Week Three

Model a final project in CAD

What is it? how did I do it? how did i find it and what did i learn?

Welcome to my Computer Aided Design Debut! whilst I have dabbled in 3d modelling and animation, the learning curve was steep but enjoyable. After reviewing the vast amount of applications available to the CAD enthusiast I settled on the rather stable Rhinoceros mostly due to familiarity and the immediate resources available to me in aid of my learning. However, whenever I enrol myself into a new programme I always weigh up the investment of time and look towards the foreseeable limits and draw backs, in my understanding Rhino is not only a comprehensive CAD platform, but it is in a highly active development with dynamic plugins being introduced into the native builds in what seems to be very user reactive development. The most common comparison I found was Solid Works, appearing to me to be a more industry standard for technical/engineering CAD. These two were in competition in my mind until I received repeated advice than in programs such as these “If you know one, you are an afternoon away from learning another”.

My knowledge of material properties and manufacturing of small electronic items is limited, along with my understanding in constructing a user interface, so I decided to use this liability to my advantage with an out of the box perspective on portable electronic instruments. I did research into products that share similar features and worked my initial conception translating my sketch into the basic ergonomic shell.

After this I began importing object of real components from GrabCAD, which is a really handy resource. Here I was able to apply scaled proportions to the components and begin to make my model a realistic concept. In the next figure you can see the use of a micro USB port filleted into the side of my case along with the face of a toggle switch I produced.

In the next figure I show a wire view to make visible the alignment of my components, this is in an attempt to space them as if they were all to be mounted from one board, something I thought would be useful in the future.

And lastly we have a poorly rendered work in progress, button heads are yet to be mounted along with rotary knobs, but this is a short step away and is more an element of artistic flare, But the imagination has now been realised in three dimensions, with real components. To the side we see a 3.5mm Jack for scale, and the Pi camera V2 which will be mounted on the underside.