3. Computer Aided design

This week has been quite intense and I still would need a few extra days to be take more tutorials. I am still not sure whether to go for autoCAD, freeCAD or Fusion360.

GIMP vs Preview

I tried out GIMP, but I did not find it as intuitive as using Preview on mac. With Preview, I can also resize all pics together in a very intuitive way. Based on what I read in the tutorial I followed, I am setting a width of 600px.

2D Design

For 2D design, I’ll use Inkscape, as I had alrady used in the past and I found it very nice. Later on, I’d like to learn to use also FreeCAD for 2D designs with constraints.

First issue here was to install inkscape in my mac! I finally used this version, which is a a development release of Inkscape 1.0. Also, I had to download Xquartz to make it work. I am still figuring out if it works fine.

Since my knowledge of inkscape is quite rusty, I have decided to take some tutorials again. I followed these ones on youtube (1;2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10 )

I am glad that my istructor suggested to buy a mouse, it’s very useful!

Useful things I have learned: - If you hold down the scroll wheel, you can move across the page; - Hold control on the keybord and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and zoom out - alternatively use - and + keys to zoom in and out; - Press ESC to desect an object; - Shift + Click on colour changes stroke colour; - Modify shape circle: click on the right-hand dot and move it around. If you wanna instead come back to full circle, the option is always on the top bar (after double clicking the image);

  • Stroke & Fill: interesting tool to play with colours. It can be brought up from the menu or by clicking on a certain object with the right button of the mouse;

  • Control + D: duplicate;
  • Control + G: group;
  • When you wanna take an object which is under another one: click Option key (or ALT);
  • Checked background (in document properties): if we want to see the background coloured;
  • In document properties, I can change the size of the area of work;
  • Export: page, drawing (limits of the drawing) or selection - in this process the size of the image can also be changed;
  • TEXT: option + shift to change space; option + up & down to move even a single letter; extensions: possible to change cases or split text (by line or words or even letters); Text on path –> to have it following certain paths.
  • Object to path: needed if we wanna control the object and change the shape in a manner which is ‘independent’ from the original shape –> works also for letters;
  • Free drawings: use high smoothness to make letters look nice;
  • Interesting pic to silouhette video;
  • Path –> simplify –> it smooths the path of an image;

I plan to continue to take these tutorials over the next weeks. I got up to tutorial no. 11.

Here the .svg file of my lesson.

3D Design

It took me quite some time to figure out which software I prefer. Since I work a lot with students, I decided first of all to learn a bit more about Tinkercad.

Tinkercad

I took a couple of tutorials (1; 2) and they were quite enough to understand how Tinkercad works. Important things to remember:

  • To move the perspective of the plate, right click + move the plate;
  • “hole” to subtract figure;
  • All the rest, you just learn by using it :-)

I have created a better design for my project, although it still needs to improve quite a lot. I still have to figure out how the planets will rotate and how I can hide the wooden parts above and below.

Here my .stl file downloaded from Tinkercad.

Next week, I plan to take some courses on Fusion 360 and FreeCAD.

Fun of the week

I have discovered the wonderful FabLab Boston (also known as South End Technology Center) and the great people who make it such an interesting place - especially for a person like me who is particularly interested in students’ education and peer-to-peer learning. The project shares the same attitude and approach of the Teens4Kids project, but it’s taken to the next level! I have so much to learn about their experience and will keep visiting it on Thursdays, when they have an open day.

I discovered TurtleStitch and made my first creation thanks to Susan!