Preface

You know that 3D printing is hot. You wouldn't have bought this book if you didn't. What I hope you will get from this book is an introduction to building a model in Blender so it will make a good object in a 3D printer.

This is fairly simple. Mostly, you need to know what information the 3D printer needs to make an object, what considerations you need to make when designing your object, and which techniques you can use to achieve your goals.

I have tried to avoid being printer-specific. 3D printing is in the phase where new printers are appearing every day. At some point, there will be a shakeout where the best printer makers prevail, but it's too early to guess which companies those will be. But among all kinds of printers, there are basic rules that will work with any printer, and you will learn how to tailor your objects for particular printers.

While I have worked to ensure that you could do each step demonstrated, I assume that you have a general knowledge of operating Blender, such as one would get from my book Blender 3D Basics, also available on the Packt website.

Let's get started!