Chapters 5 & 6 Question 2 DUE 9/30

I agree with Chapter 6 that, design software is the heartbeat of 3D printing. I prefer sketching by computer to hand drawing. However, for this project I was forced to whip out the pencil and get to work. I must say that it helped with measuring because I had to make sure my drawing was relative to the dimensions on the wedge. When turning the sketch into a digital model in Sketch-up, I realized that reducing the physical information into a workable set of digital symbols was a tad bit of a challenge. While I may perceive my block as a whole, the computer registers it in parts using the x, y and z coordinates, such as Chapter 6 suggests.

After getting the shape right, I had a hard time building a structure using the 3D warehouse models. The coordinates in the digital world are so infinite that a block seeming to be placed on top of another in a certain view may surely not be the case. I had to learn how to use the points on each block to place them on top of each other. All in all, the sketch-up software is a great blueprint to creating a model. While 3D printing, I was truly amazed by how a simple design could go from just lines and measurements to a physical object in a matter of minutes.

If I were the author of these chapters I would highlight that “design software automates the tedious aspects of the design process.” While computers ease the pains of design iterations with all the options offered, it takes a lot of tweaking to get a digital design file right to translate and/or mimic a physical model.

3D printing is still under development, but we expect that 3D printing business will have a potential to grow impressively in the future. However, the book points out so many drawbacks of the current situation of 3D printing. The state of 3D printing would be a long way from the world that we depict. However, we enjoy making toys to use a 3D printer through this course recently. I made a square box, but it is not the just the box and it is the box including our dreams to the future. It would not be long before 3D printing was realized.
So we used and have used Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file format to draw 3D objects. According to the text book, the STL file format was designed to simplify the transfer of design files to budding 3D printers, because computer memory was limited and the STL file format removed some design details was ideal since that conserved computing power. Also, the book well explains the STL file format with using an example, a design file can contain color information and other design niceties that the STL file’s job was to strip away. a typical printer needed to process only the triangles that touched the current layer and could temporarily ignore the rest until the next layer was due to be fabricated.
I do not understand this technical explanation well. However, we can make toys and go into their details now. However, Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file format still has many drawbacks. So the Additive Manufacturing Format (AMF) was created as the new standard to handle different colors, different types of materials, and so on. But this is not still perfect for design software either. I hope that 3D printer technology would be a complete thing for people to be able to make our personal belongings.

After performing my first 3-d print and reading these recent chapters I can now see that the specific type of design printer that I used was an FDM model. This model, as I saw, printed via a method of squirting out material in quick bursts, layer upon layer. But before the actual printing of my cube design, I had to design my cube in the very program that the chapters describe as being “popular, no-cost, and easy to use.” Sketch-up at first can be a bit of a learning curve because as emphasized in the chapter, my model had to be nicely done and attractive before being printed. So really taking my time to make sure my model was solid was key.
Upon bringing it to the MakerHub space, I was shown how the model had to go through the “layer fabrication process” as described in chapter 5. Watching this process really opened my eyes to how the printer was going to read my file. After “cutting up” the file into layers , watching it print was very sequenced and orderly.
If I was the author of these chapters I would definitely highlight more of how Sketch up works and how transforming a 2d idea into a 3-d design is not as easy as it sounds. The programs also requires a bit of a learning curve so I think going over the interface and how it creates designs in the x,y, and z axises is vital. Bringing this program in more depth to the reader will better help them understand the idea of “garbage in and garbage out.”

In chapter 5, the two major kinds of 3D printing were listed. I remember printing my arch using the first kind, which is the selective deposition printing. I also remember once the second kind of printer was brought to class as well. It was intriguing to see light beams flashing under the platform to solidify certain parts of the gel. I was also curious as to how the laser was so precise that it would not solidify any other parts of the gel while shooting rays to specified areas. As described in the chapter, it seemed as if the preparation time before printing was just as long as the actual printing process. Mohammed had to convert the SKP file to STL and then transfer it into Makerbot’s designated software. And when the model was configured, the printer warmed up and downloaded the file. Also, similarly to what we learned in class, chapter 5 explains that preparing the file correctly is extremely important.

The design process described in chapter 6 reminds me of the struggle I had with dimensions. I had to make sure that every surface was on the right plane, which was especially hard in the second designing component of the assignment. I was also frustrated with the limitations of the design software. Perhaps I have been accustomed to using Adobe’s design softwares, which offers much more freedom than SketchUp does, so I found it difficult to navigate the application and create things I wanted to make.

I believe that the author explained and focused on aspects that I felt important in my first experience with designing and printing a 3D model. One thing that I would definitely stress is how essential it is to design a model with precise dimensions and size. I would also explain that the 3D printers today are relatively slow. I was surprised that if my arch was printed to scale, it would have taken more than an hour to print. What if I had a complex model? That would have taken hours or even days to complete!

As a graphic designer I believe my experience with creating the first print out was different. Like said on the book by John, ABC’s director for printing, 3D printing is not an actual printing is a manufacture. I certaintly believe that is true. I n graphic design, we often design items in 2D and once we send them to print they also come in 2D. As I stared my process i kept thinking of how this would look like from one side. However, I came to realize that I not only have to design from one side but instead i have to think of it as all around.

Getting the program started with the “easy useful tool” as explain in the book was easy for me to do but once it was time to print Mohamed explain the importance in STL . How we need to export it and save it as STL file so that the FDM printer can read it. I was able to see the material, weight and time it will take for my block to be printed. He also explain that for every printer there are different types of programs to use to export the STL file for the design.

As the book said I believe that 3D printing involves a design aspect however, designing an item could be a bit confusing until the person understand the concept that when referring to printing it does not mean just a simple print out but instead it refers to having an actual physical 3 dimension object. Something i could relate with chapter 6 will be the fact that since i am use to designing with Adobe software it was a bit difficult for me to understand Skecktup tools since most of them do only one specific thing at a time but once i got the hang of them, it was super easy to design.

Chapters 5 and 6 did a very good job summarizing the design process; it closely resembled my personal experience with 3D printing. I first had to sketch out my block on paper and acquire the measurements of each of its edges. The challenging aspect was taking my 2D design and recreating it in Sketchup in three dimensions. While I didn’t use pre-programmed polygons, the software made creating my block very simple.

Creating my building was a different task entirely. The X, Y, Z axes definitely presented a challenge; stacking blocks on top of each other required certain skills, skills that I quickly learned I lacked. However, the the shapes possible were endless, as the software allowed me to twist and modify the shapes to my every whim.

If I was the author, I would draw the reader’s attention to the challenges of navigating the software, especially for novices.