Mastering 3D Printing

PART 2

The 3D Printing Process

The five chapters in this part get into the nuts and bolts of using a 3D printer. When you create a piece on a 3D printer, you walk through a few basic steps:

• Deciding what you want to make and then scanning in, downloading, or creating a 3D computer model (Chapter 4).
• Selecting the material(s) you will use (introduced in Chapter 5 and detailed in Chapter 7).
• Slicing the model into printable layers (Chapter 5).
• Creating commands for the printer to execute and loading those commands onto the printer (Chapter 6).

The process can seem a little overwhelming at first, and many are working on making the process easier. ...