3. Computer Aided design

Our Homework this week

Our assignment this week is to:

Model a possible final project, compress your images (complete) and videos (complete), and post it on your class page. Models should include software examples of the following CAD tools:

• Raster
• Vector (complete)
• 2D (complete)
• 3D (complete)
• Render
• Animate
• Simulate

Learning outcomes include:

• Evaluate and select 2D and 3D software (complete)
• Demonstrate and describe processes used in modeling with 2D and 3D software (complete)

Have you Answered these Quetions?

• Modeled experimental objects/part of a possible project in 2D and 3D software (complete)
• Shown how you did it with words/images/screenshots (complete)
• Included your original design files (to do)

While we don’t have to complete parametric design this week, it is part of the assignment for next week, so we should get started on it if possible.

My plan for this week is to learn how to work in Inkscape, FreeCAD, and Blender and to create CAD files for as many of the different GEAR[box] modules as possible. I’m focusing on free software because I plan to show my documentation to my students and to have them work with the software this spring, and I want them to learn on software that they can easily get on their own machines. I may also try GIMP, PIXLR, or Photopea, TBD.

I downloaded Inkscape, FreeCAD, and Blender before this Fab Academy session got started and have been playing around with it a bit, but CAD is still very new to me. I am going to walk through each piece of software to first provide a basic overview / introduction. I will also structure this document so that the section on each piece of software has an area dedicated to a more straightforward tutorial that I can share with my students, and also a section describing my process and challenges, for the purposes of the Fab Academy.

Some background information and definitions

Digital fabrication starts with computer-aided design (CAD). In order to build our final projects, we need to be able to create digital representations of them. There are many different types of digital representations, each useful for different reasons. Some design files will simply help you communicate and/or better understand your own idea. Some will help you with cutting 2D objects for your project, or help you in additive or subtractive fabrication processes like 3D printing or milling objects. The tools I explore below each support different CAD processes that will help you to build your project.

Definitions

• Raster - Raster files are pixel-based files. If you zoom in closely on your computer screen, when you are working with raster files, you will be able to see the individual pixels. If you compress a file and try to print a really big image, you will see individual pixels.
• Vector - Vector files are made of lines and curves. They are mathematically generated and can scale to any size without losing any resolution.

Some documentation of plans for my final project

Below are some examples of the designs I created for this assignment. Further down in this post, I describe the process I completed to create these designs in more detail:

Vector and Raster

Below I describe working with the vector software, Inkscape and then the raster software Photopea.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform, free, open source tool for making Scaled Vector Graphics aka SVGs. You can use it to generate files that you want to cut with a vinyl or laser cutter. Consumer craft cutters like the Cameo or Cricut Maker come with their own software. However, this software tends to be somewhat limited in its capabilities and sometimes has limitations on the free version. Using an open source software like Inkscape, you can design SVGs to import into the craft cutter’s proprietary software and more easily create your own designs.

Where to download

You can download the installer for Inkscape for free here. Be sure to download the correct version for your operating system, and then walk through the steps to install Inkscape on your own OS.

General tour of the workspace

When you open Inkscape, you will see a window where you can choose to open an existing Inkscape file you have been working on or create a new document.

Click new document to start a new project from scratch.

The general workspace for Inkscape has several different elements to it:

In the center, you will find a blank document where you can add lines, points, and curves. On the left, there is a toolbar with different drawing tools. On the right, you will find a range of different snapping tools to help you keep your project aligned. Along the bottom, there is a row of colors which you can select to add color to your design. Immediately above the general workspace, you will find a row of tools that will change depending on which drawing tool you have selected from the drawing toolkit on the lefthand side of your workspace. The top most toolkit row has a collection of basic tools like saving, cutting, or copying which are also easily accessible via standard keyboard shortcuts.

Tools are also available via the file menu.

To help place items precisely in the main workspace you may want to enable the page grid under ‘view’ or toggle it on and off using the # symbol.

You can also drag guides from the rulers on the top or the side of the document to help with placement.

When you are done with the guides, navigate to the edit menu to delete all guides.

Drawing

Before you get started, it is important to remember to save often!

To explore some of the available drawing tools, I will start by creating a diagram of a hypothetical sensor board, with six conductive magnetic connection points and notches and holes for attaching 3-dimensional custom sensors.

I began by creating a rectangle.

You’ll notice that my rectangle is orange and has slightly curved edges. This is because in the internal menu for the tool, I have selected that new objects created with this tool should default to the last used settings. You can access and edit these internal settings by double clicking on the relevant tool.

You adjust these settings using the different tools in the general workspace. For example, you can adjust the curve of the edges of the rectangle using the node editor.

And you can adjust the color of the rectangle using the color swatches below the main window. Just select the object you want to edit and click on the relevant color.

From here on out, I describe my step-by-step process of creating an SVG representation of the sensor board in Inkscape. Follow along with this process to see how I used snapping tools, the page grid, object to path conversion, path cutting, and other related processes to build my design.

After placing a rectangle in the design space, next, I added two concentric circles to represent one of the magnets on the sensor board. I used the center align snap tool to make sure the circles were centered within each other.

I made the inner circle a bit darker to represent a screw and grouped the objects so that they will stay together when I move them or make copies using object > group. You can also use the keyboard shortcut cmd-G.

I copied and pasted the initial magnet and used the page grid to align the magnets with each other and on the board.

I then copied and pasted the magnet pairs two times and used the grid to eyeball the distance between the different magnet pairs.

…and duplicated the three pairs of magnets on the opposite side.

I then started working on adding the holes that will house vertical sensors. These are represented by small black squares.

For the holes between two magnet points, I also included a custom copper trace on either side. To make this shape, I started with two very thin rectangles, one short and one long, shaped like a long T. I made a copy of the two objects just to have a second pair of the relevant shapes handy.

Next, I wanted to combine these shapes to create a single shape. To do so, I began by converting the objects that I had created using the rectangle tools to paths so that I would be able to use the node editor to manipulate nodes along the path.

Ultimately, I knew I wanted these two paths to intersect to create one object. I used the two objects to cut intersecting paths. Here I cut the first object:

…and deleted the unwanted bit:

And then I had to use the second object pair to cut the path on the long rectangle. To do so, I deleted the top piece and paste it back into the file so that it was the top layer.

I deleted some extra length on the longer rectangle, and then turned off all snapping to align the two objects:

…and used cmd-G to group the objects and selected the copper/orange color to fill my new shape.

I made a copy of the object and to rotate it, used option and the closing bracket.

I adjusted the location of the hole and scaled the copper traces accordingly before copying and pasting the section across the entirety of the board.

Inkscape files save natively as SVGs. Here is the SVG for this sensor board (also copied below). This file also contains the velostat grid loom and the screen printed potentiometer described in the next two sections.

• Inkscape sensor board

Making the velostat grid loom

To make the velostat grid loom, I used the sizing tools at the top of the workspace to adjust the frame size until it fit on the existing sensor board. I also used the ‘difference’ tool under paths to subtract one object from another. I also had to toggle some of the snapping tools on and off a bit in order to place things optimally.

Here is a fragment of brief video of me making the frame for the velostat sensor grid loom frame:

I then ungrouped a copy of the existing board to reuse the spacing of the magnets on the loom and adjusted the sizing of the frame freehand based on the magnet placement. I used the option/bracket rotation short cut to rotate another trio of magnets and shrunk these down to place along the side of the loom frame.

I used the pencil tool to draw the traces from the smaller magnets to the larger magnets. You can adjust the color of the pencil stroke by clicking on the fill/stroke option in the bottom lefthand corner of the screen.

I used the rectangle tool to ‘weave’ representations of conductive fabric through the black velostat rectangle I inserted in the center of the loom and then used a no-fill circle tool to represent conductive connections between the conductive fabric and the magnets around the frame of the loom.

Making the screen printed potentiometer

I used the rectangle and pencil tool to draw the screen printed potentiometer. It is a slide pot that will have a conductive ink trance that is bridged by a folded piece of copper tape that slides up and down a paper slit. There are a few other ways this could be constructed, but I will start by trying out this design. I will use this file to cut the vinyl that I will use for the screen printing. When working this way it is important to pay close attention to the points that should intersect. If you are zoomed out from the image, you may think you have made a connection when you actually have not.

In order to make the design a bit more clear, I used the paint bucket tool to fill the pencil-drawn shape with a gray color to represent conductive ink and made a small piece in orange to represent the folded bridging piece of conductive tape and paper.

You can see the side-by-side view here:

And here you can see the sensor board with two of the DIY sensors:

Miscellaneous Thoughts on My Inkscape learning process

I am new to CAD and to Inkscape. Below I list several areas of confusion and/or mistakes I made. These are in no particular order. Still, I hope these are helpful for another student who is just starting out!

• As I am learning to navigate Inkscape, I find it very difficult to understand scale. I know that the whole point is that I can scale images to any size, but I still find myself feeling a bit like I am floating in sspace. I just want to know: how big is that piece of paper??! I don’t know why it feels so vague.

• When I was experimenting with cutting paths it first took me a while to find the right language – I didn’t know I wanted to ‘cut’ a path as opposed to ‘breaking’ a path. Then, it took me some googling to realize that I needed to place two objects on top of each other in order to be able to cut the path as desired.

• I first used the help to try to figure out how to rotate an object in Inkscape and ended up rotating my entire page instead of the object. Option + the left or right bracket is a better choice.

• I spent a long time in the tool menu trying to change the stroke color of the pencil tool and changing the fill color by mistake instead. I noticed that when you choose ‘take color from selection’ you should already have made the color selection. I also discovered that the easier way to edit the stroke color is by clicking on the fill/stroke option in the lower lefthand corner of your screen. This will open a dialogue box that allwos you to adjust the color of the fill and/or stroke of the pencil indepednently.

• I had some trouble figuring out how to fill the shape I had created with the pencil because I tried to treat it like an object. I tried to convert it to be an object as well, or just generally to change the nature of what I had created (e.g. stroke to path) but I’m not sure how successful that was. In the end, I found the paintbucket and filled it that way. I accidentally filled it with several layers of paint and didn’t realize that this is what had happened until I started trying to move stuff around to see why the pencil lines I had made were looking so think.

Rastering with Photopea

In preparation for an upcoming meeting, I decided to try out a raster-based program to create a virtual Zoom background using an existing logo one of my students made. While this is clearly not a visualization of my final project, in the meeting I will be raising funds for supplies for the Girls Electronic Arts Retreat, which is the program for which my final project is designed. I hope this counts! I kept things very simple, but used the opportunity to get familiar with the layout of the software and working with different layers. I used Photopea, a web-based software that is relatively simple to use, but still seems pretty powerful. I followed this tutorial to start, which covers the general layout, importing images, and working with text and layers.

To get started, navigate to Photopea.com and open a new project. It has many default templates that are particularly useful for creating materials for social media.

Below you can see the layout of the main workspace in Photopea, which has a canvas area for editing your image, a general menu and tool-specific menu on top, tools to the left, and layers and more detailed menus to the right of the canvas.

After you select a template, you can import your image by navigating to it in your finder and dragging and dropping the image into your canvas. The software will create a new layer that is specific to the image you have just imported. Once you start adding more layers, should you want to do so, you can experiment more with the relationship between the layers, using different opacities and etc.

Next, I added some text to direct viewers to our website. I chose a font that seemed to match the vibe of the font used for the logo, and then adjusted the color of the font to match – as best I could – one of the logo colors. This font was added to its own layer as well.

I added a second text layer with the dates of the program using the same font and a different color.

I was happy with the look at this point, but wanted to experiment with the tool a bit more just to try out different features. I tried creating a rectangle to fill with brushstrokes as described in the tutorial, and experimented with changing the opacity and also the order of the different layers.

I was not happy with the look and ultimately just deleted the layer.

I exported my basic design and brought it into Zoom to see how it would work for my purposes. I realized I had made the logo too big – I would be blocking some of the text if I did not shrink it down. I experimented with resizing the logo in the original Photopea session but it appeared locked down and when I unlocked transport controls, it seemed to do this on the background layer and I could not resize the image.

I opened a new Photopea session, loaded in the file I had exported previously, and resized it to my needs.

You can see the outcome here:

Admittedly, this was a bit of a clunky process. While I can imagine that I might revisit raster-based programs for both digital and physical fabrication purposes for creative projects down the road, for the time being, it is not a high priority. Nevertheless, I’m glad I took the time to experiment a bit with Photopea. I found it a bit less intimidating that Gimp, which I have opened on occasion but have found incredibly overwhelming. Photopea should meet my limited rastering needs for the time being very nicely.

**MISSING PHOTOPEA ORIGINAL FILE…maybe try to design sensor board in photopea or another software and upload it directly***

FreeCAD

FreeCAD is a cross-platform, free 3D modeling software. It is useful for designing objects to 3D print or mill and for basic parametric design. There is a really wide range of CAD software for 3D modeling out there. I decided to start with FreeCAD because it seems relatively easy to learn and because it is so accessible.

You can download FreeCAD for yourself on the web.

Background

I first started experimenting with FreeCAD a bit before the start of Fab Academy and I am really glad I did because there are a lot of really basic tasks that are not immediately intuitive. This included simply moving objects around and deleting them! Within the first day or so of experimenting I realized that my trackpad was not going to be sufficient and that I would need an external mouse. I am still fairly new to the program but will share what I have learned so far below. If you find any errors, please let me know and I will correct them!

Helpful Hints

If you are new to FreeCAD like me, below are a few tips to help get you started:

• Use fn + delete to delete an object
• Use the x/y axis icon to move objects around in the drafts workbench
• Use command m to move objects around in sketcher mode
• Use the grid icon to toggle the grid on and off
• Use the floating cube or the aqua cubes in the toolbar to adjust the angle of your view
• Scroll up/down to zoom in our out. The two-finger pinch and extend does not work in CAD programs.
• Use up, down, left, and right arrows to move the entire workspace

I started by familiarizing myself with some basic FreeCAD keyboard shortcuts and the workspace with several FreeCAD tutorials:

• FreeCAD overview
• Importing Part from McMaster Carr //technically this is for Blender
• FreeCAD Workbench Overview
• FreeCAD Sketcher Workbench Tutorial

General Workspace tour

When you open FreeCAD, you will find a workspace with several different discrete areas. There is a general toolbar and space to select your workbench on the top row and a workbench-specific toolbar immediately below. The main workspace is the larger space underneath the toolbar; to the left of the main workspace, you will find several dialogue windows that help you select specific projects/objects and perform different tasks on these items. The dialogue in the bottom lefthand corner allows you to manipulate the specific parameters of a selected object.

Workbenches

It is really critical to review the workbench overview above. The different workbenches available in FreeCAD each have a slightly different purpose and different toolsets. Many of the workbenches have some overlapping features and it can be really confusing figuring out which workbench to use for a given task and understanding how to navigate between them.

To get started, you will need to open a new file via the file menu or cmd-n. You then need to navigate to a work bench. The workbenches I have used the most so far are the draft, sketcher, and parts workbenches, as well as the spreadsheet workbench.

Building a tilt sensor frame

In the sketcher workbench, I used the circle tool to make two concentric circles and then used the rectangle tool to make several rectangles.

I then use the equality constraint to make the rectangles the same size and used ‘trim edge’ tool to remove extra intersecting lines.

I deleted all remaining lines using fn delete and then used the equality constraint again to simultaneously adjust the inner notches on the device I am building.

I used the grid snapping tool found under the edit controls in the tasks window and adjusted the grid size to allow me to get a bit more precise in the shape of my object.

I moved to the part workbench and closed out the task window in order to access the tools on the toolbar and used the extrude tool to make a 3D version of my project. Before I did this, I wanted to make sure that I would also have access to an SVG version of this file so I exported an SVG for future use.

In the parts workbench, I used the extrude tool to make my 2D object into a 3D object.

And adjusted the value of the Length FWD property to 5 mm from 10 mm to make the shape a bit less tall.

I then began experimenting with creating cylinder objects and the ‘make a cut of two shapes’ tool to cut holes into the solid shape that will serve as a place to put bolts to hold everything together and also as a location to embed the stretch sensors.

This process involved several steps:

• First, I made a new cylinder and used the properties dialogue on the bottom lefthand side of the screen to adjust the size and location of the cylinder so that it intersected with the tilt sensor frame in a chosen location.

I then completed this step again several additional times, placing the holes around the perimeter of the circle, and using the make a cut of two objects tool.

As you can see, it is important to pay attention to which object you select first when you are making a cut. First, you want to select the object you want to remain after the cut. Second, you select the object that you will cut away from the first object.

Here is the ‘finished’ (for now) design for the inner body of the tilt sensor. I know that it still needs a lot more detail, but it is at least getting a bit closer. I exported a STEP file because I wasn’t 100% sure what file type makes the most sense to export.

I recognize that there is likely a faster way to complete this process using parametric design. I’m still getting used to some of the most basic tasks, however, so for the moment I am content to repeat myself in order to learn. Soon I will look for more efficient working processes.

Parametric Design

I experimented a bit with the spreadsheet. One idea I have for the DIY loudspeakers is that they will each represent a different planet in the solar system. So I used an online generator to get the relevant radii sizes and put them into the spreadsheet.

My Learning Process

Again, below, in no particular order, are some reflections on my experience learning FreeCAD.

• I still don’t completely understand the nuances of all of the different workspaces, but the sketcher workbench seems to have more tools and affordances than the draft workbench, though it is perhaps a bit less compatible with the parts workbench. It also seems to be the case that the different workbenches are not always compatible. For example, an object that is created in the draft mode cannot then be edited in the sketcher mode, as far as I can tell. I also ran into a strange error after adding a sketcher file to my project where I could not delete some shapes I had previously created in draft mode.

Delete: Selection not restricted to one sketch and its subelements

• I am finding it a bit frustrating that certain tools only exist within certain workbenches. For example, I am able to make objects equal sizes in the sketcher workbench, but if I want to snap to the grid, it seems like I need to go to the draft workbench, and as far as I can tell it isn’t always possible to edit sketcher files in the draft workbench.

• I sometimes am finding that certain tools do not behave exactly as I anticipate that they will behave. For example, it seemed like the trim edge tool was not always willing to trim edges:

<class 'ValueError'>: Not able to trim curve with the given index: 4
21:45:45  App.getDocument('freecadtilt').getObject('Sketch').trim(4,App.Vector(-5.616304,19.179924,0))

• I was wondering whether this might have to do with the equality constraints I enabled, but disabling it did not seem to make a difference. I did discover that I could delete these other objects using fn-delete.

• I was relieved to discover that some grid snapping is possible in Sketcher mode, it is just hidden away in the task menu under edit controls instead of quickly available in the toolbar.

• One recurring issue I have had at different moments is that some tools are greyed out when I enter new workbenches. Thank goodness for the FreeCAD wiki, which explained that tools are greyed out when a task is open in the task dialogue that needs to be dismissed.

• When I exported an SVG from my sketcher file and opened it in Inkscape to take a look, one thing that was a bit strange was that one little notch on the tilt sensor image seemed out of place:

• I’m not sure why this is the case because it looks fine in FreeCAD itself.

• The very first time I started working with FreeCAD, I had to experiment a bit with the different snapping tools in order to figure out how to make two concentric circles. The first time, I tried making two circles separately and nesting one inside the other. But it turned out that the circles were not perfect copies and so the smaller circle didn’t look perfectly aligned. I neglected to take a screenshot, but I solved this the first time by deleting the second circle and making a copy of the first and changing the radius. When I started over and tried a second time, with all the snapping features turned on, when I made a second circle it was actually a perfect copy of the original, so I did not run into this issue a second time.

These are the STL and original design files for tilt sensor I designed in FreeCAD, as well as the SVG I exported to Inkscape. All files copied at the bottom of this page as well:

• FreeCAD tilt sensor stl
• FreeCAD tilt sensor original file
• Inkscape tilt sensor

Blender

Blender is an incredibly powerful open source tool for 3D modeling, rendering, and animation. It is used by people working in many different fields for all of these purposes. I’m excited to use it to try to represent the ideas I have for my final project.

Because it has so much to offer, it is a bit overwhelming to learn. I have been following several different tutorials. Initially, I am just watching them on double time to familiarize myself with general concepts. Then, I am going back through and following along much more slowly with specific steps in the tutorials just to get more familiar with the different tools and techniques. My last step will be to try to model and/or render one specific element of my final project.

Working Environment

Blender’s environment is centered around a 3D workspace with various tools around the perimeter. On the top left of the window you have the standard toolbar. The right side of the top toolbar is dedicated to tabs that allow you to change between setups that are optimized for different tasks. Near the top left is a dropdown menu where you can change between different modes like object mode, editing mode, and sculpting mode. The tools on the left are dedicated to tasks associated with the mode you are in. You can drag this menu to extend it in order to read the names of the tools. Next to the mode dropdown menu you have important tabs including ‘add’ which allows you to add a range of different types of objects. On the right top, you can change between viewing solids and wire meshes. On the righthand side, you will find a range of menus including modifiers and render options. Modifiers allow you to transform the objects you add. There is a ton more to get into, but this at least provides a quick start. Thankfully, quite a lot of documentation exists to help beginners. I first watched the donut blender tutoria. Then, I switched over to the lynda.com blender tutorials which I can access for free through my local library.

After following along with the tutorial, I created my first render of random blobs with lighting. I was very proud of these blobs and therefore especially devastated when I accidentally overwrote my blender file with another file that I saved with the same name. My sincere apologies to my local and global evaluators who will not be able to open my random rendered blobs themselves. I’m sorry!! I will render something else to make it up to you.

keyboard and mouse shortcuts:

• middle mouse key to rotate view around
• shift click w/middle mouse to also move side to side
• control or command and middle mouse to zoom
• right click for context menu
• f3 or edit > menu search is a handy search tool to find different actions you might want to complete
• g: move
• r: rotate
• s: scale
• when g, r, or s is selected, you can hit x, y, or z to lock movement to an axis
• shift and right click is how to move your 3D cursor

Making a suitcase

I want to create a modular music making system in a suitcase. So, I thought I would start by trying to model a suitcase. I googled ‘how to make a suitcase in blender’ and found a tutorial.

I began by adding an image of a suitcase from wikimedia for reference using add > image > reference.

Following the lynda.com blender essential training 2.92 tutorial for adding a reference image, I typed n to pull up the transform dialogue and alt r to remove the rotation on the image and typed 90 in the x axis to rotate the image 90 degrees.

I used the keyboard shortcuts g and y to move the image outside of the cube. Then I selected the cube and used s and x to scale the cube along the y axis.

In edit mode, I used the edge selection tool to select all edges and then used cmd-b and moved my cursor to bevel the edges. I then used ctl-r to access the loop cut function to make the two sides of the suitcase several times and G to try to indent it. At this point I discovered that I had not beveled all of my edges:

When I tried to bevel after the fact, I ran into issues with alignment.

So, I decided to start over and make a second suitcase form from scratch to practice the different commands I had learned:

As a complete beginner, it was a bit difficult to follow the process by which the handle was made, but I saw that I needed to start by making, scaling, rotating, and moving a plane, and then extruding it.

I temporarily abandoned my suitcase and decided to try to model some of the different add-ons for my system like the sensors and/or the speaker module.

speaker and amp module

I started by making a cylinder and scaling it down along the z-axis. I subsequently restarted this process and used the dialogue box to adjust the size of my cylinder. I also followed a portion of this tutorial to adjust my viewport settings to better work with tiny objects. To do this, I changed the End parameter to 20 m.

Next I made a second cylinder object with a slightly smaller diameter and placed it on top of the first. I used the boolean modifier to subtract the first object from the second. I was a bit confused by the boolean modifier and thought it wasn’t working initially. It turns out, at first, my meshes were not actually directly embedded so it was throwing an error. subsequently, it was subtracting but I didn’t see what was happening because it was subtracting a portion of the bottom side of the object. This will come in handy for other aspects of my project that I want to model.

To use the boolean object:

• Make sure your meshes are on top of each other
• Make sure you have selected the item you want to remain - aka the mesh from which you will be subtracting material.
• Click add modifier and then boolean
• Choose the object you want to subtract from the dropdown menu
• click apply
• move the object you subtracted out of the way to view what remains.

I still need to circle back to try to finish modeling this.

drop ball sensor

I began by making a cylinder. I was using the scale tool to adjust the diameter of the circle but this felt a bit less specific than what I wanted to do. I forgot that when you first make an object, you get a dialogue box about the properties of that object. You can also pull it back up using F9.

My Learning Process

• As I was experimenting with adding different objects, one thing that is a little counterintuitive for me is that when I hit g to start moving a vertix around, I immediately want to click, but this then releases the vertix. I need to remember to only click after I have moved the vertix to the desired location.

• I was confused for a moment about how to manipulate edges and faces instead of just vertices because I could not see the selection tools next to the edit menu initially in the tutorial I was watching.

• I spent some time experimenting with sculpt mode, which I found very satisfying even if it didn’t really have anything to do with my final project:

-I discovered that this set of tools allows you to change between wire mesh, solid, and rendered views.

Constructing my final project in Blender

I finally felt comfortable enough in Blender to start working on my final project Tuesday evening. I took a bunch of screenshots which you can see below. These walk through most of the steps of the process I took to create the rendering of my tentative final project. This week’s assignment was a steep learning curve for me…I wish I had started with Blender sooner, I think it is more useful than FreeCAD. I’m glad I went to global open hours or I might have spent more time on FreeCAD.

I downloaded a STEP file from McMaster Carr for the magnet and imported it into FreeCAD so that I could export it as STL to bring it into blender I tried to use a trick I had seen about using the array modifier around a circle to cut symmetrical holes in my cylinder, but it did not work as anticipated, so I did it by hand. Here is the failed attempt:

Here are the STL and project files for my work in blender, copied again below as well: - Blender GEARbox stl - Blender GEARbox original file

Source Files for this week’s homework

• Inkscape sensor board
• Inkscape educational breadboard
• Inkscape planet loom
• Inkscape mixer matrix
• Inkscape tilt sensor
• FreeCAD tilt sensor stl
• FreeCAD tilt sensor original file
• Blender GEARbox stl
• Blender GEARbox original file

After Thoughts

I never fully got into parametric design this week. I tried a bit in FreeCAD and looked at the geometry node in Blender. I figured these would be sufficient. But as I started the assignment for week 4, I ended up installing and starting to learn Fusion 360.

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Last update: September 3, 2022