| After creating a two dimensional Geometric Horse (see previous work), the next logical step was to create a three dimensional one. Starting from the original, I created a set of technical drawings to describe the horse in three dimensions. This involved some changes to the design, including the addition of surfaces to the front of the body (to create the required volume for the attachment of the front legs) and an additional surface on the inside of the tail (to create an area of contact between the tail and the body). The technical drawings were made to scale on squared paper so that the coordinates of each line could be calculated on the X, Y, Z axes. Using FreeCAD and the Draft workbench, I entered the coordinates of each line to create a wireframe model. From each set of closed lines, I was then able to use the Surface workbench to add the surfaces. Once all the surfaces had been created, I used the Parts workbench to create a solid object. The final step in FreeCAD was to split the object along the YZ plane into two halves to facilitate the printing.
The two halves were exported from FreeCAD as .STL files and imported into Cura, where I added the supports and generated the .GCODE files for the printer. The prints were made with a Creality Ender 3 Max 3D printer and SUNLU PLA+ Blue 1.75mm filament, then glued together. |
