Plasticity for 3D Printing | Design and Print a Simple Phone Stand

In this video we are going to take a look at the workflow using Plasticity for 3d Printing. This is a simple example but we will explore units, basic design tools, and export for 3d printing.

[@EMunch-pv7lq]

Thank you for putting this series together!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Glad you like them!

[@EG-1969]

Really appreciate this series. Thank you.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

My pleasure!

[@asd-fw7yb]

Gutes Tutorial....👌👍

[@jeromeweaver809]

Thank you!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

You're welcome!

[@dadasut50]

Nice setup. great video as usual

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Thanks for watching

[@pussytoucher]

Amazing! Great work, thank you so much!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Glad you liked it!

[@user-jm3ft7kk8c]

Thank you！

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Welcome! Be sure to keep an eye out for new content. We are making a beginner solid modeling series now that should start to show up soon(hopefully this week )

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

Thanks!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

No problem!

[@jayd8935]

I think my biggest problem is that all extrudes and changes are relative dimensions. (+10mm for example) I've never been able to find a way to click 2 sides of a shape and say "OK, make these side have an absolute Y dimension of 150mm".

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

yeah once its made its made. There are some ways to get it. For example if you are extruding off a face and want the total thing to be 150mm. once you start the extrude hit "V" for pivot point, and set that at the base of your part(or origin), then make your distance 150mm. Its a bit of a workaround but is possible.

[@gangger89]

I think that's the problem with plasticity, the program gives you a lot of freedom but constrainings are missing. Maybe in future releases, some lines or faces can be dimensioned as fix...

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@gangger89 Yup, Nick knows so I would expect a future release to have something in place! Maybe v2.0

[@JustTryGambling]

Measurements are a thing now

[@rasikrodriguez3962]

Yep, this problem does not exist any more in plasticity

[@Brocknoviatch]

As of v1.1 it appears that you can’t export out of plasticity using metric units and have the model be the correct size when you bring it into PrusaSlicer. Haven’t tried any others. I will have to try working in inches and see if that works, thanks for the tip!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yeah the current beta fixes the STL export scaling issue. All other formats seem to export ok but STL no matter the unit is 100x too big right now. The creality slicer which is based on the cura slicer auto-scales it and i forgot to mention that. If you export in any unit, say 5mm cylinder, the output in STL will be .05mm. same for CM, M, or Inch. 5in will export as .05in. Hopefully that helps until the next public release.

[@jeromeweaver809]

Question? Is there a way to import STEP Files to modify them?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yup. when you import a step file its treated just like a body that was made in Plasticity. You can push/pull to offset faces, round corners, delete/patch stuff etc.

[@marekzamlynski8058]

nice, but how to export for dual extruders? It means, how to force Plasticity to export a model with it's hierarchy to be able to select in the slicer which component of the model need to be printed by which extruder?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I don't run a dual extruder but that seems like that is more of a slicer setting rather than an export setting. Generally you would set up a specific extruder per body in your slicer. What slicer are you using and what printer?

[@davejacobson5400]

If I wanted to 3D print this, is there a way to get the measurements (units) in Plasticity to export correctly? At the moment a 1 meter square cube in Plasticity will print real world size 1mm.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yeah the export was an issue present. My slicer auto scales it but here is what I had found. The current beta fixes the STL export scaling issue. All other formats seem to export ok but STL no matter the unit is 100x too big right now. So this largely depends on the installed version of Plasticity. The creality slicer which is based on the cura slicer auto-scales it and i forgot to mention that. If you export in any unit, say 5mm cylinder, the output in STL will be .05mm. same for CM, M, or Inch. 5in will export as .05in. Hopefully that helps until the next public release.

[@chadisleiman4195]

How do you fix the scaling issue? Designed in inches in plasticity and opened in Prusa, everything was completely off and impossible to fix ...

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

When i use creality print or Orca i need to export with mm units. What you can do is before you export set the plasticity units to mm, export, then switch it back. Not a great solution and it kind of depends on what slicer you are using. If you open a file in Prusa, or any other you can scale it 2540% uniformly and get the scale right.

[@3lbsObacon]

Is it possible to import a logo or name etc. and imprint it onto an object in Plasticity?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Not at this time. You can bring an image in but its considered an Empty. And in version 1.2.1 I don't see an SVG import for curve path but i know that has been talked about and requested.

[@thedolenorway]

Just downloaded the trial and try to design a simple bracket, but I don't get that box to type in dimensions at all, which stops me dead before I get started.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

yeah several things have changed in the last few versions of Plasticity, the most recent being 1.4. is that what you downloaded? If you start creating a line or rectangle in 1.4 all you need to do is hit the TAB key. That should toggle you over to the dimensions. Also new in 1.4, if you draw a 2 point rectangle, you can hit the = symbol on the keyboard and it will bring the dimensions back up.

[@thedolenorway]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thank you! I discovered the tab thing. Still haven't figured out how the = key shortcut translates to my Norwegian keyboard layout though. 😂

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@thedolenorway yeahhhhh, i am no help there :) In plasticity the F key is find and you can start typing Dimension and see what hotkey is linked to it.

[@baconsledge]

why did your slicer have to rescale the part to 100,000 times? I notice if I make a 10" cube in Plasticity, it exports as a .25mm cube. What is going on? I changed units to inches in Plasticity.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

There was a bug in version 1.1 with the STL output. That should be fixed in version 1.2. I think i pinned the comment to the top about how it was scaling everything. are you on version 1.2?

[@baconsledge]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yes, just bought it. A lot to learn so I am content for now. Thanks for your video!

[@silenceDKgmail]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I tried 1.2.13 today as of september 1. still cant export to STL , what a bummer :(

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@silenceDKgmail Is that a product of the license you have? I just downloaded 1.2.14 and its still there for me on the Studio license.

[@silenceDKgmail]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Just downloaded the 1.2.14 and the problem is still there. I wanted to try it out before buying, but if I cant 3d print my object that kinda makes no sense to me. Have to look for some other software then. Looks nice though and powerfull. Hope they fix this issue.

[@jamesgillis8122]

way too fast

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Sorry to hear that James. I have some other quick start videos that are meant as a starting point.

[@alexanderreiner]

You can set the video speed to a slower playtime