2. CAD Work Overview¶

This week I learned how to use 3D and 2D design sofwares such as Blender and SculptGL for 3D modeling and Correl Draw for 2D modeling

3D modeling¶

Fusion360¶

Fusion Design¶

This is my general idea of what I want my body of the robot to look like. The open circle on the end is for the antenna that would be since i hope to use an ESP32S3 for the micro controller so that I can have a web server to control it. Thiers two holes on each side for each limb of the robot. Its a bit misaligned since it was abit hard to move each servo indviudally. The servos themselves I found on the Fusion community page. The peg thing on the side is my poor interpritation of a head. The only reason why its thier is becuase the design looked really lackluster before hand. To design it I first looked up a servo stl file and found this. Once I had saved it and imported it into Fusion I made 3 more copies by selecting all bodies of the servo and use the copy and paste command twice.

Once to make the servo next to the first one and the other to make the servos on the other side by selcting both servos. As for the box it took a bit of trial and error, I would make a sketch on the “Flat” plane and would use the servos as a reffrence for how big the case needed to be, once that was done I move the sketch away from the servos so that I wouldnt mess with the objets while making the sketch 3D.

To make it 3D I first extruded it and then shelled it to make the oject look like a case. For the holes I first moved of the case back over the servos and then made a sketch on one of the inside walls of the case. This allowed me to use the rotating part of the servo as a frame of reference when making the holes. The holes them sevles were noticibily larger then the servo it self since im unsure of how im going to attach legs to it currently.

For the hole on the tail end of the case I made a sketch and used lines from end to end to find the middle of the face and their I made my circle sketch which I then extruded just enough to cut through the whole front of the case.

Finally for the head I used the same trick with finding the midpoint I used before and this time added through extruding compared to all my other extrudes, I then made a small rectangle off of the cylinder so that I could make a sketch able to go up, I made the circle big enough so that it would join with the other cylinder. Finally I made a sphere on top to act as the placeholder for the head using the sphere preset.

Compressing Videos and Images¶

For Images I used Optimilzilla to reduce them and Online Convert to convert them to JPG. For videos I first tried using VLC media player but couldnt get it to work. From their i used CloudConvert which is a website that allowed me to convert my screen recordings into .mp4 files. Thankfuly the screen recordings I had were small enough that they didnt need to be reduced further.

3D softwares¶

SculptGL¶

This is a free to use software that is similar to Sculpt which is a software used by pixar animators. In this one we modified a sphere into whatever we wanted in 10 minutes. I tried to design Mike Wasowski from the movie Monster Inc. I foolishly tried to do it from memory and it can show in many parts of the design.

Pros and Cons

Pros - Free and Simple

Cons - Not good for complex designs

Blender¶

Sculpting¶

Blender is a commonly used software in animations and another 3D design software with a sculpt option. Unlike SculptGl it is a software and not a web browser so it is able to do more complex designs. First we modified the monkey design thats one of the default objects we could insert. To add the monkey I used the Command: Shift + A and selected the monkey. From thier I clicked on view mode and changed over to edit mode. The first this we modified were the vertexes which are the points where two edges meet can be seen on the ears of the monkey. The vertexes are the dots on the model. The next thing modified was the edges of the monkey which are the lines of the model. I modified the edges around the mouth of the monkey. Finally are the faces which is what are created when four or more edges come together to form a shape make. I modified the faces on the top of the monkey model first elevating them and then shrunk it.

Final Result of all modifcations done together

Pros and Cons

Pros - Can modify any part of the object - Free to use - Commonly used software so thiers lots of tutoirals

Cons - A bit complicated to use - Can be hard to use on mac

Animating¶

For animation we attempted to recreate the popular video where a sheet with a particular number of faces is droped on an object. To start we first saved and removed the monkey from Blender. Then using the add object command again I added a cube at the center and a plane that I moved above it.

I also scaled up the plane so it would drape over the object. To add faces to it I went to edit mode, left clicked on the object and subdivided it.

The most divisions I went up to was 15 since anything over 20 crashed my computer. Once the divisions were set I went back to Object mode. From thier I clicked on the cube and then on the left hand side clicked on physics then collison and pressed collison.

From thier I pressed on the plane, clicked on phsics again, and this time clicked cloth and picked one of the presets under the button with the three dots and lines. To start the animation I pressed the play button on the bottom of the screen. Along with playing forward, the animation can be played in reverse by pressing the mirroed play button.

Pros and Cons

Pros - Lots of useful presets - Easy to selct diffrent objects for diffrent parts of animating

Cons - Past the presets its very complicated - The renderings can become to advance and crash the computer

Comparison Test¶

To figure out which software I liked more for 3D design more between SculptGL and Blender I had to try and make the same model in both softwares. In both softwares I tried to make the head of a yoda funko pop thats on my desk. This is what I used as reference

For SculptGL I first started with the sphere and used the pull tool to make the ears then again to make the eyes and mouth, not a difficult process. Then I painted the whole thing green, afterwards adding pink to the ears and black to the eyes. Overall not a difficult process but I had to make all my modifications in one go since it wouldve been difficult to save files due to it being a web browser 3d designing software

For Blender I first went over to the sculpt tab then added a sphere. From their I made the pull brush symetrical and made the ears once again followed by the eyes and mouth. The only area where it was difficult was the painting, this mightve been to my impactience since I had tried to modifiy it in layout origanlly for some reason but the result of adding the color left lots of room for improvment.

After using both softwares in making the same design I think that I preffer to use Blender. While it was easier to use the simple interface of SculptGL, that was it, thier was no more that I could do with the model. In blender thier were plenty of tools I didnt use for my design that could be useful in the future. I think ill use it for sculpting a head for my robot. Heres the final results for both files.

Ai¶

This week we used two softwares Text-to-CAD and the Maker World Makerlab. The Text-to-Code software worked best when given a simple object request like a dodechahedron but when given more unique design request like a heart. It showed me that while AI is able to make some simple designs, it wouldnt be good for designs of any degree I would make for my final project.

Failed Prompts:

The MakerWorld software was more entertaining compared to helpful. The two types of designs I tested were the Printmon Maker and the Statue one.

Pros and Cons

Pros - Good for simple designs if you dont want to design them

Cons - Anything beyond a cube and it can be bad unless very specific and simple - Takes longer to load than it would take to design it at times

Web Browser CAD softwares¶

• ScultGL
• Google Pottery

2D Software¶

Raster¶

For learning more about rastering I used Krita which was a suggested software to use under the resources tab for week 2. Its similar to softeares such as mspaint in its usefulness for artist. What I decided to do was use my photo thats on my about me and modify it. (This was not becuase I didnt want to put the effort in to find another photo) First I uploaded the image to the software from the page that opens after opening Kritia. From thier I messed with the diffrent tools that are on the left to see what I could change. Eventuvally I landed on using the dynamic brush tool. While using that tool on the righthand side I was able to change the color to yellow and the brush to a star one. I was origanly going to try and highlight the stars in my photo. What I saw though was that if I added more stars they acted more like fireflies. This remineded me of the owl citysong fireflies and thought it was to funny to not be what I put as my documentation for rastering.

To open my about me photo I clicked on open image

This is the left hand menu where I was able to select diffrent tools

On the righthand side after selecting the dynamic brush I was able to chasnge the color and the type of brush I wanted. Thier were lots of unique options as you can see besides the regular brush and pencil option.

This is my about me photo that I chose to change. Its not that big of a change but I think that the 10 Million Fireflies speak for themselves

Pros and Cons

Pros - Free - Easy to import image for modifiying - Lots of template tools for simple modificastions

Cons - Based more as an artistic software - Overwhelming amount of tools - Not good for technical drawings

Vector¶

For learning vectoring I used Correl Draw to modify an image into something that could be cutout on a laser cutter. I chose to modify the Fab Academy insignia. I first saved it to the desktop then uploaded it to Correl Draw. From thier I selceted the image and changed the lines from none to hairline. This is what the lasercutter is able to determine is to cut while everything else besides none and hairline is levels of engraving. From thier I modified it by flatening it.

This is where i imported the Fab Academy insignia to Correl

This is the menu where your able to change the image into either a vector through hairline or raster through any number

Heres an image showing that the insignia is now something that could be cut since its the outline

Here I made a copy of the insignia and made it shorter

Pros and Cons

Pros - Easy to use - Can be sent over to several of the devices in the lab like the laser cutter and vinyl cutter - Simple Interface

Cons - Pricey - Very limiting in creative tools - Can be a bit buggy at times

Video and Image Compression¶

For image compression I first take all my images wether their screenshots or photos and put them on my desktop. From thier I go to Picflow where I convert all of the images to jpgs. From thier Im able to go to Opimizilla which can take my now convterted images and lower thier storage by lowering the quality. The nice thing is that im able to manually select the reduction amount.

For video compression I first convert my videos into .mp4 files with cloud converter and then to present the video I made a viemo account and put my video on thier, made it public then made a plug in through ChatGPT to make it work for VScode.

Cloud Convert¶

First I dragged and dropped the file into the website

Second I selected MP4 under the convert tab on the right

Finally I click convert and wait a few seconds and then I have my mp4 file

Viemo¶

To start I drag and dropped the MP4 file into the upload part of Viemo

This is the screen that pops up after the videos been uploaded but the only part that concerned me was the button at the top circled called share

When you clicked that button it would ask for your level of privacy dfor the video. I changed it to public since I am unsure how privacy works in VSCode so I played it safe.

To acess the code for the video to be put into viemo, go to the arrow on the side of the share button and under it is an option called embeded code which copies the code for the video to your clipboard

Files¶