Week 1 - Principles and practices. Project Management

Learn about Fab Labs, the Fab Network and the Fab Charter. Build a personal website. Begin planning and documenting your final project.

Build a personal website

It’s my first time using Dreamweaver (DW) so I have started off taking as a reference a website made by another year student, Juanjo Fernández, and made changes .
I used Dreamweaver because I think that it›s very easy and I have used other Adobe Suite programs. I want to learn code and I want to learn it on DW.
In Dreamweaver I can work with code and design at the same time. I think that “DW” is useful for someone unfamiliar with web design. I know that it is not the best program but it is very simple to use.
In the left panel you can see the code design, it’s easy to detect if something is wrong. I can learn about the code with the right panel, because when I make click in something I can see the program’s code.
Other good thing in “DW” is that I can copy code like a video and put into the left panel and see what happens in the right panel. Also I can see how the web works by clicking the preview button, the web navigator opens with your local html file. I can see how my web works

Snapshot of the Dreamweaver´s divided interface while creating this page.

 

Plan and sketch a final project

I would like to start by saying that my project is based on research I did in my final year at University.

Model of my Architectural Final Project

 

The project is based in previous studies of minimal forms, which I want to apply in architecture. My first steps were with models, I love models, ! they are fun! The second step was to study the minimal form through software. I tried with an Autocad plugin, and then I used Grasshopper. I connected Grasshopper with Ecotect to make environment studies achieving my final form.

 

Render of a part of the final model. The difference between mesh apertures depends of solar radiation . The biggers holes are for the supports

But the next step that I would like to do is to make the building “live”. I want to make this skin have its own life, adapting to the environment. I’m sure that I can start learning about electronic devices that can move the skin. First of all I want to make a very simple model that moves interacting with the sun .

 

My final project will move, to do this I will design electronics circuits and program them. Now I know nothing about it and I think that I’m going to do a very simple model because I need to learn to use a lot of machines, programs and electronics: it’s a challenge.

My proposal is to make a prototype facade which react to the amount of light it receives. For the first prototype will only use a mast and a surface of a flexible material (fabric). To make it move you need an engine that holds the mast and makes the fabric move up or down.

This is a sketch of my final project

 

Make a commit in the Academy archive

The webs for students are now version controlled by Git in with the web Gitlab.
You have to generate ssh keys to make secure connections

I know nothing about programming language , so my first commit/pull/push was in collaboration with my instructor Nuria Robles who told what to do with the terminal.

git clone git@git.fabacademy.org:fabacademy2016/fablabmadridue.git // clone a directory fablabmadridue in my hard disk

cd fablabmadridue // move to fablabmadridue folder

cd students // move to students folder

cd <318> // 318 is my student folder

git status // tell if the directory has been modified

git pull // download the last verion of the repository

git add <name of the archive we want to upload> // before we add the files you want to upload to our repository in our directory. Also we can use "git add --all" that add all existing files of my work directory.

git status // tell if the directory has been modified. This tell me if I added the files that I want.

git commit -m "updating students from fablabue" // to confirm changes. We can put a message to know what we change.

git push // upload the files

it's done!

 

UPDATE:

Now I use SourceTree with the help of Marta Verde which has created this tutorial. It's very easy to use.

First make a Fetch (similar to git status), tell us what's new in our repository

Make pull, download the repository files into our hard disk

Select the files that you want to pull.

Make a commit, and pull.

That’s all !!