Note that you CAN and SHOULD use the mirror tool in Blender when producing symmetric parts. I do it myself. The non-manifold errors he speaks of in this video comes when you forget to delete the faces that lie in the mirror plane, and/or forget to auto-merge (auto-weld) the post-mirroring vertices. Imagine the problem like this: Imagine a cube, and now you mirror it by using one of the cube faces as the mirror plane. The result is now a block twice as wide as the cube. But the result now has two faces occupying the same (useless) place: the face you used as a mirror plane, and its inversed copy. Both are in the same place, both are useless. So delete the faces in the mirror plane before mirroring and you're fine!
I'm not a blender user but was really impressed with your simple approach. The mechanical engineering and packaging tutorials on snap-fits focus on overwhelmingly specific information, with angled arrowheads and rounded edges that create too many steps. I can easily follow this video step by step to help me internalize the design process. Really well done, thank you.
I wanted to follow up and let you know I used what I learned from your video to make some animal care products that have become hard to find on the market and given them to a group that takes in unwanted pets and helps rehome them. Your snapfit tutorial enabled me to assemble larger pieces of equipment almost instantly in a toolless, extremely fast process. The group I have the equipment to is now buying their own printer to manufacture in house. Thank you again!!!
Was hoping for a little more info on tolerances that are flexible but also secure and print well with standard nozzle diameters. The shape itself is easy enough to copy from any existing snap fit connector.
nice part design. Ive just started on making some snap together parts, I used a ball on each side with corresponding hollows and a slot to force the part through. I like your design though too. I might try something similar. Thanks again. I subscribed to your channel
I always find it helpful when the final part is shown right at the beginning of the video so we know what all the creation operations are aiming for, and as each operation is done the voice-over notes what part is is tat's being created. Just sayig, "We're making aline here and her and then a centerline here" really doesn't make it clear WHY that's being done.
