Preface

3D printers have arrived! Complex and beautiful objects are available at the touch of a button in our schools, libraries, or even our homes. If you have a 3D printer, learning how it works and how to design for it is the best way to be a part of this new industrial age. And the best part is that it doesn't cost a penny.

This book will teach you the things you need to know about 3D printers. Then, you will use the robust and free software, Blender, to follow step-by-step instructions through a planned project. This book is a part of a series of projects that will help you acquire the tools, techniques, and skills you need in order to make your own projects to print yourself on a 3D printer near you and share them with others online to print around the world.

What this book covers

The project in this book, octopus pencil holder, involves simple selection techniques that are unique to edit mode, modification commands in edit mode, and applying modifiers to soften and combine shapes. This technique alone can be used to create an unlimited number of cool things, once mastered.

What you need for this book

Blender's minimum system requirements are as follows:

• 32-bit dual core 2 GHz CPU with SSE2 support
• 2 GB RAM
• 24 bits 1280 × 768 display
• Mouse or trackpad
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics with 512 MB RAM

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone with an interest in 3D printing and some basic computer skills. Whether you own a 3D printer or not, you can design for them. You will need Blender, a free 3D tool, and this book. With a little creativity, one day, you'll hold something designed on the computer in your hands.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The first one is going to be the Extrude operator."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Next, add a cylinder and an object to the scene. For this, add (Shift + A) a new object by navigating to Mesh | Cylinder."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

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Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the color images of this book

We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/3DPrintingDesigns_OctopusPencilHolder_ColorImages.pdf.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.

To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.

Piracy

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Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com>, and we will do our best to address the problem.