Lattice to avoid warping in 3D print part

Hi there

I’m building an injection mold that I’d like to 3D print. Unfortunately the first print came out pretty warped… A friend recommended to fill the solid of the mold with a lattice.

What approach would you recommend? Is there a plug-in to do that in Grasshopper, that I could easily adjust the mesh for different molds? Something like intralattice.com but for mac?

Thanks for your advice!

Is there a reason you aren’t just using the slicers various infill options (grid, gyroid etc.)?

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Why not just use the slicer’s infill to fill the void?

The gyroid infills are great as they don’t create paths that cross each other.

If you create a lattice structure the slicer will try and print this as thousands of small sections which will take ages and be prone to problems with overhangs etc.

I’m using the Bambu Labs slicer which is based on one of the others like Cura I think.

Also, you can look at using relief grooves on the bottom surface. Warping happens because of the part shrinking as it cools and stresses forming within the part. I think you can add grooves on the base to break up the larger volumes and surfaces to reduce the stresses. You would have to experiment with this and it depends on whether your design allows for these features.

I need to print with a resin printer. I’m not a 100% sure but thought the Slicers for resin prints can’t do infills. Am I wrong about that?

It’s for resin print…

Ah, Ok. any voids will need to also have drain holes so the uncured resin can escape.

In this case you will need to look at something like Intralattice or Crystallion to create the lattice and then maybe Dendro to thicken it.

I’m not aware of anything more recent that does this in GH, which is a shame as it would be a really useful tool.

Useful topic link on lattices

You can try meshmixer as well - it’s got a lattice function. Although I’m not sure creating lattice will fix warping issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffmg1E3m1Ak

Thanks you guys!

Unfortunatly Intralattice and Chrystallion is not available for mac.

But if creating lattice won’t fix warping issues, what will? Any advice?

Depends on the printer, the resin, exposure time, orientation etc.

you could try following this topic to trim a gyroid structure to fit your geometry… you will have to shell your part and use the inner shell voids to trim a gyroid which you could then fit inside your voids…

Gyroid Link

Specifically @DanielPiker 's file minsurf_trim.gh

Could get messy if you are mixing meshes with surfaces… design your part with voids, then create the gyroid mesh to fit in the voids, save each as STLs and import them assembled into the 3d printer software. Not sure how your 3d printer software workflow is though.

thanks @martynjhogg!

As with most add ons [and just about all the old ones]… chances are they do work on Mac, simply manually install them.
here’s Intra lattice [I haven’t tested if [all] the components works, but probably most do]. why not give it a try?

Akash

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Thanks @Akash !!!