3D Printing Fractals with the Form 1+

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Centre College freshman Molly Holder plans to major in Mathematics and is set on a pre-med course as she embarks on her upper education in her Danville, Kentucky school. Holder designed a unique mathematical piece in her "Chaos and Fractals" class, after learning how fractals have many applications both in and outside the realm of mathematics. In the pursuit of learning about fractals, Holder's class, taught by Dr. James Kelly, spent the second half of each class in a computer lab learning to code and plot fractals and other figures. This plotting led to work in Matlab and the creation of an .stl file, which was printed on a Formlabs Form 1+ 3D printer, with about a 2-hour total print time. Check out more details on the math and experience in the full article: http://3dprint.com/38266/3d-printed-fractals/


Below is a look at the 3D printed fractal:

[rastetter]

I found this STL on a random free STL site; figured it'd be a perfect way to push the limits of our fancy Laser Engraver. After finding the model, I found the article/backstory that linked to this forum.
I might size it up a little bit. This took approx. 15 hours to engrave in a sheet of aluminum, but I may have run it slower than necessary.
Part of a Quarter for size reference. Depth of the engrave is currently unknown, but I estimate 1.5-2mm.
My Mind is Blown, I did not expect it to come out this good; It's literally one of the coolest things I've ever seen; I'd like to thank Molly for creating and sharing this file.
Does anyone have more detailed information as to how to play around with this in matlab and try different parameters?


Mollys Fractal.jpg

[curious aardvark]

15 hours for something that small !
WOW. That's one underpowered laser :-)