Weekly Assignments Final Project About me

Week 2: CAD or Computer-Aided Design

Our job this week is to explore and experiment with various CAD programs and to make some sketch of our final project.

These tools include programs for both 2D and 3D design. There are so many programs there so lets try a few:


2D Design Tools - Raster:

Raster tools are essentially tools for when the image or sketch is made up of pixels.

GIMP, ImageMagick

But these were a bit difficult to immediately utilize.


2D Design Tools - Vector: Inkscape

Vector tools involve designs that do not lose quality at any level of magnification because they are essentially defined by lines.

Lines, as Mathematicians know, have zero width.


Inkscape is a great option from 2D Vector design tools.. However, it's been some time since I used it and I'm still struggling with it.

I never knew it too well, just a bit for some basic laser-cutting. Now I'm watching some tutorials on YouTube...TJ FREE Inkscape Lessons


In Inkscape we can make cool stars, and one of the key ideas is fill vs. stroke:



3D Design Tools - FreeCAD:

As I have some previous experience with both TinkerCAD and Fusion360, I decided to try FreeCAD.

I first downloaded FreeCAD and tried to use it. But I could do nothing! It was frustrating.

...but I found a nice tutorial: Learning FreeCAD with these basic steps.

The creator eloquently went through the steps to create a holder for his Raspberry Pi Zero. Thank you sir!

And here is what we created:


More Practice with FreeCAD

Later I also found some other tutorials and practiced even more, because I found that only following instructions for making something just once was not sufficient

In particular, I found a YouTube series called FreeCAD for beginners. Click here for his channel. He has other great videos could be helpful in future..

The first video was on constraints and the second tutorial on the topic of parametric modeling,

so I knew this was a great option as these were precisely the 2 topics the great Dr. Neil requested us to focus...

I also thought I would try to document more thoroughly:

FreeCAD For Beginners p.1 - UI, Sketching, Constraints, Extruding, and 3D Printing

This was a good review of making sketches and creating simple shapes using pad and pocket

Here is the sketch and finished model:


FreeCAD For Beginners p.2 - Parametric Modelling

This video started with the model which we created in part 1, so that was super convenient.

He began by showing how we can go back into the sketch and change the values of some dimensions, but demonstrated how this can be time-consuming

For example, if we wanted to change dimensions of a cube, we must individually change the length width and height as well as re-centre it

Then he opened up the spreadsheet workbench...


Subsequently, we entered parameters into the spreadsheet and then assigned those paramters to the sketch as can be seen:

The benefit in the end is that we can now very easily change the size of any aspect of the figure in a very easy way.

As may be seen in the reconfigured shape below:


In conclusion, this is all very nice! And I'm sure there are many additional possibilities with FreeCAD.

I modeled a bit previously in Fusion360, but this is easier to have such precise mathematical control... I'm loving it!



Autodesk Fusion 360

Although it is difficult and initially uncomfortable, Fusion 360 is the king, others are using it, so I must learn.

1. Sketch of base for my final project. It is so ugly.

2. Cups. Instructor helped me and then I practice.

3. Plate. I did this myself. Perhaps I can import and put it on a cup like a trophy.


Let me list some of the things I've learned:


How to compress images:

Neil informs that our individual academy pages should not take up so much space. As we are uploading more images to explain our work, we should be sure to compress them. Teacher Saheen recommended a nice site: compressjpeg.com

So I used that. It is pretty quick. Here are the steps:

First upload through drag and drop, and it will automatically compress (but often not by much)

If we want we can compress each picture to the desired level, then we may download them all!



Here are some design files. In the interests of conserving space I don't want to put them all.

Award Plate in Fusion 360
Star Example in Inkscape