I stumbled across this compound yesterday, an example of exploratory polyhedral manipulation using Stella 4d producing an unexpected result. If you would like to experiment with a free trial download of this program, before deciding whether or not to purchase the fully-functioning version, simply click here: www.software3d.com/Stella.php.
The snub dodecahedron is chiral, meaning it appears in left- and right-handed forms. This faceted version, where the same set of vertices is connected in different ways (compared to the original), possesses the same property.
Chiral polyhedra can always be tranformed into interesting polyhedral compounds by combining them with their own mirror-images. If this is done with the polyhedron above, you get this result, presented with a different coloring-scheme.
Both of these images were created using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, and you may try it at www.software3d.com/Stella.php.
The truncated isocahedron has an interesting (and long) stellation series. Here are some of the stellated forms of this polyhedron which I find particularly interesting and attractive, starting with its 41st stellation.
This one is the 42nd stellation:
Jumping far ahead in the series, this is the 126th stellation:
And, finally, the 148th stellation.
All four images were produced using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator. You can try this program for yourself at www.software3d.com/Stella.php.
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