January 25, 2022: Now I知 3D Printing (Part 5)

One of the things you can do with a STL file is scale it . . . either up or down. Today I experimented with scaling the scorpion from the Scorpion Handler set.

At the right is a skeleton (no, he's not finished yet) for scale. To the left is a scorpion in the original size. Next is a print at 200%. And then I wanted to see it just a bit bigger, so the biggest one is at 250%. Pretty impressive. Hope your party has some crossbows.

Lessons learned: First and foremost, this works. But the cube-square law comes into play. A figure gets a lot bigger when it's "only" twice as long. The scorpion at 200% takes 2 squared (that is, 4) times as much surface on the table, and has 2 cubed (or 8) times the mass.

Second, note that the supports enlarged just like everything else. The cross-section of each support on the middle scorpion has been multiplied by 4. They can still be cut, even on the biggest one (where they are 6.25 times as wide!) – but it would have been better practice to start with the unsupported file and generate new supports, which would have been much skinnier, easier to cut, and less wasteful of resin. That is not a terribly advanced operation, and soon I will try it.

-- Steve Jackson