This is one of the main reasons I decided to do FabLab. I didn’t realise there was quite so much information and different programs for 3D design. We covered the basics but I wasn’t as familiar as I should have been with them, given my interest in Product and Industrial design.
Since I’m still behind on HTML and Git, I’m slightly overwhelmed. There are so many programs I’m glad I’m familiar with some of them.
I was terribly discouraged when we got the SolidWorks workshop because despite the fact that we get a license as a part of the FabLab package, I am unable to download it into my computer because the operating system is too old.
I’m worried this pattern will continue throughout the course. It was difficult to install Git and get it working for the same reason. Some of the programs that would have made the process a a lot less painful were also unavailable for OS X 10.10.5 or below. It remains uncertain if I’ll be able to work with the programs that we’ve yet to cover.
The instructor allowed me to borrow his computer, and even though it was in german, the program wasn’t too difficult to understand. I successfully built a lego brick and established parameters for it in such a way that I could use the base design to array them and make a “bigger version” of it. I found the “If” option particularly useful, specially for future projects (if I ever manage to get SolidWorks, that is).
Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures of the exercise.
However, it strikes me that SolidWorks appears to be most complete program for proper 3D design seeing as it’s a fully parametric tool.
It allows you to set a number of parameters that can be more or less ambiguous, as it were, and you can simply put in the value of each parameter as you go. That is to say, you can make the general shape of a table,for instance, but if you’re smart about how you about designing it, then you can change the design simply by changing the value of the height, or the thickness of the material, etc, if it changes as the project goes along, so instead of having to redo the whole drawing, you only need to change the value of the parameters you’ve set.
Day 3
Class:
For the 2D work I decided to do a single tessellation module on Adobe Illustrator.
It was simple enough. Adobe programs work more or less the same way so if you’re familiar with one you’ll find the rest very user friendly. Saying they are intuitive may be a stretch because there are so many options and functions to keep up with, however, once you get the basics out of the way it becomes easy to use.
The tools I used were quite simple: The pen tool and the Poligon tool (you can find it by double clicking on the Rectangle tool.
Then I modified the type of stroke for the lines I wanted to be dashed...
For the 3D program, I went with AutoCad, seeing as I can’t download SolidWorks or Fusion360 and we’ve yet to cover Blender or Rhino.
I decided to attempt to make a simplified geometric study of a hummingbird.
AutoCad has two modes, 2D and 3D. In Mac they show as Drafting and Modelling respectively.
What I did, was I drew in 2D the tree different profiles of the basic form I knew I wanted in 3D, using straight polylines, circles and curves.
After I was done with the 2D drawing, I could draw spheres wherever the drawing indicated they were needed. For some I had to use the Cut tool and the Cone tool, to get the desired shape, but most of them were whole spheres. After they were done, I simply did a boolean union after selecting all of them to make the body a single solid.
The wings were quite impossible. They’re a complex form and it’s very clear that AutoCad wasn’t made with such actions as these in mind.
I was able to fix the problem with my operating system and in the upcoming documentation you’ll be able to find further examples and designs from other programs in the following weeks.
