How to Efficiently Plan Your Home or Workspace With 3D Printing

I am a current undergraduate student at the University of Washington

I am an engineer, not a scientist, and as an engineer, I strive to maximize my future laziness (commonly called "efficiency"). Unlike a scientist, when I want to do something, I want a guarantee that it will work right the first time before investing any real time, money or effort.

This mindset has recently led me to come up with a fun solution to a problem I've been facing: My workspace is not set up in a way I would like. Within the corner of the my parent's garage that they've graciously allowed me to inhabit over the last half-decade, I've gathered a workbench and a few tools to help pursue various projects (some of which I've made Instructables on!). As the scope of these projects have shifted over time, I've had to frequently rearrange furniture and storage to accommodate new tools, machines, or chemicals, and now is one of these times. Shifting heavy shelving and moving various boxes, 3D printers, and power tools is not easy nor likely to achieve ideal arrangements in the first try, hence my engineering quest for a solution.

The solution that I've landed on is a way to use basic CAD and 3D printing to create simple models of furniture and large items that allow for physical, rapid, and iterative layout design of entire rooms. With only a tape measure, free CAD software, and an hour or two of free time, I've been able to take measurements of the major items in my workspace, create simplified models of them in CAD, and 3D print them at a 25.4:1 (1 inch to 1 mm) scale. From there I could arrange and rearrange my space within a few seconds to a minute, and most importantly, without doing anything exerting!

In this Instructable, I'll walk through the steps of modelling your own room or workspace by modelling my current dorm room. Seen above is the model of my workspace I made, however that was done more experimentally and without documentation. I'll attempt to go into enough detail that someone with a few hours of experience with CAD and an understanding of Onshape's interface can copy, however I know that doesn't apply to most people, so I've also created a document with a couple configurable pieces of furniture that you can insert your dimensions into and export.

Tape Measure long enough to measure your room(s)

3D printer Filament (2-3 colors are ideal)

A 3D printer (I used a Bambu Lab A1 Mini and a Creality K1, but any printer works)

Just about any CAD software (I use the free Onshape license)

This first step is so simple that it really doesn't need its own section, but I'm including it anyways. If you've clicked on this Instructable it's probably because you already have a space in mind, you can just skip this step. But, if you've just been reading this because you think the idea or pictures are cool, then I would first thank you, and then suggest you think of a space you use that could benefit from a rearrangement. It doesn't have to be necessary, and I have no experience in home planning, so I'll leave it up to you.

This step is fairly straightforward and mostly self-explanatory. You'll want to look around your chosen space and measure important dimensions of important furniture and items. These could include tables, beds, chairs, desks, closets, drawers, appliances, lamps, 3D printers, shelving, and plenty others I haven't considered. Important dimensions are length, height, and depth, but also the relative dimensions of any important faces, like the top and bottom of a raised bed, the distance under tables or between drawers, and anything else you see as important. This is especially important if you're looking to design your own models, but if you're using mine, just find the dimensions needed for the configurations.

Something to note is that I use a scale of ~1:25, which makes conversions easy if you take dimensions in inches and design with the same numbers in millimeters because there are 25.4 millimeters per inch. I find this works quite nicely but feel free to use something different.

If you just want to use my existing models, sign up to Onshape with the free sign up here, or if you're a student (like me), there's also an education version here. Once you have an account, navigate to this link where you'll be able to see each model and export them.

If you're looking to design your own, which I recommend if you want a more accurate model, then I'll try and briefly describe my design process here. You can apply these techniques to any parametric CAD program as well, like Solidwork, Fusion360, Autodesk Inventor, etc.

For each piece of furniture, I first figure out how it should be oriented when 3D printed. A table could be printed with the tabletop or back side down, while a regular bed could be printed right-side-up. Minimizing the number of necessary supports is the goal, though it is important to note that horizontal bridging can be done (such as for table or chair legs) without supports. Ultimately, needing supports isn't the end of the world if it's needed for your designs, and only makes things a little more convenient when printing.

Starting the design, I begin by making a simple sketch on a plane which will act as the side of the model that sticks to the 3D printer's build plate. creating a square to mark out the footprint (width and height, for example) can be helpful. I create a projection of the model in that sketch, saving details for when the first extrusion is made. I then extrude it to the proper dimension, and lastly create any cuts and small details, like rounding edges or marking drawers. The process I lay out here is fairly simple, but feel free to make more complex designs if you need them, as long as you keep in mind the 3D printing orientation

I also like to model the floor shape of my room, which is done fairly easily by creating a thin (<1mm) flat layer in the shape of the room and then adding borders that extend ~2mm to the side and above the floor level.

Creating the CAD models you like, either from my configurable designs here, or your own, export them as an STL and import them into your favorite slicer to prepare for 3D printing. I use Ultimaker Cura and Bambu Studio, but use whatever you're comfortable with.

For print settings, I recommend using a low infill (10-20%), thin walls (0.8mm or 2 layers), and a moderate layer height (0.2mm). Depending on your printer, you may not need a brim or raft for most parts, but anything that has pointy ends or thin areas on the first layer would benefit from a brim. Paint supports, if possible, on only the sections you designed for supports (though see if other spots need it), and set supports to only place in painted locations (often called "manual supports").

For filament colors, I find it looks best to print floors or walls in black and furniture in white. Small items like computers or 3D printers can optionally be a 3rd color like grey to distinguish them from what they sit on. If you prefer a different color scheme, try it, and let me know how it turns out!

Once your parts are printed, preparing them should be pretty simple if you designed them well. Remove any supports, brims, or rafts with a cutting tool. If your pieces have "hairs" from the printhead jumping between parts, a quick (< 3 second) blast from a butane torch or heat gun should be enough to shrivel them up without melting or warping your parts. For large rooms that needed multiple prints for the floor, attach them by taping/gluing them together on the bottom or welding them together with a soldering iron (my preferred method).

Now that all your parts are printed and prepared, this is the point where you can begin laying out your room. I usually begin by laying out the room as it is, to make sure all the dimensions are roughly correct. From there, I shift things around until I come up with something interesting. If you're looking to get new pieces of furniture, this is a great way to see how they fit. How you do this step obviously changes room-to-room, so it's necessarily self-guided.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Instructable! I hope you've gotten something out of it in some way. If you would like more furniture options in my configurable design, or have any other suggestions, let me know and I'll be happy to add them.