Freelance Design Brief — Breathable Open-Lattice Wall for an FDM-Printed Shoe Upper Anyone

We need a breathable mesh zone on the shoe upper designed as real, engineered lattice geometry — explicitly not a displacement/PBR texture set, and not exposed slicer infill.
Scope — this engagement (Step 1 only). ONE pattern: diamond/diagonal open lattice (reference images attached), developed as parametric, editable geometry and proven on generic test surfaces. Single final delivery; no revision rounds included. Follow-up work is contracted separately (see Next steps).
Design constraints (summary — full parameter envelope shared under NDA at Step 2)
• Desktop FDM, flexible TPU, 0.6 mm nozzle
• Upper wall prints in a near-vertical orientation; all struts must be self-supporting in that orientation — no supports inside the mesh, minimal/no bridging
• Millimeter-scale features: strut widths in whole multiples of extrusion width (order of 1–1.5 mm), open cells in the low single-digit mm range
• Pattern must flow seamlessly and continuously over doubly curved surfaces — no visible seams, breaks, or unintended density jumps
• Clean transitions into surrounding solid zones; no non-manifold geometry, no zero-thickness walls
• Exports: watertight, manifold, slicer-ready 3MF/STL, mm units
Deliverables (single final package)
• Parametric source in Rhino+Grasshopper, Blender Geometry Nodes, or Houdini (Blender GN preferred, not required). Exposed parameters: cell size, strut width, open-area %, pattern angle. Ability to vary density/openness across the surface (gradient zoning) is a plus.
• Test geometry — files only, no printing on your side (we print everything in-house): (a) flat swatch tile ~100×100 mm, (b) the same pattern applied to a doubly curved sample surface. Both as watertight 3MF/STL plus the parametric source.
• Short README: parameter guide + recommended slicer settings (seam placement, wall order).
Acceptance. Files are checked against the constraints above; corrections needed to meet the stated constraints (e.g., unsupported spans, non-manifold geometry, non-functional parameters) are part of this delivery. We then print-test in-house. Design iteration based on print results is not included — it is contracted separately at your hourly rate.
Next steps (separate engagements, not part of this quote): print-driven iteration (hourly); application of the final pattern to our upper geometry under NDA; potential extension to a multi-pattern mesh library.
Commercial. Fixed price, single delivery. Full IP assignment required (contract provided); our geometry and detailed parameters are shared only under NDA in later steps. read less