1. DesignSpark Mechanical
Applications in 3D printing
Boston 3D Printer Users Group
7/24/2014

2. Branden Gunn engunneer.com engunneer@gmail.com Printers:
Cupcake (Octopi and RAMPS-ish)
OpenBeam (my design, RUMBA)
North Boston Makers (Meetup.com)
I’m an engineer and hacker. I also run a meetup group called North Boston Makers

3. What is DesignSpark Mechanical?
Free (sponsored by RS)
CAD (Direct Modeling, not parametric)
Proper Dimensioning/Resolution
Create Manifold STLs
SpaceClaim (lite)
Powerful engine
Spin-off company from Solidworks

4. Direct Modeling Select Pull Move Fill
Extrude, Cut, Sweep, Rotate, Fillet, Chamfer
Move
Translate, Rotate, Create Pattern
Fill
Remove, Simplify, Repair

5. Pull The Pull command in action. Shown here:
- Extrude surface into a solid
- fillet an edge
- pull an edge into a surface
- chamfer multiple edges
- Sweep a surface along a curved path
- Change size of a hole

6. Move Move command in action - Moving a hole
- rotating a hole (even into other faces)
- moving only one end of a hole (making an elliptical hole)
- Creating a pattern in a sketch
- Creating a pattern in a solid

7. Simple Part Examples Simple parts that I have 3D printed
For scale, most of the holes shown are around 3mm diameter

8. Complexity Capable
More complicated parts

9. Augmenting STLs
Filling in the corners of an STL from thingiverse to improve prints (Adhesion issue caused by filleted edge)

10. Assemblies
Assembly comprised of Thingiverse STLs and designspark models. components and subcomponents can be in the same file or in multiple files.

11. Other Uses - Measure STLs
Imported STL from thingiverse - DesignSpark was able to reconstruct the arcs in the geometry (STLs don’t have arcs), and dimensions were added to fully understand the geometry and transfer ideas and dimensions to other designs.

12. Other Uses - Edit Sketchup Files
NOT MANIFOLD!
A phone case from thingiverse designed in sketchup.
Sketchup has a habit of making bad STL files with non-manifold geometry or flipped faces. Designspark can import the geometry as surfaces or solids, and the edited geometry can be exported as an stl within designspark for a more reliable export.
This file has many errors and needs a bit more work to be printable, but basic editing is shown

13. Sketchup Import (Manifold)
A nice manifold part from sketchup. Again, the lack of arcs and circles is noticeable, but these are editable solids that can be modified and reconstructed as needed to make the desired object. This is the source file for a modified part shown in an earlier slide.