print with the Ultimaker as it’s easier to use, but when it’s about a low poly design I always print it with the Prusa to check that it can be printed with a more-afordable 3d printer. Also, I only work with PLA, as I find it easier to work with.

Augustin with one of his 3D printed masks

What software do you use?

I use 3DS Max to design all the low poly models (Pokemon, Videogame Characters, Masks…) and for more precise things I use Solidworks. In the near future I pretend to learn to use Blender and Freecad, as I would like to work 100% with open hardware and software.

Augustin Flowalistik_large_pikachu_low_poly_pokemon_flowalistik_youmagine

Do you have tips for graphic designers wanting to 3D print things?

Well, when I bought my first 3d printer I didn’t know what I would find, and if I would really love 3D printing. Fortunately I discovered that 3D printing is what I really love. But I know people who saw some 3d printers in a Maker Faire and bought one without considering they wouldn’t use it more than once a month. Almost all of my friends are graphic designers, and when they ask me if they should buy a 3d printer, I always explain them what they can and cannot do, to make them sure the 3d printer will reach their expectations.

I love your low poly work, why did you start doing this?

I’ve always loved the low poly style, as it makes complex models really simple and it keeps the “idea” of the object. When I first came up with the idea of making low poly Pokemon, I just wanted to design a Squirtle for myself, but when I shared it and received some great feedback I decided to make this project, as people really appreciate to have their favorite Pokemon or videogame character 3d printed in good quality.

Large Bulbasaur by Flowalistik

Some of your work is inspired by characters. Do you think you should be allowed to “remix” Mario or Mickey Mouse?

I’m not the original creator of the characters, as I chose those who were really important in my childhood. I publish all the low poly models under CC license (BY-NC-SA) and since the first model was created I knew that this project’s purpose was clearly not commercial. Anyone can remix my models, I don’t mind, as it helps to expand the project. For example, now you can find on the internet some great low poly models that some people designed after they saw my designs (and they didn’t find their favourite pokemon!).

How do we balance sharing & creativity with IP?

I think the balance is what happens at the moment. People create and share, but there’s no commercial use of these models. I’ve already talked with Nintendo’s lawyers, and they’re not against 3d printing or people making models based on their characters. The problem is that 3d printing works differently as the world does nowadays. With 3d printing you don’t buy and item, you create it in your house, and that is what really scares all the merchandising companies.

You share your designs for free but people sell them. These people have had IP issues. What are your thoughts on that?

I can distinguish two different groups. The ones who steal my work (they sell or share my models as if they were the original designers) and the ones who sell them (they attribute the work but get some benefits from selling them). What I do is send them an email telling them what could happen in case they continued selling or stealing my models, and that’s usually all I’ve got to do. 3d printing is based on sharing on the internet, and I can’t stop people from selling my designs. If they offer them on Ebay, Etsy or similar platforms, I may discover it, but if they sell it in their stores I have nothing to do. As I don’t get money for the designs, I’m not usually angry when I discover it. Anyway, I approve it when, for example, people request someone to print a low poly models for them (paying for it). This can be applied to 3D Hubs. I like that, and I understand they are paying for a service and not for the model.

Would you like to make a living from 3D Printing?

My idea is to work in something that benefits the planet in some way, and I think 3d printing is one of the best ways to achieve that goal. In six months I will finish my Design studies, and I would like to start working with a 3d printing related company. And if I someone asked me right now were I would like to work in a year, I would say I would like to work in Colorfabb, Ultimaker, YouMagine or 3D Hubs. I don’t know if you find the last sentence a little bit opportunistic, but I believe that those four companies work and think similar as I do.

Improving YouMagine, new releases

We’ve been listening to your feedback and ideas and incorporating them into YouMagine. If you would wish to have any new features please just email joris (at) youmagine.com and we will look at implementing them. We really do intently listen and try to be as responsive as possible in implementing your suggestions and ideas. We often build features because of direct user requests and encourage you to keep the helpful feedback coming. We’re still growing quickly and hope to expand the functionality of the site considerably. We really want to be the nicest, best & easiest place for you to share and remix your files so please hold us to that standard.

UltiViewer

We’re proud to say that Mark Moissette is now part of the YouMagine team as web application engineer! We’ll introduce him to you soon. We’ve reintroduced the UltiViewer, the 3D preview tool for inspecting models. It has been greatly enhanced! It should be more stable and more modular, so we can create extensions and improvements more quickly.

One cool feature that’s coming up is annotations, you can point out specific points on a 3D model and comment on that. Also, you can add measurements between various points on the surface of a model, e.g. to check certain tolerances. Want to show what the thickness of a particular wall is? Annotations are a way to do this.

Improved Search

After releasing the improved search we went on to make it even better! Being able to easily find what you’re looking for is important.

The search results will have a better ranking (popularity of items are taken into account).
Will also include items with matching tags.
It will have typeahead search, during typing you will already see search results appear! You’ll even see little preview images of the items.
Search will also become permanently visible in the top navigation bar (in the release after the upcoming one).
We fixed several bugs! If you were on page 10 of a design listing, searching for a design resulted in 0 results because it would display page 10 of the results.

Sign in with Google

Alternative versions

More formats will now have (3D) and rendered previews!
Also, it will automatically create STLs if it’s not already an STL file. We now automatically create STL files when an SCAD, JSCAD, OBJ, DAE, OFF, 3DS or PLY file is uploaded. This means that you don’t need to generate that STL export for your SCAD file, YouMagine will do it for you!
We want to promote the uploading of native formats so we intend to start rendering popular formats into STL for you, so you don’t have to add these yourself. We were thinking of STEP as the next one, but we’re unsure how to generate STLs from STEP files, at this moment. If you have any ideas, let us know!

Labyrinth Gift Box by IRobertI

Many fixes and tweaks, among which:

For a design that is collected by someone, we’ve fixed that you can’t press the “x” button to delete it from the collection if belongs to someone else (thanks for reporting, @Didier).
The unread message counts should be correct now.
File type icon sizes were off in some cases.
The YouTalk widget will not switch designs as quickly anymore (thanks @Kolia)
The “share” buttons on a design’s page should now work again.
Zip files weren’t always recreated for an updated design, should now happen.
Search results can now also be retrieved in .json format. Great for those who integrate search in an application.
Some performance upgrades.
Login icons are now bigger in the current release (thanks @Blizz for reporting!).
There were some issues with comments and they are now working again in Safari and Firefox. Thank you to Jonnyischof for letting us know this.
There were some upload issues that were resolved. Thank you for telling us IRobertI.

Roy Ombatti’s Happy Feet 3D Printing Project Using 3D printing to combat disease

3D printed shoe to combat infection by Roy Ombatti

Roy Ombatti is a Kenyan mechanical engineer who wants to use 3D printing to help combat a horrible disease that affects many in his country. Roy also co-founded the Nairobi FabLab Robotics Outreach Program which helps kids learn about science, technology & robotics. He is also a Stanford Fablearn Fellow 2014 and an International Development Design Summit participant. Roy came to the Netherlands for a few months thanks to Baltan Laboratories and HIVOS to explore 3D printing and shoemaking. The reason behind Roy’s interest in those two production technologies? Chigoe flea (also known as Jigger) infections. This flea burrows itself into human feet and is a very painful and horrible disease that affects over 2.7 million people. It makes walking difficult and painful, causes terrible sores and keeps people from being productive. Roy wants to use 3D printing to make 3D printed shoes that people can wear that would lessen the chance of re-infestation in the feet. This will let people treat this awful disease themselves and hopefully if implemented reduce the rates of this disease. Roy came to YouMagine for help and we gave him some technical info and leant him an Ultimaker 3D printer so that he could 3D print the shoes he is making. We’re super happy to have helped him a bit and look forward to following Roy’s progress as a person working towards positive social impact. Below are two videos describing the project. Roy Ombatti – Nairobi University from william hoyle on Vimeo.

And this is Roy’s 3D Printed shoe, specifically made to combat Chigoe infection. Roy also made a mobile DIY shoe lab that could easily travel or be transported so people could inexpensively make their own shoes. The lab takes plastic waste recycles it using a filament recycler. The resulting 3D printing filament is then 3D printed into shoes specifically made to be wearable for people suffering from this disease and to act as a barrier against reinfestation. Roy then gave workshops and exhibited his project during Dutch Design Week. He’s still working on the project and hopes to make further strides and implement this in Kenya.

Interview with Eric Chan architect and 3D modeler, procrastinator.

I was at Hong Kong Mini Maker Faire and ran into someone from the Shapeways early days, Eric Chan. Eric was one of the first people to upload truly interesting things to Shapeways. As an architect he has an eye for design and beauty as well as the skill to make.

Eric Chan Architect & 3d printing designer

He used this to make his Whale in 2008 which was a favorite model of mine. It was on my desk for 3 years and I really loved it and used it as a card holder. So it was an super fun to run into him at Hong Kong Mini Maker Faire to catch up with him.

3D printed Whale made by Selective Laser Sintering, also called SLS and LS

What inspires you to 3D print?

Eric Chan: The ability to make an object out of what I model virtually. Some of my work comes from a need, say if I have a camera that does not have an accessory, then I design a specific accessory for it. Some of it is art, like the whale where I wanted to explore flexibility of the material.

As an architect do you explore things differently?

As an architect you learn to look at all different aspects of a design problem. In a way that is a restriction on what I can design. I have to make sure the requirements are met, that it works structurally, it looks good esthetically and that the needs of the client are met. With 3D printing I can reduce a design to one or two design problems. In a way its simpler and can be more fun. I have fewer limitations and can explore more.

Why did you want to improve on the strandbeesd?

I had a look at the add on, but I wanted something that catches wind from any direction and spins on the vertical axis. I wanted to challenge myself. I first created a version and all the gears and parts worked perfectly but the turbine part and the arrangement of the vanes caught a lot of its own wind. This wind resistance meant that it didn’t work. A user on instructables pointed this out to me so I redesigned it. I made an improved turbine with better vanes based on this feedback. Now it spins smoothly and I’m happy with the curved form instead of the more angled one.

3D Printed quad copter frame made with Selective Laser Sintering

Why make a quadcopter?

I bought a quadcopter kit and needed a frame to protect the blades. My first design was very simple but the flexibility in SLS was too high. I redesigned the frame with more trusses and it was much stronger but too rigid. Then for the next version I reoriented the trusses and this gave me the right amount of flexibility and rigidity. The copter now seems to be much more stable.

3D printed GoPro desk mount

And the GoPro Hero stand?

I needed a desktop stand for it while being able to plug the GoPro into the power supply. This is a very practical needs based design for me. It started off with me making a simple stand but it evolved to a swiveling joint and an adjustable hinge.

You can check out er1c’s blog or Shapeways shop here.

Catching up with RepRapBCN at the TCT Show

Many interesting 3D printing projects and events are taking place in Barcelona. Its one of the most happening places in 3D printing. I love what RepRapBCN is doing, they are showing a lot of people the way to as a non profit develop 3D printing and teach people about it. While at the TCT Show I had a chance to catch up with them. I spoke to Xavier Martinez, the CTO of RepRap BCN about Barcelona and their company.

Why is Barcelona such a happening place for 3D printing?

“Because has always been a design city. There are a lot of designer in Barcelona. They tend to want make and show off their designs. Its a consequence of being a design city. We have lots of events relating to industrial design and 3D printing such as Fab 10. There are also lots of new fablabs and initiatives such as this as well.”

RepRapBCN’s Delta 3D printer

What is RepRapBCN?

We are a group of people inside a technology center, Fundacion CIM. We’ve making RepRaps since 2011. We started with Prusas. We’ve now made our model in 2012 the BCN 3D Plus based on the Mendel and Prusa. And now we have our delta, BCN 3DR which is our delta machine. We try to show the people in Spain and Barcelona how 3D printing works & then educate them about 3D printing. We help people assemble 3D printers as well and do workshops on 3D printing, design and making.

RepRapBCN Workshop

Is it a company?

The Fundacion is a nonprofit. Everything we earn we spend on improving the workshops and printers.

What do you see as the future for RepRap BCN?

Our next machine will be a pre-assmbled machine. We feel that there people who need more professional machines but we don’t want to forget our past. We want to make more professional machines but also continue with workshops and entry level machines. We want to also make DLP 3D printers and other machines.

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