Object Design and Fabrication - Nadia

 This is my final post for the semester. It was pretty crazy to do everything online, and despite that, I still learned a lot of new things about Rhino. Hopefully, we can all be back in the Thing Tank next year! Castle: The first project of the semester was to create a castle using some basic extrusion tools in Rhino. I forgot how to do a few things over the summer, so it was a good reintroduction to Rhino. I made a sandcastle because I wanted to practice using materials on different objects again. Surface Design Study: For the second milestone project, I made a 2D pattern based on a Greek tile. It was my first time using polar arrays and arrays, as well as hatching. I was really happy with how it turned out, but it was definitely challenging, as it was mostly organic shapes. I did get really comfortable using the curve building tools, which helped me a lot in the next project. Reverse Engineered Object:  For the third milestone project, I recreated my recorder in Rhino. I sta...

 This week I decided to move forward with the roller coaster ring design. I changed the size of the track and made it a solid shape. Then I remade the carts so they had more detail. I ended up having to backtrack on some of the details that were preventing structural stability, such as having a hollow place where the rider's feet would go.  I got a lot of positive feedback about my coaster design, and I chose to move forward with it because of that, and I found it was the most unique and not-so-ring-like of all my designs. I would like to choose steel for my ring because I think it looks the best with the coaster, but the plastic has a bit less yellow and red, so I am going to have to decide if I think my model can be printed in steel. Here are the final renders for my model in steel: Here is my model passing all the tests on Shapeways: Here are two heat maps the first is with fine detail plastic, and it is completely green, and the second is a heat map of polished steel, that...

 This week I chose 3 of my ring designs to create in Rhino. I had the most interest in the Venus flytrap design, and I was given some feedback to do some more studies of a Venus flytrap before the abstraction, so I did. The other designs that I got a lot of feedback on were the roller coaster, one person even suggested the roller coaster go over multiple fingers. If I keep working on that idea, I want to go back and try that again, because I was having trouble seeing how it would flow around the hand. Finally, from last week people enjoyed the concepts of both 16 and 5, so I combined what people liked about both ideas, having the circles flow down the ring, and having the spiral at the top holding a ball. Below is the making of all three rings in Rhino: First, is the Venus flytrap inspired design. I made the top part in 2D then extruded it and placed it on top. Then I made the open mouth cutouts, flowed them along the ring and cut them out. The dotty ring also needed flowalongsrf, ...

 This week I began to come up with different ideas for a ring design that can be 3D printed. I was trying to take inspiration from a number of different things, manufactured and natural, then abstract them.  The ones I am considering moving forward with the most are 10, 16, 18, 19, and 24. Once I find out some more about the actual printing process then I will probably be able to narrow it down further, based on what would actually be feasible. 

 This week I finished building my recorder and added materials to the different pieces. Then I made renders of the recorder in a few differnt views, with the recorder being put together, and in its separate pieces. Here is the finished product: This project was intimidating at first but focusing on individual pieces helped with pacing and made everything seem manageable. I think I gained a way stronger understanding of tools I knew previously and I filled two pages of notes with new tools that I feel comfortable using as well.  Considering the number of times I failed on the way to making the recorder, seeing the finished product is really satisfying. 

 This week I was able to finish most of my recorder. I solved all of my problems from last week, finished the bottom part of the recorder, and have most of the top done. I just have to finish the very top of my recorder where the reed fits into it. I am not sure why but the surface seems to be breaking up every time I split it. Other than that very top area I am happy with the way everything looks so far. Here are the 2D halves of the bottom and top that I then revolved: Here is the top in 3D, followed by the very top piece, you can see the surface break in the top left: Here is the bottom in 3D: Here is the reed, finally finished, after all of the last week's issues: Here are all the pieces put together, and compared to the real recorder: I just have to add the cutout close to the top, then it will be a perfect match. I'm looking forward to rendering the recorder and making it that translucent blue.

 This week I began taking measurements of my recorder and building it Rhino. I quickly realized even the pieces I thought would be easy to make were not. Apparently, I have never looked closely at a Recorder because I assumed all the holes were in a straight line and had the same diameter. The reed was a whole new problem because I can't find a way to make the curve solid. It haunted me last night... Here are some measurements I have been using so far: Here is the reed I thought would be an easy place to start... I am happy with what the shape would look like, but I can't make it solid. The middle, though also being a struggle at first has a much better result: I used split over and over again to get the cylinder to go through the layers of the recorder. At first, I was confusing the different faces with each other, but by the end the process was painless. I'm happy with how this middle piece looks so far. I am just missing this bottom double hole and indent. (See below.) I...