Week two

Yay!!!! I survived the first week of FabAcademy 😃 But week2 has been a real challenge as currently my country is under lockdown. On top of that, Bhutan received the heaviest snowfall and because of the snow, the power and the communication system was affected for 2 days. I couldn't attend online classes nor work on my documentation.

Computer aided design

This week, we were introduced to many softwares and asked to try them. During pre-fabacademy and fabZero, i learnt some basics on some of those softwares but this week i intend to explore more and deeper.

So i decided to go with the following softwares

For 2D design software= Inkscape and GIMP
For 3D design software= Fusion 360
For image editing software= Inkscape and imagemagick
For video editing software= Losslesscut

2D design

1. Fusion360

For this assignment I will design the idea of my final project (which I have changed four times already) on inkscape. Inkscape is an open source software.

I wanted to draw different designs for lamps. First I drew the geometric forms for the different elements of the project. Inkscape was introduced to me during prefabacademy and fabZero, I youtubed tutorials as well.

Pan the page: spacebar + move the mouse Zoom in: + Zoom out: – Zoom 100%: 1

Frequently Used Tools

Select: S Rectangle: R Ellipse: E Bezier pen: B Edit paths by nodes: N Color picker: D Text: T Gradients: G

Path Functions

Convert object to path: Ctrl + Shift + C Convert stroke to path: Ctrl + Alt + C Union: Ctrl + Shift + + Break Apart: Ctrl + Shift + K Difference: Ctrl + Shift + – Intersection: Ctrl + Shift + 8 Cut Path: Ctrl + Alt + /

Functions

Flip object vertically: V Flip object horizontally: H Group selected objects: Ctrl + G Ungroup selected objects: Shift + Ctrl + G Lower Selection One Step: Page Down Lower Selection to the Bottom: End Raise Selection One Step: Page Up Raise Selection to the Top: Home

I started creating some designs for lamps on inkscape. The designs are first draft only and not finalized.

2. GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized tasks. It is not designed to be used for drawing.

Shortcut keys for toolbox in GIMP

Rect Select- R
Ellipse Select- E
Free Select- F
Fuzzy Select- U
Select By Color- Shift+O
Scissors- I
Paths- B
Color Picker- O
Move- M
Crop and Resize- Shift+C
Rotate- Shift + R
Scale- Shift + T
Shear- Shift + S
Perspective- Shift +P
Flip- Shift + F
Text- T
Bucket fill- Shift + B
Blend- L
Pencil- N
Paintbrush- P
Eraser- Shift + E
Airbrush- A
Ink- K
Clone- C
Convolve- V
Smudge- S
Dodge/Burn- Shift + D
Swap color- X
Default colors- D

To design on GIMP

Click on file-> new-> set the parameters

Choose the background color
Add another layer to add text. To add layers, Click on layer->new layer.
After adding the new layer, Click on A on the left side to add text.

To save, click on file-> Export as and save the image in png format.

The design file: 3D in Gimp

3D design

1. Fusion 360

I used the fusion 360 version for hobbyists during prefabacademy and decided to use fusion360 for drawing the designs of lamps in 3D design. Now thanks to fabacademy, i got a free license for the Fusion 360 education. Fusion 360 is new to me and I had to go through several tutorials to learn about the software.

As there are so many tutorials on fusion 360 online, here are some of the tutorials which i think was informative and useful: Tutorial 1 tutorial 2

Basic steps:

First download the fusion 360 and install Fusion360
User Interface a. Top-left menu bar i. data panel ii. file button iii. save button iv. undo/redo

b. Mode selecter Under the design button, you have
- design
- render
- animation
- manufacture
- drawing
Design

For the 3D design project, i wanted to design a lamp which is a part of my final project. I first started by drawing the base of the lamp, then i drew the stand of the lamp and finally the lamp head holder design.

Next i drew the lamp head. i kept the base of the lamp, stand of the lamp and lamp head holder as one body and the lamp head as body 2 while drawing

Render

After completing my 3D design, next i went for render. The rendering environment of Fusion 360 is effective and easy to use. It provides the opportunity to visualize and communicate design intent

Steps to render a 3D design i. After completing your 3D design, navigate to the Render Design Space (in the mode selector) ii. Click on the appearance tab (colored ball at the left of the toolbar) iii. Drag the material you want under the appreance option and drop at the body of the 3D design to change the appearance. iv. click on render (tea kettle button) to render the 3D design v. To save the image, select the image you want from the rendering gallery and click on the download button

Animation

Drawing

Design files 3D fusion360 files

2. Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a free source easy to use web-app to draw 3D design, electronics and coding. I drew a parametric 3D design in the tinkercad.

Basics on tinkercad

Some functions on tinkercad

Basic steps

Open tinkercad in safari
Click on 3D design-> create new design

. Click on the shape you want from the shape panel and drag it to the work plane
Click on the shape to adjust the properties.
Add more shapes to get the desired design
Choose solid to have a solid design and choose hole to extrude downwards

For putting it all together, select all the components and then click on group to make the components into one

Since the tinkercad is a web-app, all the work will be saved automatically. If you want to print the 3D design, first click on “Export” and choose either the STL or OBJ file format. This should promptly open a download window.

Design file: Tinkercad demo

Image and video compression

Image and video compression is a very important step in the fabacademy since every week we are allowed to push only 10MB. I use the inbult printscreen feature of mac (Ctrl+shift+3) to take screenshots and if I want to edit or write some notes or put arrows while taking screenshoot, then i use flameshot. flameshot is a very easy and convenient software. One of the important step is to compress all the images before using in the assignments and pushing in the git. To compress the images, i use the software XnConvert. This software let you compress many images at a time and it is fast too. Likewise, i compress the videos before using in the assignments. As for the videos, I use the software handbrake. Handbrake is also a free source software and very convenient to use.

CAD2D: Raster and vector

Raster: Raster images use bitmaps to store information. This means a large file needs a large bitmap. File extensions: .BMP, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG

Vector Vector graphics are best for printing since it is composed of a series of mathematical curves. File extensions: .SVG, .EPS, .PDF, .AI, .DXF

In laser cutting machine: For engraving- vector image (2D curves) is used For marking/cutting/drilling- raster image (image) is used

Image optimization

Install image magick to the macOS

Commands to optimize images :

1. Convert bigimage.png - resize 640*640 smallimage.png 
2. mogrify -resize 640*640 bigimage.png
3. cp bigimage.png bigimage1.png
4. convert image1.jpg image2.jpg -geometry *400 + append stripimage

Video optimization

We can Extract videos from youtube from the terminals

To install
```
 brew install youtube-dl
```

To extract the video

 cd sonampaldondorji/fabzero-document/temp/
 youtube -dl paste the link

If you want to select resolution and audio
In the terminal

 youtube-dl -F paste the link 
 youtube-dl -f 251 paste the link

Inkscape

To vectorize (Raster to Vector)

Upload the image png
click on path and click Trace Bitmap

Single Scan for Black&white image
Multiple Scan for Coloured image

Adjust Brightness cutoff: higher the brightness threshold number- thicker the line
Apply on update to see if image is upto your preference

Click apply once you are done
Click document properties
Click on resize page to drawing selection
Put in the following parameters W = 210mm H=152mm for A4 size Top=5, bottom=5, left=5, right=5
Save the vectorized image

To rasterize (vector to png)

Open the image png
click on file
Click on export png image
Click on page

Set the parameters

 dpi 200-300= For printing
 dpi 600= For machines
 dpi 1200= For super precise (pcbs etc)

Click on document properties

Put in the following parameters

 W = 210mm H=152mm for A4 size
 Top=5, bottom=5, left=5, right=5

Save the image

Losslesscut

Open losslesscut app
Open the video you want to trim the video
Press i to start the section you want to trim and o to end the section
You can make as many sessions as need
Click on export to save the video