Let’s make something!
2D to 3D
fold complex objects
The faces of 3d solids are usually squares or triangles. But they don’t have to be. As a matter of fact, there is one 3d volume that needs its faces to be pentagons (5-sided faces): the dodecahedron.
Dodecahedrons have 12 faces, so they are a bit more difďŹ cult to make than simple cubes or pyramids.
For the top side, start with one pentagon, and then connect 5 other pentagons to its 5 edges. (in pentagons, all edges are equal)
And do the same thing for the bottom side; pretty simple.
Now you could just make glue tabs to connect the top and bottom. However, when you design 3d objects in separate pieces, it’s better to ďŹ rst bring them together in the drawing of the at shape, before you cut it.
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Once you’ve connected the shape as much as possible, you can add a glue tab for each pair of edges that need to be glued.
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Notice that it’s useful to include matching numbers next to all the edges that need to be glued (that way you know that #2 matches with #2, and #17 matches with #17).
platonic solids:
There are only five 3d objects (’polyhedrons’) that can have all equal faces (equal shapes and equal spacing). They are known as the Platonic Solids because they were made famous by Plato (an ancient Greek philosopher). They are: icosahedron (20 faces) octahedron (8 faces)
tetrahedron (4 faces)
cube (6 faces)
dodecahedron (12 faces)
Note: 3d objects can have more than 20 faces (but they won’t all be absolutely equal).
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