3D Surface Function Maker

thingiverse

I've had some math classes involving 3-dimensional surface functions, where the instructor draws a rough sketch of what the surface looks like on a 2-dimensional whiteboard. Students often struggle to visualize these surfaces in 3-dimensions, so I wrote a script in OpenSCAD to create a 3D printable model of any 3D surface function. This makes it easy for instructors to help their students see exactly what these surfaces look like. It's also useful when talking about limits of surface functions that don't exist. The OpenSCAD code lets you input any function you want, but I wish Thingiverse's Customizer allowed users to input functions instead of just numbers. If anyone knows a way to do this, please let me know! When using the OpenSCAD code, be sure to check out the settings at the top of the file, which are explained in comments. This page also includes some surfaces that I've printed myself, including ones with undefined limits at (0,0). Limits don't always print well because the walls get thin and the function is undefined at that point. To fix this, you can add material manually or adjust the function to create extra material in thin areas. If you decide to use this anywhere, I'd appreciate it if you could give me credit as Dryw Wade. I'm looking forward to seeing what surfaces you print!