If you’ve explored the 3D models I share on Printables, you’ll know my penchant for designs that are as practical as they are creative. This year, I embarked on a journey to design a series of flower pot designs, which I’m thrilled to share with you in this piece.
Update 2024-04-25: Added more design details.
Background
The advent of the Prusa XL printer opened new horizons for large-scale 3D printing, making it an even more practical craft than before. Faced with the need to replace a flower pot, my first thought was to print one, expecting to find an abundance of suitable models online. Surprisingly, while there were many beautiful and creatively designed pots, most were sized for very small plants, and scaling them up resulted in disproportionately thick walls. Although there are a few generators that allow for custom-sized pots, the results often lacked polish.
This realization sparked my determination to create my own designs. In this narrative, you’ll discover how a seemingly mundane project like designing flower pots can evolve into an engaging challenge, especially when striving for both beauty and practicality. The intricacies of crafting appealing pot geometries, particularly at the corners and edges, turned out to be a fascinating challenge that I hadn’t anticipated. Join me as I delve into the art and science behind these designs, sharing insights and inspiration drawn from this creative endeavor.
Geometric Pots with Simplified Elegance
At the heart of this design journey lies a fascination with geometric forms—triangles, pentagons, hexagons, septagons, octagons, and nonagons. Crafting these shapes into 3D-printable pots, reminiscent of classic terracotta aesthetics, posed a unique set of challenges. The goal was to achieve pots with gracefully angled sides and a pronounced, wide rim, ensuring each side maintains a consistent width across layers for efficient and smooth printing. This necessitated precise control over the radii at the corners, a detail crucial for the desired print quality.
Navigating Geometric Complexities
The accompanying illustration reveals the intricate geometries at play. Defining an angle for the sides introduces a steeper angle at the edges, complicating the design of a seamlessly transitioning rim. This rim, varying in angle from the sides to the tips, defies simple rotational modeling techniques. Unfortunately, software like Fusion 360 doesn’t offer an out-of-the-box solution for rotating along both a plane and an angled axis, prompting a workaround to achieve the envisioned design.
For the resulting corner geometries you see in the models (take a look at the STEP files), I modeled the individual radii around the corners in 3D space. Then, I used these lines as rails to guide the extrusion around the corner. This way, deviations from an ideal geometry are minimal.
A Spectrum of Shapes and Sizes
Diving deeper into the geometric spectrum, I crafted an array of pots – excluding only the quadratic shapes. This collection spans various heights and diameters, tailored to cater to a diverse range of planting needs. To accommodate different 3D printing nozzle sizes (0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 mm), I introduced three side thicknesses: 1.7 mm, 2.0 mm, and 2.5 mm. These dimensions ensure that the pot sides can be printed exclusively with perimeter lines, optimizing print time and material use.
The option for a 2.5 mm thickness not only enhances structural integrity but also offers flexibility in scaling, perfect for people looking to print miniature versions for succulents or small cacti.
Explore the Collection
Below, you will find a gallery of all the geometric pots, each with its own unique charm and functionality. Clicking on a thumbnail will lead you to the project page, where you can access and download the model files for your next printing adventure.
Roman Vase Inspired Pots
The allure of ancient Roman vases, with their classic curved shape, sparked my imagination in designing flower pots. After numerous experiments with various forms, I landed on a shape that not only captivates the eye but also accommodates the larger diameters essential for flower pots. Opting for a subtle, rounded rim, I aimed to ensure it complements rather than overshadows the pot’s elegant sides.
The challenge then shifted to refining these curves to optimize the flower pot for 3D printing. A crucial aspect of this process is ensuring the profile width—at the layer being printed—remains consistent. This consistency is key to achieving a flawless print.
Contrary to common practice, a uniform shell thickness throughout the pot is not ideal. This is a frequent oversight in 3D models featuring thin walls, leading to less than optimal print quality.
Take a moment to examine the pot’s profile. Notice the deliberate difference between the thickness at its widest diameter and the angled segment just above the bottom. If these sections had identical shell thickness, the 3D printer would need to make adjustments, either printing more or thicker lines at certain sections, which could potentially lead to uneven quality, especially at transitions.
Moreover, I’ve reintroduced a straight line just below the rim to boost the pot’s stability at this crucial point. This careful adjustment ensures the pot remains robust and steady, especially when filled.
Side Decorations and Dimensions
Inspired by the same timeless elegance, I crafted pots adorned with various decorations, including horizontal rings and vertical stripes. Each design is available in a spectrum of heights, diameters, and three wall thicknesses: 1.7 mm, 2.0 mm, and 2.5 mm.
Not every design comes in all variants, as certain dimensions compromised the aesthetic integrity of the pot. Moreover, automating the intricate wavy lines for the decorations in Fusion 360 proved elusive, limiting these designs to a selection of meticulously handcrafted variants.
The gallery below showcases all the classical curved pot variants. Click on an image to visit the project page for each pot design.
Pots with Vertical Stripes
Delving into the realm of flower pots adorned with vertical stripes unveiled a fascinating blend of aesthetic and technical challenges. The design intricacies of these pots go beyond mere visual appeal, demanding meticulous optimization for 3D printing.
Vertical stripes on pots with sloping sides present a unique challenge: the stripes must adapt in size as they transition from the pot’s wider top to its narrower base. While straightforward for circular pots, geometric-shaped pots introduce additional complexities. Not only must the stripes’ dimensions adjust, but the angle around the pot’s corners or the design of a visually appealing transition also requires careful consideration. Moreover, seamlessly integrating the striped pattern with the pot’s rim poses its own set of design hurdles.
Optimizing for 3D Printing
The paramount goal was to ensure these pots are perfect for 3D printing. This necessitates maintaining a consistent wall thickness at the print layer, enabling the slicer software to generate a uniform number of filament lines encircling the pot. Although my designs approach this ideal, certain aspects remain unsolved. Particularly at the corners, additional radii adjustments are essential for flawless prints—areas where slicers might not always yield the best outcomes using standard settings. Tweaks and specific instructions for these adjustments are detailed on the respective project pages.
For optimal 3D printing results, specialized CAD tools designed for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) would be advantageous. Most current CAD software relies on a “shell” tool that calculates shell thickness using surface normals—adequate for many manufacturing processes but less so for FFF. A reimagined “shell” function, tailored to compute wall thickness at surface normal angles for the X and Y axes—while maintaining a consistent angle for the Z axis—would revolutionize the print quality of such complex designs.
Two Kinds of Stripes
My first attempt was an octagonal pot featuring vertical stripes that align perpendicularly to the surface, narrowing as they approach the bottom and converging at the corners. This design particularly suits octagonal pots but proves less effective for shapes with fewer sides.
The second iteration embraced vertical stripes that flow into circular corners. These stripes, while maintaining a direct angle to the pot’s surface, subtly follow the sides’ incline, easing into the rounded corners. I explored this concept with hexagonal, heptagonal, and octagonal variants, each presenting its own charm.
Below, a gallery showcases these diverse pots. Click on an image to visit the project page for more details on the pot.
Scales and Spirals
During the test printing of geometric flower pots on my Prusa XL using PETG filament, I encountered significant issues at the seams—ranging from gaps to unsightly filament blobs. To circumvent unresolved issues by Prusa, I embarked on designing pots with ornately detailed sides, aiming to disguise any imperfections at the seams.
My initial design attempt featured sides adorned with gentle waves, yet the aesthetic fell short of expectations. The second attempt, incorporating upward-facing scales, resonated more with my vision. Despite striving to optimize the design for 3D printing, the intricacies of the geometries made it challenging to maintain a perfectly uniform profile thickness. Thus, the design is an endeavor to approximate the ideal as closely as possible, acknowledging that certain slicer software adjustments are necessary for achieving smoother outcomes. Despite the pot’s appealing appearance, it doesn’t rank among my top designs due to these considerations.
In searching for spiral flower pots, I noticed a common theme: many were designed like cylinders, featuring thick walls with the spiral pattern only on the exterior. This often resulted in uneven wall thicknesses, and many models lacked a decorative rim at the top—a detail I find enhances the pot’s elegance.
Motivated to create a design that incorporates a spiral pattern, angled sides, and a pronounced rim, all while being optimized for 3D printing, proved to be a formidable challenge. While I succeeded in optimizing most of the profile for an ideal print, some areas still exhibit uneven profile thickness, necessitating slight adjustments in the slicer settings.
Below are images showcasing these designs, each with its own unique charm and complexities. Click on an image to explore the project page for the respective flower pot.
Exploring Unique Silhouettes
This section showcases a captivating collection of flower pots and saucers, each with its own distinctive charm. From geometric marvels that blur the lines between octagons and ellipses to pots that embody the whimsical shapes of stars and hearts, each design is a testament to creative exploration. Not to be overlooked is the intriguing triangle-shaped pot with gracefully curved sides and rounded tips, adding a touch of elegance to the collection.
Dive into the gallery below to discover the diverse range of designs. Each thumbnail serves as a gateway to the project page, where you can delve deeper into the specifics of each design.
Matching Saucers
To complement these unique vessels, I’ve also crafted matching saucers for each design.
Conclusion
I hope this collection inspires you to explore the limitless possibilities of 3D printing in gardening. Whether you’re drawn to the clean lines of geometric pots or the playful allure of heart and star-shaped containers, there’s a design in this gallery for every taste and every plant.
Thank you for joining me in this exploration of form and function. May your gardens flourish and your spaces reflect the uniqueness of your creativity.
Happy printing!