3. Computer Aided Design¶
Introduction
During the third week of Fab Academy I worked on learning how to use a variety of CAD softwares to design a die in a variety of CAD environments and worked on moodeling my final project idea in Fusion 360. I have experience in both 2D and 3D modeling environments from using the equipment in my school's Fab Lab during engineering courses and activities throughout the past four years, but this week I wanted to design some more complex and detailed renderings than what I have done in the past. As of writing this, I have been unable to get my 3D Passport account to work so I am unable to utilize xDesign and Solidworks for now. I am terribly disappointed that I cannot experiment with these immensely powerful tools and hope that I will soon manage to get them to function properly.
Assignment
The official assignment for this week requires the completion of the following tasks.
- model (raster, vector, 2D, 3D, render, animate, simulate, ...) a possible final project, compress your images and videos, and post it on your class page
Designing Initials Logo In Pixlr
I have had experience with a multitude of 2D CAD platforms in the past, including Inkscape, Corel Draw, and various other vector design platforms. However, I did not have much experience with 2D-Design softwares prior to my exploration of Pixlr during this week's assignment. Inspired by my peer Teddy Warner, I decided to design a transparent PNG of my initials that could be added to my other designs to give it a more professional look. I decided to design the logo in a "blocky" format. I used the fonts within the software to type out the letters and then re-positioned the letters to give them an interesting staggered look. I then exported the file as a .PNG from Pixlr and converted it into several other file formats such as a .DXF and .SVG file so it can be used in my future laser cut files and 3D-print files throughout the remainder of Fab Academy.
Modeling A Die In TinkerCad (3D Design)
TinkerCAD is the first CAD software that I used many years ago upon receiving my first introduction to CAD. While the software is certainly rudimentary and lacks a multitude of useful features that are included in more professional software such as Fusion360 and xDesign, it still offers tools that can be used to design a wide variety of shapes and objects in a slightly less efficient manner than its professional counterparts. I began by using TinkerCAD to display how the process of designing a die would work without the various tools that I planned on using in more advanced softwares later on, as I wanted to provide dice from a wide variety of softwares including some more basic ones like TinkerCAD. The die pictured below took me roughly eight minutes to design and I used a series of cylinders and a prefabbed "dice" shape to create it.
Modeling a Die In Fusion 360 (3D Design)
Fusion360 is another CAD platform owned by Autodesk, but it is signifiantly more advanced compared to TinkerCAD. Rather than offering an array of basic shapes that all designs are based off of, Fusion360, allows users much more freedom in the design process, allowing for the creation of much more complex geometry with much greater efficiency for users who know various commands that significantly optimize the design process on the platform. I decided to re-model my die in Fusion360 and finished it in significantly less time than in TinkerCAD by employing the 'rectangular pattern' tool on each side of the die rather than having to draw each circle on the die individually. I created the die shape by drawing a rectangle, filleting its edges, extruding it, and then using the modify fillet command to flatten out the sides of the extruded die.
Beginning to Model My Final Project In Fusion360
After refreshing my 3D-design capabilities, I decided to begin working on the design of my final project, which is going to be a suitcase that follows its user based on a variety of sensory input. As I have been told to not worry about which material to use yet, I was not quite sure how to design my suitcase, as CNC'ing or laser-cutting the components of the suitcase would require the implementation of 2D-design techniques whilst 3D-printing the design would obviously require employing 3D-design techniques. I decided to go ahead and design a rough shape of my design in 3D just to provide a visual of what I hope it will look like at the end of the program. I do not at all plan to print this model or do anything with it as the model is significantly larger than the bed on even the largest printer that we have in the lab. After researching the allowed dimensions for a carry-on bag, I discovered that bags must be smaller than 9" x 14" x 22" to be allowed. I decided to make my model slightly smaller, its current dimensions are 8.5" x 11" x 18". Over the course of the following weeks, I plan to add various elements to this design such as mounts for my embedded electronics that I still need to plan out. I have plenty of time to do this, but I do plan to create a rough schedule in the coming weeks to ensure that my final project is completed in a form that I can be proud of. An image of the rough draft of my suitcase design is included below.
Conclusion
My exploration of various new softwares this week and revisiting of several softwares that I have used in the past provided a useful refresh to the softwares that I know I will be using frequently throughout the remainder of Fab Academy. I completed a basic draft of my suitcase this week which will be useful in the coming weeks as I begin to research how I want to embed electronics within my suitcase and mount motors within the device. I am currently contemplating various mechanisms that I could employ to drive the suitcase and will update my CAD accordingly throughout the course of the coming weeks leading up to the development period of my final project.
Files
All of my files from this week are included in a zip file in my GitLab repository. Please click here to download my files.