Page 80 - Enchiridion 4.0 program_EN

Strategic Partnerships for school education 2019-1-PL01-KA201-065137
Project: Teacher4.0 - comprehensive method of implementation of Industry 4.0
concept into didactic practice in primary and secondary schools

Most of the presented technologies are not possible to use in school settings due to their complexity
and too high costs with special requirements. The technology that is currently suitable for use in
school is FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printing, currently the most popular 3D printing method
in the world. This technology is suitable for understanding 3D printing and entering the stage of
presenting a computer model and then a real solid.

Methodology of work during 3D printing

Regardless of which printing technology you choose to use, some things are constant.

We include here:

• Necessity to use a computer,

• finding or creating a 3D model,

• having software to convert the model into a readable format for a given printer,

• having a 3D printer and raw materials on the basis of which we will make our model.

The 3D process itself can be divided into 6 stages:

1. Finding or making a 3D model
In order to make a design in the form of a 3D model, it is necessary to use specialized spatial
modeling software. For this purpose, we can use professional software such as SolidWorks, Autodesk
Inventor, open-source FreeCad, or even a free browser-based application, such as TINKERCAD
(https://www.tinkercad.com/)

An overview of the various tools (including free tools) can be found on Shapeways -
http://www.shapeways.com/creator/tools?li=nav. The only program criterion that must meet is the
ability to save the model in * .STL format.

In addition to the aforementioned software and automatic model execution, we have two more
options. One of them is the use of wizards to change 2D models to 3D. The second option is to use
the pages where we can find libraries of models intended for 3D printing. On many of these sites, like
Thingiverse, people share their projects. There are also quite substantial databases with free models
ready for printing.

2. Translating the three-dimensional model into a model understandable for the printer (most often
it is a file with the extension * .STL)

STL format - is a writing standard supported by most 3D design applications. In this format, the
model is saved in the form of triangles in three-dimensional space. Models in STL format are solids
whose surfaces are made of triangles. Its simplest form is a quadrilateral, which always consists of
four triangles, each of them being an entire wall at the same time. Thanks to this, the file size does

This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.