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3. Computer Aided design

Profesor Neil taught us multiple designing approaches and a variety of software we could use to get a job done. I tried four software.

Gimp

I wanted to laser etch a logo on the back of my final project. I decided to use Gimp to make the same. First, I made a hand sketch and used that as a base layer to make the drawing on computer.

See that the logos look pixelated on zooming in.

Inkscape

I tried to make the same logo in Inkscape. I had higher hopes for this since I have seen this being used for making drawings for laser cutting & logo designs.

I manually erased the protrusions using eraser tool to make it somewhat better

Zoomed-in image shows no pixelation as expected. Since I had to try Openscad, Antimony, FreeCad & Fusion 360 also within a week, I decided to stop the inkscape trials for now an concentrate on the next task in hand

Openscad

I was pleasantly surprised by the relative simplicity of this particular flavour of cad. The possibilities are endless. I tried to make some simple lines and some basic equations to play around a bit

Simple cube

Color trial

Cheat Codes

For some reason, my for loops did not work, so I tried doing translate multiple times to check whether that part of the code was correct

Made the for loop work

Random power functions

Downloaded a code from here to make this awesome Mathematical Loop

Antimony

I tried to install antimony to run it in WSL inside Windows. I have no idea why I cant install so many commands. I tried many things, but finally thought to do it later

Free Cad

I was planning to do the drawings of my project using FreeCad

Made a random rectangle with no dimensions

Specified required dimensions

Rounded the corners by draging down the nodes

Used the circular equality to make all the radius same

Alligned the edges acros the central point in drawing

Used the extrude option to make a 3d shape.

I stopped here to make sure that I get time for doing 2d,3d & rendering in Fusion 360

Fusion 360

I started with a rectangle & extruded it to form the 3d shape I used fillet to get the smooth radius to the edges Drew a random circle on a line Gave dimensions to the circle ad the line to get keep the circle at the desired location Used extrusion tool to make a circular well Drew another body inside the well Drew a small grip on the surface of the 2nd body. This is another body Extruded the body 3 with taper angle

Rendered the final design with a contrasting orange dial within a semi gloss black body.

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