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Week 2 - COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN

Februar 3 - Februar 10

Lecture Link, Video

*Weeks Assignment*

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

* Show how you did it with words/images/screenshots

* Included your design files.

As i am not sure how to modle my final project yet I tried to install and try out as many 2D and 3D design programs as possible and do one simple file with it.

2D Design

In 2D Design you have to understand the differences between raster and vector graphics.

A raster is an image made out of pixels which are tiny squares of color information. A photograph is a typical raster graphic.

A vector graphic is an image uses math to draw shapes using lines and curves. A commmon vector graphic is a logo or a fonts.

Raster/Pixel

As a 2d Design raster design tool I normally used photoshop but I do not want to pay monthly for it so I use this opportunity to try out two alternative programs Gimp and Pixelmator.

Gimp

I followd a lecture about gimp and Inkscape from our instructor Ferdi but I additionally looked at some videos on skillshareand at also looked at the tutorials you find when you klick on help.

I needed to look at the videos step by step to really understand the different tools.

The first thing I did was to adjust the windows. I think that was on reason why I did photoshop and not gimp in the beginning.

After that I tried to resize an image an I had to google because its a little different then in photoshop.

Als I tried to open an portrait and resize it and then I tried to get rid of the background. But I found the tools not very intuitive and switched to Pixelmator for that task.

I also tried to do a pixel art portrait of the Dalai Lama and it worked great.

I also wanted to install the bimp plugin so you can change more images at the same time. I could not get it to work so I installed Gimp on Windows in Parallels and used the Windows Installer.

Pixelmator

I also tried Pixelmator. There is a 30 day trial version you can download. I really like that program. Nice design and very intuitiv. I right away sketched how I would like my stickomat to look like. It is great for simple image manipulations.

Here you can get the first scetch of my final project.

Vector

Normally I used Corel Draw for vector graphics but as there is now Mac Version I will give Inkscape another try.

Inkscape

I first followed step by step the tutorial from Ferdi from the Fablab Barcelona and then installed two box makers.

I also downloaded the elliptical box maker.

Here is a tutorial on instructable..

With the box maker I tied to do the housing of my stickomat.

Here you can download the file here

Graphic

This program is Mac, iPad and iPhone only and I downloaded and tried out and did a sketch.

Corel Draw

Also I downloaded Corel Draw but could not install it yet because in Parallels I could not put in the @ to sign in to the program.

3D Design

This is a great video of 3D Modeling Concepts like Extrude, Revolve, Scale, Round & Filet, Pattern, Sweep, Revolve.

I believe once you have understood these concepts you can work through every 3D Program and use the one that fits best for your task at hand.

Tinkercad

This is the program I am most comfortable with so I used it to first get a 3D idea of my final project. For my final project I created a new project folder. Its really great that you can store all you files online as well. The process to do my design was straight forward first made a box which will be my canvas to stick the post-its on it. Then I did the rods to the side and resized it with the Ruler tool to make them 3x3 cm as a normal aluminum rod would be.

The only negative points is that you cannot continue working on your design when you do not have internet and that the working table is limited to 1000x1000mm.

You can find the file here on tinkercad.

123D Design

Next I also tried it with 123D Design. Its has a couple of more features then tinkercad but the handling si similar. Also it only meant for 3D Printing an modeling small objects as the working table is also limited to 100cm x 100 cm.

I did this model by first draw a rectangle with the Sketch tool and the made offsets with the offsets tools and extrude the canvas and the sides. I then put the canvas in the air and created another box to cut away the bottom and the top.

Fusion360

After that I also installed Fusion 360 and did the bacis training tutorials.

Rhino Mac + Grasshopper

Since January 10 there is a WIP Grasshopper Version for Rhino Mac. To start it you need to type in ExplicitHistory in the bar above. In the forum you can report your bugs.

Rhino Windows + Grasshopper

I tried to set up the Windows version of Rhino on my Mac and installed Parallels and bought Windows 10 only to find out that it i better set up Bootcamp and Windows and do not use Paralles. I have not done that yet.

Blender

I have blender already installed but was not able to try it out yet.

Solidworks

Update 14. April:

Finally in Barcelona I was able to play around with Solidworks a bit. But you really need to install it on Bootcamp and not on Paralles.

Antimony

I installed it (yes there is a Mac installer :-))and played around with it a bit and did a little tutorial.

I did not understand how to export an stl file at first but I looked at the site of site of the student David Taylor and with the help of another student I managed to export an stl file in the end. You need to create an export node and connect it to the shape you want to export.

The file you can find here.

Openscad

I already know it and will try to do something in the laser and the 3d week and also played with it a bit. The cheatsheet is great to get started. I still am not confortable with and I hope to to a project with it in the future.

FreeCad

I already tried it out but did not like the interface.

OnShape

Later during fabacademy I also created an account for the online CAD Program OnShape. There is first video you can watch ant then there are also several tutorials you can go through.

I really love the program but did not have time to explore it further.

Sketchup Pro

I did not have time to work with program in the end.

Overview of Programs

2D 3D Use case
Gimp Raster/Pixel mutliplat form free/opensource
Pixelmator Raster/Pixel MAC 29,99$
Inkscape Vektor mutliplatform free/opensource
Graphic Vektor MAC 29,99$
Tinkercad (parametric) cloud simple
123D Design multiplatform
Rhino + Grasshopper parametric WINDOWS/MAC
Blender multiplat form free/opensource
Antimony parametric MAC free/opensource
Freecad multiplat form free/opensource
Onshape parametric cloud fremium
SketchupPro multiplatform fremium

Project Files

I will put all the project file in the google drive folder here or directly here from the repository.

stickomat_v2.jpg (2D Sketch)

stickomat_box.svg

link to tinkercad file (use firefox)

stickomat_v1.123dx (123Design)

antimony_design.sb (antimony)

Feedback ?

Twitter me or email me at andreasrkopp at gmail dot com.

Gitter

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