Wiredodeca

After seeing Laura Taalman’s inspiring 3d print, it occurred to me that one could also render the edge-to-edge cubical array of dodecahedra contemplated in this earlier post in an analogous way. Plus, I just received a new Prusa SL1 printer, and needed something to try it out on.

After just a bit more tinkering in OpenSCAD, and 400 minutes of print time using the resulting STL file, I ended up with this model:

If you recall, the negative space of the dodecahedron array was just a bit too monotonous to seem worth printing. However, I think that simplicity works very much to advantage in this wire-frame style of rendering. This model has enough complexity to afford visual richness, but is open and orderly enough not to be overwhelming.

In addition, it produces an excellent variety of shadows (or parallel projections, in more math-y lingo):

(The rhombuses in the top left photo correspond to the rhombic prism channels in the antidodec that we previously modeled.) Here’s another shot so you can see the setup for capturing the shadows. This is really best done in direct, bright sunlight — it’s tough to get such crisp, parallel rays of light otherwise.

I can’t resist one more take on this lovely model and its shadows.

If you print one of these or a variation on it, I’d love to see/hear about it.