Paper Vessel Prototypes

Here's a quick rundown of my paper vessel prototypes:

 1.    Star-shaped design
 2.    Hexagon design
 3.    Box with flaps
 4.    Triangular prism
 5.    Box without flaps
 6.    Funnel
 7.    Cylinder
 8.    Half-cone (with flat front)
 9.    Mailbox
10.   Shallow box

Unfortunately, I felt quite unmotivated during this project. I'm not entirely sure I even did what I was supposed to do, and felt like this was more busy work than anything else. I'd like to get back to doing modeling on the computer - that's the time when I feel I am getting the most out of this class, not with these projects. Of course, that's simply my personal opinion.

Paige Ruka

Paper Construction Practice: Rectangular Pyramid

I've done a few paper craft projects in my spare time but I've never done something quite as technical as this. Let's take a look.

Rectangular Pyramid: Cut and Scored

Rectangular Pyramid: Finished Build

Here, I've created a rectangular pyramid using one of the templates provided in class. Using cardboard as a base proved to be a tough challenge. My hands are apparently pretty weak, because I wasn't getting the greatest cuts at normal pressure with my X-Acto knife, and when I applied more pressure my hands just felt sore at the end (from having to hold down my straight-edge and the knife). Luckily, my cuts turned out pretty clean in the end, and I scored the folds with a ballpoint pen. Then, I attempted to glue the object together with a simple glue stick. Unfortunately, it didn't stay together all that well, so I went in again with a hot glue gun, and now it's nice and sturdy.

Paige Ruka

Thingiverse: My Account

For future projects, I've created a Thingiverse account to post my 3D models. Find my profile here.

My first Thingiverse upload is my ink roller from CAD Practice III: Digitize It.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1029685

As I write this post, my object already has two likes. How nice!

The feedback I received from my group was generally positive. The question I was asked most was how I did the clamp at the point where the two sides of the handle connect.  My best explanation is as follows:

1. I created a new work plane that sat tangent to the front of the handle's curve, parallel to XZ plane.
2. On this new plane, I drew a circle, then cut three lines through the circle: one horizontal, one at an angle to the left, and one at an angle to the right.  Using my digital caliper, I measured the width of one of the sides where the clamp comes out, and set all three straight lines to be equal to this length.
3. I finished this circle sketch with three cuts and extruded it to the width of the metal on my object at this point.
4. Next, I started a new sketch on one of the flat, now rectangular sides of the shape I just extruded. On this new sketch, I traced the rectangle AND drew a line through the middle of the handle. This line serves as an axis of rotation for step 5.
5. I revolved the rectangle I drew around the axis of rotation from step 4, for about 220 degrees.  I did not want the revolved piece to make a full circle, but rather a semi-circle that ends at the back of the model.
6. I repeated steps 4 and 5 for the other flat parts of the extrusion in step 3. Now all I needed to do was round off the edges of the clamps at the back.
7. I used fillet cuts to achieve a nice, rounded look for each metal clamp.  For the radius of these fillet cuts, I used the same value as the radius of the handle.

If my words are confusing (which I'm sure they are - sorry about that!) I have a few pictures to show.

Front view of clamp.

Side view of clamp.

Back view of clamp.

Maybe that explanation helped. Maybe it didn't. It probably didn't, but hopefully my 3D modelling language will improve as we work more with these tools.

Paige Ruka

CAD Practice III: Digitize it

Converting real life objects into 3D models is certainly not as easy as it sounds. And it doesn't even sound easy to begin with!

Here's a photo of the object I was given, an ink roller of some sort. I decided to break this into three main steps: the roller, the handle, and the tiny clamp where the two sides of the handle meet, below the roller.

The roller itself was not too bad - I simply had to revolve a rectangle around an axis, certainly not the toughest of tasks.

The next part (the handle) was a little more complicated. I decided to make one continuous line, and in the end tried the new "sweep" technique to transform the line from 2D to 3D. Though taking all the measurements with my caliper was a pain, I was happy the sweep itself worked! I think I made the main part of the handle a bit short, and the portion relatively parallel to the roller a bit too straight, but I did what I could. I was surprised I could get this far, honestly!

Finally, the little tiny clamp.  I made the flat part of the clamp first, then rotated 3 flat edges around the handle.  It took a little trial and error, but I'm pleased with the results.

After all that, here's the finished product! It's not perfect, I know, but I think it's as decent as I can achieve at this point with my current knowledge of Autodesk Inventor. I also got to be a little fancy and add textures, thanks to a tip from my dad, who uses the same program for his engineering job! The handle uses the "Steel (Polished)" texture, and the roller uses the "Rubber (Black)" texture. It's certainly interesting to look at my model and the photo side-by-side.

Paige Ruka

CAD Practice II: Advanced Technical Drawings

Phew! This assignment was a tough challenge... it's not easy getting the hang of 3D modeling so suddenly! But, I can say I'm starting to learn some of Autodesk Inventor's "quirks," if you will - what the program will accept in turning things 3D and what it sees as a big no-no. More fun commentary below, along with screenshots:

Advanced Practice #1: The In-Class Demo

Not much to say about this one. It was done during class, so it was more of a follow-along demo than anything else. (Okay, that commentary wasn't fun. The rest is fun!)

Advanced Practice #2: The "Revolve"

Rather than using extrusions for Practice 2, a 3D revolve was required - and boy, was my program fussy about it! I kept getting an error about an "open curve" or something of that sort (meaning my lines weren't completely connected somehow). After some painful trial and error in an attempt to solve the issue, I ended up redrawing everything from scratch. Just my luck, it worked like a charm after that! Oof.

Advanced Practice #3: Multi-Step Madness

If I wasn't comfortable drawing on the faces of 3D models before, I sure am now!  It took a lot of that to get where I wanted to be - I'm sure there were much more efficient ways to complete this one, but at least the long route still got me to the end safely.

Advanced Practice #4: Rotation Frustration

Who would have thought that THIS little guy would be the one to give me the most trouble? "This will be easy!" I foolishly thought to myself. "Do a circular pattern and you'll be done in a breeze!" Sure, in theory that works. But remember Autodesk Inventor's "quirks" that I mentioned before? Yeah, turns out when you do a radial pattern like this, it doesn't connect the lines for you, and therefore cannot render it in 3D. What a PAIN. I ended up just doing all six "blades" by hand. What should have been a shortcut actually made this practice take the longest of all.

Advanced Practice #5: The Pattern Success

With this one, I actually got the pattern feature in Autodesk Inventor to work!! I believe this time it obeyed me because I only patterned the inner triangles, and went around the whole piece with a large rectangle manually at the very end.  That way, everything was connected - the triangles simply became holes in the bigger piece.

Advanced Practice #6: The "Where Does It Want Me To Put This Curve?"

A keen eye will notice that this last one is actually incomplete. I was able to complete Steps 1, 2, and 3 on the handout, but the final step - which would have taken me to the end - had me stumped.  I see I have to do something on the flat parts of the top, bottom, left and right edges, but what? All I have to work with is R50 - a radius of 50. But I still don't understand how a curve with radius 50 would even fit in right there. It has me absolutely baffled. I'd love to see this one done in class as a demo on Tuesday, if possible.

Well, there you have it! It's a good feeling to have these done (at least, done to the best of my ability at this time). With more practice, I hope assignments in this class will start to feel less mind-numbingly tough and more rewarding. Once we design our own projects, I'm sure that will be the case!

Paige Ruka

CAD Practice I: Basic Technical Drawings

Below are screenshots of my 6 practice drawings in Autodesk Inventor. These took a long time to finally complete, but I think I'm getting slightly better at using the program? That doesn't mean it's not still unbelievably frustrating, but I'll keep pushing through. I just wish in class demonstrations went a bit slower so I could keep up and understand exactly what we are doing and how we are doing it.

Paige Ruka

Practice #1

Practice #3

Practice #4

Practice #5

Practice #6

Practice #7

Autodesk Inventor: Test Sketch

My first 2D sketch in Autodesk Inventor. I have chosen to name this piece "I Have No Idea What I'm Doing," subtitled "This Program Confuses Me Quite A Bit." Better pieces (hopefully) to come in the future. This is only our first day of working on things, after all!

Paige Ruka