3D Surface Function Maker

thingiverse

I've had some math classes involving 3-dimensional surface functions, where the instructor draws a rough sketch of what the surface looks like on a 2-dimensional whiteboard. I've found that students often struggle to visualize what these surfaces look like in 3-dimensions, so I wrote a script in OpenSCAD to create a 3D printable model of any 3D surface function. This is an easy way for instructors to help their students visualize what these surfaces look like. It can also be put to good use when talking about limits of surface functions when they do not exist. The OpenSCAD code allows you to input any function you want. I would have put this into Thingiverse's Customizer, but it only allows the user to input numbers, not functions. (If anyone knows of a way to do this, please let me know!) If you decide to download the OpenSCAD code to use your own functions, there are several settings available at the top of the file, which are all described in comments. This page also contains a few surfaces that I have printed, including a couple that contain undefined limits at (0,0). Limits don't always print nicely, because the walls can get rather thin (and for the obvious reason that the function is undefined at that point). You can compensate for this by manually adding material afterwards, or by adjusting the function to create extra material in thin places. If you decide to use this anywhere, I'd really appreciate attribution to me, Dryw Wade. I look forward to seeing what surfaces you print!