Getting Started with Design for Additive Manufacturing

I’m teaching my son Russell the basics of DfAM – Design for Additive Manufacturing. One of the important concepts of DfAM relates to designing an object such that it will not need supports when you 3D print it. The first vase he designed was quite flamboyant. I knew it would need supports and some of the finer features wouldn’t print well on our Cube FDM 3D printer. But I let him print it so that he was able to see exactly how and where it failed and learn from it. I think teaching someone the theory of how to do something right is good. But sometimes letting them fail in practice can teach them a whole lot more.

This is his second design which looks quite nice but respects the rule that no face should be inclined less than 45 degrees from the XY plane. The Cube printed this design flawlessly without needing supports inside or outside the vase.