Platonic

What is Platonic?

Platonic makes the printed corner pieces for building large polyhedra out of wooden dowels. You pick a figure, set the dowel size and length, and download the connectors; the page tells you how many to print and how many dowels to cut at which length, then you push everything together into a frame. A gallery shows finished frames built at home.

There are 11 figures: the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron, the stella octangula (also with an inner octahedron), and four Kepler-Poinsot star solids: the small stellated dodecahedron, the great dodecahedron, the great stellated dodecahedron and the great icosahedron. Dowels can be 2 to 10 mm thick and 50 to 600 mm long, and for the star figures you choose whether the length sets the longest or the shortest stake. You can also set the bore clearance (0.1 mm by default) and the wall thickness. An assembled 3D view shows the frame, its faces and the core solid it is built on, with the frame height. The README says only the 4 mm and 5 mm parts have been test-printed so far.

The parts are computed by OpenSCAD inside your browser, which took about 2 seconds in our check. Download all saves each connector type as its own STL, and a part tab saves just that part. Settings live in the address bar, so Copy link shares a design. It is free with no account. The code is GPL-3.0 because it ships the OpenSCAD runtime; that license covers the software, not prints, and the page says you may sell prints. It is by the maker of twirly and suits teachers, families and anyone who wants a big geometric frame for a room or a classroom.

What you can make

• Connectors for the five Platonic solids
• Star polyhedra such as the stella octangula
• Kepler-Poinsot dowel frames
• Cut lists for the dowels

How to use Platonic

1. Pick a figure such as the icosahedron or a star solid
2. Set the dowel size and length
3. Note the connector count and the dowel cut list
4. Download all STLs, print them and push the dowels in