CAD Assignment Week of February 5, 2014: After watching the 2/5 video, I gravitated toward the small intestine as my final project. More complicated than the esophagus, less esoteric than the pancreas, more easily comprehended by my twelve year old students. I want a tube the actual twenty foot length, pliable enough to be folded within an abdominal cavity container, and capability of seeing the baffled lining. I want a close-up 3D model of a villi with a capillary bed.
I scoured my anatomy books and employed Google to find images of the small intestine that might be applicable.
I used one of those images within Photoshop (airbrush and eraser) to create an image to serve as my baseline inspiration.
I downloaded and played with GIMP to see how it differed from Photoshop (not a lot).
I downloaded MyPaint and made a VERY rough copy of the villi.
I used Sketchup (and YouTube) to create half a torus. I need to get the Sketchup guy away from my intestine prototype!
Next, I downloaded and used 123D to create a hollow half torus.
Lastly, I downloaded and used Blender to duplicate, translate and rotate some tori into a chain. Animated peristalsis and animated diffusion seem plausible but very distant on my learning curve. It has all been enlightening and I really, really need to get a mouse.
The only software I had familiarity with before beginning this assignment was Photoshop. Everything else was brand new to me. I am happy to have Gimp as it is so similar and free. I have already begun to recommend MyPaint to my students and I will purchase a mouse this weekend, which will facilitate my future efforts. My current plan is to focus on familiarizing myself with Sketchup as well. 123D and Blender will have to wait until I have more complex needs, as well as time. I am certain my middle school students will advance my learning speed exponentially as we use these programs together. Mickie Flores Home