8.9 KiB
+++ title = "3D Modeling and CAD" date = 2018-07-05 authors = ["Aron Petau"] description = "Modelling and Scanning in 3D using Fusion360, Sketchfab, and Photogrammetry"
[taxonomies] tags = [ "3D printing", "design for printing", "functional design", "fusion360", "parametric modelling", "photogrammetry", "polycam", "private", "scaniverse", "sketchfab", "university of osnabrück", "virtual reality", "work", ] [extra] banner = "render_bike_holder.png" show_copyright = true show_shares = true +++
3D Modeling and CAD
Designing 3D Objects
While learning about 3D printing, I was most intrigued by the possibility of modifying and repairing existing products. While there’s an amazing community with many good and free models available, I naturally reached a point where I couldn’t find what I was looking for already designed. I realized that this is an essential skill for effectively operating not just 3D printers, but really any kind of productive machine.
Since YouTube was where I learned everything about 3D printing, and all the people I looked up to there were using Fusion 360 as their CAD program, that’s what I got into. In hindsight, it was a pretty good choice — I fell in love with the possibilities that parametric design gives me. Below you’ll find some of my designs. The process is something I deeply enjoy and want to explore even more.
Through trial and error, I’ve already learned a lot about designing specifically for 3D printing. But I often feel that I lack a deeper understanding of aesthetic considerations in design. I want to broaden my general ability to design physical objects, something I hope to gain during my master’s.
{{ image(url="/images/breast_candle.jpg", alt="A candle made of a 3D scan, found on https://hiddenbeauty.ch/", pixels=true, start=true) }}
Check out more of my finished designs in the Prusaprinters (now Printables) Community
{{ image(url="/images/vulva_candle.jpg", alt="A candle created with a 3D printed mold made in Fusion360", pixels=true, start=true) }}
3D Scanning and Photogrammetry
Besides coming up with new objects, incorporating the real world is also an interest of mine.
Interaction with real objects and environments
In the last few years, I played around with a few smartphone cameras and was always quite sad that my scans were never accurate enough to do cool stuff with them. I couldn’t really afford a proper 3D scanner and had already started cobbling together a Raspberry Pi camera with a cheap TOF sensor. That setup is simple, but not nearly as precise as a laser or LiDAR sensor. Then Apple released the first phones with accessible LiDAR sensors.
Recently, through work at the university, I got access to a device with a LiDAR sensor and started having fun with it. See some examples here:
This last one was scanned with just my smartphone camera. You can see that the quality is notably worse, but considering it was created with just a single, run-of-the-mill smartphone sensor, I think it’s still pretty impressive — and will certainly help democratize such technologies and capabilities.
Perspective
What this section is supposed to deliver is the message that I am currently not where I want to be when navigating the vast possibilities of CAD. I feel confident enough to approach small repairs around the flat with a new perspective, but I still lack technical expertise when it comes to designing collections of composite parts that have to function together. I still have lots of projects half-done or half-thought — and one major reason is the lack of critical exchange within my field of study.
I want more than designing figurines or wearables. I want to incorporate 3D printing as a method to extend the abilities of other tools — to serve mechanical or electrical purposes, be food-safe and engaging. I fell in love with the idea of designing a toy system. Inspired by Makeways on Kickstarter, I’ve already started adding my own parts to their set.
I dream of my very own 3D printed coffee cup — one that is both food-safe and dishwasher-safe. For that, I’d have to do quite a bit of material research, but that only makes the idea more appealing. I’d love to find a material composition incorporating waste, to stop relying on plastics — or at least on fossil-based ones. Once in Berlin, I want to connect with the people at Kaffeform, who produce largely compostable coffee cups incorporating a significant amount of used espresso grounds (albeit using injection molding).
The industry selling composite filaments is much more conservative with the percentage of non-plastic additives, because a nozzle extrusion process is much more error-prone. Still, I would love to explore that avenue further and think there’s a lot to be gained from looking at pellet printers.
I also credit huge parts of my exploration into local recycling to the awesome people at Precious Plastic, whose open source designs helped me out a lot. I find it hard to write anything about CAD without connecting it directly to a manufacturing process. And I believe that’s a good thing. Always tying a design process to its realization grounds the process and gives it a certain immediacy.
To become more confident in this process, I still need more expertise in designing organic shapes. That’s why I’d love to dive deeper into Blender — an awesome tool that in my mind is far too powerful to learn solely through YouTube lessons.