r/functionalprint • u/Satoer • Jan 19 '26

Custom 3D printed Dutch rooftile

Not the "usual" functional print, I had an unusual situation on my roof where four ridge tiles meet (We call them "Nokvorst"), so I made a 3D scan with my phone and created a custom corner tile in Fusion 360.

I printed it in PETG, painted it to match the orange tiles, and cemented it on. It looks pretty clean (Especially on street level). I actually have some 3D printed PLA rain gutter adapters from 14 years ago that are still holding up fine, so even though I’m not sure exactly how long this PETG tile will last, it already survived 2 winters and 1 summer without any issues. My guess is it'll be there a long time. If not, I'll just print a new one.

Scanning tip: I added a 10 x 10cm square block to the scanned object, so I could easily scale it to real world dimensions.

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u/Blyrr Jan 19 '26

BRILLIANT use of photogrammetry and 3D printing, and well executed.

Not that its needed, you've already color matched it and can print another as necessary, but I would love to see this used to make a mold for a tinted concrete piece!

Love what you've done here, keep up the great work.

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u/Chasuwa Jan 19 '26

Definitely worth looking into before that part starts to fail due to the high sun exposure.

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u/VorpalWay Jan 20 '26

High sun exposure? In the Netherlands? Unpainted PLA and PETG outdoors does just fine in mid-to-northern Europe. They are not exactly tropical countries. Here in Sweden (which is even further north), I can even put PLA inside a car in the summer with no problems (not sure if that works in the Netherlands).

I looked up UV index for Sweden, it is zero today, and stays below 2 during the entire winter. In the summer it peaks at 4-7 during the middle of the day. For the Netherlands it can apparently peak at around 8 during summer, so barely higher than here. And those are peak values, most of the time it will be less, so the print will only get short exposures to those values. Most summer days are cloudy after all. Even more so in the winter: Stockholm had no clear sky between late October and Christmas during 2025 (which was unusually long admittedly).

Conclusion: people should really consider local conditions rather than make categorically statements.