Truncated Sphere Dice

The metal dice you have seen are actually polished since the material is Antique Bronze Glossy.
The Polished material I was referring to is Polished White Strong and Flexible.
Concerning the number of dice, I will have to make a inventory of what I have done, and most of all, of what is still do be done...
And thanks for the link. Loki has his own shop here, with very interesting dice: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/loki3

They arrived!

D33 Frosted Edition in Frosted Detail:
/openfile/248175/photos/photo40890.jpg
D33 Frosted Edition in Frosted Ultra Detail:
/openfile/248175/photos/photo40891.jpg

These dice contain the white wax (support material) inside.
The numbers need to be inked to be readable, but the overall quality is very good.

OK, I was holding this one since the begining of May, but it is time to release it
Here is the Truncated Sphere D24:
/openfile/250778/photos/photo40611.jpg

Very handy in RPG if you want to select an arbitrary hour of the day.

The numbering is quite classical (opposite faces sum to 25) but I have worked on a special numbering I discuss in this separate thread

A lot of new Truncated Sphere Dice arrived!

First my two D7 Sphere...
D7 with 2-fold symmetry (actually there are two mirror planes):
/openfile/318112/photos/photo56291.jpg
D7 with 3-fold symmetry (3 mirror planes):
/openfile/358971/photos/photo56288.jpg
Here is a picture that show both dice with the symmetry planes:/openfile/358971/photos/photo56290.jpg

I also receive the D13 Sphere (lucky or unlucky?):
/openfile/355544/photos/photo56298.jpg

the Alternative D24 Sphere:
/openfile/331487/photos/photo56299.jpg
(compare the shape to the D24 Sphere)

and the D32 Sphere (one of my first Truncated Sphere dice, but this is the first time that I take a picture of it)
/openfile/187765/photos/photo56300.jpg
Note that the D32 is HUGE (3 cm of diameter intead of 2).

Very happy with all of them... Alumide is a nice material for dice (not as good as metal, obviously )

I'm primarily interested in acquiring dice with numbers of sides that I don't already have. The gamescience D3, D5, & chessex D7 are beyond old news, so it was wonderful to find the Shapeways site a few weeks ago.

I placed an order for The Magic Shop D11 & D15 (along with a D60 from clsn). I tried alumide for the D11, frosted detail for the D15, and indigo s&f for the D60. They are all nice materials, but the alumide is wonderful. Picture below...



I gotta say that the D33 is very intriguing... it might be among the next ones I get.

Hi Td3379,

Thank you for ordering those Truncated Sphere Dice. I agree with you, Alumide is great. Metal is even better but is much more expensive (and you can kill someone with a bag full of a dozen of metal dice ).

This kind of dice (spheres with identical circular flat faces) allows any number of faces, in theory.
But all my Truncated Sphere dices also have interesting symmetries, which are sometime difficult to find.
Another point is to have faces as large as possible (this implies that most of the faces are touching their neighbours).

The D33 was a special order from Kevin Cook. I designed it in a couple of days only. Perhaps I could try to redisign it, taking my time...

Anyways, you can check the complete family of my Truncated Sphere dice to see if some number of faces are missing to your collection:
D3, D4, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10, D%, D11, D12, D13, D14, D15, D16, D17, D18, D19, D20, D24, D32, D33.

There also some alternative shapes, for existing number of faces:
alt D7 (2-fold), alt D8, 3-fold D10 (rounded), 3-fold D10 (pointed), 4-fold D10, 5-folded D10 (pointed), alt D24 (snub).

And if your are patient, these ones are coming soon:
D21, D22, D23, D50.

You could also be interested by these shapes which are also coming from the Truncated Spheres:
- Concave Dice: Concave D4, Concave D6
- Shell Dice: D3 Shell, D4 Shell (my favorite), D8 Shell.

And of course you will find a lot of strange dice from other designers (Clsn has a D9 and D24, Mctrivia some prime dice and two D144 etc.).

Welcome to Shapeways!

Hi Magic,

You're welcome! And thank *you* for designing them! I appreciate the interesting symmetries that the truncated spheres have... especially now that I can examine them with my own hands. And it's also very helpful to have the links for your different-sided dice all in a row there.

I would definitely like to get one made out of metal... I didn't want to get the pricier metal for my first order. I'll still get a few more in plastic, but I think I might put a metal die on my "xmas list" now Don't know whether to go with plain stainless steel or enhance it with bronze or gold, as long as I'm getting metal. Hmmmm...

Great to be here at Shapeways.

-TD

Ah, my Xmas gifts arrived... 3 out of 4 are great!
D9 in black s&f
D19 in red s&f
D17 in matte bronze... this one is exquisite up close
...and what was supposed to be a D13 in dark gray s&f



I'm really disappointed that somehow the numbers didn't make it onto the d13 in the upper right corner. :confused I guess I need to contact Shapeways and ask them what went wrong! Very, very strange...

I guess that's because the uploaded file is just a sphere without numbers.

https://www.shapeways.com/model/355544/

Take a look on the second pic.
(The white-and-grey pics are rendered by Shapeways straight from the data of the uploaded files.)



@ Magic
Why is it a co-creator ? :neutral:

Hi TD,

Nice presents you got there
As usual, the metal dice are really gorgeous.
I am sorry for the D13 was not what you expected.

As Pfeiffer Stylez mentionned, this is probably due to the original model of the co-creator being without numbers: for some reason, the co-creation customization was not taken into account, and the initially uploaded model was printed. Please contact the customer service, explain them the problem and ask for a reprint.

@Pfeiffer Stylez the reason why it is a co-creator is precisely for the customer being able to choose the numbering: numbering on top (the default), numbering on the bottom face and no-numbering. And the uploaded model is the blank one (without number) instead of the default one (numbers on top) because it has a largest volume (and thus this is the one that sets the price of all three models).
But I am considering removing the co-creators on my dice, since everybody is ordering them with numbers on top... Initially, I though there would be more demand for no-numbers (for people that want to add their own numbers or symbols) and with numbers on the bottom face (for those not really comfortable with numbers positionned anywhere on the die). But this is not the case...

Once again, sorry for the inconveniance.

I hope you had a nice Christmas, and wish you all an excellent 2012 year.

Ok! Will do! I shall ask for a reprint. I'm not upset at anyone... I just couldn't figure out why it was blank... it makes sense now. And in the meantime, since I do have a blank D13, I think I will take the opportunity to add my own symbols to it! Just gotta think of what there is exactly 13 of...

The 13 original United States colonies? That might be cool

And thanks, it was a great Christmas... looking forward to a great new year

Oh, and 1 more question for @Magic:
Is it possible to do the gold plated option with your dice? Or is it not an available option because the plating would wear off with continued handling/rolling?

Cheers,

TD

The only reason why Gold Plating is not available is that, in my understanding, only objects that can be hanged to a wire can be gold plated. So you need a hole or something to grab them, like the dice from the "Shell" collection (D3, D4, D6, D8).

Please, someone correct me if I am wrong.

TD, feel free to post the result of your D13 once finished. I'd like to see it

PS: probably Shapeways will propose you a coupon: before re-ordering the D13, if you still want a numbered one, please wait for me to remove the co-creator (cannot do it right now: I am not at home and I need to upload the numbered model): this will avoid any other surprise...

I received three Truncated Sphere dice, all in Alumide, just before Christmas.
The D3:

The D16:

And the D19:

Got my other D13... this one ended up being free after the coupon that Shapeways issued to me. I ordered this one in white strong & flexible since they were having a sale on that material... I put the extra few buck I saved toward the purchase of another print. Also pictured is my original D13. I decided to just add regular numbers to it... I used a red fine-tip Sharpie to draw thin numbers in my own handwriting. I decided that it didn't look so great (hard indeed to write well on a textured surface), so I thickened the numbers and then outlined them with a marigold fine-tip Sharpie so that they look like fiery numbers. I think it looks pretty nifty now.



Also, nice alumide dice, Magic! It's always odd how they look so bumpy in the pictures, but the actual dice are so smooth.

Oh, and about the gold plating... I see a few that don't look like they could be hung available in gold here:

https://www.shapeways.com/model/298837/
https://www.shapeways.com/model/272573/

Might order one of those next time just to see what happens.

Yes, it is not easy to write on curvy and porous surfaces. That's the beauty of digital manufacturing: adding the numbers on the 3D model with a modelling software, though not so easy either, gives very good results.
Happy that you got a new D13 from Shapeways.

Concerning Alumide, that's true that the way it catches the light make the material look very irregular, but when you got the object on your hands, you can see that the smoothness is nearly the one of Strong and Flexible material.

As long as Gold plating is concerned, I can make it available on any model, if you want to give it a try, just let me know by PM.

And thank you for showing many of my dice in the Show your collection thread!
I will probably show all of my dice, once I finish the ones that are still "work in progress"!

Three arrived today!



The D18 in glass, D7, and D33
The links, respectively:
https://www.shapeways.com/model/459598/
https://www.shapeways.com/model/358971/
https://www.shapeways.com/model/248173/

The glass D18 is interesting... I got the milky matte glass... there is a slightly white/gray/green(?) color to it. I will have to be very careful when rolling it. The detail is quite good.

Hi TD,

I am happy that the D18 printed sucessfully in glass, and that the details are correct.
If someone wants another truncated sphere die in glass, just let me know, and I will do a solid version of it.

In this picture you can see that the regular D33 is quite big compared to the other dice (30mm instead of 20).

Concerning the D33, this a new version with the proper numbering: the previous version had a fault in the numbering (in particuluar there were two numbers 19: shame on me). If you have bought such a faulty D33, please send me a PM and we will find an arrangement.

Regards,

Magic

With so many numbers to contend with, it is not that surprising that duplicates or mistakes have arisen. Sometimes 'errors' can increase the value of an object later on because of their rarity.

Thanks Orangery, you are very comprehensive
Faulty postage stamps can have a huge value: this faulty D33 can also get a very high value, but probably only after I'll become famous

Actually what is surprising is that nobody tolds me there was a problem until these last days, whereas I sold something like12 of them on a period of more than one year.

Now all the D33 of my shop are fixed but honestly, I am very embarrassed with this mistake for those who already bought one. That's why i will be more than happy to try to find an arrangement with them.

Breaking news: D14 and D18 to be mass produced!