I am a Chicago native and have lived in and around Chicago my whole life. One of the things that Chicago is most known for is it's architecture and art around the city, most notably Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean” in Millennium Park.

I've visited Cloud Gate a countless number of times and always take any friends or family from out of town to Millennium Park to see “The Bean”. It really is an amazing sculpture to see in person and really fun to walk around and under it, and see the reflections of the city skyline. It is one of Chicago's many landmarks to see when visiting the city.

I created my own scaled down version of “The Bean” which was a bit difficult because the whole sculpture has some very complex curvature. I tried to simplify it but still make it accurate and close enough to the original design. I come from a product design background, so I usually don't work on a lot of ornate objects/sculptures. But Cloud Gate is something that has some meaning to me and I had fun working on this model.

The model that I posted is about 2.5" tall, 5" long, and 3.2" wide, which is about the size of a standard computer mouse. I posted a STEP file so feel free to scale it up or down to your liking.

I think this model would look great when sanded and finished with a silver spray paint. Although, you can also play around with different colors and filaments and make something completely unique.

***UPDATE***

My first attempt at printing the bean without supports or rafts was unsuccessful. The underside of the bean was really stringy and the part eventually came off the bed at about the 75% completion point.

I tried again, this time using supports and a raft and was able to print the bean without any issues. I used tree supports (auto) and took the print off as soon as it was done, and I was able to pull off all of the supports in one piece all at once. Also, I did scale my part down 75% for a smaller part. I used a 0.2mm layer height, but I think playing around with the settings and using a smaller layer height might get a smoother, better looking part.