Weak Across Layers: How Much, and What Moves It
Printed parts are weaker across layers. Folklore says by half; tests say a tenth to nine tenths. What a bond is, what moves it, and a coupon to measure it.
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How Far Can a 3D Printer Bridge?
Vendor guides say 5 mm, torture tests say 100. What a bridging strand is doing, why slower is not safer, and the coupon that measures your machine's limit.
How Much Clearance Does a Printed Thread Need?
A printed thread comes out tight, and how tight depends on which way up it was printed. Why pitch limits printability, and the coupon that settles it.
Designing a Cam and Follower That Prints
A cam turns rotation into motion you draw. Motion laws, the 30° pressure-angle limit, and a grooved cam and follower that prints without supports.
Designing a Geneva Drive That Prints
A crank that never stops, a wheel that moves in locked steps: the geometry behind a Geneva drive, its 2.4× speed peak, and a model that prints without supports.
Clearances for 3D-Printed Parts That Have to Move
Clearance belongs to the printer, not the design. Why printed holes come out tight, how to read diametral against radial, and the test coupon that settles it.
The 45° Overhang Rule, and When It Is Wrong
The 45 degree rule measures how much of each layer the one below supports. The geometry behind it, why layer height moves the limit, and how to design past it.
How Thick Should 3D-Printed Walls Be?
Wall thickness is set by the nozzle, not by a rule of thumb. Why two perimeters is the real minimum, where strength comes from, and what to calibrate.
Threads and Snap Fits That Print
Thread node, calibrated clearance, helix phase proven by interference check, printable pitch rules, and a mating snap-fit pair with strain and force readouts.
Shell, Hollowing, and Wall Thickness for Printing
Hollow a part two ways in Rig Cad: a 2D inward offset plus floor, or the Shell post-processing step opened with a cutter. Then size the wall for FDM and resin.
Pattern 3D: Lattices, Infill, and Surface Textures
The Pattern 3D node and its 150+ families, bounding a lattice with an Intersection, scale and precision trade-offs, and the Infill and Surface Pattern steps.
Repeats and Arrays: Linear, Radial, and Parametric
Linear, Radial, Parametric and Path Repeat: tile profiles in 2D and extrude once, derive pitch from the host, vary copies with instance.i, avoid Mirror traps.
Sketches to Solids: Extrude, Revolve, and Offset
Draw an outline three ways, compose it with 2D booleans and repeats, then extrude, revolve or offset it once. Constant walls, Y-up revolves, sketch constraints.
Fillets and Chamfers Without a Fillet Tool
Five ways to round or bevel an edge in Rig Cad: primitive corner radius, extrude edge profiles, SDF blends, Minkowski sums and Surface Offset, measured.
Export for the Slicer: STL, 3MF, and Mesh Weight
Which export format a slicer wants, where a Rig Cad mesh's triangles come from, measured counts for precision and segments, and how to lighten a model first.
Personalized Prints That Sell
Name tags, photo lamps, photo figurines, desk plates: the four personalized 3D-print families that sell, and what each one has to hold in the model.
Rig Cad for Tinkercad Users
If you know group and hole in Tinkercad, you already know the operations. Here is where they live in Rig Cad.
Geometry Nodes, Displacement, and the Implicit Tree
If you already think in Geometry Nodes, the Objects tree is the graph. Mesh Boolean is a hard CSG node. The purple diamond turns that same node into a field.
Rig Cad for Fusion 360 Users
If you already use a timeline, Combine, and user parameters, you already know this editor. Here is where those habits live.
Rig Cad for OpenSCAD Users
If you already write union, difference, and modules, you already know this editor. The tree is the program.
Versioned Production: Presets, Reorders, and Change Control
Record project revisions, production profiles, generated files, and inspection results so customized 3D-printed orders remain reproducible.
Fits, Clearances, and Tolerances for Customized 3D Prints
Turn measured printer behavior into dependable sliding, push, press, and cavity fits across customized 3D-printed product families.
Beyond Sliders: Safe Parameter Spaces for Printable Products
Sliders define choices; reliable products need relationships between them. Derive dimensions, constrain combinations, handle failures, and test the family.
Text as Geometry: Building Reliable Personalized Products
From font glyphs and measured bounds to printable strokes, attachment rules, and production tests: reliable personalized goods treat text as geometry.