Bender Bender Mac Cable Suspender

thingiverse

Here is Bender's head (from Futurama) biting on cables. I made this model to prevent the cables for external accessoires on my Mac (MacBook Pro Retina 15") from falling from the table when pulled out. Instructions If you just want to print it, slice the .stl and go. But if you want to customize the shapes, here is what I did: I downloaded a picture from Bender's head and distorted it in Photoshop. Then I created shapes for every distinct feature on Bender's face. The .psd file was imported in Inkscape via a plugin:http://pernsteiner.org/inkscape/psd_import There I put each shape on a layer and altered them a bit to be flush with the adjacent shapes. I also made sure to convert each path to contain only straight lines (by adding many nodes and straighten paths). From Inkscape I exported a .dxf file and created a very simple OpenScad object. Basically I just imported the same .dxf file with different layers and extruded them at different heights. From OpenScad I exported to .stl and fixed any issues with Netfabb Basic. Phew.... I do really hope that with the breakthrough of 3D printing, workflows and tools will get better and more compact.