Final Fabrication

Research
The pros of 3D printing are that printing allows for fast fabrication of parts, with fewer constraints than if it was made by hand.

The cons of 3D printing are that it can be costly, take a long time, and only works with a certain range of materials, mostly plastic.

Sketch

CAD

Fabricated Object

Conclusion

1. When I think of something that is made by a machine, I think of precision and mass-production, but it lacks a human element to it. Something made by a person has imperfections and flaws, but it has a charm in those flaws.

2. Working drawings are always necessary, in order to convey the shape, dimensions, and other attributes of a consumer product. They also can show how a product moves or is meant to be used.

3. Animated assemblies can convey how a product moves and functions. They can be used in the design process by analyzing how a prototype functions before fabricating it. Beyond the design process, they can also be an easy way to demonstrate a product to potential customers.

Maker Faire Showcase Design

I intended in the design of this gallery space to create a compact area with as much information as possible. The four shapes in the corners are trifolds, and monitors would be placed between the trifolds, with one side reserved for the staff.

My role in the team was as a bridge between design and engineering. I imported things that the design team CADed into Unity. When I started out, I was originally in the game mechanics subgroup of the engineering team, but I quickly realized there wasn't much for me to do.

As a team, i believe we met our original goals well. The only issue I have is that everyone is very easily distracted from actually being productive.

Throughout the design process, I wish we could have used Github, as it would have made merging code and assets much better.

My greatest achievement throughout this process is when I learned how to UV unwrap a CAD mesh in Blender, so that it could be properly textured in Unity.

Reflection Post: Week of April 27 2015

The coliseum was completed by a classmate this week, so I constrained the maze to the coliseum's center in Inventor, imported into Blender, and UV mapped it.

After importing it into Unity, it is ready to be textured and put in terrain for testing.

Maker Faire Reflection Post

This week, I worked on modifying the CAD mesh of the maze.

This is the maze in Inventor. I export it to STL for use in Blender.

Here's the maze in Blender. I am currently attempting to texture it using a UV unwrap. Afterwards, I will export it to Unity, where it gets scaled down and incorporated into the overall game.

Maker Faire Job Application

I believe that I am best qualified to join the coding team. Although I do not know the exact language that Unity uses, I have experience with other object-oriented languages, including Java and C++. I also have experience in Python, and can easily create pseudocode if needed. I would also like to go into the coding team because I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

7.1 Dimensioning

This unit was fairly simple, but rewarding nonetheless. In this, I had to dimension different 3D models based on different dimensioning standards. Examples of these standards included datum and chain dimensioning, and aligned dimensioning.

Maker Faire Research: Elite Dangerous

Elite:Dangerous is a space combat and trading open-world simulator. It was developed by a company called Frontier Developments, and designed by David Braben. Unable to secure funding through an established games publisher, Braben launched a Kickstarter campaign, and was able to raise over 1.5 million pounds sterling. Elite:Dangerous is the fourth game in the Elite series. The first Elite game was released for the BBC Micro in 1984, and was widely praised for its advanced graphics and game engine. This game is intriguing to me because it combines space and open-world gameplay, along with a vast procedurally-generated galaxy to explore.

Automoblox Reverse Engineering Instant Challenge

For the instant challenge we attempted to build a propeller. The main, glaring problems with our design were that the propeller was badly constructed and failed to turn, let alone provide enough force to move, and the wheels were extremely wobbly and did not support the weight of the vehicle.

Reverse Engineering Reflection Post

Visual design is extremely important when determining the commercial appeal of a product because our primary information-gathering sense is our vision. Shapes in visual design such as circles, lines, and curves represent human concepts such as comfort, and guide the user towards an intuitive understanding of how a product works. Visual design values like color and balance also appeal to or influence a user.

A black box represents the system being studied-although we do not know exactly how it works, we analyze the outputs given from inputs fed into it as a means of discerning its inner workings.

 I would build onto the modularity of the Automoblox cars and have new, realistic parts such as suspensions, or perhaps an engine unit.

Automoblox Reverse Engineering

Product: X9-SE

Manufacturer: Automoblox

Visual Analysis

Front view

Side view

Isometric views

This car uses significant amounts of curves in order to imply a sense of balance and economy. The textured wood conveys sturdiness, while the complementary red and black highlight the wheels and emphasize the overall curved shape. The wheels have a rubbery texture which grips any surface well.

Functional Analysis

The primary function of this object is to simulate an actual car by rolling on a surface.

3a. The axle is shaped so that the wheel rotates within a thin diameter bit in the middle, but is kept from popping off by larger bits of the axle on either side. 

3b. Our hypothesis was correct.

Structural Analysis

Automoblox CAD Drawings

I got as far as the second model(Figure 1), but I did not complete it. I completed Figure 2 with some difficulty, and overall it was a learning experience.

I most struggled with the unintuitive controls and contexts of Inventor, and its various idiosyncrasies.

What was easy for me was everything else-it was, complications aside, fairly straightforward.

The only thing I would like is more time on Inventor so that I can get used to its control scheme.

Design Challenge: Shelter

My partner, Matt, and I designed a shelter using the materials of 2.5 inch long toothpicks, and Dots gumdrops. We wanted our shelter to be able to withstand extreme force from all directions, so we constructed it out of triangles. Those triangle distribute load evenly, preventing any one part of the structure from collapsing. The surface area of our shelter would be around 37.94 inches squared. Assuming that humans would need comfortable space to stand, we estimate that in real life, this shelter would have an area of around 341.01 feet squared. Ideally, the shelter would be constructed out of concrete reinforced with steel spars where the toothpicks are now.

First, we tested our initial design with a wallet. The shelter held up easily. However, the point made it hard to balance things on for testing, and weakened the structure as a whole. In response, we took of the top bit and found that it could withstand a textbook.

The shelter was able to withstand a weight that was many dozens of times more than it. Therefore, we pronounce this design a complete success.

Inventor Question

My biggest question was how to create a sphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psbjvl6kaH4

You create a sphere by making a half circle, then revolving it around 360 degrees.

I learned from Jake to how to make a cone; you revolve a right triangle around 360 degrees.

Form Follows Function Reflection

In my forms follows function post thing, I decided to improve the ruler. Shape would be rectangular, length would be 12 inches, and it would be any color you would like-it doesn't really make a difference here. The main difference from the average ruler would be that it would have holes in the corners, in order to stabilize the ruler without using hands. This stemmed from my frustration with having a ruler slip while drawing something, and having to erase it or start all over again. Additionally, the slit in the center has both metric and imperial units on either side, for quick and easy conversion. Although these may be small improvements, when dealing with something so often used as the ruler, any improvement makes a large difference over time.

To make this ruler, you would either 3D print it, cast it from a mold, or laser cut it. Essentially, if you can carve holes and notches into a material, you can make this ruler.

This kind of reminds of me of levels, which have a little gel capsule in the middle. Perhaps the holes to stabilize could also be applied to those. Other than that, it reminds me of a ruler(obviously) and a triangle right angle thing.

If I had time, I could probably build in clamps so that you could clamp the ruler to a piece of wood or the table. However, that would probably make the ruler more complicated to build, and more expensive, so it would be a trade-off.

As you can see in the image below, I got an appraisal for printing my ruler on a 3D printing site called Shapeways. Unfortunately, it is extremely expensive.

Footnote: Sorry I don't have any images of my work in Inventor; I typed this at home. I'll add them when I can.

Puzzle Cube Reflection

This is my cube. As you can probably see, it is three cubes by three cubes. The cubes themselves are roughly 3/4 of an inch, and have been glued together with wood glue. The part drawings I have for each of the parts in the puzzle are enclosed below.

I had four people solve my puzzle, and with the outlier of Chloe, all of the data suggested a solving range in between 60 and 90 minutes. If I have more time, I will collect more data and update this post accordingly.

It was important to model my ideas using multi-view sketches or Inventor before making my final prototype in order to resolve issues that may arise when envisioning the puzzle, such as it being too hard or too easy. To segue into what I liked and what I would change, I both rejoice and lament at the apparent difficulty of the puzzle. Although I feel very happy when people struggle to solve my puzzle, it is frustrating to gather data for time spent solving it.

Puzzle Cube Design Process

Brainstorming: Going through all the possible puzzle pieces with 4, 5, and 6 parts was a long process, but it gave me a sense of how many possibilities there really were. The colored parts on the right are my multi-view sketches, through which I attempted to describe the nature and configuration of each of the parts used in my final design.

Out of both of these designs, I chose the bottom one because it was composed of more interlocking parts, and was much harder to solve(my partner Diana took nearly the entire school day to put it together!).

Afterwards, I created all of my parts in Inventor, which was fairly simple. What is more complicated, though, is fitting them together in an assembly, which I have yet to figure out.

Puzzle Cube Quality Analysis

My data seems to have large statistical variance across 0.74-0.78 inches, as evidenced by my histogram.