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Make It Stand
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Make it stand Video
3D prints are often placed on a heavy flat stand to keep them upright and balanced; this is an issue when trying to create poseable models that imply dynamism or movement.
Researchers at the Interactive Geometry Lab are combatting the need for heavy bases or gluing with an intelligent software programme that helps designers hurdle gravitational issues.
Their software, as you can see in the video, allows the designer to modify the balance of their models in order to make it free stand. The software works by optimising the centre of mass so that the model does not tip, it carves out holes inside of the model in order to displace the weight properly.
"Using our approach, the user interactively edits a shape and cooperates with our optimizer towards the final result. The optimizer constantly improves the design to ensure that, after printing, it will stand on its intended basis with the chosen orientation.
"The input to our algorithm is a surface mesh representing a solid object, a number of desired contact points and the desired orientation (i.e., gravity direction). We exploit two main degrees of freedom when modifying the model: our algorithm carves and deforms the object to improve its equilibrium. We seek to minimize deviations from the intended shape, and therefore the algorithm searches for a compromise between removing matter from the interior and de- forming the surface. We explore two modes of balancing: (i) standing on a flat surface, and (ii) orientation of suspended objects. In both cases the user specifies as input the base of support or the attachment points. Our method enables to simultaneously optimize for several desired modes, e.g. several standing orientations."
A nice piece of kit that we hadn’t really though about before, we look forward to using the software.
