Here we are with another installment in things-people-far-smarter-than-us-have-created. In this edition, we focus on the efforts of Conor Patrick, and his web-based 3D maze generation program.

First published in 2017 (yeah, we’re a bit late to this one), Patrick’s work uses an algorithm we won’t pretend to understand (Prim’s algorithm, for you computer science folks out there) to generate a dense path that fills out a cube, with both start- and end-point on the surface.

At its essence, the paths generated are not 3D printable, but a couple of functions in the app allow you to change this: either by subtracting the paths from a solid cube of material, or by subtracting an ever-so-slightly scaled down version of the maze from itself, creating a sinewy… well, maze, of pipes.

The purpose of it all? Drop a ball bearing in the entrance and see if you can get it out the other side. We’d wager not.

Note that this mini project is not for the faint of heart — Python experience is necessary just to get it running from its home on GitHub.

Also, how nice would this look printed in a slightly transparent resin? Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it.

You’re reading Stuff, a post covering the surprising, cool and outright useful things we encounter week in week out. Not always directly relating to 3D printing, although it often does, think of Stuff as our watercooler moment.

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Lead image: conorpp.com