I got this far with the design, and thanks to my friend Dennis for suggesting the use of only two solenoids per segment and even one is possible! Dennis is getting into making custom 3D printers and I'm buying one from him, they rock!

OK, so this Ivan is getting closer with it's blue flexible bases and red bobbins and grey cores, but I can't help think of myself - oh how unimaginary! I mean, solenoids are solenoids so why not just BUY a bunch of ordinary solenoids instead of this monstrosity of bad solenoids 3D printed with cylindrical shapes! The whole concept should be something creative with shapes that can only be made on a 3D printer! bah, i trash the design yet cling to the concept!

Perhaps what would be cool would be to return to the way nice planetary design we have created and duplicate it along a tentacle-like linear shape. Maybe just chaining them together will do the trick? What is the goal? Unspecified! So no wonder there is floundering! So what we need is a goal for Ivan. I put this question out for group discussion in the comments! What is Ivan's design objective?