Stanford Bunny Mesh Mods: Voxel

We use Meshmixer a lot in the shop, and teach our students mesh-editing techniques using it. Despite Autodesk's endless cat-and-mouse game with this unsupported software, we find it still works well on both Windows and Mac, and it remains an indispensable part of our workflow.

We demonstrate several mesh modification techniques from import to fabrication. Our subject is the famous Stanford Bunny, which comes pre-loaded with Meshmixer as a non-watertight mesh. These techniques are detailed at newMediaWiki, our Open Education Resource.

Voxel

This demonstration, voxel, uses a mesh modification to create a voxel model with a low polygon count, about 11K. Players of Minecraft and devotees of the sculptors Sol LeWitt and Anthony Gormley will recognize the formal strategy opportunities created by voxel art.

For others in the series, check out our Collection: Stanford Bunny Mesh Mods.

Printing

Resolution: It's a model with an intrinsically low poly count, so we aren't offering various resolutions. If you scale it up, the geometry comes with it!

Size: The original bunny is a scan of a terra-cotta garden tschotchke that stands about 7.5 inches high. The model can fit full-size on an MK4 build plate. But you can print it larger on an XL or smaller anywhere, however you wish.

On the bed: We've supplied raw meshes from Meshmixer. In the voxel mesh, the base is dead flat and needs no further manipulation for good adhesion.

Supports: The bunny is impossible to print without support. Our strategy here is a bit different than others in the series because there are no angled faces, only orthogonal ones. So, we just print with support everywhere. We use organic support to avoid body-to-body support at the ears, and we typically expand the first layer from the standard 3.5mm to double or triple that to assist with adhesion.

One problem with voxel objects is the massive increase in support requirements. There is a trick to avoid this, but we don't really like it much for formal reasons. 

Other notes: It's a sculptural object, so layer height, infill, and whatnot are discretionary. But don't waste a lot of material on high-percentage infill: we use gyroid at 5% and it works well. For the top infill pattern, we chose Rectilinear and changed the fill angle to 90 degrees so the pattern would align with the geometry.

Licensing notes

Stanford's work apparently happened before the evolution of licensing schemas on the web: their requirements are described here under the Please acknowledge… heading. We've applied a CC-BY-NC License as what seems to be the closest match with their text.