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2. Computer Aided design

This CAD week introduced us to a lot of software for 2D design and 3D modeling. When choosing software for 2D design, keep in mind that there is a raster and vector graphic. As for 3D modeling software, there are a lot of them on the market. I opted for the Rhino 7 and Fusion 360.

2D design

As for the 2D design software, I have chosen GIMP with its BIMP plugin and Adobe Illustrator. I had an idea to make a logo for my final project. First I downloaded a picture of FabLab. I opened the image in GIMP. I decided to try the crop tool. I cut out the text below the image and saved the image that I later opened in Adobe Illustrator.

gimp

Adobe Illustrator is a commercial software, not as free as Inkscape. I used to work in Adobe Illustrator a long time ago so I decided to work again in it. As I wrote above I wanted to make a simple logo for the final project (educational mobile robot). In Illustrator, I first opened a new file and chose the A4 format. I set all the measurements in millimeters (mm). I did this for the reason that my robot has wheels with a diameter of 100 mm, so maybe I can use that design for the wheels later. Illustartor has an ellipse tool, so to make a proper circle we have to hold SHIFT and drag the mouse.

adobe1

I inserted a picture of a fablab that I used to crop. I went to file -> place and set the image to the desired dimension. I wanted to write a text that follows the curvature of a circle. First I had to make another concentric circle. I did this by pressing ALT + SHIFT and placing the mouse in the center of the circle. I used the Type on a Path Tool option and got the desired text.

adobe2

I increased the fonts and the space between the letters, rotated the text to get a satisfying look. I decided to change the colors to match the original colors of the FabLab logo.

adobe3

Before exporting to svg I had to convert font to outline so that everything could be displayed. I decided to try the BIMP plugin for GIMP to compress some images for the web.

bimp

3D design and modeling

As for 3D modeling software, I decided to try Rhino 7 and Fusion 360. Considering that I have little experience in 3D modeling I decided to go through a couple of tutorials. First I wanted to try Rhino 7. I downloaded Rhino 7 and installed it on my computer. I followed this tutorial and decided to model gaming dices.

Rhino 7 has 4 views in which the user can work. I made square and extrude it. I closed all sides using surface -> edge curves. I used the ellipse tool combined with the revolve to get the sphere. By combining copying and rotating, I placed them in the desired places. In the end, I used boolen difference and fillet to get the look of a gaming dice. I also set the material color, plastic red.

In Rhino I first started drawing square. Then I extruded the square I used surface menu-> extrude curve-> straight. Now I have a box in 3d. The problem is that it doesn’t have a top and bottom surface. We can fix that by going to surface->edge curves and choosing all four edges to make a surface. We have to connect all of it with the joint command.

rhino5

We have two options on how to make a sphere. The first option is to make an arc and revolve it around the axis. And the second option is to go to the sphere->center, radius. I tried both options. I placed the sphere in the center, I used the copy tool and place it in different positions. With the copy tool I used the rotate tool and placed the spheres in different positions accross all views.

rhino9

I had to activate object snap to place the spheres with more precision. I used the command boolean difference to to subtract the spheres from the box. First I have to select the box and click enter, then select all the spheres and press enter.

rhino11

The last thing I had to do is to filet the edges. I did that by going to solid->filet edge. I selected all the edges and apply fillet edge to all of them. You can see results in a picture bellow.

rhino12

From viewport menu I chose render but before that I made a copy of the cube so there would be two of them. The resut can be viewd on the image below.

rhino_final

The next thing I wanted to try was the Fusion 360 from Autodesk. I followed this tutorial to make a plastic conduit. When I modeled the part I tried the render and animation option in fusion 360.

For modeling, I used similar commands as in Rhino 7 (extrude, copy, rotate …) and some new ones such as the joint command.

Fusion work process

Fusion end result

fusion_final

Rendered part

fusion_rendered

Playing with Fusion animation

I exported in stl format. Besides stl format we have obj format. OBJ format is considered to be more complex than . STL file for the fact that it is capable of representing texture, color and other CAD attributes of the three-dimensional object.

In the end I tried modeling a robot case in Fusion. You can see the 3D model here.

fusion_body

Conclusion

When you work with 2D design software you need to take care about the color systems and whether it is raster or vector graphic. GIMP is mainly a raster graphics program. It’s great software for beginners and it’s free. An additional plugin such as BIMP for batch image manipulation can be installed. Adobe Illustartor is a commercial program and built to make vector images. Illustrator has the most options for working with vector graphics, but that’s why it comes with a price tag. I would say that Illustrator is mostly used by professionals. I like Rhino because it has different views. I like the user interface and workflow in Fusion. I think Fusion is easier to work with and I will continue to work in it.

Design files for download


Last update: April 13, 2021