New 3D printer owner here - rapidly becoming enchanted with vase mode (single thickness wall created in one continuous spiral path). One of my earliest experiments was using @Birk_Binnard 's 3side loft definition
Though I didn’t intend the triangular surface pattern, it wasn’t surprising based on my limited experience with meshes. I find it extremely pleasing (as do my staff). But when I play around with various parameter changes to the loft, like changing the amount of twist and viewing the resulting mesh edges, I find it hard to get that nice triangular tessellation. It’s possible that the slicer software plays a part in this, but I’m wondering, is it possible to force (or enhance the likelihood) of having this sort of regular faceting when creating meshes?
That is an interesting vase mode side effect. My guess is it is the result of both the basic shape of your design and your slicer’s vase mode internal code. Layer height could also affect the result.
Try posting your GH file, your slicer name, and some of your slicer settings like layer height.
You could use QuadRemesh or TriRemesh to remesh your object and use MeshEdges to view the mesh before you save it as an STL. In the QuadRemesh Settings there’s an option to make the mesh symetrical which can be useful if you want an intentionally faceted look.
I use a component called MeshPreview from Intralattice plugin because I find it useful for seeing how the mesh is structured.
When you export a mesh from Rhino as an STL for 3d printing it will just split your quads to make triangles or retain the mesh faces if they are already triangles
Hi @Birk_Binnard - though I’ve since added and tweaked it, I was using your original version when I produced this shape (thanks for the def, BTW!). I’m using the PrusaSlicer (2.6.0), .4mm nozzle, .25mm layer ht. I have some trials to do before I confirm, but I think @Quan_Li 's approach suggests that if I feed the slicer the right shape, it should spit out what I’m after, independent of layer height.
This is great - thank you, @Quan_Li ! I of course need to print this to confirm, but here is the output of your faces (joined and capped) after feeding to my slicer:
Thanks. I’m using PETG. It’s not as easy to print as PLA, but it’s considerably more durable. Not sure what you mean by sharing a link. I just used your definition and increased the twist parameter, with a couple brep components added at the end to make the output a closed (“water-tight”) mesh. I then baked the mesh and exported as a .3mf file (or .stl) for the slicer software to generate the g-code. I can upload the 3mf file I used if you want, but it really is a bit too overhung on the upper edges (the bead of molten plastic being laid down is too lateral to the prior layer and droops in spots).
Oh, Sorry, I didn’t make myself clear. I was asking for the link to the material(if you bought it online) because I liked to buy it.
Yes, PETG is a better choice, totally agree, and the transparency of your PETG makes the result very beautiful.
I’m still trying to understand how to tease out the triangular faceting effect. I tried it on a rounder shape, but even though the facets were there, each two-triangle “cell” was too planar for the effect to be highly visible.
Why not play with Weaverbird’s Stellate component after a Quad or TriRemesh?
This essentially puts a pyramid on each mesh face and you can set the height - either one constant height or use an attractor to pass it varying heights per mesh face, positive and / or negative.
Should allow you to make the triangular sides stand out more.
Yep. See that. But for a steep angle like this, it was a very successful print. I see you were using a good printer and roll. I guess that was the reason it was staying intact.
