Pleasant Polyhedra!

Howdy, wonderful people!

It's been a while since I delved into pure polyhedra, but it's something I just can't stay away from!  No assemblies here, though - these are one-piece prints celebrating some of the coolest geometric solids around.  Tetrahedron.  Dodecahedron.  Rhombicosidodecahedron!  Okay, I can't deny I just love the names and working out how on earth to pronounce them.  And the shapes!  I love those, too.

There are many, many polyhedra out there, but I've selected a subset  here based on... bridging!  That's right, that strut-oriented style I've used invariably means that some lines will cross empty air.  Now, that's not a big deal as long as the struts are either steeply angled or completely horizontal.  The problems arise when there's a shallow-angled strut that leaves half-completed bridges dangling in mid-air.

There were some other polyhedra in this set along the way, but it soon became evident that some angles were just a bad idea.  Sorry, deltoidal icosahedron, you just didn't make the cut!

The other thing worth mentioning is that for the sake of supporting the upper facets (and, for pure stylishness) there's a central column through all the forms (except the tetrahedron).  

You'll also notice a wide variety of sizes in the polyhedra.  This is actually to manage the length of the longest bridge in the form!  I've tried to keep those to a maximum of about 12mm.

Printing Tips

The polyhedra each print with the central column vertical, placing the largest face down on the bed.

These models might test your bridging, but they aren't too brutal.  If in doubt, scale it down, and that will reduce the bridging distance accordingly.

Print Dimensions

The Truncated Icosidodecahedron is the largest model, and is roughly 75mm x 75mm x 70mm.  

However, all the models can be scaled down, and if you have faith in your printer's bridging abilities, scaled up, too!

File Locations

You'll find this one on dropbox under 709 Pleasant Polyhedra

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

You know, since it's December it's worth pointing out that these would make the best Christmas ornaments ever!  Imagine how cool your tree would be with some nice rhombicuboctahedra adorning it! :D

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.