MAT 238 Final Project

My original plan was to use topography from a height map to create a clay 3D-printed tile. However, I took too long to try to start printing and realized too late that it wasn't going to work. Now, my goal is to create a nice glazed object that I feel proud enough of to give as a gift to my mom. She is an interior decorator with very high standards.

I wanted to start with an STL of Santa Barbara. It was easy to generate the STL using a Java program I found online. I tried height scaling it in an effort to get it the print to be prominent enough. However, I spent too much time finding a working tool for generating heightmaps and selecting different areas of different sizes before trying to slice it. I took my time getting into the material world, and I wasn't proactive about getting into the clay printing queue, which was a mistake. When I did slice it, I thought it looked fine to print, but Jennifer pointed out that there were a lot of issues, and that with proper infill, it would probably weigh 10 pounds. I tried looking at it in Meshlab, but I'd never used a Mesh repair tool before and I don't even know Blender, so I decided to think of something else.

I originally anticipated having to write a slicer on my own to identify peaks -- I think if I had more time, that would have made slicing easier. If anything, I would have written Python that takes a PNG and slices it instead of slicing to an STL with this random program I found and then hoping it would slice properly in Cura. I'd found in the past that just grabbing STLs from 3D asset websites doesn't necessarily mean they will 3D print well, and that some STLs are made specifically for 3D printing.

Since I spent the first lab and part of the second lab working on getting the STL ready, I didn't have enough time to print. In the third lab, I made something quickly with CoilCam. I was happy with the overall shape but I think that I could have leaned more into the shapes sticking out or gone for a cleaner profile instead of something in between.

I wanted to try SketchPath with Devon's tablet, so I exported three different designs to use. However, there was an issue with the Super ClayPotter, and only the Micro was available to use. So I quickly designed something in CoilCam. I used a weird staircase setting which created these strange walkways on the interior. I saw something like that in the rendering in Rhino but figured it would be fine or maybe even look cool. I was wrong, it looked bad, and then the entire thing collapsed. It made it easier to throw the thing back into the clay aether. I was accustomed to the Super Potter, where I would often have to babystep the z-axis down, but I realized with the Micro Potter that I needed to babystep up because it was smashing it down too far. However, I babystepped up twice, one time too many, and it ended up looking sloppy.

I played it safe with my next print, sticking close to the example design of a mug from Sam's github repository. I dithered back and forth with the sliders, only to end up with something almost exactly like Sam's example but slightly worse because of the

I would like to make a few more artifacts because I've been learning by trial and error. I hope that the designs made in Devon's SketchPath will be more fun to print and more satisfying because of the fact that they are hand drawn. I will also try something else with Sam's CoilCAM because of the great bases they provide in one last effort to make a vessel that can actually be used for food. Ideally, I would like to glaze my favorite one. I will also try a smaller nozzle size to try and go for a more "dainty" and smooth look rather than the rope-y look of the 5mm nozzle.