Gamma Pod (multi- and single-material versions) (Patreon)

I think I was channelling 70's sci-fi motifs when I put this one together.  Okay, so that's not the first time that such stylings have invaded my thoughts!  Those louvre-style panels and borders definitely say "space lounge" to me.  But what this thing really is is an excuse to play around with multimaterial printing! 

The process of designing and test printing things often reveals interesting ways in which things can go wrong, and this one is no exception.  As a single-material print there's nothing at all that would cause anyone a moment of concern.  All the angles are nice and printable - you could probably print those sides in vase mode!  But the multimaterial version simply did not print well at first, with loopy strings hanging down the sides.  What went wrong?

Well, the thing is that slicers for multimaterial systems will generally take the last colour printed on a layer and print it first on the next layer, which makes perfect sense since it means one fewer colour transition per layer and that saves both time and waste purging.  Imagine, though, that those strips on the side (yellow in the photos) are just exterior elements, and the panel underneath them is in that grey colour which forms the borders.  The problem with that is that when the yellow is printed first, and that layer happens to be the start of one of those stripes, they'll print unsupported off the edge of the model!  So, those elements were changed to extend somewhat into the panel underneath them, and that provides the anchoring needed to keep things nice and neat.

Print Description

As a single-material print the Gamma pod is straightforward - all the angles in both the lid and the main body are nice and friendly, and both are regular-mode prints that require no support or particular consideration.

The multimaterial versions include separate files for the different colours, and I'm going to assume that if you're embarking on that one you already know how to wrangle your particular multimaterial setup! :)

Print Dimensions

The large Gamma Pod occupies 161mm x 165mm on the print bed and is 134mm tall.

The small Gamma Pod occupies 81mm x 83mm on the bed and is 67mm tall.

Supports needed?

No supports required!  All the angles involved are nice and friendly.

Scalability

This one should scale reasonably well before the fit of the lid is overly affected, and at that point you can of course just start scaling the lid a little more or less than the main body so that it fits the way you'd like it to.

Print Orientation

Both the main body and the lid print right-way-up.

File location 

You'll find this one at at 658 Gamma Pod, which is then divided into four subfolders for the different sizes and material options.

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

I can't believe I got this far through the writeup without using the word "dodecahedron" :)

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.