Studio 4 Journal, Week 5

This Week

• Button Tests
• CAD Flat Pattern
• Filling and Sanding Base
• Project Plan

Button Tests - As far as testing the buttons go, I've 3D printed and made sure that both brightness and power buttons will physically work. The Brightness button went through some pretty major changed from the first attempt. I've ended up using the flexible abilities of the ABS to hold my Alucobond button in place, while still moving enough to engage the button held beneath. The reason for the final design of the brightness button's bracket is because there needs to be adequate clearance for the button to actually move in.

The Power button was pretty much the same as what had been tested before, so the only adjustment was to file away some plastic which was preventing the button from travelling all the way down.

CAD Flat Pattern - After working out the details for mounting the button and switch, I've drawn out a CAD file which has locating holes for the small parts and also details to cut thin flanges out of the Alucobond to cover the edges of material. I will finalise the details of this on Monday. Speaking of which I realised just now I haven't resolved how to mount the power adapter to the arm.

Filling and Sanding Base - This step is still part way through, thought I've gone with a 3D printed insert and the part is part way through being primed and sanded. The 3D printed part looks like it will serve its purpose quite well. You can see in the photos how I've cut a test piece that clearly shows how the sphere will be supported away from the cement in the base.

Project Plan - This is the first time I've used a Gantt chart to try and plan and entire project's movements... I know I've missed things but I guess that's the whole point. If I don't know I've forgotten something, I can't possibly remember it.

I've used a program called GanttProject. Super easy to use.

Studio 4 Journal, Week 4

This Week

• MDF Sphere Continued
• Base Turning
• CAD Flat Pattern
• Button Adjustments

MDF Sphere Continued - Again with the sphere... Yes. Its taking some time to get to a finish that is free from dents and such. At this point, its at the stage where I cant see that it is worth spending any more time on it. It has already consumed way too much of that resource.

Base Turning - The base is a simple ring of cement which I have made a test part in foam, then turned up out of timber in order to cast a mould off of. There is a circular housing in the centre for a 3D printed part that will create the more intricate parts that wont be seen when the lamp is assembled.  The choice of 3D printing is simply because of the fact that it is quick and accessible to me, unlike the CNC milling machine at uni. The more I can get done in the break. the better.

CAD Flat Pattern - Working in Solidworks, I've modeled the Alucobond components with consideration to the fact that I will be using the CNC mill to cut the shape. I'm not going to a realistic model, its just a functional model to give me a flat pattern to cut from. Even after i export the flat pattern, I intend to modify it in Illustrator to make the CNC process as quick as possible when the workshop is open again.

Button Adjustments - I've decided that the lamp needs to have a brightness adjustment. There will be a small button at the front of the sphere which will controll the brightness at 8 different levels. I've remastered the original power button cam to fit into the space available in the final design for the arm. Also, created a CAD model of a first attempt for a mounting system for the smaller brightness button. I'll test this out next week.

Computer Modelling Journal, Week 9

This week I filled in the top and trimmed out the battery cover. The top piece is a filled surface with three guides that all have equal curvature to the band that runs around the mouse. The construction for these lines was a little bit of a pain, because Solidworks doesn't like cooperating with me. The guides had to be contained to projected curves that run along the sides of the mouse.

You'll notice the finger indents are already there. Those were made with the Freeform tool. Symmetry is important for this one. I trued to minimise the amount of movement to achieve the right shape. Too much movement distorts other pants of the surface.

The approach  for making two separate surfaces bodies for the battery cover and bottom parts the base has to be duplicated, then trimmed so that there are two surface bodies which are identical to what existed previously. A series of projected curves and sketches  were used to create a compound curve that i could use to trim the surface bodies.

I've had a play with the middle piece's recess for when I start adding thickness to the parts. Using a simple offset surface from the top piece works well, but it doesn't accurately represent the front of the recess where it is slightly larger and has a steeper angle that the rear. I'm going to have a thing about this one.

Computer Modelling Journal, Week 5

The last week! I've just submitted my work online and I've got nothing left to do but go to the pub. WOO

Not the usual day for a post but I need to update what I've been doing for this last couple days. The basic gist of what I've done is the Arm and Hand parts.

Initially the arm was giving me some grief. I can't say its perfect, but frankly I'm sick of it and the fact that I'm just re-creating something that already exists, I'm not fussed. Its close enough! I had a few problems with trying to get the arm to have that strait edge on what would be the inside. (the part that touches the body) If you look at the post from last week, you'll see the line I'm talking about. Attempt 1 (left) and Attempt 2 (right) are alright... but the final shape I went with is a little bit less awkward. (bottom) The line at the bottom of the flat face there comes about as a result of an extrusion from the front face where the hand goes. I'd like to have made it a little different but I kept getting one of those really vague errors that Solidworks loves to give. So i found a workaround with a slightly modified sketch.

I have to say my favorite part was the hand. It really has a lot of detail, and the shape is awesome but without being too complex. Basically I just went through with a revolve at an angle to make the stick, then extruded the hand shape from the Top Plane.

Part of the assignment was also to build an accessory. I went with a cape. Following the same concept as a backpack and the bear accessories, it clips in under the  head on the neck piece of the body. The bulk of the detail is an absurd spline sketch at the bottom of the cape, which is lofted up along some guidelines to where it attaches to the mini-figure. The bottom also uses a spline, but this time a lofted cut which just takes away that boring bottom edge I'd have ended up with without it.

Finally... This is what the whole Lego Mini-figure looks like!

Computer Modelling Journal, Week 1

This will be the first of many entries with regards to computer modelling for product design. Over the course of the next half year, i'll be recording any problems, triumphs or anything that's worth documenting regarding the process and experiences I come across while completing assignments. The software package I'll be using is Solidworks 2013. Hopefully there will be more pictures than words.

Once being given the technical Drawing for the bottle, It became clear that there wer some details that would be hard to see without a electronic copy to zoom in on. In particular the top of the bottle and teh base where the knurled feature is.

The top left image out of the following shows a small flat ridge after the first fillet from the bottle's top. Without it, the sketch is impossible to constrain. Also there is a detail where two concentric arcs are required to find a point of intersection which constrains the centre point of the arc just below that small flat ridge.

The top right image just explains the flat surface just before the very bottom of the bottle's upper section.

This bottom image was a little confusing because it leaves a lot to the imagination to try understand the shape of the 3D feature that is is trying to describe. With whats shown here, I presumed it is half of a football shape.

The sketches looked pretty alright to me afterwards.

The final Product after a quick render...

This is the first part of the assignment done. Next to come is a little CAD Lego person and a 3D printed item for it to carry or be attached to. I'd thought of making a tiny Mech for it to sit in, but that might be a bit too big of a project for the time frame I've got. Maybe just robotic pants will suffice.