Customizable Sphere Litophane

thingiverse

This is a highly customizable spherical lithophane. To create your very own litophane, simply replace one key image file, load the 3D model into Blender, and export as an STL. It was inspired by RCLifeOn's World Map Spherical Litophane, though I use Blender instead of 3D Max. **NEW**: On July 23rd, a lithophane360.blend.zip file has been added. This is a **360° version**. You will need an image with twice as many pixels horizontally to cover the sphere without distortion. Also keep in mind that this is a much heavier blend file and will take longer to process by Blender. # Instructions - Download all the thing files, including the "final.png" image file that needs to be replaced. This file should be placed in the same directory as the blender file. ## PREPARING THE IMAGE - Convert your image to black and white, and invert the colors using an image editing program. In the final image, darker pixels indicate thinner walls, while lighter pixels indicate thicker walls. - The template image is 2559x1498 pixels wide, so you will need to convert your image to match this aspect ratio by adding black color rectangles to the top and bottom (if it's wider than the template) or left and right (if it's narrower). If you don't do this, the image will be distorted. - The color of the image borders will extend to the rest of the sphere, so they should be black to achieve the thinnest possible walls. ## GENERATING THE STL - Download and install Blender: https://www.blender.org/download/ - Open one of the three ".blend" files in Blender. The file with a hole has a small opening on the back for passing a cable for an LED light that will illuminate the object. The 360° version (zipped) requires an image with double width pixels. - Once opened, make sure that the "Sphere" object is selected in the objects tree in the upper right corner of the Blender window. This object is to be exported. If it's not highlighted, simply left-click on its name. - Select Menu File -> Export -> "As STL file..." - In the export options, select the option "Only selection" - Choose the desired export scale option. The exported sphere has a size of 2 mm, so for example, setting the exporting scale to 50 will result in a 100 mm sphere (alternatively, you can leave the scale at 1 and scale the sphere afterwards in your slicer program). - Finally, click the Export button in the upper right corner. After a while, you will have an STL file in the same directory. You can now close Blender. # Print settings ## Mandatory print settings - 100% infill - Lower the filament flow (90% to 95%, I used 93%) - No supports - Slow speed, maximum 45 mm/s - 9 mm brim for bed adhesion ## Advisable print settings - 0.2 mm layer height - 7 mm retraction at 30 mm/s - White or light color filament