Generate unique, ornamental crystal formations with our latest, free, 3D printable design.

This customizable design allows you to choose the number of shards, the number of sides each shard has, their length, diameter, tilt and offset. Then you can specify how much randomness to apply to generate unique crystal structures.

This design is completely free and shared under a permissive license. Your support is hugely appreciated.

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OpenSCAD Customizer Options

We recommend you use OpenSCAD to customize this design.

As of version 1.2, a 'deterministic' Randomness option is available. We thank robkingva for this suggestion.

In 'Non-deterministic' mode (the default mode and how previous versions worked), OpenSCAD will generate completely new formations as you adjust each Customizer option. To preview a new formation, simply press F5. When you are happy, press F6 to render a random crystal with your chosen Customizer settings. You may need to press F6 a few times but, as this design uses a low polygon count, each new render should be quick.

In 'Deterministic' mode, all randomness is derived from the Seed value. This means that for any given set of Customizer settings, the same design will be generated. In other words; in 'Deterministic' mode the randomness is predictable. The suggested way to use this mode is to adjust the Seed value until you find a design you like and then use the other Customizer options to fine tune the design. Once you have chosen your design, you can create a Customizer preset in OpenSCAD so that you can recall and re-generate the same design in the future.

This design has the following Customizer options:

Randomness

• Randomness - Type of randomness
• Seed - Seed value

Shards

• Number_of_Shards - Number of crystal shards
• Shard_Sides - Number of sides each crystal shard has
• Shard_Length - Length of each crystal shard
• Shard_Diameter - Diameter of each crystal shard
• Shard_Tilt - Amount of tilt applied to each crystal shard
• Shard_Offset - Amount to offset each crystal shard from the center

Variation

• Shard_Length_Variance_Percentage - Amount of random variance to apply to the length
• Shard_Diameter_Variance_Percentage - Amount of random variance to apply to the diameter
• Shard_Tilt_Variance_Percentage - Amount of random variance to apply to the tilt
• Shard_Offset_Variance_Percentage - Amount of random variance to apply to the offset
• Shard_Spacing_Variance_Percentage - Amount of random variance to apply to the spacing

Hollow

• Hollow_Shards - Should the shards be hollow?
• Hollow_Base - Should the base also be hollow? Only valid if 'Hollow_Shards' is set to 'Yes'
• Hollow_Shard_Wall_Thickness - Wall thickness of hollow shards

Base

• Base_Type - Type of base
• Base_Thickness - Thickness of the base

Design Considerations

Consider printing this in a translucent or glow-in-the dark filament or resin and possibly adding some under-lighting, using something like a NeoPixel Ring.

Material

This design is perfect for printing in most filaments, but we recommend translucent filaments/resins in particular for this design.

As of v1.1, you can generate hollow formations, allowing for improved lighting effects. For example, you could insert LEDs into some of the shards or use our illuminating base to create a desk lamp. See: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-arduino-nano-neopixel-ring-base-171564

Versions

1.2 (14 Jun 2021)

• Added support for deterministic randomness (Randomness and Seed) - Suggested by robkingva

1.1 (1 May 2021)

• Added support for hollow formations (Hollow_Shards, Hollow_Base and Hollow_Shard_Wall_Thickness)
• Renamed Customizer options (Crystal_* > Shard_*)
• Fixed spacing variance bug

1.0 (28 Apr 2021) - Initial version

Printing

Recommended slicer settings:

• Resolution: 0.1mm - 0.2mm
• Infill: ~10 - 20% recommended.

For solid formations:

• Supports: Should not be required.
• Rafts: Not required, unless you experience adhesion issues.

For hollow formations:

• Supports: Should not be required for the outsides of the shards, but some hollow formations may require internal supports. We recommending using buildplate supports. In Cura set 'Support Placement' to 'Touching Buildplate'.
• Rafts: We recommend printing with an internal brim for the support material. In Cura disable the 'Brim Only on Outside' setting.

License

The "Crystal Generator" models (.stl) are licensed under the CC BY license by Code and Make.

The "Crystal Generator" code (.scad) is licensed under The MIT License by Code and Make.

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