This page contains the Building Blocks and Five Forms x Five Materials projects that I worked on in SketchUp, a 3D designing software.
Building Blocks
The Arch block was the first thing I made in SketchUp. When choosing which block to work with, I tried to grab the most complicated block that I could find. While making pencil sketches, I was pondering on how I was going to make this through SketchUp. Thankfully, my professor gave demonstrations on how to make the block later in class. In contrast to other blocks like the cube, rectangular prism, pyramid, and cylinder, going about designing an arch was not conventional. Often when people draw or design something, they think of building it up into a whole. Before discovering how to make an arch, I was coming up with time-consuming ways to build it. However, the simple way of making the arch was in a subtractive manner. The arch was made through extracting a half circle from a rectangle. If I was not taught this way, I would have been locked into thinking non-creatively.
Unlike many of my peers, I designed an abstract structure with the different building blocks. I mainly used this project to explore the various tools of SketchUp. After learning about rotating objects in different planes, scaling, and subtracting, I decided to put it to use. I learned how to use the “Follow Me” tool, which I used on the sphere in the after image. So, I redesigned the structure to show off my accomplishments with the tool as well. Initially, I felt that the structure looked like a factory since the hollow cylinder protruding from the rest of the structure looked like an industrial chimney. But after the professors commented that it could be the new Guggenheim Museum, I decided it indeed could be the 3D print alter-ego of the Guggenheim. Without losing the round and smooth character of the original museum building, this could be quirky and classic at the same time.
Designing on SketchUp was a fun experience, but it was also a tedious one. It took me hours to figure out how to properly use a tool, make sure the objects were in the right planes, and connect the objects together. Although these things sound like simple tasks, they are actually difficult to navigate in SketchUp. So for those who will be tackling this Building Blocks project in the future, I suggest to plan out what you want to make on paper first. Since you will be struggling on the software, you will at least have a guideline to help get you back on track. Also, do not be afraid to think liberally. Just like building the arch, think outside the box when working in the design software. Sometimes the methods that you believe are unconventional are the easiest ways of approaching the project.
Five Forms x Five Materials
Below are the five objects that I designed: A vase, cookie cutter, ring, knob, and phrase.
In addition to building the designs, I created spec sheets for each item if they were to be 3D printed products. I chose materials from flexible plastic, hard plastic, metal, stone, and food. You can check them out here to see which materials I paired with each object, and what the price and printing processes each would require.