Frank gave us introduction to antimony. And we proceeded print out few things in 3d printer.

Antimony

Antimony is a great software and very easy for beginners in 3d modeling. Once you get tuned to antimony you'll probably not require any other 3d modeling software for much of 3d modeling needs. I'll note down few features of antimony although you'll relate to it if you are a involved in 3d modeling or a mechanical engineer or mathematician.
Features
-Functional representation as opposed to boundary representation. Most professional softwares use boundary representation. It means that an object is defied by a boundary and not as equation. There are a few specialized softwares which have functional representation and is needed for specific purposes only. OpenSCAD is one such software.
- Hierarchical system to manage 3d modeling. This is a very handy feature. Be it any 3d modeling software you create a desired shape in steps and adding or deleting features. This allows you to go back to a previous step and change something. This change is reflected in final model also.
- Parametric- Means each feature has features that can be manipulated by certain parameters. A cylinder will have the position variables, length and radius as parameter. By changing these parameters you can get a cyclinder you wish for.

There might not be any software that provide all these advanced features in a package and that too for free. I feel antimony offers the most freedom while 3d modeling.
On the side note you can't create features which is freehand. You don't draw a curve which you feel is right. You have to convert your desired curve to an equation of set of points that can be used to create a curve in antimony.
The user interaction needs to improved a lot though. Wish they had a commandline feature like in autocad. It is not designed for speed for now. You can output in either heightmap png or stl, I need at least dxf to be output for it be decently useful for me. It is still designed to be used for fablab and has scope for improvement for needs of general public.

I am used to solidworks and thats a standard software most mechanical engineers and engineering 3d modelers are aware of. Switching to antimony will require me to change quite a bit of my thinking but it has a huge potential once you get used to the thought process of antimony. I need it to be more stable if I want to use it for my professional works.

3D printing.
We tried to look for things to print that would be useful in the lab. There are many .stl files for printing available at thingiverse.com which can be downloaded. I designed a filament clip or filament organiser and tried to print it n see if it works. We used cura to generate the gcode for the ultimaker and printed it at
0.2 mm layer height
50mm/s speed
1.2 mm wall thickness
20% fill density


Find files at

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6qur0fosqty113r/filahold.SLDPRT?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2g8x7t14ntbjwk/filahold.STL?dl=0


It didnt work as expected. I used 2.75+0.5% x 2.75(to account for contraction in the plastic after cooling). The filament Dia turned out to be 2.85 and I think I need to add a little clearance also and then finally account for contraction in the part. The part also turned out to be too rigid for the filament to clip into the open loop. So it has to be made thinner, wider or long such that it can flex to accommodate the filament and hold it in place.

Preparing Laptops and Lab Computers

Since fabacademy philosophy roots in opensourcing it only makes sense that Ubuntu and the free softwares are used. This allows free and ope access to anything and everything that is done in fablab. It allows repetability and a common framework that anyone can work with. One of most important of them is the OS itself which is the linux based UBUNTU system. The next most inportant software is  the fab modules which can control alomst any CNC machine that is present in fablab.

The pain of Ubuntu 

Ubuntu means 

"A quality that included the essential human virtue; compassion and humanity. there is a need for understanding not vengance, ubuntu is not victimization"

Indeed you need to have a all these to go through Ubuntu install and setup.

Creating digital accounts

During fabcademy you will be evaluated through your documentation which explains the world and the remote mentor or Neil what you have done. There will be times when your projects will be recommended by your remote mentor to higher faculty or Neil. They will see your website or the files you created. For these reason you need to learn to effectively express your work in a document. They should be online and freely available to anyone, they are opensource.

Day 4 week 1

Lab maintenance and Material handling

I took charge of Vinyl cutter and Roland Modela

I learned how to better handle the vinyl rolls. The vinyl rolls when kept vertically deform and get damaged at the edge which happens due to it not being able to support its own load properly. The correct way to keep a vinyl material is horizontal and the rolls to be taped at the open edge after use so that they don’t become loose.

The vinyl rolls were kept on the ground earlier.

Vinyl cutting

Used to make sticker and best use is to make PCB that are flexible. Can cut copper, epoxy and vinyl sheets.

Loading the material 

Use this lever to release or secure the vinyl.

Materials should be between the two translucent patches as shown in the picture. These have rough surface in order to grip the papaer better. The wheels should secure the paper when the lever is engaged.

Day 2 w2

Laser in our fablab is a trotec speedy 100 with that we have an atmos exhaust filter from trotec. Here's the laser machine and our super cool prefab guide and fabguru Francisco explaining about the filter system.

Polycarbonate lid and Atmos Exhaust Filter system

Filter parameters

Things to watch out for

Exhaust filter should be on.

Frank gave us introduction to antimony. And we proceeded print out few things in 3d printer.

Antimony

Antimony is a great software and very easy for beginners in 3d modeling. Once you get tuned to antimony you'll probably not require any other 3d modeling software for much of 3d modeling needs. I'll note down few features of antimony although you'll relate to it if you are a involved in 3d modeling or a mechanical engineer or mathematician.

Molding Casting and Roland Modela

The basic idea for this session is to create an 3D object through computer and try to make it in machinable wax in such a way that a molding pattern is created directly from it. Roland modela will machine the wax. We will try to replicate this object by creating a silicone mold and later use the silicone mold to cast hard plastic into it.

Day 5

Shopbot

Notes:

Designing for milling

Due to tool radius inner corner of a hole or a pocket cant be sharp. Overmilling is advised in such cases.

Good design guidelines for milling.

http://blog.inventables.com/2014/06/learn-about-milling-inside-corner.html

http://www.efunda.com/processes/machining/mill_design.cfm

Better to use antimony to design material to be milled.

Dia max to be used for milling in shopbot- 6mm

Dia max to be used for milling in roland -3mm.

Week 3 Day 1

This week we move to electronics design and fabrication.

Today we started with electronics production. The goal was to fabricate a pcb from an already existing design. We use roland modela to fabricate the PCB.

Assignment: to fabricate a version of fabISP using Roland modela and fab modules.

Process

We downloaded the the following designs.

Week 3 Day2

Many of the fabacademy cad items are design that have .cad extension. These were designed in kokopelli. .cad file is basically a python script. Today we try to edit and understand how the script ad kokopelli.

Assignment

We add components to a hello.ftdi.44.cad and wires on a board and fabricate it.
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