BEIL0014 DIGITAL MAKING

Tutorial 1 Digital Making Course

In this tutorial we will discussing the overall course material and going through what you will require in order to successfully pass this course.

The first step of this tutorial is understanding all the tools necessary to complete each task of this course. You will need a smart phone and an access to a computer in order to be able to use the required programs and apps.
The first download that needs to be done is downloading both onto your smart phone and your laptop/computer(if youre going to work from home) is 123DCatch by Autodesk. Along with this app you will also need to download 123DMake. Attached are the websites which will help you in learning how to use the programs.

http://www.123dapp.com/catch/
http://www.123dapp.com/make/

Digital Making Process

The next step is understanding that you will need to have a chosen object from your own discipline that you will need to take photos of and upload to the programs in order to create a 3D projected image of the object into the programs. Make sure the object does not move and there is decent lighting for you to take photos of. Laying it on top of a piece of paper (depending how large the object is) will help in creating a smooth 3D model.
Once the 3D model has been generated in 123DCatch you will need to export that file into 123DMake. This program will allow you to create the template for the 3D model for which you will export into the Laser Cutting machine.
Once you have successfully created the template for the model you will then need to export it for laser cutting. Adobe Illustrator is fairly easy to use however if you are having trouble you can look back at the inductions that you have completed for laser cutting and sheetmetal. Once the file is uploaded into AI you will then need to choose a few settings before youre able to cut the plywood. You will need to enter things such as material type as well as thickness. You also need to remember to turn the air filtration system.

Sheet Metal Making Process (Making a Practice Bowl)

The next step to this course is the sheet metal process. This is the part where you will need to shape the aluminium sheet metal in order to cover a section of your chosen object. You will need to shape the sheet to match the contours of your template. Some of the tools that you will learn how to use are;

Metal Cutters
Shot Bags
Dollies
Bossing Mallets
A few of the larger machines inside the room such as the guillotine for cutting the sheet metal

You will need to mark out the sheet understanding where the contours will be in order to give you a guide on what tools are necessary for the shaping process. It will usually either be stretching or shrinking the sheet metal.
The first step in making the aluminium bowl was to have a circular sheet with a roughly marked out segments. It's marked to show its contours and act as a guideline for the surface area which either needed to be stretched or to shrink.
The clamp below was the device that was used to shrink and this would naturally provide and inward curve, like that of a bowl. You would need to shrink all the way around the edges in a uniform manner also take your time as you can accidentally crinkle the edges like I did and you would not be able to revert this process.
Once you have shrunk the edges roughly an inch and a half towards the centre of the disc you would then need to stretch the insides of the disc in order to create a bowl. Using the mallet and the sandbag you would need to hit it repeatedly into the desired shape. A roller was also used to try and flatten out the edges as much as i possibly could to make the process as tidy as possible
The previous steps were the most tedious and would have to be repeated more than once to get the desired shape. Dont worry if the initial results are not similar to those that you want but it will get better the more you work on it.
Once you have the desired shape of the bowl I used the bowl mold to smooth out the edges as well as create the bowl shape. This method was used by two different hammers. The wooden one to try and recreate the bowl shape and the second hammer to try and smooth out all the ridges and to make it as smooth as I could.
As you can see from the photos below there were alot of imperfections that needed to be smoothed out either using the mold or rolling pin. Alot of these steps were tedious however as the shape started to take form it got easier and easier in understanding what each contraption did.

As you can see from the above photos there were alot of imperfections that needed to be smoothed out either using the mold or rolling pin. Alot of these steps were tedious however as the shape started to take form it got easier and easier in understanding what each contraption did. This was the end result.

Tutorial 2: Interdisciplinary Skin

The primary focus of this second tutorial is to understand and mediate the challenges that arose from the previous weeks of practicing with the sheetmetal and template making parts.

The first step of the second tutorial is to pair up with a student from another disciplinary in order to produce some test shapes.
Converse with your partner about the challenges and any other revelations that you have learnt from the experience from all the other models.
Once you have decided what object you are going to turn into a template you are ready to begin
Following all the outlined steps in the above tutorial you should be able to have an easier time in creating your second skin.

Choosing the object

As I am a construction student there were alot of ideas that came to mind but being a construction student I had ZERO knowledge in using any of the computer program software. This was the downfall of my this task as I had to learn through trial and error which each function did and it the end it i was unsuccessful in many of my attempts. I had originally chosen to do a cross-head screwdriver however the captures turned out horribly as well as being too small. My second attempt was using the butt of the screwdriver however this also turned out to be unsuccessful.

Laser Cutting

Once the file has been uploaded into Adobe Illustrator you will need to also manually change a few settings before you can start laser cutting
On the top left side of the screen you need to change the stroke to 0.001mm
You will then need to highlight all pieces of the template and revert its colours as blue is for engraving and red is for cutting. The marked out blue numbers are for when you put all the pieces together and its used for referencing. You need to apply the following settings

R:255
G:0
B:0

Now you will need to revert the numbers for correct engraving. Similar to the above step you need to highlight the numbers and apply the following settings

R:0
G:
B:225

Once these has been completed you need save the file and it will automatically appear in the laser cutting program.
REMEMBER to turn on the air filtration before you begin.
There are a few steps to ensure that the laser cutting will be accurate and to ensure this you will need to test out a few points and make sure that the edges of the plywood piece are all within the boundaries of the laser before you begin cutting.
Once all these steps are completed all you have to do now is to press print and close the lid of the laser cutting machine and it will begin cutting.

Once the PDF files of the template were complete, it was ready for the laser cutter. The files were then exported into Adobe Illustrator.

The next step in the laser cutting machine was that we needed to make sure the colour coding was correct. Blue was for engraving and Red was for cutting.

Using Adobe Illustrator i was able to invert the colours as shown for each the Boundary and Annotation. Another important thing to remember was that you need to change the stroke to 0.001mm to reduce the laser cutting time.

Once you had completed these steps you are now ready to print. Once the file is put through the laser cutting program you will need to change the settings depending on the material that you were using. I used a 600x300 plywood sheet and these settings need to be applied to get a accurate cut. It was also worthy to note that you can set the thickness of the material slightly higher than the actual thickness as this ensures the laser will cut all the way.

The last step in this process was to wait for your sheets to be cut. This was the end result of cutting 3 sheets.

123D Catch

I had trouble with alot of the objects that I wanted to do as they were not coming out correctly when I Scanned the Images through the phone app. The screw driver had come out too small to put through 123DMake and was therefore scrapped. Another object that I tried to do was a boot. It was at this point that i was running out of time i decided to use a fellow classmates object, which was the shovel.

123DMake

Upload the file that was created from 123DCatch into 123DMake
You will need to change the Manufacturing Settings of your model which is located on the left side of the screen
The construction method that I used for the shovel was Interlocked slices
You will then need to manually input some measurements into the Manufacturing Settings, this is when you need to add in the dimensions of the plywood

Length 600
Width 600
Units MM
Thickness 3mm (It should also be noted that you will also need to select the thickness in Adobe Illustrator when you cut the plywood with the laser cutter and it is advisable to input the thickness slightly higher than the actual thickness. This ensures that it creates a clean cut all the way through as the laser cutter will lose a bit of its power after an extended period of use.

Once you have entered these settings in you are then ready to export the file out after clicking on Get Plans. Load up the file onto a USB and then you will be ready to import it into Adobe Illustrator.

Both the screwdriver and the boot were unsuccessful in creating the sheets needed to be exported into Adobe Illustrator so I used my friends template of a shovel head. The file was imported into 123D Make which then you will need to choose a few settings in order for the program to be successful. The settings that need to be chosen was the material size as well as what sort of 'Slicing" would best suit the template. Interlocking Slices was the method that was used.

Once the correct settings had been chosen you will then need to export the file out onto a USB so then id could be transferred for laser cutting. You will remember to export the file as a DSX as shown below. Also shown below was the result of the template which was ready for laser cutting.

Interdisciplinary Skin

For the next assignment for this course we were instructed to choose a fellow classmates template and create an aluminium skin. We had to choose from another discipline and this was the object that I had chosen.

The first step in creating the skin was to use this aluminium circle as it was alot easier than cutting out your own circle from a larger piece. This piece was obtained from one of the instructors of the class. As you can see I have marked out roughly where the curve of the skin would occur just so I can have a rough idea of how to create the shape.

The next step was to stretch the middle part of the skin. As you can see the shape doesnt really turn out the way you want it too but repeated processes of this step will give you the best result. Using the sand bag i repeatedly stretched the marked out part of the skin as well as using the metal dome to try and recreate the sphere shape of the skin.

After around half an hour of trying to recreate the sphere shape. I decided that it was time to trim off the sides so i would be able to obtain the neck shape of the skin.

Using the tool which is depicted on the right, I then attempted to recreate the upward curve of the skin. This was undoubtedly the hardest part of the skin as this took at least a good hour to try and recreate with trial and error and just playing around with the skin. Using the metal hammer you could also try and smooth out all the wrinkles that have developed through time.

The above tool was then used to try and accentuate the upward curve of the skin even more. Using the wooden hammer to smooth out all the wrinkled as well. Alot of the steps above had to be repeated many times in order to get the desired shape of the sphere as well as the neck of the skin. In the end this was the result.

BEIL0014 DIGITAL MAKING

Tuesday 26 April 2016