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mosselini1

@mosselini1

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3d model hobbyist, parametric designs are the way to go. While my models are not necessarily perfect, I hope that some people might find value in them. I am also on printables under the same name.

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Mesh Models - Mosselini1

165 models

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HSW Inserts - Mosselini1

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Swappable Stamp Collection

10 models

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Recent Models

Beehive Voronoi

Polygon Support Garden Spike (parametric)

Dodo Voronoi

Recent Article

All about Voronoi & similar models Table of Contents:PreambleTheoryWhat is a 3d-modelDifferent kind of meshesSpecial Meshes in 3d printingCreationGeneral ideaMy processSide techniquesRemarksPrintingCommon pitfallsSupports removalRelation to AIThe FuturePostamblePreambleA common question topic users ask me about is voronoi and mesh-models in general. This is related to the fact I already made more than 150 of such type of models (see this collection). In the past I often have answered users in various places and to various extends but now I make this article here as reference for the future. I will describe my understanding of the topic and my personal process over the 2 years I already did this. Voronoi models are trickier than others to print and manage and this will also aim to help those who need it. I will assume you aren't a total beginner in this article and that you have a basic understanding of 3d printing and that ideally you already read my first article (A look into my 3d printing setup) to have an idea of the tools and programs that can be useful to you.TheoryWhat is a 3d-modelFrom a more technical point of view any model is simply a mesh: a group of dots(/nodes/vertices), connected by lines(/edges) which make faces. We speak about a solid when the mesh is fully closed by faces, if there is a hole somewhere in the mesh it is only considered a surface. While the mesh can only form straight faces, some tools interpret the location of the faces and give them a non-flat aspect. You can consider the mesh to be the structure/shell of the solid.Different kind of meshesSimilar solids can have different meshes.A typical example can be seen when reducing a model (lower the amount of polygons inside of it):(Rose Decor by @29flo_2608524 "29flo") We can see that while the overall shape doesn't change much, the number of faces from which the leaf is made has greatly been reduced, making working with the model much easier. Note that since your printer has a limit on how small details it can print, this will probably come out exactly the same, even if you see the faces more once decimated.Of course there are also different mesh styles that can be actively chose like uniform meshes, very dense meshes, minimal meshes, ... but these depend on the given situation and the wanted result.(Red Apple by RPSebb)While not directly visible, sculpting has also usually a big impact on the mesh. Sculpting uses really dense meshes to be able to show/make lots of details, which can be visible afterwards by looking at the dense areas.(Cute Pufferfish by @Ryan_1788814 "Hi") You might think it's a bad thing to have this in your published model but it doesn't really matter for 3d printing. It also has the advantage of indicating that it was (most likely) hand-sculpted which in a world of Ai generated slop is always nice.This variation in density also appears naturally in models as some parts require more detail to be represented and have thus denser meshes. As mentioned above you can always remesh the model to obtain an uniform distribution or you can play on it to obtain more interesting mesh models. For example:Bee by @SparkyFace5_298989 "SparkyFace5"By keeping the density imbalance I was able to keep this ring effect after the head in my voronoi remix (left). Otherwise I would have obtained a more blended/uniform result (right).To generally represent the mesh in a computer it requires triangles (polygons in 3d). This means that in reality, even if your mesh looks like it uses (for example) squares, they are at some point transformed into triangles. An easy example of this is to take the blender default cube, save it as STL and open it in another program, like meshmixer. The square faces were stored as triangles and thus that's what meshmixer reads when trying to open the file. This also means that changing programs can alter your final result without you doing anything.Special Meshes in 3d printingSome mesh variations are the source of common 3d printing methods you see going by:Low Poly: Means literally "Low Polygon". This is a mesh that has been really simplified to only keep a minimal amount of polygons while still being able to depict the idea of the model. These models are typically simple looking with lots of straight faces as that's what happens when you reduce the number of polygons allowed. Simple but not ugly, the creator aims at stopping at a the right amount that balances the low poly look while being nice looking. (Low poly dinosaur by @Olaf "Olaf") Sometimes models only simulate the looks of low poly, without being low polygon. In that case it's best to speak about simili/imitating/fake low poly to avoid confusion and to limit misuse. Wireframe: This is a technique that aims at showcasing the mesh itself. The original model's information gets removed and a new model get's made around the mesh it had. This is really a meta-structure as since a new model had to be made, a new mesh had to be made as well (a meta mesh being a mesh of a mesh). Voronoi: A variant of wireframe is voronoi, generally it looks more organic but it can exist in a wide range of looks. From a creation standpoint it's really not that different as voronoi is simply wireframe but on a variation (it's dual) of the mesh instead of the mesh itself. A typical example of voronoi is: (Cat Stretch Voronoi Remix by @Peter "Peter") The variation is called the dual of the mesh. The principle is that each point becomes a face and each face becomes a dot in the dual model. All the faces that were adjacent initially are connected with an edge in the dual graph. (Image from: Tang, Qian & Ren, Yu. (2020). Preliminary Discussion on the Refinement Mesh Generation for Adaptive Analysis. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics. 08. 1560-1567. 10.4236/jamp.2020.88121.) On the images, the wireframe mesh is in blue while to voronoi mesh is in black. To illustrate the relation of wireframe and voronoi I had made this model in the past showing it in 2d. I also added an image of the similar idea on a 3d egg:CreationGeneral ideaApplying the wireframe/voronoi/... transformation is quite trivial, the key to making interesting models is the pre-processing of the mesh beforehand:Base model: To start the process you need to find a wished model. It might not be designed for 3d printing, so you will maybe need to solidify, fix, decimate, ... the model first to make it suitable for remixing. Sizing: Think about the final size of your print already at this point, make sure to properly scale your model at this point to have a better oversight of the parameters later on. Reducing & editing: Once at the right size, you can start thinking about transforming the model into a mesh-model. Begin by reducing/decimating the model a lot.If your goal is wireframe stop at a low poly model. Note that the result will come out better than what the tool tries to render for the solid as the program might misinterpret the connections, some keep flat faces while it should be more rounded for example.If you seek voronoi however, don't hesitate to go beyond what is nice-looking when you decimate/reduce, the voronoi transformation will improve the look of the model at low polygons as it changes the mesh. Ideally reduce as much as possible while keeping a good look for any style you plan to make. Note that there are different ways of decimating/reducing models that you can use. Manually editing the mesh can also be nice to avoid bad-looking results or issues. You can also remesh portions of the mesh in the same idea. Applying the pattern: Apply now the wireframe or voronoi pattern to you model. If your mesh was too dense the wireframe and voronoi patterns will be too dense as well. Remember that the mesh edges have no diameter at the start but once the pattern applied it will have one, which will have an impact on the holes. There is a direct correlation with the size as well, for the same wire diameter the holes will be bigger if the model itself is bigger.My processFinding a model: I start by looking in common 3d printing sites (printables,makerworld,...) for a suitable base model, I help myself also with search tools like yeggi that regroup the findings in most of the older sites as well. I will give priority to models with less restrictive licences as I prefer this kind of mentality, personally. If I am not really satisfied, I look into 3d modelling sites like sketchfab,... . These models will require more work but at the same time can offer a truely new model to the 3d printing community which is always nice. Finally if I really don't find my idea, I will try to make it myself with eventually the help of AI as I am not yet proficient in sculpting myself. Make the model 3d printable: I mostly use blender and meshmixer to fix issues with the model but fusion360, the slicer and other tools can also be used sometimes as well. The main changes are solidifying, sculpting, remeshing, fixing holes, reorienting parts of the model, flattening the base, separate the model in multiple parts, ... . Resizing: I consider that a good size for a decoration piece is around 10 cm in each dimension, I try to hover around these sizes for my mesh models. With a wire size of 2-3mm this gives usually suitable holes. Reducing From this point I recommend keeping some backup file as this is really an experimental process, you might have to come back to decimate more or less after having tried your pattern later. This can be as simple as going into meshmixer and reducing your model by 99%. Sometimes 99% isn't enough so you can do reduce a second time to refine it more. A more complex strategy is to reduce the model till right before you see a visible change in the geometry itself, not the mesh. Then you can for example continue to refine this in blender as while meshmixer's reducing is better at preserving the shape, blender's tool does a better job a removing the smallest parts. In practice you play around with the mesh till you have something that works for the next step. Going back and forth between these 2 steps (with eventually some edits in between) will allow you to find the best compromise. Applying the pattern I have used 2 ways in the past to make those kinds of models:Meshmixer has the advantage of having a built-in pattern maker that blends the edges nicely together. It has become my main way of applying the pattern Blender (with geometry nodes) has the advantage that you can make wireframes on non-triangular meshes as well as having the wire being non-tube shaped. Obtaining the dual mesh for voronoi is simply a geometry node to add in blender while in meshmixer is a parameter to toggle. In meshmixer the whole process is done in a straightforward way, just select the tool, tweak the parameters and apply the pattern. In blender you need to make a custom geonode system similar to this: I use a thickness/diameter of 2mm for the mesh wire size by default as it's strong enough for printing while keeping the holes as large as possible. In case I want more strength I use a wire size of 3mm.Side techniquesVoronoi works on planes, you don't need a fully closed model. This is great to realise as it can help you removing unnecessary voronoi structure where you don't want it.Extrude the bottom of your model by 1mm (for 2mm wire size) and make a hole at the end and you will obtain a nice hole in your final result surrounded by a thick rim, ideal for allowing supports to easily get removed.By using only a plane you avoid voronoi being doubled up on thin wallsYou can combine your voronoi model with the model before you applied the pattern (eventually resized a bit) on it to obtain models that I called voronoi skin. These allow you to combine the look of voronoi but remove a lot of overhangs to make it much easier to print.Contact surface with the printbed is already tricky in voronoi models, do yourself a favour and cut the bottom of the mesh flat. However, doing this after you applied the voronoi pattern will weaken the mesh. I recommend extruding before and accepting a thicker bottom mesh than a thinner one.RemarksThe creation of mesh models seem to cause more negative comments/reviews than others due to being more difficult to print and to clean-up. Be aware of this, be sure you can handle this before publishing such models. Personally it doesn't affect me and I even make this article to simplify the resolution of these issues. In the same idea, be aware that some users also like to turn your models into trash-bins for printer waste. It surprised me at first but no negative intent seem to come from this. I don't mind either but fear sensitive creators might be affected by seeing their art considered as a trash medium.PrintingCommon pitfallsPrinting mesh models (wireframe,voronoi,...) is trickier than your average model, the wirelike structures don't suit themselves to strength constraints for example, but it can certainly be made easier by avoiding these common issues:Don't scale mesh models down! While the creator isn't expected to handle all scales of his model, most models can be printed smaller than what the creator made available. Indeed, the current scale could, for example, simply have been chosen to ease printing. When small parts are involved however, this might also realistically be the smallest viable scale instead. This is the case for mesh-like models like wireframe or voronoi. The wire size is critical in those models, if it's too small they will simply break off either during printing or when removing supports. Simply scaling down the model will also scale down this wire diameter which will probably make it unprintable, a better way is look/ask for a smaller version directly. Supports are needed, don't neglect them! Ideally supports wouldn't be needed and in some cases it's true but usually supports are required for the print or at least really recommended for a good print quality. Support will also often go inside of the voronoi model and thus be annoying to remove but it's a necessary evil to be able to print these kinds of models. The most frequent fails arise because user have simply turned of or reduced the supports suggested by the creator. While you usually can get away with small reductions as creators need/want to be extra safe, this is usually a bad idea in mesh models. Note that multi material printers can already simplify this process by using different filament types for the supports like PLA with PETG or directly water soluble supports like PVA. Tiny wires make bad print bed adhesion. In voronoi there is usually not a lot for the print bed to grab onto. A brim is usually necessary, ignoring this can lead the print to get dislodged mid-print. Not all filaments are made equal. Certain filaments like silk PLA, matte PLA, ... exist for aesthetic reasons but have lost strength comparing to regular PLA for example. Of course weaker filaments are a worse choice for models with small parts that already are fragile in regular circumstances. A mesh model is like a regular model on steroids: common issues are amplified. Of course like all models the printing result can suffer from bad quality/too wet filament, over-due maintenance, an unclean printbed, bad print environment,... . These issues are even amplified in mesh models as the wires are thin and the lea-way is small.Supports removalAs mentioned previously, supports are not to neglect but they can nevertheless be annoying to remove. Supports difficulties are the main source of questions related to voronoi models for me. This is my usual method to remove them:Before starting: Please note that the supports were exaggerated for this demonstration. I have drawn lines in black on my model to show future cuts, they are of course not a part of the real process. You will generally only need a flush-cutter and a small screwdriver to remove supports Thin tweezers and bigger cutters can be useful as well in some occasions. The main idea is to avoid using force when possible as the mesh can be fragile, especially with weaker filaments like silk or matte PLA. The model is printed and removed from the print plate Cut the tree supports as high up as possible, don't pull yetcut the brims and separate the bottoms of the treesContinue the idea by cutting into the trunks of the trees to separate further. Once a trunk is cut, you can pull away the loose parts. Start with the one's on the sides and continue with the more in the center afterwards (repeat if needed).repeat until all external supports are removed At this point you should only have internal supports left. The main idea is to break them loose then to shake the model so that the loose parts poke out of the model so that you can cut them off bit by bit. To get rid of them you can start by pushing at their lowest point in the hopes to break their top loose through leverage (ignore the flush cutters)you can also push directly onto their tops and try to beak them loose from the mesh. Sliding in between the mesh and the supports will break them apart further. trying to break the trees sideways though leverage can also be a good method but try to then rest onto your other hand to avoid putting force on the mesh itself. (doesn't rest on hand on this image [for the picture] but recommended & ignore the flush cutters) Once some tree parts are loose and poking out, cut them, ideally separating branches to make them thinner.Of course you can use your screwdriver to persuade the trees to come out at the same time Do this till all supports are loose inside. Once everything is loose you can focus on simply reducing the size of the parts (through the poking out technique) in other to get them out Once done you should have a totally empty model and a pile of supports in small piecesIt's possible, it just takes a bit more patience than users expect. Practice with sparser models first or some with big holes in the bases to help remove the loose supports, once accustomed you can try dense voronoi which is just a trickier and longer variant (however denser might be stronger so maybe don't choose a really sparse model to begin with either).Relation to AIArtificial Intelligence (AI) is today a commonly misused word and idea. Most commonly it gets associated with danger, theft, evil technology, ... by common people while in fact it's independent from that. Basically Ai is just math and logic, but I won't go in too much detail here as it could deserve its own article if I need to explain this to you. Labelling general Ai content in 3d printing is absurd as in practice I would say that 90% of it fits inside this category is some way, even before that Ai became a common buzzword. In short Ai is, at least, everything that concerns SEARCH, OPTIMISATION and TRAINING. Lots of things that are considered today Ai were called differently in the past, the Ai buzzword has however encouraged people to rebrand their technology to jump on the bandwagon. This means that lots of common techniques used in 3d printing could now be called Ai:decimating/reducing a model is an Ai technique as it searches some elements to remove (possibly in an optimal way)remeshing is literary trying to make a new optimal mesh following certain criteriasculpting is also using Ai as every time you add/remove material your program has to smartly connect everything back togethertriangulation is Ai, so every face you make that isn't a triangle (even those in fact as well ...) uses Ai to be easily understandable by your computer...Beyond techniques to make 3d models, there are lots of use cases for Ai around 3d printing. Slicing a model for example is also just Ai as it just tries to search for the best path to lay your filament in order to build your model in real life. Of course since voronoi models use a lot of decimation, remeshing, sculpting, ... you could argue it's made with Ai. While this would be true in theory, this makes no sense to label it as such since like I said, so does 90% of all the models. 3d model sites have clearly leaned into a more populist approach, distancing themselves from reality to please unqualified and emotive people, however that doesn't mean it's valid. Today there seem to be a will to mix everything together: Ai, generative Ai, made by Ai, made with the help of Ai, ... seem all interchangeable in the mind of those who talk about Ai without knowing anything at all but of course they are all different.The FutureI think that it isn't far-fetched to consider that in the future a program will exist to make voronoi (& similar) models fully parametric in an user friendly way. Not necessarily with generative Ai either, but already simply with a tool that would just need to chain all the transformations required to go from a basic model to a mesh one. Would Blender have a decimate geonode or voronoi modifier, this would already be achievable (although not user-friendly), for example (parametric wireframe is already somewhat possible with blender). A program that would visibly display the model as its mesh with a certain diameter size applied to the edges and that would allow access to a decimate slider and a wire size slider (that applies the changes directly) would be on par with some MakerLab tools that are available (like the flexi tool for flexible models), I think. It could even combine wireframe and voronoi creation together in one tool with a toggle button to see the regular or dual mesh for example. Changing the wire shape and mesh type/topology could also be perhaps possible but maybe more advanced to handle. Of course, doing it manually will probably always be better to have more control, but it would certainly make it much more intuitive and easier for casual users to transform their models.PostambleThanks for reading through this article, I hope it was useful to you. It's a vast subject, there is lots more to explore so don't hesitate to play around with the idea and see what you can make!

A look into my 3d printing setup Table of Contents:PreambleMy printer and its upgradesPrinterAdd-onFilamentSourceUseStorage3d printing toolsPrinter relatedModel creationPrint cleaning & assemblyOrganisationOtherProcess overview:From box to storagePrinting methodologyPrograms and other toolsImage and vector editingCADMesh manipulationGenerating special models3d scanningProgrammingPostamblePreambleI am a 3d printing hobbyist that shares his created models for free on Printables and Makerworld. People seem to appreciate these models and, while absolutely not planned, started to follow me more and more since the 2 years I am doing this. At this point, I have a bit more than 750 followers on both platforms combined and my hobby is self-sufficient. This allows me to really not worry about it anymore and purely follow the passion. I am open to model suggestions and help users when I can but it can be a bit slow since I don't necessarily have a lot of time. Several times now, users asked me about my setup, so I make this article here as reference for the future as I don't have any social media. I don't claim it is the best setup, it's just the one I use, that developed over time and that seems to work fine since 2 years. I wish I could publish this article privately in my account, needing users to enter my account to discover it, to avoid annoying seasoned 3d printers but it doesn't seem to be possible (yet), sorry for the inconvenience. Being fluent in CAD I tend to fill my 3d model needs myself and while I refer to some of my models in this article, it's neither for my ego nor for clicks so feel free to check out alternatives. All the links pointing to my own models will lead to Makerworld as this article is posted there but would you prefer you can always find the equivalent model on Printables (the title might be slightly different). Here is the equivalent article on Printables if you are interested in that.My printer and its upgradesPrinterI have bought a bambu Lab P1S after watching videos and discussing with a 3d printing veteran who considered he lost years trying to make his previous printers work while this one worked flawlessly from the start. I am happy with it, since two years I only had 1 real issue when the AP board failed resulting in a clog (got replaced for free). I also only made about 6 spaghetti messes resulting in less than 200g wasted filament in total, the X1C wasn't an option in my mind and this confirms it quite well. The first update I made was to add the Bambu Lab PTFE Guide on top of the print head to avoid any friction with the top of the printer. Afterwards I looked at stopping the ptfe tube to slowly sneaking inside the printer by designing a PTFE tube stopper that goes on the ptfe tube just as it leaves the printer and prevents it from moving.For most of the 2 years I used a simple box behind my printer and a wall to catch all the purge material. When I changed my setup temporarily and lost the wall option I made this Purge Bucket for it. When going back, I kept it as the wide variant allows me to really forget about it for a long time.Add-onAfter 9 months I bought an AMS unit for it, I never really use it for real multi color printing (as it's quite wasteful) but it's certainly a nice quality of life update. I don't bother however with trying to keep it dry with desiccants. To keep the option of using a regular spool holder instead of only limiting myself to the AMS, I installed the AMS No-Catch Y-Splitter PC4-M10. It's handy for using cardboard spools and feeding TPU filament for example. To close off the unused ptfe tube when I use the AMS I use this PTFE tube cap with grabber model, now with a grabber instead of a ring for hanging it securely on the tube when not in use.To avoid needing to waste some ptfe tube I made a small PTFE tubes bridge. Depending where the bridge is located, the AMS might be too violent for it and I had to switch some of them to real bambu lab connectors. To ease the use of the AMS I also wanted to upgrade the funnels where the filament go into so that they would be easier to push and more resistant to wear. Sadly, existing models where not compatible with this new version of the ams so I made my own version of them: New feeders for Updated AMS.FilamentSourceI am not limiting myself to only one provider, I simply try and find filament at a good price with a good quality. Over time I used several brands:Bambu Lab (bulk filament)Prusa (special color blends)eSUN (bulk filament)Overture (clear PETG and TPU)Winkle (ASA and Marble PLA [great for lithophanes!])...I don't buy filament from Prusa or Bambu Lab with money anymore, only from the points we can obtain by using their sites. Average filament price is about 20€ for 1kg, it can be significantly less if you buy Bambu Lab filament by 6 (or more during special sales in July/August and December). eSUN filament can also be found cheaper on amazon at around 16€, lower if there is a sale. You can even buy their basic pla at around 12€ but it tends to be weaker than most PLA so I prefer their PLA+.UseThe first time I use a new filament I make a color swatch from it to keep it in mind for the future. Plenty exist but I use my custom design grouped by 20 on a custom holder that I made as well.To keep the spool together I use this nice small filament clip which doesn't impede the AMS and holds quite well. I print them in more heat-resistant filaments than PLA so that they can stay on while drying without issue. I also print them in 3 colors: for PLA+TPU, PETG and ASA to easily distinguish the materials.StorageBefore storing the filament, I dry the filament with my SUNLU FilaDryer S2(Image from the sunlu store) Here is a table with the default values (handy to have as the interface is quite sensitive and prone to changing values) for it and some that I changed over timeFilament TypeDefault ValueChanged ValuePLA50°C55°CPETG50°C60°CTPU55°C/ABS55°C/PA65°C/PC65°C/ASA uses the ABS temperatures as these are similar. For the rare cases when I need PVA I change a setting temporarily to 50°C I dry my filaments till they are in the 25° humidity range, 30-35° if they are in a cardboard spool. This little dryer works really well for it small price. After drying, I let them cool off a bit then I vacuum seal the filament roll in a 30x34mm vacuum bag with a small motorized pump.A motorized pump is essential in my opinion as it quickly becomes too much trouble to do it by hand and you tend to not anymore which voids the point. I use the valve-style bags as they are cheaper than the screw-on ones. To add more flexibility in which pump you can buy for them I remade the suction insert of the pump I bought. To help with this step, I put in each bag a small vacuum bag air disc scaled at 75% width, 75% length and 100% height I also remade the seal clip for them to have replacements in case I lost them. However, now that I bought several packs of vacuum bags, I have accumulated lots of spares so it's less important.3d printing toolsPrinter relatedHexscraper (Bed scraper) A common mistake I see is that people tend to destroy their printbeds with metal scrapers, there is really no need for them in my opinion. I use the original HexScraper personally, I tried the remixes with removable blades but they never were strong enough and broke easily. The original tend to last a long time however, especially as I reform their edge with sandpaper once a while. Isopropanol, soap and microfiber cleaning cloths The best way to clean up your print plate is with dish soap, a sponge and warm water. However you don't always need a deep clean so I keep a small spray bottle of isopropanol (99%) near my printer to quickly clean the plate (nearly after each print). I buy it in bulk to reduce the cost, it's really useful to have around anyway and especially if you are also into soldering and electronics in general. To clean the plate, I spray a bit of isopropanol on it and wipe it with microfiber cleaning cloth. Painters tape To improve the seal on my enclosure I use painters tape when the print is difficult and sensitive to temperature changes. This is for me the case with large ASA prints. The tape helps to keeps the heat from escaping from the seams and leave no marks behind. I also use it to hold the start of filament to the spool when I rewind filament spools. Hex-key set A hex-key set comes handy with 3d printers as they tend to be build using screws with these heads patterns. Having a set that stays together is handier than to keep the loose and cheap ones the machine comes with. Greases and oils For the maintenance of my printer I use grease and oil from SuperLube. I put the oil in a needle nose bottle to be more precise than the regular spout. Rod Cleaner To clean my printer's rods during maintenance I printed and use the Rod Sloth tool P1S or AMS specific tools To disconnect the AMS I use AMS Disconnect ToolModel creationCaliper Probably the most important tool to have for model creation is a caliper (ideally digital with 2-digit precision) as it will allow you to measure what you need precisely. I recommend spending a bit more to have a better quality one as it will be of constant use. I use this Preciva caliper, it's robust and precise enough but the zero-ing button is sensitive and at a bit of an annoying place Print cleaning & assemblyFlush cutters Useful to cut and pry off supports from models I use simple off-brand ones and made a small cap for them as well. They don't need to be the best quality as even these off-brand versions work very well. Keeping bigger wire cutters around can also be useful to allow you to cut bigger tree support branches. Deburring tool To remove brims of models it's useful to have a deburring tool, one blade will be enough for life I think as these were made for metal pipes and no signs of wear can be seen on my used ones yet. While the 3d printed version can serve as a backup deburring tool, I much prefer the one I bought (off-brand), it's heavier and allows the head to swivel easier which greatly improve its usage. To use it put your finger in the small bend near the body with the blade facing you, place it on the edge of a model and slowly pull towards your thumb. Try to be as smooth as possible in between movements to make a long continuous movement. Exacto knife Useful to open filament boxes and packaging, to clean up connectors, ... an exacto is a handy blade to have around. Contrary to the deburring tool, the blades damage over time and need replacement but get a lot of them. Would you wonder, these are much safer than medical scalpels (but still require caution) and are a nice fit for 3d printing. The cheap off-brand holder that I bought for the exacto blades works, like the deburring tool, better than the one I printed afterwards, over time the plastic weakens and allows the blade to wobble which isn't great. Various screwdrivers Flat ones are useful for support removal, especially to slide between supports and your model to break them apart. They are also great to break small tree supports inside voronoi (and alike) models. Other heads are useful for assembling of models with various hardware. Various tweezers Useful to get into tight space. Both straight and curved can be useful, they come usually in a set. I also use an old set where I broke them in halves to serve as poking tools. Glue and glue spreader Glue can be handy to have around for repairing and locking things in place. I never needed gluestick on my printbed however. I found that Bison universal glue works well to glue plastic parts but there are lots of similar glue brands available. For bigger areas I use a small spreader that I made. Clamps You don't need as many as in woodworking but having a few can be useful for some projects. 2 F-style and duck clamps are already enough for example For smaller use cases I also made some Small Repair Clamps Brass Wire Brush I keep a brass wire brush near my printer to brush the nozzle clean of build-ups without damaging it. It can also be useful to brush some loose residue off your models. Heat gun To reduce blemishes and to bend plastic a bit, a heat gun can be handy but it shouldn't be a priority to buy one.OrganisationHoneycomb storage wall (with add-ons) The Honeycomb storage wall (HSW) is a nice system to hang your tools and other things on the wall to get them out of your way and away from your work area. Having a dedicated place for each tool helps with organisation as you are more likely to put it in place, greatly helping you find it next time. Lots of users have made inserts for it, there are too many to list here as I used lots but it's a great system I made plenty of compatible models for it myself as well over time (see this collection) Pastamatic (with add-ons) Pastamatic is a great tool for the transfer of filament spools, I use it to move cardboard spools to plastic ones an vice versa I printed some add-ons for it as well to improve its functionality:Leadscrew Pin RetainerRetention ClipsNotched Pins and C-ClipsTPU Wiper + Extra Clearance Wiper MountsScrewing it to a plank made a big difference as, before this, the base wasn't necessarily flat which brought movement problems for the balancer.In the past I used plastic rings around the cardboard spools to make them compatible with the AMS but after some time they loose grip as the cardboard moves, so I stopped. Sometimes, inner plastic rings can still be useful to help cardboard spools spin more easily on a regular spool holder, this is typically needed for TPU as otherwise the printer can struggle to pull the flexible filament in with the added friction. For Filament related tools see “The Filament Section”OtherOther common tools for DIY like a drill, sand paper, hammers, work lights, ...Process overview:From box to storageBuy filamentOpen box and plastic with exacto bladePut on spool if refill, change spool if cardboard or leave as-isCut filament end off (about 2cm) and put clip onDry filament... Printing ...Dry filamentPut in vacuum bag with disc and remove the airStore on shelfPrinting methodologyMy printer came with a textured PEI plate and I never need to change it as it prints all basic filaments (PLA, PVA, PETG, TPU, ASA, ...) that I need.I never touch my printplate with my hands, except the very edges occasionally. Flexing the plate can be helpful but otherwise always use a plastic scraper to avoid leaving oily residues from your hands on the plate.To clean my print plate I use dish soap, a sponge and warm water when it needs a deep clean (every 10 prints maybe and after a ASA print) but otherwise I just wipe the surface with a bit of isopropanol.I never need to use gluestick, every print can be removed with a plastic scraper or by flexing slightly the plate. TPU can stick a bit better but a bit of isopropanol near the edges of the print helps to get beneath it.My printer is fully enclosed, I never open or close the door of my printer during a print, removing the top lid for PLA, PVA and TPU is enough.To print large models in ASA I seal the edges of the door of my printer with painters tape top help print adhesion.Due to it being quite wasteful on my printer I rarely print real multicolor objects. I instead make the model multi-part or use filament swaps.Programs and other toolsImage and vector editingAffinity2 In the past I used photoshop but was always annoyed by their scummy practices and subscription-based payment methods. When I found out about affinity 2 that is 1 payment only to have it forever and had good values, I got curious. I tried it and in practice I would say it's even better that what photoshop has to offer and, for the same price of what I paid for only a month, I got the equivalent of photoshop + illustrator (which I didn't have in my photoshop subscription) forever, so I highly recommend it. It's even worse to think that I had photoshop for quite some years to the point were the new price was double of what I was paying per month so it's even more worth it for your probably. When I left photoshop, their final offer to get me to stay was even worse than what I was paying ... so good riddance. I use affinity photo 2 for editing all the images related to my makes and publications and I use affinity designer 2 to mostly edit svg before using them in a CAD program (simplifies future work a lot). Using Ai is fully optional compared to photoshop as well. Inkscape It's a free tool but is really useful to transform regular images into vector format (SVGs), it can also simplify these vectors easily to reduce their complexity (the same principle as decimating/reducing a 3d mesh)CADFusion360 Fusion is my main way of making functional models. It has a free version for non-commercial use which I use as I share my models for free. In practice the only thing I miss from the paid version is an improved stl import but while not as nice this can be managed in the free version. OpenSCAD It requires to understand programming but is a powerful tool to make easy models in a parametric way. The programming aspect can simplify tasks with automation.Mesh manipulationMeshmixer It's a great tool to manipulate objects in a more organic way. I used it to repair, merge and sculpt models. This also a great tool to start making voronoi-like models as there is a build-in pattern maker. The difficulty of voronoi is not the pattern is how you prepare the model for it, in which meshmixer can also help. Blender (also used for image covers) It's really useful for model management: grouping, splitting, cutting is really easy in it. You can also easily play with the mesh faces, edges and points with it. Don't try it to use as a CAD tool however, it's not for making connectors or parts that rely on each other. A key concept in 3d model creation is decimation/reduction (reducing the number of polygons of a model), which blender handles really well. I also use blender for it's render capabilities which allows me to make nice images of my models for some cover images.Generating special modelsLithophane maker Lithophane maker allows you to basically make 3d pictures. The principle behind is that the darker the pixel, the ticker the plastic will be at this point so that when you put this model in front of the light it will block more of it and appear darker. With the online tool these are easy to make and are unique objects to give as gifts. MakerLab MakerLab is a bambu lab tool library that constantly grows and that simplifies the creation of models for less technical users. One of them is a nice Ai imageTo3D generator that allows you to obtain approximate models, there is no point in publishing it directly but you can refine the result for your needs. As my sculpting is self-taught and quite basic for the moment it can help me obtain a rough shape to train on as well.3d scanningI received the 3dmakerpro Moose 3d scanner as a gift, maybe a bit too soon in my 3d printing hobby as it's a bit underused but I already was able to make models with it that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to do. It works really well and I am really happy with the results. As these were mostly private repairs, I didn't post models from it yet but I might in the future if a non-copyrighted opportunity presents itself.To improve the scanning comfort, I use these 3d printed add-ons:Vertical MountLens CoverI found that using Gouache, a water-based paint works well to add texture to an object to help with scanning (for when it has troubles like for dark shiny objects). You don't fully paint the object, you just brush some on randomly to help the scanner locate itself. Once the scanning is done you can then simply rinse the object with water.ProgrammingI know several programming languages (Python, Java, C family, Javascript, ... ), so I create when needed my own small programs. When they relate to a published model, I share them freely on this github repo but they aren't necessarily advanced nor properly made.PostambleThanks for reading through this article, I hope some things were useful to you. I plan to update this along the way my setup develops, so maybe check it out again at a later date (after some months) if you want but with this you already have a good idea. I might also do similar articles later, depending on my time and on repeated questions/topics.