3D Printed Glasses

It’s been a while since I started my project to 3D print glasses frames, and I’m really excited to share the results.

Here is my 3D printed glasses holding real prescription lenses!

In the first iteration of this project, I took an image and created a 3D printable glasses frame, using code and Blender.

A single click is all it took to procedurally generate the 3D model.

Since that first iteration, I learned a lot more about the actual design of glasses frames and improved my algorithms.

I decided to test my algorithm by copying a pair of frames I already own.

Using an image of the front view of my glasses frame, my Blender script created this 3D model:

I manually added lens grooves to fit my prescription lenses.

I popped the prescription lenses out of my frame and popped them into my 3D printed frame.

They fit astonishingly well.

To make your own, check out the previous post for instructions.

To create lens grooves for your 3D model:

1. In Edit mode, use the Knife tool on a nosepad to create a boundary between the nosepad and the frame

1. Use the Loop Cut and Slice tool to create three edge loops. They will be boundaries of the lens grooves.

Here’s the first loop:

The next two loops will be on both sides of the middle loop.

1. Select the middle edge loop and and scale up in the XZ direction. This will create the groove itself.

2. Do this for both sides.

After creating the lens grooves, your glasses frame is ready for 3D printing.

Here’s a video of adding the lenses to the 3D printed glasses:

Since the lenses fit the 3D printed frame pretty well, I can say the algorithm/script creates an accurate enough glasses model for the frame portion. However, there’s more work to be done to make better bridges and nosepads, since the nosepads aren’t quite large enough. For now, the script creates nice prototypes.