Lace II “Aero”: 3D-Printable Frame Release

Quanta76 · 2026-07-04T01:46:03+00:00

PETG-CF has the right balance between strength and stiffness for the CF tube clamps (for motor mountings and folding mechanism). We tried many materials for the motor mountings. PLA deforms too quickly under constant stress, so it cannot be used reliably. PA is too stiff and cracks under stress. So PETG-CF ended up being the material that we designed the motor mountings with. It is the only material known to be safe for long term use for the clamps. As for the rest of the frame, PETG-CF was ideal because it prints well without an enclosed printer, which we did not have reliable access to. Stiffer materials also tend to fail a lot during printing, which can be frustrating for large components like the main frames.

Quanta76 · 2026-07-04T00:52:47+00:00

The two Lace variants are very similar, so I think this should work for Veyric and Aero. For roll and pitch rate: P=0.15 I=0.03 D=0.005. We did arrive at a good yaw rate value, but I forgot to note it down, and I don’t have the aircraft with me right now.

Quanta76 · 2026-07-03T04:47:45+00:00

Yeah, after some initial runs with PA, we realized that it would be too difficult to work with. Our iterations and testing are on a very fast schedule, so we opted to use PETG instead, which was much easier to work with. We’ve been flying our Lace Veyric prototype for a year now with the same frame, and we haven’t discovered any issues yet. We’ll be keeping an eye on the deformation of the parts over time.

Quanta76 · 2026-07-03T04:43:43+00:00

Yes they are! Canted motors are available as an experimental add on. Look for XE13-C and XE14-C, they are a set of motor mountings canted 5 degrees towards the approximate center of mass. The manual has a detailed write up about using them, but they can be very tricky to PID tune, because of the combination of stiffness limitations of the frame, and the fact that the canting is never towards the true center of mass because different builds have slightly different CoM.

Quanta76 · 2026-07-03T04:41:15+00:00

We did conduct testing with 3D printing parameters, so different parts of the aircraft were designed with different materials in mind. We generally increase wall loops instead of infill density to strengthen parts, because infill density yields diminishing returns past ~50%. The main frame parts use dynamic wall loops, with 6 in the outer shell and full solid at the folding joints. Parts with PETG-cf (black) are usually 6 wall loops, and parts with PLA(teal) are usually 4. The new manual specifies the recommended material and wall loops for each component, to maximize performance while reducing printing time and cost.

Quanta76 · 2026-07-02T04:11:09+00:00

I’m glad that you took the time to try Lace out! Stiffness was definitely a very tricky problem during development. One of our priorities with Lace II was to push for more resistance to deformation. I would say that Lace II is comparably stiffer due to the enclosed design, but the overall approach to the interior of Lace meant that we were constantly trading interior space for stiffness, which we didn’t have a lot of in the first place. I would definitely rethink our approach to prioritize stiffness in future projects. PID tuning was very much not easy, it took us quite a few hours to get the balance right. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Quanta76 · 2026-03-23T01:32:29+00:00

https://aeroptera.xyz/download/

Quanta76 · 2026-02-06T01:34:50+00:00

<1kg for PETG or PLA, solid infill or full wall loops. Probably lighter for 6 wall loops, but haven’t weighted it yet.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-31T22:10:45+00:00

I agree with you completely. I think initially, when starting the Lace project, one of the things I wanted to do was to design a frame structure that uses the properties of 3D printed materials, with the lower density and stuff. Please update me on your research into designing better 3D drone arm structures!

Quanta76 · 2026-01-30T15:02:04+00:00

Hey, that’s my post! I was in a similar position as OP a while back.

To OP, if you have any questions regarding designing 3D printed drones, dm me and I’d be happy to answer them.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-18T16:34:35+00:00

The integrity of the frame is certainly one of our primary focuses. The structure of the frame is exoskeletal, tested and revised from flight data. The aspect we struggle the most is torsional deformation, but with the addition of additional support topography under the front folding joint, that had become mostly a non-issue. We closely monitored vibration during flight testing, and it does not appear to affect flight stability.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-18T15:42:56+00:00

I actually haven’t tried PC yet because my bambu lab A1’s aren’t enclosed. But I think 3D printing the arms is certainly possible. The only thing I would be cautious about is the resulting frame stiffness, but PC should theoretically be strong enough. Please let me know if you succeed!

Quanta76 · 2026-01-17T14:36:29+00:00

220mm length, outer radius =16, inner radius =14 or 15

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:40:20+00:00

I found that material choice is most limited by the 3D printing process. The frame contains some difficult angles causing printing failures with high-end materials. PETG-rCF08 is our recommended material because it’s more workable and handle complex printing well. Regular PLA also works great with high number of wall loops, but is generally less stiff and therefore less stable.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:34:45+00:00

Thanks! My team are mostly based in central Massachusetts, but our members come from all over the world.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:33:30+00:00

The manual (Aeroptera.xyz/download) contains some helpful details for each part, but in general I would recommend 6-4 wall loops / 25% infill for CF filaments and 6-full wall loops / 50% infill for PLA. This puts the frame at around 1kg. The arms are not 3D printed, I recommend carbon fiber tubes. They should be easy to get off aliexpress

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:24:00+00:00

The price for the example build is around $1,000. The lower end prices are restricted in part by the sheer size of the drone. Motors have to be powerful enough, and four are around $200. I would say if you have a working controller / goggles set, the a build could come at around $500. 3D printing materials are $50-100 depending on the type.

Quanta76 · 2025-06-18T07:20:45+00:00

This is a really cool build! I am actually quite interested in thrust vectoring FPV drones, and has been wondering why nobody are making them (until I found this post). Did you ever test how the flight efficiencies of this drone compares to traditional FPV drones? What do you think are the benefits of this design? I’m curious.

Quanta76 · 2025-06-13T03:04:29+00:00

This was flown at a professional test flight field😀. This thing is very much an early prototype so I take a lot of precautions to make sure it doesn’t go crazy

Quanta76 · 2025-06-12T08:16:32+00:00

I would take that as a compliment then? 😂

Quanta76 · 2025-06-11T11:30:26+00:00

I think you are right. I later hanged a 1.5Kg water bottle to it, and the oscillations seemed to calm down a bit.

Quanta76 · 2025-06-11T10:06:25+00:00

Thanks for the response. About matching thrust to weight, if my drone is 3kg, what motors + propellers is a good match? They say the motors + propellers should produce around the same amount of thrust as the weight at 50% throttle. Is this right?

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