Squishy printed lattice vase with ridged toolpath

Nov 02, 2026 Last reply: 1 hour ago 4 Replies
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What caught my eye here is a squishy printed vessel that does something most rigid lattice prints cannot: press it and it deforms noticeably, then springs back into its original profile. The form is a rounded, translucent container covered in a fine ridged mesh pattern, and it is printed in a clear flexible material, so the softness and the surface pattern suit each other nicely.



The route to the final shape is interesting. The maker began with a rotationally symmetrical STL and squashed it in a single direction, which technically leaves the result with C2v rotational symmetry. Getting the lattice to follow that squashed body was not trivial: the first G-code render was a total mess. The fix was code the maker wrote to allow in line variation rather than ramping the pattern up and down smoothly, and that fix is what lets the object hold a form that is not rotationally symmetrical.



Two choices stand out to me. The inline variation approach seems like a smart way to keep the ridged surface coherent across a distorted body instead of easing it gradually. Then there is the moire angle: the maker says nested moire patterns can shift as the viewer walks around the piece, and on a translucent print that sounds like a genuinely lovely effect worth exploring further.



The open question is whether the fix could be applied to something more organic, and I would very much like to see that attempted. Between the flexible material, the textured toolpath and the squeeze test, this is a very satisfying piece of work.


I am curious about how the model itself was prepared. Did the maker squash the rotationally symmetrical STL along just one axis, or was that squeeze combined with any other change to the mesh before the lattice work began?

Writing code for in line variation instead of a smooth ramp seems like a clever call to me. A gradual ramp would likely fight the squashed profile, so letting the lattice vary directly along its length should follow the distorted body much more honestly. It also keeps the ridged pattern readable, which feels like half the charm of the finished piece.

Since the maker says nested moire patterns can change as a viewer walks around the piece, a taller print with several nested layers of pattern could be worth trying. On a clear flexible body the shifting effect might read even stronger, and the extra height would give the spring back in the squeeze test more room to show off.

From what the maker has said, the starting point was a rotationally symmetrical STL that was squished in one direction. Nothing has been mentioned about additional changes to the mesh alongside that, so as far as anyone knows it was purely the single direction squeeze before the lattice work.

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