![\"Base](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sabulo.com\/sb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/WP_20150924_10_49_40_Pro.jpg\")
<\/a>The arc was easiest to design with a full circle. The radius\u00a0was 30cm, and I set the vertex count at 72. This way it’d be easy to craft three parts\u00a0per 90 degrees of the arc. The full circle is then copied three times and scaled back one centimeter, visually, because accuracy isn’t the key factor here.<\/p>\n Of this I selected ten vertices of all four circles, then pressed Ctrl+I to invert the selection. The vertices now selected can be discarded, to leave you with the 1\/12th arcs:<\/p>\n Now it’s possible to use the Bridge option in LoopTools and add faces between the relevant arcs. Also, at this point, I will add edge loops at the ends and in the middle part, to come up with this layout.<\/p>\n This can then be extruded up 3mm as a whole, and then with just some faces selected, be extruded 5mm more for the ends, and 10mm for the middle connector:<\/p>\n And as always, at this point I realized it’d be much easier to join the arcs together if there were a trench in the ends for a screw, but I had not designed one. This is again a case for edge loops. All you do is insert one (Ctrl+R), then push the mouse wheel for as many loops as you need, and hit Enter. Using the mouse for confirmation is not the best idea, as you can then easily move the loops off kilter. Then just take out the faces you don’t need, and build the missing faces into the trenches by selecting two suitable edges and hitting F:<\/p>\n When you have taken out the faces you don’t need, you need to remember to rebuild all holes so that the piece remains manifold, ie. it doesn’t have any edges not connected to other edges. If you do pure 3D, it doesn’t matter that much, but when you intend to print, it is paramount. The netFabb service\u00a0<\/a>will of course fix all such holes, but you have better control over the final fixed product if you don’t send out stuff with gaping holes. Here we are fixing the middle part:<\/p>\n If you were now just to select the two long vertical edges and hit F, you would get a face all right, but it’d violate the manifold requirement:<\/p>\n The orphan vertex would cause this piece to be non-manifold, and without netFabb, the 3D printing software RepetierHost would not start the work. Therefore, to do this properly, you first add a face at the bottom of the trough. add an edge loop, and then add the faces between top and bottom:<\/p>\n And this way, you get the final piece, which\u00a0can be printed in just 45 minutes. When you get four parts in three hours, it’s easy to calculate the whole arc, and the almost-identical pieces of the vertical arcs, will take you 12 hours to print. Yowza!<\/p>\n The only difference in the vertical parts is that there are two parts without end connectors. These are the ones that are inserted into the fitting that is printed to fit on the middle part of the connectors, and also meet at the top of the arc. This is the fitting for the vertical arcs:<\/p>\n The next part of the blog will take you through the turntable part of the project. Here’s a teaser image from Part 2\/3:<\/p>\n It’ll be some time before I get to that part, but after that, it’s all done for the 3D printing parts. Then we can discuss the camera arrangements and other such niceties.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>