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UC Berkeley Library Makerspace: Digital Fabrication Tools

Digital Fabrication

Digital Fabrication Tools

Ultimaker 3

The Ultimaker is an entry level 3D printer. 3D printers extrude a specific kind of plastic called thermoplastic following the pattern of a 3D design produced in CAD software. There are a variety of free and accessible 3D design programs like tinkercad, fusion 360, sculptris or blender. 3D printers are capable of producing a 3D dimensional object in the same way that a regular printer prints documents. 3D printers are subject to a variety of parameters build height, supports etc. Ultimaker printers are capable of printing unsupported angles up to 45 degrees. Angles greater than 45 degrees require supports.

Silhouette Vinyl Cutter

The Silhouette vinyl cutter works in the same way as the Roland vinyl cutter but on a much smaller scale. It can cut a variety of materials like cardstock, fabric, thin foam and other materials. The Silhouette also comes with pens for creating professional looking writing or cards. Unlike the Roland cutter, the silhouette runs off of free but proprietary software Silhouette Studio. You can still create designs for the Silhouette in Illustrator, but they must be exported as a DXF in order to be read by Silhouette Studio. Silhouette Studio can be downloaded here.

Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV)/Laser printer transfer paper

Laser printer transfer paper allows toner to absorb into the surface coating of the paper. The coating acts to shield and later bond the inks to the fabric. Unlike heat transfer vinyl which adheres a single color plastic directly to the fabric, laser transfer paper allows ink to soak into the vinyl before it is transferred to the fabric, allowing for multi-color vinyl transfers in a single layer.

 

If you want multiple colors of heat transfer vinyl you have to cut each color individually and layer them on top of one another. Laser printer transfer paper allows you to transfer a complex multicolor image in a single pass. Both the HTV and the Laser Printer transfer paper require the use of the heat press in order to adequately transfer the image in a single pass.