Trapping Hypercube with Hollow Sphere (Print in place, easy support included, insertable)

thingiverse

When we show our friends we printed a cube with a sphere in it, they're amazed. How did it get inside there without being stuck? How can it rotate? **But why stop with three dimensions?** This is the shadow of a FOUR dimensional cube, a [tesseract](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract). Trapped inside it is a [voronoi sphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) that can rotate freely (easy print support included). And, if you wish, you can trap MORE STUFF inside the sphere! In the example here, I included a bunch of [platonic solids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid) (like [Dungeons & Dragons dice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Dice)) of various colors. Easy Instructions ============= ### Printing with Included Support I've included a support for the sphere. In the STL it'll show up as part of the model, but if you use Cura you can use the .3MF file, open it as a project and it'll be marked as a support. If you do that, remember to first go into the Preferences/Cura Settings menu, and turn off "Automatically drop models to the build plate", otherwise the sphere will fall to the build plate. ### [Optional] Pausing to Insert Stuff in Sphere Personally, I just wait until the print is halfway done, and drop objects into the sphere when the head is working on the outer part of the cube. But the following trick lets you pause the print to insert whatever crazy things you want: Here's how to pause the print in Cura: **Extensions Menu** With the model loaded, pull down the Extensions menu and pick the flip-out Post Processing menu. Inside that, choose Modify G-Code.  **Add a Script** In the window that pops up, click [Add a script] **Filament Change** Another context menu will pop up, with a list of scripts installed on your machine. Find "Filament Change" and click that.  In the Filament Change settings, the important part is Layer. You need to set that to the number where you want the printer to pause and beep for you to change the filament.  **Find Your Layer** To get that number of layers, quit out and click the [Slice] button. When that finishes, click the [Preview] button to switch to the preview mode. In the preview mode, use the slider on the far right to find where you want the print to stop. As you slide it down, the model will become transparent at that layer on the left. Pick a good spot (over halfway up the sphere, remember to make it high enough that the nozzle won't hit what you drop in when it resumes), then find the number on the right that is your layer number. In the example I uploaded to images, it's layer 271.  Put that in the Filament Change "Layer" field. **Now Print It** Then slice and print. When it reaches the layer you chose, the printer will pause, withdraw the head, and then beep. Add your stuff to the ball, then push the default button on the printer display to tell it to resume. The sooner you resume, the better the final print will be, as you don't want the print to cool off while it waits.