So, with the change of two parameters, the OpenSCAD program can model a 170×230 mm sheet:
That works out to a 9×13 array of 117 armor buttons sitting amid 140 connecting links, with two threads = 0.8 mm between adjacent links.
It’s quite imposing in black PLA:
The skirt thickness varies from 0.15 mm in the X-Y+ corner to 0.25 mm at X+Y-. That’s so close I’m not even tempted to adjust the screws.
As before, all those links pop off right the cool platform without any fuss; the joints had good clearance, the bridges worked, and nothing required post-processing:
You can’t make this through subtractive machining. You can’t make it using molding, either, because the links have barely a sliver of air on all sides: there’s no room for the mold and no way to extract the sheet of links. You could, I suppose, use lost-wax / lost-plastic casting, but cutting the sprue and vent off every link would get really tedious really fast.
Of course, you’re looking at a 5 MB STL file, 22 MB of G-Code, nine continuous hours of printing, and 120 grams of PLA: it’s the largest “single” object I’ve ever printed…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Have you figured a way to connect one sheet to another?
Yup! Watch this spot. [grin]
Basically, split an armor link horizontally, just above where the crossbars from adjacent links pass through, which is a slight tweak to the existing link model. Then put the two bottom bars across the sheet joint and glue the button on top: done! The fiddly parts involve lining up all the links and holding them in place while gluing the buttons.
Fortunately, the job scales linearly with the sheet size; the annoyance is the square root of fiddling with every single link in the sheet.
I joined two big sheets freehand and decided the task obviously calls for a gluing fixture that I haven’t built… and won’t, unless somebody wants a lot of armor.
My then-gf tried to talk me into making chainmail armor for her horse once upon a time. It was a 18H thoroughbred-arab cross, multiple square meters of mail…
Watching a printer for a few
daysweeks seems infinitely moah bettah than splitting & joining steel rings… but your sheet would look a lot more convincing than mine!