Add wood gradient to a 3D STL file - TecRD

Add wood-like stripes to your 3D printed STL files

This is an online tool for you to upload a file to 3D print. It adds temperatures gcode commands according to a special fractal "noise", in order to create horizontal stripes that "look like wood" (like the background image).

The effect is mostly visible with filaments like laywoo, woodfill and a few others, when they embed fine particles of wood that darken with higher temperatures (well, some of them behave in the opposite way).

The underlying engine is a Python script which I originally described on my blog (source on github, or via my thingiverse account).
Trivia: the early prints were featured on Wired back in 2012!

Texture parametrization

Average wood grain size
Make it larger for slower change in texture, 3 mm is a good value
mm
 
Minimum temperature
It depends on your filament, but Laywoo-D3 should be fine with 190. Clogging is more likely to happen with low values.
Celcius degrees
 
Maximum temperature
It depends on your filament, but Laywoo-D3 withstands 240 well. Warning though, because when it is too hot or left to stay too long, it may clog the nozzle with solid carbon.
Celcius degrees
Maximum upward temperature variation
Some printer firmwares like that of the BFB may pause to reach temperatures suddenly rised by more than 10°C. This setting caps the maximum positive increase between two changes; else set it at zero for most other firmwares like Marlin.
Celcius degrees
First layer temperature
The first layer temperature can be set manually so it sticks like you need it to the bed. Leave it to zero if you want it to be computed like the other layers.
Celcius degrees
Spikiness
Default is a balanced set of dark and light (1.0). With higher values (eg 2 or 3), the dark stripes will be made sparser. You can get the opposite effect with value between 0 and 1 (eg. 0.5 will generate fatter dark bands, convenient for filament that get lighter with temperature)
Exponent factor
Random seed
Zero for random, else give it a number for the same pseudo-random pattern each time. This is useful to find, and then to "freeze" the shape of the graph that you can check at the very end of the generated gcode file (yes, open it with a text editor to see some ascii art!).
Integer number
 
Retype this key:
(security check)
 
A quick comment ?
Better use Thingiverse
for some feedback.

The G-code file to process

This is the sliced file (gcode), not the STL file. The script will look for the Z changes, and it inserts M104 temperature changes before each of them according to the settings above.

(it should be fairly quick)

owl_back_with_wood_gradient