Unfold cylindrical object around rotation axis

simon_kunz

Good evening!

I am part of a project which wants to build a DIY rotational 3D-printer. One current problem is the slicing pipeline. Since we do not have a rotational slicer, we want to unfold a rotational 3D object, slice it with a traditional slicer and do some post-processing (like transforming to rotational coordinates).

The following graphic should clearify my question:

I am searching for a transformation function which "unfolds" a (maybe complex) cylindrical object along its rotational axis. Here the distances between two points on the surface (and also "inside" the volume) have to be the same in both objects. Otherwise the amount of extruded filament will to less. With every new layer this error increases and the printed object is not usable.

I found a related post here. But they don't keep the circular length of the layers and only unfold the cylinder with edges orthogonal to the resulting planes.

Does anybody know how I could achieve my transformation or knows how it is called? I have asked and searched a lot but did not find anything which worked the way i need it.

Or is there maybe a better place to ask my question?

Best regards!

MichaelPascoe

This is the right place. Welcome to the forums!

The functionality you are looking for is Wrap. Unfortunately, it does not wrap parts. Here is a similar post that might have some useful info for you: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/31635#Comment_31635

EvanReese

I'd not seen that style of printer before. Seems cool! I don't know of a good way to unwrap things like that in Onshape. I'd personally do it in Rhinocerous.