I somehow missed this project when it had its first wave of publicity but a followup video by another channel was recommended to me recently and I finally got wise to: Gridfinity
This is very similar to Alexandre Chappel’s grid-based bins but completely open source (vs pay to play).
Very cool! Recently saw similar vase mode structural rib hack used to make relatively rigid but light (i.e. fast to print) aircraft wings… Tom iterated towards this technique to make his 5th Gen VTOL.
Tom recently shared content showing how to make Vase mode wings using Fusion 360. Sharing here incase someone’s interested in using similar technique for their gridfinity remixes and/or other projects (e.g. enclosures).
Can you come up with a gridfinity base plate that is a single perimeter? It would mean all of the cells had at least one side with a gap, but if you glued it down to a substrateit should hold its shape just fine. Something like a Hilbert curve (but with short extra arms at each corner), or maybe a fractal X pattern…
Is there a simple way to print a “hybrid” vase mode bin where the first few mm (the part with the multiple pads to fit the grid) are printed as a single-perimeter print with 0% infill and the top of the bin is printed as a spiral vase?
I haven’t seen the hybrid mode. You can make the upper layers with single thickness, but not the spiral vase, AFAIK.
The hilbert style is interesting. To make a vase mode model, you have to make a completely solid object. I wonder how the slicer would handle transitioning from the hilbert style base to the single loop sides. There is probably a way to make that work. I will have to try that some time with a 2x2 vase or something.
Simplify 3D is a dead company. They have been promising an upgrade to V5.0 for something on the order of 2 years now. No one should waste their money on it. PrusaSlicer, SuperSlicer, CURA, IdeaMaker etc have all surpassed them now.
(I Have 2 licences (4 seats) of S3D. It was great and way ahead when I first got it and up through version 4. Now they’re only milking the existing product for whatever they can sell. My opinion only, but based on my experience with a once awesome product.)
Luckily I bought my license a LONG time ago when their software was still one of the best. I still use it, mostly because nothing I’m doing needs anything newer. It just ‘works’, and works well for the printer I have and the designs I print.
I am starting to use Prusa slicer a bit more. If S3D comes out with the elusive new version I would pay for it. That software was way ahead of its time and it still makes parts faster than PrusaSlicer with the same settings, best I can tell. From what I can see at this point is PrusaSlicer is making parts with the filament always laid down in the same direction, where S3D is going both ways which is faster, but I do see the difference in the surface finish. After a lot of tuning tests I am still able to get S3D seams to be a smidge better.
I think the only thing they do wrong is keep promising a new version is ABOUT to come out. They did make a poor choice saying it was a one time fee but I understand that was a bad decision.
I’m not even upset about the one time fee- I’d be happy to pay a reasonable price for a good product.
I’m upset that they’re dishonest about the release status and progress. Even saying “we got in trouble and we aren’t presently able to deliver v5.0, and we don’t know when we will” would be better than just month after month repeating the same disinformation that a major release is imminent.
I agree that part is odd, but maybe some lawyers got involved and things took a turn. Once lawyers are involved, it gets hard to say anything. On top of that I say I am about to release things all the time and then life gets in the way for a while (MP3DP is done but I have no time to officially release anything). Who knows really. I just don’t think it is a horrible offense Unless they take my money and then do not release something, I have no reason to get upset about it.
I don’t know any of the backstory, I just know their product is extremely high quality and it is still all these years later my go-to slicer. I am still willing to pay for a new version if it is an improvement on the current one.
I printed a couple of them and they are smaller than I thought. I have a little more than one drawer of my zenxy desk filled with the alex ch ones and they are much bigger.
The grdifinity ones seem better for things like M3 screws. But the alch ones are where I keep stuff like my spare usb cables.
Paid for, and printed some of Alch’s designs too. But am looking to use open source gridfinity going forward, increasing number of model options out there.
Especially when people like @jamiek are creating (and continuously improving) OpenSCAD parametric models where you can change the dimensions and configuration with just a few line edits.
Even though I wrote every line of OpenSCAD code, I don’t consider the design to be original to me. And I am even more proud of the online parametric generator, and it is outside of Printables entirely, so …
