How to Use Blender for 3D Printing

Blender is a completely free and open source 3D computer graphics software interface used for creating 3D models, animation, visual effects, rigging, and so much more!

After learning some modeling techniques and printing basics, young creators can model and print plastic replicas straight from their imaginations. For example:

• Create a custom mug to give to friends
• Create personalized chibi characters
• Turn a personal logo into a keychain
• Make a unique clock or pocketwatch

The Blender Interface

Scene Setup: The Scene Setup is where one changes from Object Mode to Edit Mode, providing  different tools and functions to add to the scene. 

Basic Tools: In Object Mode, there are some basic tools to interact with an object. Starting from the top, those are:

• Select Box
• Cursor
• Move
• Rotate
• Scale
• Transform

Viewport: The viewport is the main window or view that one can use to look around objects in a 3D scene. In a 3D Canvas there are three axes: the X, Y, and Z that are indicated by colors in the top right corner of your viewport.

• The X axis is the red line.
• The Y axis is the green line.
• The Z axis is the blue line.

Activity Break: Navigation

Scene Collection: This contains every object within a scene. Blender automatically provides a blank scene with a cube, light, and a camera. As more shapes and objects are added to a scene, it's a good idea keep this organized and named appropriately. 

Properties Editor: This shows and allows editing of all active data including the active scene and objects within the scene. 

Now, with some knowledge of the Blender interface, clicking around and playing with certain tools helps the learning process. For instance, left-clicking and dragging the colored handles show how easy it is to transform a shape. 

Read More: How to Learn 3D Printing

Here is a breakdown of how to use basic tools in Object Mode to move, scale, and rotate primitives. 

Move, Scale, and Rotate

Blender always opens with a cube in the center of a scene. Sometimes it's necessary to adjust the angle of size of primitives. This can be done by using the basic tools to change primitive shapes into the intended vision!

• Move: to drag or move a primitive to a new location of the scene.
• Scale: to make an object bigger or smaller.
• Rotate: to spin an object around in a new position.

Move

Scale

The Scale tool makes increasing or decreasing the entire size of the primitive possible. This tool could be used to make a cube into a rectangle. 

1. With the cube selected, click the Scale tool on the left side of the viewport. Alternatively, hold Shift Spacebar, S to select the Scale tool. 

2. Click and drag the blue cube up or down to scale along the Z Axis.

3. Click and drag the the flat squares in-between the cubes to scale in 2 axes at once.

4. Click and drag on the white circle to scale in all 3 axes at once. 

Rotate

The Rotate tool spins an object on its Object Origin.

Object Origin determines where the object is located in 3D space and is found in the center of the model.

The origin is represented by a small orange dot, as seen in the screenshot to the right.

You'll notice upon rotating, the box spins around this origin point.

It's common to work with a flat object and build it flat from the Y-axis to make sure nothing is morphed.

1. Now that  the cube is rotated, fix the face to sit flat on the Y-axis by using the Properties Editor.

2. With the cube selected, go to the Properties Editor and look for the Rotation X, Y, and Z sections.

3. Type in 0 in all 3 tabs as shown below. 

Polygon Primitives

Blender opens an empty project up with a cube in the scene, but what if one wants to design a glove or something more complex? Add primitives to a scene based on the intended design.

Primitives are pre-defined geometric meshes within Blender. These could be cubes, spheres, cylinders, and so on—simple shapes the can be used as starting points for more complex objects.

Add a Primitive

Now it's time to add a new shape to the scene! Experiment with all the shapes Blender has to offer. 

Viewport Shading

There are four main display modes that change the appearance of 3D objects on the screen. These can help to see if there are overlapping primitives or strange sections in a model. 

In the top-right corner of the viewport, 4 circles for Viewport Shading can be seen.

Starting from the left, here's what each one looks like:

Polygonal Shapes

We have learned how to model with polygon primitives, but to create more unique objects, the parts that make up each model need to be edited.

Polygon Primitives (i.e., Mesh) are made up of three parts:

• Faces: A flat plane of the shape created using edges
• Edges: The lines connecting two faces
• Vertices: Single point where edges meet together

Edit Mode

So far we have been working in Object mode. Now we can use the tools in Edit Mode to move, scale, and rotate specific parts of  primitives. 

In Edit Mode, there are lot more tools to work with on the left side of the viewport. Selected primitives turn completely orange in color instead of outlined in orange.

Edit Tools

Here we can:

• Use the Loop Cut Tool and edit the tool's settings. 
• Learn the basics of the Extrude Tool. 
• Understand how to use the Extruding Settings. 
• Learn how to use the Inset Face tool with the Extrude tool.

Loop Cut Tool

The Loop Cut tool will create a new edge (along with faces and vertices) that loops entirely or partially around the mesh.

With more components to work with, one is able to create all kinds of details and intricate designs.

Extrude Tool

The Extrude tool allows new geometry to be created from an existing mesh. Every face can be extruded on a shape and moved, scaled, or rotated to create a new shape.

With the above as a start, kids and teens can create and print 3D objects with Blender, the industry standard for creating in 3D digital space. From here, by pairing the print software, Flashprint-MP, with a 3D printer, they can take any idea, model it in 3D, and print it into existence!

Stay tuned for more tutorials on how to do just that! Or, get started now by registering kids and teens in one of our many 3D printing summer camps.