3. Computer Aided Design¶
I am excited about this weeks assignment because I am very interested in learning more about computer generated 3 dimensional design. I am pretty familiar with computer generated 2d design and use adobe illustrator almost everyday to work on personal projects. However I have little experience with computer aided 3D design.
Ever since I can remember design has always been a part of my life. As a little girl I was more likely to play with legos than barbies. At an early age I started collecting scraps from the dump and building new systems out of them (sorry mom & dad). I have always worked very intuitively, jumping right into creating, I like think that my hands have brains. I will always enjoy creating this way, but it is now time to learn how to create through a systematic, iterative process. Every time I learn something new my passion for design grows stronger and my patience weaker. My hunger for learning new design practices is at an all time high however I tend to always think large when I need to start small. In the spirit of spiral development I will model a possible final project using a software I am not familiar with.
My version of “playing” with barbies
2D, 2.5D¶
Raster images are made up of pixels and Vector images are made up of paths. Vectors are good quality images that can be stretched from the size of a business card to the size of a building. Raster graphics can be made from Vectors and are a collection of colored pixels that make up the images. The clearly defined edges of these pixels are what allows one to recreate images on products. Rasterizing an image allows printers to separate colors cleanly to make sure the design that is printed is just as clear and crisp as the design you send.
I will be using Adobe Creative Suite for 2, 2.5D designs.
3D¶
As a studio design major I learned the basics of Fusion 360 and Sketch-Up in an Industrial design class(beginner level). Sketch-Up was the first software I tried. Sketchup is available via freeware however to gain access to full features and functionality, SketchUp Pro is a paid version. I like how easy it is to design using the draw then push and pull method allowing someone without a background in CAD able to design an 3D object. I also found that their toolkit made designing using measurements pretty simple. Fusion360 is the second program I tried, and I liked it so much I am still using it today. It is free for students, which is a huge bonus, I also found it to be very user friendly and easy to navigate. Fusion also has the benefit of Autocad owning powerful CAM software so CNC work is easily integrated (which will come in handy for later units).Since I have used Sketch-Up and Fusion360 before I wanted to try out a new software, so I downloaded and installed Rhino.
FabVape¶
Here I designed a very basic model of my vaporizer idea, using simple geometries and commands. I started with a rectangle for the body of the device and extruded it. Then I made a smaller rectangle for the mouth piece and extruded it. Next I used the Boolean difference tool to mesh the two solids. I followed the same steps for the buttons, created 2d shapes, extruded them, finishing with a boolean difference.
Below is a castle I designed in Rhino, playing around with different commands.
Commands Used:¶
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ExtrudeCrv: Creates a surface by tracing the path of a curve in a straight line. It is really important to select S in case you want to extrude a solid and not a surface.
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Array: Copies objects spaced in columns, rows, and levels in the x, y, and z directions. This allow us to make patterns faster and easier.
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ArrayPolar: Same that array but instead of using Cartesian coordinates, you use polar coordinates.
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Explode: Divides a group of elements, into their minimum part.
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Join: A group different parts into one structure.
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Trim: Cuts and deletes selected portions of an object at the intersection with another object.
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Booleand Operations: Allows the user to add, subtract or work only with the union of 3D components.
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Sweep: Transfer an chosen area through a path line, developing a surface or solid.
Useful links¶
My favorite part of this week was using Rhino. It has a lot of cool features and plugins including grasshopper which is something that I defiantly want to learn when I find the time. I found Rhino to be a tractable modeling solution and it allowed me to manipulate individual variables, with many different approaches solve design problems. I really like Rhino and would like to become closer acquainted to it. The only downside is it is not free and for a student it is a bit pricey for me to purchase. However I think it is defiantly worth the purchase If I become serious about mastering it.