Assignments Goals

• Model (draw, render, animate, simulate, ...) a possible final project
• Post it on your class page with original 2D and 3D files

Week's Lectures

3D software - Preface

In the past I dabbled a little with AutoCAD, but since it was a long time ago (I almost forgot everything...), it would be as if this is my first time with 3D cad tools. Following the advice of Neil, to explore CAD programs starting gradually, from the easiest to more complex ones, and after looking to their main features and drawbacks, I came up with a selection of 2 tools:

• SketchUp:
  it seems really user-friendly, the Make version is free, and there are a lot of tutorials on the web.
• Rhinoceros and Grasshopper:
  it seems a more professional CAD, but still has a clean UI. Grasshopper makes it a parametric modeling software.

3D software - Sketchup

On the official website there's a section called Learn that groups a lot of material, such as video tutorials, tip and tricks and help forum. I started watching the video tutorials, they are really simple and well organized to let users learn easily the main concepts and features of the UI.

After a couple of hours I felt confident enough to try to model the wooden enclosure for my electronic scoreboard. After a bit of trial and error due to layers, I ended up with a simple model:

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The verdict for SketchUp is that is really simple to use, and the learning curve is not steep at all. Moreover there's plenty of plugins to add features of every type to the CAD, making it really expandible. There's is also a free version of SketchUp, and for this reason it's starting to become more and more popular.

Work files links

3D software - Rhinoceros

My FabLab instructor teached us the basics ot the software, in order to be able to sketch something plain and simple. With this knowledge, I decided to watch some tutorials to learn some more, especially for 3D modeling.

I ended up on the official channel, where there are a lot of videos and guides. I found those videos very useful to learn the basics of solids usage, extrusion, and UI tricks.

One of my favourite tricks is the use of the Gumball, a widget that facilitates object transformations like move, scale and rotate.

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After a lot of videos, I tried to model once again my linear gantry in Rhino, like I did on SketchUp. It wasn't too difficult, but for some operations I felt like "There has to be a simpler way to do it!". But in the end I succeded in modeling the middle part of my scoreboard.

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Then, I wanted to explore Grasshopper, to grasp the usage of parametric modeling. Unfortunately this week I got sick, so I couldn't attend the lesson of my FabLab instructor on Grasshopper, but I found a series of video tutorials by Nick Senske, on his YouTube page.

The verdict for Rhinoceros is that is really powerful, but it has quite a learning curve. In a lot of aspects it's similar to AutoCAD, and I like that every command can be issued either clicking on an icon, or using the integrated command line. Moreover Rhino is capable of handling every CAD file format I throw at it with no problem at all!

Work files links

2D Software - Preface

I am a bit accustomed to a couple of 2D software for image manipulation, such as Corel Paint Shop Pro X6, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. So I decided to focus my attention on learning some other 2D tools.

After a glance at the websites of all the software cited by Neil, I came up with a selection of 2 tools:

• InkScape:
  is a free and open-source vector graphics editor; it can be used to create or edit vector graphics such as illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos and complex paintings.
• GIMP:
  is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks.

2D software - InkScape

During my years at University, I always used Adobe Illustrator as Vector Graphics editor. So it was a little confusing using InkScape: not because it has a complicated GUI, but just because I was used to Adobe program.

So I started searching for video tutorials to become acquainted with InkScape UI, and I ended up on this and this. From the first video tutorial I learned that is possible to adopt an assonometric grid, and that would be really useful to sketch something in perspective.

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After a bit of tinkering I managed to get a bit more comfortable with Inkscape GUI, and I used the tool to draw the outline of the middle parte of my scoreboard. In this way I can resize and generate laser cut file easily.

The verdict for Inkscape is that is nice, open-source and free, but once you are used to another software, it's kind of hard and frustrating managing to do the same thing with an unknown software! Anyway the good thing of Inkscape is that there are a lot of plugins and you can use scripting language too.

Work files links

2D software - GIMP

Let me start saying that drawing with a mouse is a real pain... So I called a friend and I borrowed a graphic tablet. But because of my poor skills in freehand drawing, the result wasn't any better.

Anyway, to appreciate the functionalities of GIMP I started reading the tutorials from here and here. They were simple enough but I discovered that GIMP has a wide number of plugins and extensions, that make it a powerful and highly customizable tool. Then I tinkered a bit with the interface, and coloured and readjusted the image exported from InkScape.

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Work files links

Assignments Outcomes

• Evaluate and select 2D and 3D software
• Demonstrate and describe processes used in modelling with 2D and 3D software

Have you:

modelled your proposed final project in 2D and 3D software
shown how you did it with words/images/screenshots
included your original design files