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We've completed our yearlong print-a-day project!
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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Day 135 - Six Handles

Today's model is a sculpture made with the excellent and innovative mesh-wrangling software TopMod. Since my way-back math roots are in topology, TopMod is like coming home; everything about it speaks my language. Having said that, I'm just a TopMod beginner so my first sculpture is very simple: just six handles arranged around a cubical center and smoothed out with Doo-Sabin.



Settings: Makes a gift-quality print on MakerWare .15mm/high with raft and supports in about 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Technical notes: This model was made in TopMod which you can download for free here. Basic ReadMe and list of operations is here. To make the model I started with a cube and added handles connecting three adjacent pairs of faces. Then I applied the Doo-Sabin mesh subdivision, added three smaller, twisty handles anchored to the new mesh, and applied Doo-Sabin a couple more times. 

To get started with TopMod I suggest watching the following YouTube videos:
UPDATE: You can now order a print of this model from Shapeways at the new Geekhaus store!

MORE UPDATE: kitwallace has found a way to make this same shape by parametrizing with trigonometric functions.