DESIGNING MOVABLE CHAIN LIKE STRUCTURE WITH 3D MODELED ELEMENTS

Abstract

The field of 3D printing has developed greatly to date, and it is expected that this development will continue. 3D printing is already being used in the fashion industry, where it was first used for rigid, architectural shapes and later for a variety of movable structures. However, the area of mobility, comfort and softness is still under development in this field. The exploration of the above properties was also the reason for the present research work, the aim of which was to study the process of creating a textile-like 3D structure by assembling individual elements into a mesh. Various factors in both the design and technical areas had to be investigated and considered. The design process included the technical and visual part, i.e., the design of the individual elements, as well as the creation of different repeating patterns, as the shape and colour of the elements influence the final appearance. Different approaches were tested when modelling the individual elements. Through the research, other design approaches were also used, such as the use of geometry nodes or animation nodes, which are available as plug-ins in the Blender software. We combined different elements to create meshes or textile-like structures that were simple at first, but later resulted in more interesting designs by varying the size and shape of the elements, their arrangement, and colours. There are still many possibilities to develop the patterns further, for example, the elements could be arranged in different ways, or more emphasis could be placed on the shape and colour of the elements. Finally, we experimentally printed part of the chain-like structure and compared it with other structures designed in a 3D program and checked the size and density of the mesh by virtually simulating the fall of the mesh onto the body.