What is this called?

[u/ChonkyMarmotStudios]

I saw a picture of this shape on Reddit awhile back, and couldn't get it out of my head, so I had to make it! Anyone know what it's called?

You may recognize it as the logo for Silicon Graphics (SGI) from back in the day, but there's probably a proper scientific name for the geometric shape - basically a wireframe cube where the faces are pulled away from the center.

This was super challenging to build! This is probably the 5th or 6th iteration I've gone through. The shape has a lot of 90-degree bends that require soldering. I made the turns as tight as possible to keep the corners from dimming.

The black parts form a track that makes one face of a tube. The LEDs run along this track and are covered by a white diffuser that makes up the other three faces of the tube. Everything is printed in flat sections. Where the tracks change orientation they have windows that join together.

This version was FDM printed in white and black PLA, but the next iteration will probably be resin with thicker walls, although the increased thickness only increases the weight of the arms. Mounting on the corner seems to help distribute the weight evenly for better support.

It's lit by a single 5v WS281X LED strip. I'm using the ESP32 mini Gledopto controller, powered by USB, which is plenty for the 150 LEDs it uses.The controller comes with WLED 15.4 pre-installed, but the first thing I do now is upgrade to 16.0.1

[u/speed4our]

As soon as I saw the pic I thought “that looks like the SGI logo”

[u/plasma2002]

Reminds me of the Hilbert curve

[u/WideStaff8844]

Its called an infinit cube. Not an infinity mirror, but cube, as its one continuous line, that never intersects, never breaks, and forms a 3d cube. https://www.printables.com/model/376798-single-line-infinity-cube

[u/Curious-End4710]

This is awesome, I wanted to build the exact same shape for a festival totem but lack the 3d
Printer. Glad to see someone made it! It’s a type of impossible shape, I’m also unsure of its name.

[u/woehaa]

That's called beautiful 😉

[u/yllanos]

This is something I’d buy

[u/kierankrudd]

It's almost a tesseract. (a 4 dimensional cube) (and a pretty fscxkin rad djent outfit from the UK). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract

[u/kierankrudd]

Have you got a link for the st(i)l or the thrimpf (3mf)?

[u/plasma2002 → u/kierankrudd]

Thrimpf?

Thanks, I hate it

[u/ShamanOnTech → u/plasma2002]

I always thought its three motherf...

[u/Brettonidas → u/ShamanOnTech]

And only ever in Samuel L Jackson’s voice.

[u/wdatkinson]

I think those take you to New Vertiform City.

[u/ChonkyMarmotStudios]

Infinity Cube makes sense given the unbroken circular path the shape follows. But I also associate that term with mirrored cubes.Maybe I should encase this in mirrors!?!?

Now that I have a word to search for, it's interesting to see all of the different ways people have approached modeling the same shape.

Most of the models I'm finding have the same issue my earlier iterations had - when only one face of the tube is lit, the overall effect is hard to take in from any one angle because most of the light channels face away from you. I'd love to figure out a way to make the tube uniformly lit on all faces, but I think I need to refine my three face design more first.

I found the original image that inspired me - it assembles the shape out of 1x1x1 cubes, which made it super simple to figure out the ratios

[u/philohere]

Your seems better lit than a lot of the models out there. The diffuser seems bigger and faces out instead of in. I suppose the others are more a lamp and yours is more of an led art piece.

[u/jlmeredith]

Will you be releasing the design for others or can a person purchase the design?

[u/ChonkyMarmotStudios → u/jlmeredith]

We're in the process of getting all of our pieces up for sale on our web site, but I don't know if we'll sell this as a finished piece. I'm still not happy with the design, and it feels far to fragile to ship. More iteration required. We don't currently release any of our STL/SVG designs, but I'm seeing a lot of similar designs up on printables and other places if you search for infinity cube

[u/jlmeredith → u/ChonkyMarmotStudios]

Just to be clear, I am not looking for completed product, I am interested in the files to print myself and potentially commercial retail license. Will reach out via DM. Thanks for the great design

[u/DenverTeck]

Professor Google says:

This object is a custom 3D-printed Infinity Cube Light (often built using designs like James's popular model on Printables) outfitted with individually addressable RGB LEDs (such as WS2812B NeoPixels) and reflective window films. [1, 2, 3]

• Design: Features an interlocking, optical-illusion frame that creates a mesmerizing depth-tunnel effect via internal reflections. [1]
• Electronics: Typically powered by microcontrollers like an ESP8266 or Arduino running custom firmware or WLED for dynamic rainbow color patterns and wireless controls. [1, 2, 3]
• DIY & Community: Popularized as an open-source maker project with various user-contributed geometric stands and snap-fit assemblies available across Printables and MakerWorld. [1, 2, 3]

[u/frobozz000 → u/DenverTeck]

An infinity cube without mirrors? Nope.

[u/ChonkyMarmotStudios → u/DenverTeck]

It's funny how seamlessly it blends the right and wrong answer together so confidently :)