“Learn how a 3D printer works. Get inspired. Make your own stuff. It is a wonderful time to be innovative”
Once our team learned how to utilized 3D scanning technology we were able to finish the scan and get it ready to be 3D printed. Our team was excited to get this file printing and bringing it to life.
Prepping Our File
It was now time to move onto preparing our file to be printed on our Mantis 3D Printer! Once we had combined our scan into one, we had an STL file that was water tight and ready to be produced. Although, looking over the file that was created from the scan we noticed that some of the beautiful intricate details from the cookie press were faded and not as prominent, compared to the mold. We figured our next step was to take our file and move it into a program where we can bring those details back.
Making the Cookie Press Come to Life
Original Mold
Arrows pointing to areas that needed clean up
using autodesk meshmixer
Once we had noticed the file needed some edits, we decided to use a fantastic free program called Autodesk Meshmixer. This program is wonderful for creating/manipulating 3D files, cleaning up a 3D scan, or designing an object for 3D printing. We were able to place the file in and work at some of the areas that weren’t captured well on the scanners. The arrows pointed to areas that we thought weren’t as detailed compared to the mold. Once we made the revisions to the mold we were onto using Autodesk Tinkercad to finish off making the press.
Creating the impression on an object in Autodesk Tinkercad
3D File of the Cookie Press in Autodesk Tinkercad
Using autodesk tinkercad
Next, we moved onto Autodesk Tinkercad which is another powerful (easy-to-use) tool for creating digital designs that can be ready to be printed. In Tinkercad we took the scan file and recreated a digital file that would be close to the original cookie press. Now we were ready to get the file ready to print!
Setting up the File on the Mantis 3D Printer
Once we were satisfied with the file, we took it over to get prepared and ready to print. Can’t wait to see how it comes out!