Hollow polyhedra: Catalan Solids

thingiverse

In two recent posts, thing:16508 and thing:16968, I provided openSCAD commands based on a library of polyhedra at netlib.org/polyhedra/. The missing triakis tetrahedron's vertex coordinates were found using Wolfram/Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/). All Catalan stl and scad files are available in respective zip folders, with openSCAD commands that can be extracted for use in other programs. Printed stl files of well-printing Catalan solids include triakis tetrahedron, rhombic dodecahedron, trapezoidal icositetrahedron, and pentagonal icositetrahedron (enantiomorphs). Named after Belgian mathematician Eugène Catalan, these polyhedra are derived from Archimedean solids. The minimum number of faces for a Catalan polyhedron is 12, with difficulty increasing for those with 60 or more faces; external support may be necessary. Files were printed using a Thing-O-Matic printer, Kapton tape, and rafts, with external support added for polyhedra with 60+ faces.