Assignments
Post .stl files to Thingiverse – Due at final exam time (M 12/10 or Th 12/13)
All of your designs from this semester (4 major projects, anything else you are proud of like your fix-it design) should be posted to thingiverse under the name you registered at the beginning of the semester (see Student Users and Groups in the class google drive JMU3spacef18/ISCI104). Please also join the Thingiverse group (under EXPLORE in the top menu) for ISCI 104 Fall 2018.
Portfolio of Printed Objects – Due at final exam time (M 12/10 or Th 12/13)
Your portfolio will consist of two parts: a written document with pictures that you can use as part of your portfolio, and a presentation that you will give during our final exam time (see the 3SPACE calendar for exact times). Please save your portfolio in the class google drive JMU3spacef18 in the ISCI104/Portfolio folder where I have provided a sample portfolio document. Your portfolio should include at a minimum your four major class assignments (Tinkercad Final Project, Fusion360/Meshmixer Ring Project, OpenSCAD Final Project, Final Final Project) with pictures documenting both the design process and the actual print (your blog posts will be helpful here!), as well as anything else you printed or designed that you are proud of (for example, 50 Tinkercad objects or your fix-it design). Anything you want me to consider while computing your final grade should be included in this portfolio document. Your presentation will be short (5 minutes or so) and include the same items as your portfolio document, but should also include the actual printed items (if you no longer possess them, photos will do). Definitely do include your printed rings from Shapeways (order ASAP if you haven’t already) which we never presented in class. This is also your opportunity to revise your grade on any of your three major assignments, so if you presented incomplete projects at the time, please do present your best version for the final.
Final Project Blog Post – Due at final exam time (M 12/10 or Th 12/13)
Alongside your final project, please write a blog post that documents your design and printing process from beginning to end. Please include screen shots of your design process as well as photos of your final print and any test prints/fails. Some subset of the class’s final project blog posts (as well as major project blog posts from earlier in the semester) will be showcased on the main 3SPACE website, so make it (and your project) something that you can be proud of!
Final Project – Due at final exam time (M 12/10 or Th 12/13)
Your final project should be a culmination of all of the work you have done in this class. You can use any (or all!) of the programs that we have used in class (Tinkercad, Fusion360, Meshmixer, and OpenSCAD) or other programs entirely. Some other programs you might be interested in include SketchUp (architecture based), OsiriX Lite (for medical files), meshlab (we used this to fix/edit large files), Inkscape (a free drawing program for 2D images), Rhinoceros, AutoCAD, and Maya (professional grade programs that are more powerful more than Fusion). Once again, this shouldn’t be just something with your name on it or something that can be purchased at the mall, but a new, original design and idea. You can incorporate things that you find on Thingiverse, but your should be doing a significant amount of redesign if this is the case. Some ideas for a final project include imaging (working with the Makerbot Digitizer, photogrammetry, or CAT-scan files), multi-color prints, using a new program, or incorporating some aspect of your major into your project. Please do make it ambitious! This is not a one-week-project and your design skills have developed significantly since the beginning of the class. You are also much more aware of the possibilities and limitations of the 3D printers themselves, so you have more of a sense of what is possible than you did when you first used your chosen program.
Final Project Reports – due the last week of class (Tu 12/4 or W 12/5)
For the last class, we will be reporting on our progress with our final projects as well as doing final presentations for anyone with a serious conflict with the final exam time (you must talk to me ahead of time to take this option). Please bring to class your design(s) and any initial prints you have made. If you are having problems with your project, we can help!
OpenSCAD Final Project – Due Tu 11/27 or W 11/14
You were given new groups for this assignment (see email if you weren’t in class). The idea for your OpenSCAD Final is to design something that uses the strengths of OpenSCAD, but not its weaknesses (namely, it does very well at technical stuff including algorithms and loops, but does things like putting words on things fairly poorly and awkwardly). Just like our initial Tinkercad assignment, we’re also looking for things you can’t just buy at the dollar store (no phone stands or ash trays). One idea is to incorporate aspects of your major into the project (e.g. data from a digital photograph or hotel stay log), though that is not a requirement. There is also a blog post due with this assignment. It is permissible for some people to concentrate more on the blog post and others concentrate more on the design process, but all of your group members need to contribute significantly to the project. If this is not the case, different team members may receive different grades for the project.
Outreach Event – Due by the end of the semester
The point of this assignment is to introduce more people to 3D printing, 3D design, and/or the 3SPACE classroom. You will have two options for this. The first is to volunteer at the Harrisonburg children’s museum downtown (Explore More Discovery Museum, 150 S.Main Street) who have just recently acquired a 3D printer. Details about this option will be posted as they become available. The other option is to design your own outreach event. For this second option, I suggest that you do it in pairs or invite fewer than 10 people to the classroom. Your outreach event can involve a club you are in, one of your other classes, your coworkers, an activity for people in your dorm, etc.. My only request here is that if you invite a private organization (a closed fraternity or sorority, your off campus coworkers, a group of your friends, etc.) that you keep the objects that you print small. If you are making your outreach event public in any way, then you do not need to worry about this stipulation. If you decide to organize your own outreach event, you will need to send me a short proposal for the event that I will review, schedule the event with me to make sure that there are no conflicts, and create a short blog post about your event (with pictures!) after the fact.
Continue with OpenSCAD – Due by Week 10 class (Tu 10/30 or W 10/31)
Now that we’ve had a gentle introduction to OpenSCAD (modifying someone else’s code), the next step will be doing something that OpenSCAD is really good at, namely repeated actions in the form of for-loops. There are several for-loops in the tutorial from last week, so feel free to ‘borrow’ the syntax from there, but you will need to figure out what part of the loop does what in order to modify it in a way that pleases you. The requirements for this assignment are: 1. use more than one basic shape, 2. have at least one for-loop, and 3. if you ‘borrow’ code, be sure to modify it heavily! For this assignment, feel free to go for chaos (aka something that probably won’t print!) as for loops (and combinations of for loops) are great at creating really complicated, challenging objects/prints. Be sure not to loose any of your code as you will be making a blog post about your tour through OpenSCAD later.
Class Challenge Documentation – Due by Week 9 class (Tu 10/23 or W 10/24)
Make a blog post of your Fix It! project(s) success or failure. Be sure to include before and after pictures. This is a team project so should contain both of your names, but you only need one post.
Start OpenSCAD – Due by Week 9 class (Tu 10/23 or W 10/24)
The next program we are using is called OpenSCAD and it is basically its own programing language which may be an advantage or a disadvantage (CS majors tend to love this program). Your OpenSCAD assignment for next week is to bring in a piece of .scad that is a modification of one of the objects in the tutorial (for example, your own snowflake design, or a combination of two or more of the simpler objects). See the Week 8 page in Timeline for more details on how the tutorial works. Have fun with the program!
Class Challenge – Due by Week 8 class (Tu 10/16 or W 10/17)
We will spend the next class working on a Class Challenge. Your pre-challenge assignment is to bring in a broken household object (broken can include things like ‘wobbles’ or ‘doesn’t work like I want it to’). Please do try to bring in something that you want fixed rather than something that you broke for this assignment!
Ring blog post – Due by Week 8 class (Tu 10/16 or W 10/17)
Write a blog post about your ring and its process — including what went wrong and what problems you had to overcome along the way. . You will want to edit this post again when you recieve your ring from Shapeways, but post on your entire process up untill now (including what happened to you with Meshmixer) and how you arived at your final design. Please include screenshots from Fusion 360, Meshmixer, and Shapeways to illustrate your work. You’ll add more to this blog post later once your printed rings arrive.
Order your ring from Shapeways – Due by Week 8 class (Tu 10/16 or W 10/17)
If you did not do this in class, please, in the next few days, order your ring from Shapeways. Even if your ring uploaded properly and you were able to purchase it, files are still known to have problems, so keep an eye out for emails from Shapeways and respond to them quickly to keep your ring’s arival in line with the rest of the class. Also, fill out this form to report your ring material and shipping date.
Final ring designs – Due by Week 7 class (Tu 10/9 or W 10/10)
Use Meshmixer to (significantly) modify the ring you designed and sized in Fusion 360. One option is to use the Stencil tool like in the tutorial (you can create a stencil as in the tutorial, or by using a paint program like Inkscape, or by working with a pre-existing .jpg), but you needent restrict yourself to just that one. Meshmixer has a pretty decent online manual, but it is overall a far more intuitive program than Fusion (it’s built off the idea of sculpting clay), so you may enjoy just playing around with it on your own. Don’t forget Step 12 of the tutorial. See here for inspiration (though previous designs in no way exhaust the possibilities). Be sure to test print your finished product to make sure it still fits and prints the way you want it (don’t worry about the print quality or issues with supports, worry more about fit, comfort, and rough aesthetics). If you are planning on printing in an expensive metal, you may also want to test print your ring on the resin printer (Formlabs) in the Rose Library Makery as it can produce more detail than any of our classroom (fusion deposition) printers. Bring to class all of your test prints and your *final* .stl file which is ready to upload to Shapeways. We’ll go through that process in class (it isn’t always as easy as it should be).
Prototype ring designs – Due by Week 6 class (Tu 10/2 or W 10/3)
Play around with Fusion to figure out what kind of ring design you want to make (use the ring tutorial as a prototype). Leverage the tools that are available to you in Fusion and be creative, but keep in mind that you’ll get to “decorate” your ring later in Meshmixer. You will want to test print your base shape before you start Meshmixer. Design and prototype-print a ring in your final design and sizing. Come to class with an STL file and a 3D print (it might not print well on our machines and that is okay, as long as you are sure it is the design and size you want).
Post to Thingiverse – due by Week 6 class (Tu 10/2 or W 10/3)
Create a “Thing” on Thingiverse for your project, to share your work with the community. Be sure to include: cover/first photo of completed print, 3D-printable STL file, tag “JMU3SPACE”, description of your project, link to your project blog post, and (if applicable) remix credit to any design you used as part of your project. Also put a link to the Thingiverse page for your project at the end of your Tinkercad Design blog post, so that I can easily find it.
Tinkercad Design finishing – due by Week 5 class (Tu 9/25 or W 9/26)
Have your final prints ready and with you in class, and make sure your blog post fully documents your entire project design process. Be ready to present in class if called to do so.
Continue Playing with Fusion 360 – due by Week 5 class (Tu 9/25 or W 9/26)
There’s no actual Fusion assignment due this week because your Final Tinkercad Design project is due. However, your individual assignment is to continue to get to know Fusion 360.
Tinker with Fusion 360 – due before Week 4 class (Tu 9/18 or W 9/19)
Download and install Fusion 360 (student link for 3 year trial, not 30 day trial), watch the 4 minute 58 second tutorial on navigation in Fusion 360 linked off the download page, and open it with your Autodesk account (same as your Tinkercad account). Go through Fusion 360 tutorial from Shapeways Magazine linked from the Design Tutorials menu above. Play around with Fusion 360 and start making things. The learning curve is steep, so tinker around and explore what you can before we get started on your first Fusion project. Design at least five things in Fusion 360, each using different tools in the software.
Tinkercad Design Iteration – due before Week 4 class (Tu 9/18 or W 9/19)
Create two new sections to your blog post: First, one called “First Draft Print” that documents your first draft prints or tests, including a photo, and discuss what you learned from those prints. Second, a section called “Iterating the Design” that documents the progress on your design that you make over the next week, including screenshots from Tinkercad.
Tinkercad Design Project – initial design and preliminary blog post due before Week 3 class (Tu 9/11 or W 9/12)
This is your first big project (there will be four of these plus a final project throughout the semester) and it is a group project (with your table-mate). You will be doing a blog post about this project and the initial designs/plans and a draft of this post are due next class (be prepared to present your initial designs in class). For details of the project see Tinkercad Design Project.
Playing with Tinkercad: 25 or more unique objects – Due before Week 3 class (Tu 9/11 or W 9/12)
Use Tinkercad to create 25 or more unique objects. Explore the program, try out as many Tinkercad tools as possible (Align, Group, Hole, Workplane, Ruler, Shape Scripts, Control-D, SVG import, etc). Import your objects (all on one page) to the class Tinkercad account jmu3spacef17@gmail.com whose password is Threespacef17. We will be presenting these next class, so put the ones you are particularly pleased with in the front!
Print of your first Tinkercad design – Due before Week 3 class (Tu 9/11 or W 9/12)
Last week we used Tinkercad to create a design representation of our grab bag noun and printed that design in class. Your final print of that object is due by the beginning of the next class. You should be completely happy with this print (so it probably will not be your first print of the object). You can paint or sand away any minor issues, but if the print is too rough, you will want to re-print outside of class. Your print should be free of support and your object should work/look as you intend it.
First Tinkercad print – Due before Week 2 class (Tu 9/4 or W 9/5)
Use Tinkercad to create a design representing your grab-bag noun to 3D print next week. Work through the Tinkercad Lessons to learn more tools and techniques. Be ready next class to talk about your design, how you chose to model it that way, what Tinkercad tools you used to make it, and why you think it would successfully 3D print.
Hello post – 3 pts – Due before Week 2 class (Tu 9/4 or W 9/5)
Write your first post to the class blog using WordPress. The Hello example – Laura/mathgrrl post is an example of what I am looking for, and also includes objectives, requirements, and tips for this assignment.
Accounts – 3 pts – Due before Week 2 class (Tu 9/4 or W 9/5)
Complete all account signups listed in First Day – Accounts and add your information to the Student Users and Groups spreadsheet.