Mini Facade Crates - complex colour schemes from simple filament swaps!

Hey there, wonderful people!

I really like designs that invite filament switching mid-print for interesting colour effects, but generally speaking those tend to just result in a layered look.  That's not a bad thing, but sometimes you want something more complicated.  Generally, this results in designing assemblies, but I wondered if there could be a middle ground.

The concept here was pretty simple - could we have connected parts that print on one plane, and then move to a perpendicular plane in a more-or-less permanent way?  Clearly, the answer is yes! :D 

As you've probably seen in the photos there, this box has outer decorative panels that print horizontally and swing up vertically to become the outer part of the walls (hence 'facade crates').  This has two significant advantages:

1) The hinged outer panels complete printing before the inner walls really even start.  This means the two parts can be completely different colours.  

2) The outer panels print flat, meaning there's scope for plenty of interesting design features, as long as it's all connected.  There's no concern about overhangs!  In fact, I've included two different designs as well as a blank one that has no holes in it at all, just in case you want to customise it :)

The tolerances involved are fairly generous, particularly in the hinges, but those side panels need to snap fairly tightly into the box walls, and the tolerance there obviously has to accommodate that.  There are tiny protrusions at either side of those inner walls that create all the friction.  If you're finding that it won't snap in, try moving the panel in and out, to the extent that it will fit, a few times to wear things down (it's only plastic, after all).

Oh, and there should be a reasonable amount of friction to hold the lid closed, too!

Let's talk printing tips!

Printing Tips!

No support required, of course, and the whole thing prints flat and unfolded.  Being an articulated model, it's to some degree sensitive to things like elephant footing, so make sure your first layer settings are dialled in.

So, where's a good point in the print to swap the filament colours?  Well, obviously there's no actual necessity to swap it at all, and I quite like it in solid white, but that's less fun.  The obvious points to swap the filament are:

a) After the side panels are complete, which is how I've done those test prints in the photos.  That's about 2mm up or so.

b) After only one or two bottom layers, so that the very outer has a different colour to the insides of the side panels, and perhaps different again to the inside walls of the box.

Clearly, though, this is a model made for experimenting, and I'm excited to see what people come up with!

Scaling

You could probably scale this thing up, but the walls would end up rather bulky!  Maybe that's okay, but I do intend to make a larger box of some kind that uses this same approach :)

File Locations

You'll find the files on Dropbox as usual, in the Mini Facade Crates folder.

Unrelated Happenings

Just some other stuff while we're here....

Firstly, I've posted new versions of each of the flasks (except the potion flask, for now) that are named "high detail".  These are the same models as before but with more detailed curve modelling in the STLs.  It probably won't make any difference at all at regular scale, but is intended to improve results when scaling up the models for larger prints, especially on very precise machines.  

Secondly, at the suggestion of one of our discord users I've posted an alternative version of the Chained Hatch Container that has one fewer link in the chain.  However, be warned that I haven't test printed it, and that you might be at the mercy of printer performance and slicer settings in terms of whether the lid still has enough movement to close vertically.  But it's there if you want it :D

Thirdly and lastly I'm gradually putting together a website for all the models, which should be vastly simpler to navigate than Dropbox, and it'll make it much easier to see what models are available.  Patreon conveniently provides login integration, too.  More information to come as I gradually get things done (usually while waiting for test prints to complete!)

Until then, have fun and stay safe <3

Sven.