Dominic's Skull

thingiverse

This isn't my first skull on Thingiverse (see here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:827), but I felt compelled to back it up for future use. The skull was derived from an MRI, which came in the form of a high dynamic range stack of sliced head images. Osirix, an open-source viewer, was used to read and convert the file into an OBJ format that could be imported into Blender. Cleanup and mesh finessing were necessary to make it watertight and manifold. Half of the mesh was mirrored for symmetry. Teeth weren't included due to their different water content compared to bone. The mandible was joined to the skull to facilitate printing without thin joints. It's released under a CC, Attribution-ShareAlike license, with permission for commercial use; I'd love to see what people create from it. I can't test print since I don't have a Makerbot, but optimal orientation is suggested based on other designs' overhangs. You may need a post between the jaw sections during printing. If you successfully print it and re-share, do let me know!