So I've been playing with a free tool, TinkerCAD. They have a library of some basic shapes, and if you fiddle enough with the graphic interface, you can figure out how to edit the shapes. Having attended another workshop recently where we explored Soma cube puzzles, I decided to try to make a design to print a plastic set of Soma cubes.
It's not particularly hard. Cubes are in the basic library of shapes on TinkerCAD. The only thing that took a little while to figure out is how to move an element of my design in the z-axis, since three of the basic pieces are more than one cube unit high. I made my design in two drawings: one of the four single height pieces (big L, little L, T, and Zed); and another of the three double height pieces (right chiral, left chiral, and corner).
TinkerCAD can export to .stl format, which Makerbot Desktop can open and export to .x3g for my printer. I was so proud of myself, I was about to upload the designs to thingiverse. But before doing that, I did a search. Some 48 other Soma cube designs are already up there. Nobody needs mine. But I'm happy I made it. Some day I'll even try printing it and see if it really works.
*** edit 20 Dec 2015 ***
I tried printing, and it didn't work out so good. I think my printer (Makerbot Replicator 2) may be introducing some errors in the z-axis towards the edges of the printing space. The parts more towards the center were fine, but the one furthest out had a sort of curved upper face, where it should have been completely level.
So I tweaked my designs to put just one piece per design, total of seven drawings. I'll give these a try later on today.
*** edit 22 Dec 2015 ***
My "one design per print job" drawings are printing out just fine. But I think the real problem was that the blue tape on my build plate was not sticking securely, and that introduced some waves into the build.
*** edit 5 Jan 2016 ***
An acquaintance asked for the files, so I did upload to thingiverse. Also added pictures to this post.
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