In this workshop, we’ll help participants get acquainted with tools and techniques for 3D modeling objects and spaces, editing their models, and hopefully have some viable models to use for 3D printing. We’ll have at least one 3D printer to play around with—a Makerbot Replicator 2—and a few different colors of filament to print with. We might have more than one printer, which’ll mean more printing! Participants should bring a laptop if possible, a digital camera of some kind (a camera on a smartphone should be fine, but bring a fancy DSLR if you want), cords or other paraphernalia for transferring pictures from a camera to a computer, and any objects they might want to use to create a model. I’ll try to bring a couple of cameras in case some folks need to borrow something. If the model we create in class isn’t viable for printing by the end of the workshop, participants can find a model somewhere like Thingiverse, and we can download and print that model. Heck, even if you do have a viable model to print and still want to print something off Thingiverse, we can try to find time. At the end of the workshop, we’d like everyone to be comfortable making their own 3D models, and have printed something on the 3D printer to take home.

This’ll be a pretty open workshop in terms of structure. We’ll go through basic camera usage, and strategies for taking pictures for 3D modeling. We’ll cover a couple of different software options for creating and modifying your models. We’ll also go over basics of 3D printing, and discuss the features and process of the 3D printer, maintenance and debugging strategies, and print some stuff. I’d love to leave time for discussion and reflection, and hope that through the process of learning how to do the modeling and printing, we can have some good conversations about how folks could use 3D modeling and printing in their scholarly work.