Lighted Holiday Sign with 3D Printer and WLED!

Credits to Duke Doks for this amazing video!

Inspired from Duke Doks idea I’m going to prepare my own Lighted Holiday sign design, and print it on my Artillery Genius 3D printer

Artillery Genius 3D printer

Design the 3D text

The process could seems a bit long, but once understood the basics is quite repetitive and so feasible also for whom start to create 3D design for the first time!

You need to download and install the personal free version of Autodesk Fusion 360, click here to register and download

Once ready we can start to create our New Design:

Prepare Text and Bed size Reference

  • Click Create Sketch
  • Select the base plane to work
  • Rename the new sketch from the Browser menu in “Bed Size”
  • Click on 2-Point Rectangle tool from main toolbar
  • Click Center Rectangle from SKETCH PALETTE options
  • Click the plan center and drag mouse over to draw a rectangle
  • Type rectangle dimensions according to your 3D Printer bed size. For example my Artillery Genius as a 230×230 mm bed.
  • Click FINISH SKETCH on main toolbar
  • This rectangle will be used as a reference in order to fit the TEXT on your 3D Printer bed
  • Click again Create Sketch and select the main plane
  • Rename the new sketch from the Browser menu in “Text”
  • Click CREATE and TEXT from main toolbar
  • Click on the plan Type the TEXT you want to create, in my example “BUONE FESTE!
  • Choose a Font, the one you prefer but pay attention to select not much complex one because it must be “printable”
  • Type Height in order to fit the “Bed Size”, for example 190 mm
  • Click OK
  • With the Select tool select the text, right click on it and click Explode Text
  • The text is now converted in lines that we can manage to became 3D printable
  • Hide the “Bed Size” sketch that is no longer helpful
  • Click Fix/Unfix tool from main toolbar and select all the Text, this way all the objects became free to move
  • Once done the lines will became blue and no longer green

Now, one by one, we need to convert each 2D letter in a 3D solid object, using Offset and Extrude tools: with Offset tool we are going to create the horizontal dimensions, with Extrude tool the vertical dimension

  • Click Offset from main toolbar and select first letter outer border
  • Drag the border outside the letter or type -8 mm.
  • This offset will be the horizontal dimension for outer walls of the 3D printed letter
  • If the letter has internal shapes, like “B” does and “T” doesn’t (for example), add another offset also for all internal shapes. Up to you if use positive or negative offset depending if you prefer having less or more space inside the letter.

Last Offset we need is to create a little offset support for the final front cover of the letter:

  • Use again Offset tool selecting the original outer border (not the offset), and type 1,2 mm.
  • Repeat this same step for all the letters
  • Click Move/Copy from main toolbar, select all the lines from second letter and drag it close to the first letter overlapping a bit the wall offset. This way we’ll obtain a joint between different letters and a nice overlapping effects.
  • Repeat this same step for all the letters

Extrude 3D letter base and walls

  • Click Extrude from main toolbar, select ALL the letter clicking on all the parts that compose the first letter, pay attention to include also the overlapping parts with the next letter, type 1 mm and hit ENTER to obtain the thickness for base of the 3D printed letter
  • Once extruded a new Body will be generated inside Bodies folder, rename it “Letter B” than re-activate the “Text” Sketch
  • Rotate and adjust the view using Pan and Orbit command from bottom toolbar, I suggest to set a bottom view of the letter to better select the parts you need
  • Click Extrude from main toolbar, select only the 1,2 mm horizontal support offset, pay attention to include also the overlapping parts with the next letter, select Operation Join from the Extrude options on the right, type 29 mm and hit ENTER to obtain offset support for the final front cover of the 3D printed letter

  • Click Extrude from main toolbar, select only the 8 mm horizontal wall offset, clicking on all the parts that compose the first letter outer and inner wall, pay attention to include also the overlapping parts with the next letter
  • Select Operation Join from the Extrude options on the right, type 50 mm and hit ENTER to obtain vertical dimension for wall of the 3D printed letter
  • Now the first letter Body is ready, find it on the left Browser menù, under Bodies folder and click on the eye icon to hide it and better proceed with next steps, so that we will have a different body for each letter
  • Move back to Sketches folder and select the one containing the Text
  • From now you will have basically to repeat the same Extrusion steps as above for each letter, just pay attention to select the overlapping parts only in the previous letter and not in the next one.
  • As example, here below I’m going to repeat the process also for the second letter only
Extrude the base
Extrude the outer wall
New Body created
  • Final result should be the following; this is only the bottom part of the lighted sign
Bottom parts final result

Extrude internal semi-transparent cover

Now we need to create the semi-transparent top parts, that will close each letter allowing the internal Leds light to be visible

  • Hide all the Bodies from the Browser menu
  • Select the Text sketch
  • Click Extrude tool from main tool bar
  • Select the two internal offsets of the letter
  • Select Direction Two Sides
  • Type Distance Side 1 = 30 mm
  • Type Distance Side 2 = – 29,6 mm (this way the body will bee 0,4 mm thick)
  • Click again Extrude tool from main tool bar
  • Select only the thin support offset of the letter
  • Select Direction Two Sides
  • Type Distance Side 1 = 50 mm (total letter height)
  • Type Distance Side 2 = – 30 mm
  • Select Operation Join
  • Rename the new Body “Letter B inside”
  • Is not mandatory, but just to looks better you can assign a Material to the parts, right click on each Body, click Physical Material and choose a red color for the outer Body and a white color for the inner body

This way is more easy to see the final result we’ll obtain with both the parts assembled (and printed)

  • As you may already understood, now you have to repeat the same Extrusion steps as above for each letter until you get this result

Extrude joint channels for LEDs

The design is almost ready, but we need a way to bring the Led Strip internally around all the letter trough the joint point, so just add some holes for it:

  • Click Create Sketch and select the same plane as Text
  • Rename it LED Wiring
  • Click 2-Point Rectangle from main toolbar
  • Draw a rectangle on each join between each letter, 20mm wide, just enough to let your LED pass trough it
  • Click FINISH SKETCH
  • Hide all Solids from Browser menù except the letters outside bodies
  • Click Extrude tool from main tool bar and select all the rectangles just created
  • Select Direction Two Sides
  • Type Distance Side 1 = 1.00 mm (to start above the letter base thickness)
  • Type Distance Side 2 = -20.00 mm
  • Select Operation Cut
  • These holes will be the resuts

Add 3D print tollerance

To make easier the final assembly and allow some tolerance from our 3D printer precision, is strongly suggest to add a little offset for the internal solid covers

  • Hide all Solids from Browser menù except the letters inside bodies
  • Click Press Pull tool from main toolbar
  • Select one top external surface
  • Select Offset Type New Offset
  • Select all the external face segments of each letter (HOLD DOWN the keyboard SHIFT key and press ROLLER mouse button to ROTATE view, only press ROLLER mouse button to PAN view)
  • Type Distance -0,3 mm
  • This operation will add a little gap useful to assembly the parts and add some tolerance for material ad 3D printer precision
  • Repeat same steps for all letter inside bodies

Export STL files

Finally we can export all Bodies in STL files, ready to be sliced

  • Right click on Body from Browser menu
  • Click Save As Mesh
  • Select Format STL (Binary)
  • Select Refinement High
  • Repeat same steps for all Bodies
  • The final result for each printed and assembled letter will be the following:

Assembly info

  • To print the text I’ve used two PETG filaments colors, red for the outer side and white for the inner side.
  • Depending on the slicer settings, I’ve used 3 red spools and 1 white spool using a 10% infill
  • To glue the parts I’ve used Bostik MAX REPAIR glue
  • Electronic parts are described in this article just replace the WS2811 led with 2 WS2812 led strips, buy link
  • STL on Thingverse, click here