Self Education, Blender 3D Print Toolbox, And Non-Manifold Geometry

Yes. Using the Free Open Source Blender, a 3D Modeling program
to create objects for 3D printing works with pure perfection.

And there is a “Check All” button that will warn you,
if you did something that will confuse the printer.

This button is like a conductor,
it will tell you to re-do an operation if you did it in a way that computers/printers dislike.

Tell me now, how can you make a mistake,
how can you get stuck in a design that is constantly monitored for problems.

You can’t,
you get instant feedback about problems in your models.

Five or six days ago,
I begun teaching myself raw vertex operations.

A vertex, is like a fly stuck in space time,
you get to move it wherever you want.

Two flies, or points give you the ability to create a line,
in a way that computers understand.

Three or better yet four points,
give you the ability to create a plane, like a zero thickness piece of paper.

Now you are just doing origami,
you are just wrapping something with paper, which is held up by flies.

I made a fancy wallet,
it had my second hinge design.

But it also had problems,
my flies were little crazy.

And the lines they were drawing,
kind of looked right, but no, they were not OK.

There is no printer in the world that can print something that just looks OK,
printers care about the guts of your model.

Your 3D models need to be converted to gcode by means of a slicer,
this is an old language used by all the old angry machines in a factory.

It is better that geometry is nice and neat,
hit that check all button after every operation.

A slicer is a program that is separate from Blender,
blender exports 3D models in stl format.

But a slicer will, convert the 3D model to the motions of the 3D printer head,
which is called a Hot End, in addition to that it also controls the speed of the extrusion of plastic, the temperature of the bed and hot end, and a hundred little tiny things.

Slicers can fix models,
but not reliably.

Make sure to install the 3D Print Addon under Preferences,
it is already shipped with Blender.

And let the Check All button teach you about the operations,
that you can reliably perform.

Just moments ago I tried to extrude a little latch for the fifth version of that wallet,
and I couldn't just extrude upwards without triggering errors after hitting that check all button.

Computers and languages,
have limits, not everything is always possible.

So what I did, was extrude a new area forward not upward,
and then I grabbed the top of the newly exposed surface and pulled it up, an it worked.

It is probably possible to wrestle the mesh for an hour and get it all working.
but it is just more reasonable to alter the design.

In case of precision parts that must match a particular shape,
getting stuck requires starting a new project and rebuilding the same shape, with a different strategy.

The check all button, is far superior to any teacher,
and it will make you a master of proper high quality Manifold Models.

And here we arrive at the closing part of this text,
and we must talk about the Cybertruck.

A lot of Industrial Product Designers are upset,
some complain about the lack of detail, others are scared.

But the Cybertruck is a good lesson in not fighting 3D models,
but just letting them be what they want to be.

The set of hinges I created last Friday are perfect,
they are so perfect...

That the first is too precise for cheap 3D printers,
and the second, is too flawlessly round to not trigger all kinds on Non-manifold geometry alerts.

My latest wallet design, embraces square geometry,
the way the Cybertruck did.

My third hinge assembly is based on inset nested squares,
I am not 100% certain the prototype will open.

But I am 100% sure, I can adjust the geometry of the top and bottom case,
to make it forgive each other.

I went with the flow of my tool chain,
and my PrusaSlicer announced the model is perfectly Manifold.

As with the Cybertruck,
if you have a good reason to break the rules of design, do it.

Because eventually you will find yourself wondering,
how to make your art more unique anyway.

Letting your tools have a say,
is wise, because this way you will be in harmony with your toolbox and won’t have to fight it.

Please, keep in mind how important learning modeling is,
High School and College will teach you little and put you in debt.

A cute little oddly terrifying 3D design that frankly, could use some googly eyes to shake things up,
can, on the other hand, bring in $410,000 dollars, by selling 12,820 times at $32 bucks per order.

Nobody will ever catch High Schools pimping students out for state funding,
but we can see the fraud by comparing the results of organized education with self education.

May your designs sell a ton, may your print beds be perfectly flat and level,
may you never run out of the print filament, and may you never run out; of adventure.