We been working on a 3D-printing plugin for Grasshopper for quite a while, and it is now in open beta:
TOOLPATHS
The main goal is to give more control over FDM-style 3D printing, down to individual extrusions.
TOOLPATHS uses a custom Toolpath-object that combines geometry and print settings. The geometry still behaves like normal Grasshopper geometry, so you can move, transform, scale or array it with standard components without losing its print settings.
Settings can be defined globally, inherited between toolpaths, or overridden locally. So you can set a default speed or flow once and only change it where necessary.
Other concepts like modulators and mask allow further fine grain control. You can vary properties such as speed, flow, temperature or geometry along a Toolpath, down to individual segments or vertices. The simulator models deposited material rather than displaying the path as a simple pipe. This means it reacts to the geometry that has already been printed. For example, with the same extrusion volume, a smaller layer height produces a wider extrusion. The same system can automatically adjust flow when printing non-planar paths with varying layer heights. There are components for planar and non-planar slicing, vase mode, walls, infill and G-code output for different printers.
TOOLPATHS originally started as an internal tool for our studio and is still what we use for our own professional 3D-printing projects. At some point it became large and useful enough that we wanted to make it available to others as well.
Since we are an independent studio and the development is not funded by a university or research project, we are currently testing Toolpaths as a commercial plugin rather than releasing it for free. Quite a few months of work have gone into it already, and the idea is that licensing could fund further development.
For now, the beta is also a way for us to see whether there is enough interest to keep developing it. If there is, we are currently thinking about an affordable license for individual users and small studios, with a separate license for larger companies. None of this is completely fixed yet.
The open beta runs until the end of the year. Give it a try – feedback, ideas and feature requests are welcome. Bugs can be reported via Github issues or directly to toolpaths@juengerkuehn.com
Docs: Github
License Key: juengerkuehn.com/toolpaths-trial/
Food4Rhino: TOOLPATHS | Food4Rhino
Install: Tutorial
our other work: JÜNGERKÜHN
Some plugin highlights: