Multi-Color 3D Printing Using Snap Together Parts

In my first few weeks with my 3D Printer, I was on a roll making 3D Models & prints of product logos - specifically the Google Apps products that I've been involved with. But, there was one product I was avoiding because of it's multiple color scheme - Google Drive.

The Google Drive logo is an equilateral triangle of 3 colors - blue, yellow and green. But, look at it closely and you'll also notice it is made up of 3 identical parallelograms - rhomboids, actually - as each side of the triangle, which fit together to form that shape.

Given that I had already experimented with snap together shapes, I decided the Google Drive logo was worth a shot.

I was sure that I could design and model just one part and then print it in 3 separate colors, which would then snap together to form the Google Drive logo.

The model was a variation on the experimental snap-together part I had previously designed. This one was would be more mathematically beautiful - with 60 degree (or 120 degree, depending on how you looked at it) angles between the horizontal and vertical parts of the rhomboid. That's what makes the triangle work when three parts are connected (remember that the sum of the 3 internal angles of any triangle equals 180 degrees; so 60 + 60 + 60 in this case)

The single part, printed in blue, green and yellow - with snap-together goodness - formed the Google Drive logo!

As a bonus - I found that these parts could be snapped together in other ways to form cool shapes and sculptures. I expect to do much more with the basic deisgn - but for now, I'm happy to print a few of these for some friends and co-workers who are fans of Google Drive.