
I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic - dezork
https://formlabs.com/blog/3d-printing-at-scale-fuse-pavilion/
======
jacquesm
That part packing using a physics simulation is genius, very clever. I did
some nesting of fabric long ago, never even thought about doing it using a
physics simulation. Lovely stuff. Of course in nesting fabric there are a lot
of constraints due to weave orientation (especially in that application, sails
for boats), presumably this 3D printed stuff gives you at least a bit more
freedom though I would not expect it to be equally strong in all directions.
Even so, the parts they made are already challenging that because of the
connectors protruding from all angles so presumably the re-orientation due to
packing will not make the parts much less strong.

~~~
dezork
SLS parts aren't substantially weaker in the Z direction like your typical FDM
parts are.

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danwinkler
I made something similar a while back! Took somewhere between 150-200 hours to
print 60 connectors. I had to design the parts with a flat side so I could
print them in PLA.

[https://danwink.com/blog/2016/06/19/dowel-structure-
with-3d-...](https://danwink.com/blog/2016/06/19/dowel-structure-
with-3d-printed-connectors/)

~~~
donquichotte
Nice! I also loved your tool cart.
[https://danwink.com/blog/2016/09/17/toolcart-
with-3d-printed...](https://danwink.com/blog/2016/09/17/toolcart-
with-3d-printed-joints/#more-175)

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eggy
I use FreeCAD and Blender for a lot of my technical design/engineering work. I
am happy to see a physics solution in Blender that seems suited to the task of
filling the volume with the parts.

I like the fact that you can use Hylang to program both Blender and FreeCAD
via their Python APIs. No need to, I just like Lisp!

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askvictor
Here's a SketchUp plugin that lets you make large objects using plastic
bottles and 3d printed connectors:
[https://hpi.de/en/baudisch/projects/trussfab.html](https://hpi.de/en/baudisch/projects/trussfab.html)

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dezork
There's a more detailed tutorial on how to use physics to do 3D part packing
here:

[http://amosdudley.com/weblog/Stochastic-Part-
Packing](http://amosdudley.com/weblog/Stochastic-Part-Packing)

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alvern
Very cool approach to scaling a project out of small components.

I wonder if the print time is 144 parts in 36 hours or 36 hours per print.
Thats 15 minutes a print if it is the former!

~~~
pacaro
My understanding was that by packing the parts they could do 144 parts in one
print, and that one print took 36 hours. By using SLS they don't need support
structures

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ljcrabs
Using physics simulation to pack parts more closely together is such a good
idea. Nothing like a little shake to get things packed together.

~~~
Animats
This works well only if your manufacturing process produces an isotropic
material. SLA sort of does; it's equally strong in all directions, but there
is a layering axis. Filament-welding printers don't have that property. The
material is much weaker in the layering axis, because the welding between
layers isn't very good. Things have improved somewhat, but strength of things
made from ABS filament is much lower than the same part made by injection-
molding ABS.

~~~
jacquesm
Isn't that offset in this case because those connectors have elements
protruding at many angles? You'd be weakening some and strengthening others,
unless they were designed with a particular print orientation in mind.

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Sir_Cmpwn
Ugh, what's with these obnoxious buttons?
[https://sr.ht/S3w1.png](https://sr.ht/S3w1.png)

I'm so tired of endless barages of SUB TO OUR NEWSLETTER and LIKE US ON FB and
TWEET THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PLEASE on every goddamn website.

~~~
rtkwe
[http://imgur.com/a/O10RH](http://imgur.com/a/O10RH)

Looks fine and unobtrusive on Chrome. Seems like your browser is rendering
things weird, what are you using?

~~~
mirimir
In Firefox, if you allow some JS, they're quite narrow. But they're still
there, on the left.

