3D Printing: Converting 2D images to 3D

If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site: intermathematics.com for over 2000+ pdf pages of resources for teaching IB maths!

3D Printing with Desmos: Stewie Griffin

Using Desmos or Geogebra to design a picture or pattern is quite a nice exploration topic – but here’s an idea to make your investigation stand out from the crowd – how about converting your image to a 3D printed design?

Step 1

Create an image on Desmos or Geogebra.  Remove the axes and grid pattern.  This image is a pre-drawn image already on Desmos available here.

Step 2

Take a screen capture image of your picture (jpeg, gif, png).  We need to convert this to a SVG file.  You can convert these for free at sites like picsvg.

Step 3

Lastly we need to use a 3D editing site .  You can join up with a site like Tinkercad for free.

Step 4

Making our 3D model.  We import our SVG file and we get the image above.  We can then resize this to whatever dimensions we wish – and also add 3D depth.

Lastly I would then save this file and send it to a 3D printer.  You can see the finished file below:

So, if we printed this we’d get something like this:

3D printing the Eiffel Tower

Let’s use another Desmos art work. The Eiffel Tower above was a finalist in their annual art competition drawn by Jerry Yang from the USA.

This is then converted to the SVG file above.

And this is the result on Tinkercad when I add some depth and change the colour scheme.  Let’s see what that would look like printed:

Pretty good- we’ve created a cheap tourist souvenir in about 5 minutes!

Mathematical art

I thought I’d have a go at making my own mathematical art.  I started with using some polar coordinates to create this nice pattern:

Which then creates the following 3D shape:

This topic has a lot of scope for exploration and links with art, design technology and engineering.  Thanks to our ever resourceful ICT wizz at school Jon for assistance, and also thanks for this excellent method which was posted by Ryan on Thingiverse. You can also explore huge numbers of ready made 3D templates on the site.

Essential Resources for IB Teachers

1) Intermathematics.com

If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site.  This has been designed specifically for teachers of mathematics at international schools.  The content now includes over 2000 pages of pdf content for the entire SL and HL Analysis syllabus and also the SL Applications syllabus.  Some of the content includes:

1. Original pdf worksheets (with full worked solutions) designed to cover all the syllabus topics.  These make great homework sheets or in class worksheets – and are each designed to last between 40 minutes and 1 hour.
2. Original Paper 3 investigations (with full worked solutions) to develop investigative techniques and support both the exploration and the Paper 3 examination.
3. Over 150 pages of Coursework Guides to introduce students to the essentials behind getting an excellent mark on their exploration coursework.
4. A large number of enrichment activities such as treasure hunts, quizzes, investigations, Desmos explorations, Python coding and more – to engage IB learners in the course.

There is also a lot more.  I think this could save teachers 200+ hours of preparation time in delivering an IB maths course – so it should be well worth exploring!

Essential Resources for both IB teachers and IB students

1) Exploration Guides and Paper 3 Resources

I’ve put together a 168 page Super Exploration Guide to talk students and teachers through all aspects of producing an excellent coursework submission.  Students always make the same mistakes when doing their coursework – get the inside track from an IB moderator!  I have also made Paper 3 packs for HL Analysis and also Applications students to help prepare for their Paper 3 exams.  The Exploration Guides can be downloaded here and the Paper 3 Questions can be downloaded here.