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Our final Critique will be in two weeks, on Tuesday May 15. We will have a guest critic, and we will be reviewing all of the major projects from this semester. All of you will be expected to present the following work:

Panel Project:

• CNC machined panel in styrene foam
• rendering of the panel in your chosen space, showing repeating pattern
• orthographic rendering of 4 panels to indicate tiling/repeating scheme

Utensil Project

• rendering of your utensils, indicating color, material and finish specifications
• full scale orthographic drawing of your utensils, showing top and side views

Unroll project

• rendering of Rhino model
• presentation quality model, cut and formed in paper or similar material
• printed flat pattern of your design

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Due Tuesday May 15
Design, model, and make an object that can be formed with Rhino’s “unroll” tool. This object should make effective use of the unique capabilities this tool represents while maintaining an awareness of the limitations it presents. The kind of object you work on is up to you – it can be a new object of your own design, or a model of an existing of object; it can represent a functional typology or it can be sculptural or abstract, it can be a model or “the real thing”. Whatever you choose to do, it should be a complex, volumetric object that challenges your abilities as a Rhino modeler. The deliverables for this project are:

• Rhino model
• Rendering of Rhino model
• presentation quality physical model, cut and formed in paper or similar sheet material
• flat pattern used to create the model, printed in the same scale as your model
• size and scale of the model are up to you, but it should be large enough to facilitate group discussion

Keep in mind that the unroll tool can not work with compound curvature. As a result, your object may need to be simplified or modified to be suitable for this process. Think creatively about how to best do this. Also keep in mind the limitations of the various printers and papers you might use for this project, but don’t be limited by what can fit on an 8.5×11 or 11×17 sheet of paper. There are numerous nearby places to print large format and you may also use laser cutting for this project. Remember that paper comes in more colors than white, and you can print graphics, colors and text in addition to cut lines.

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Download this file as a reference, which includes a mesh and basic construction curves model depicted below, then rebuild the geometry indicated in the mesh with surfaces.

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FYI: I’ve set up MasterCAM in the furniture computer lab so that the default “tool settings” are configured the way I’ve requested you all to set them up. I’ve also set it so the default tool library is RISD_Tools.toolsdb.

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Here is a reminder of the expectations for the next assignment, as we discussed in class.

Design a three piece family of cutlery or serving utensils. Your design must satisfy the following requirements:

• the three designs in your family must share a consistent form language. wherever possible, reuse or modify geometry from one piece to the next (the handle, for example)
• at least one of the pieces in your family must be a spoon
• carefully consider the contextual and utilitarian aspects of your typology, as well as your intended user. How do these factors affect your aesthetic decisions?

For Tuesday (April 9), you should begin working on concepts for your design so that in class we can discuss your intentions and you can begin working. This work can be in any form (sketches, drawings, models, preliminary CAD models), but should be at a high enough resolutions to facilitate productive discussion and should provide clear, actionable direction for your next steps (not tiny doodles). The next phase of this project will be to model and render your family of objects. We will also realize at least one of them in full scale, with rapid prototyping (we will discuss this technology further).

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If you are (attempting) to work on the computers in the Furniture Computer Lab and you get a message that says “No Sim found” when you launch MasterCAM, it’s an annoying but easy to fix problem. For these two licenses of MasterCAM, a USB “sim” (or dongle, hardware key, etc) is required for the software to work. If you look behind the iMac, you will see a black lock box with a USB cable running out of it – you just need to make sure that this USB cable is fully inserted into one of the USB portse for it recognize the “sim”.  After you’ve made sure it’s fully inserted, try launching MasterCAM again.

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Mikyung asked for help with MasterCAM:

“i got it to cut my shape but i cant cut the tabs out…
it only cuts the contour outline out and it seems like its not leaving the tabs…
please help me!”

She attached her file and after taking a look at it, there were two causes of her problem:

1. linking parameters
The “linking parameters” need to be set properly for the software to recognize the top of the stock and the desired depth of cut. Here is a screen shot of the settings you should use when cutting a 2″ thick piece of stock. keep in mind

• everything should be set to “absolute”
• the “depth” is expressed as a negative value

2. tabs

The tabs are a little finicky, but there are a few key settings that will help to make sure they work.

• Make sure to turn on “Tab all”
• Use “vertical moves” – “ramp moves” tends to cause problems
• make sure the “tab thickness” is significant enough to actually provide some connection – .125 or more should be good for foam.
• In most cases “automatic” tab position will provide adequate placement. If you do need to manually position tabs, make sure you understand how to do this (See the demonstration video.)

Here is a screenshot reviewing settings you should use for this project:

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As you are working on your toolpaths in MasterCAM, please don’t forget to set the Tool Settings properties to NOT “assign tool numbers sequentially”. Please also check the box next to “Warn of duplicate tool numbers”. Both of these settings can be accessed from your machine group’s properties.

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Apparently some of the computers in the BEB might be missing the tool libraries. I’m working on this, and this afternoon I made sure the computers in the Furniture Lab are up to date. If you can not find the tool library, I suggest you look in the following directory:

C:/Users/Public/Public Documents/Shared McamX5/Router/Tools/RISD_Tools.toolsdb

One note: in the videos I say to look for RISD_Tools.tools, but RISD_Tools.toolsdb is the preferred file, if you have the option.

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I just wanted to update everyone on some issues concerning the CNC machine. Some of you may have heard that there have been some problems with the machine in the BEB. Indeed there have, I spoke with James Dean this afternoon and apparently one of the motors/encoders have malfunctioned and need to be replaced. He expects them to be in tomorrow and he will replace them as soon as he can. Of course, this complicates things with the timing of our project. I’ll just ask that everyone do their best to get their parts cut, but I’m anticipating that this might cause some delays. It might expedite things if some of you can pair up when you get your parts cut, but if your files are set up properly, it should not take more than an hour to have James or the monitor double check your file, set up your stock, cut your part and clean up. Let me know if you are having difficulty or have other issues.

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Off topic, but I thought you all might enjoy the distraction

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As we discussed in class, the focus of this week is modeling your panels in preparation for machining on the CNC router. We will review how to set up your part in MasterCAM, but here is a review of the project requirements:

Design Requirements

• your panel is to be cut on the CNC router in expanded polystyrene foam (the pink or blue stuff)
• Each panel must have a finished dimension of 12″ wide x 12″ long
• The panel can have a maximum thickness of 2″
• Panels should have a minimum thickness of .25″
• Although it is discouraged, you can perforate through your panel
• The panels must be straight and square along the length and width
• Machined panels can be finish sanded or left with tool marks
• Do not paint the panel
• Routed panel must cut from a single 14″ x 14″ x 2″ piece of foam. Use these dimensions for your “stock” in MasterCAM.

Machining Requirements

• No Roughing – only finish toolpaths
• Use only Parallel Finish Toolpath(s) – any step over, any angle.
• Cut your panel out from the stock with a 2D contour toolpath – be sure to include tabs.
• only the following .25″ (straight and ball end) and .5″ (straight and ball) tools may be used.
• Maximum machining time: 35 minutes

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Part 1: Toy Boat Exercise
Finish the “Toy Boat” modeling exercise that was started in class. Once you finish this exercise, go back and embellish the  model with modeling and rendering techniques. Make a rendering of the model and post it to the website in a post marked with the category “Assignment 3”

Part 2: Eames LCW
Watch this tutorial and build the model demonstrated in the video.

Modeling a bent plywood chair from Rhino Tutorials on Vimeo.

You will need the two images below to complete the tutorial

Part 3: Mustard Bottle
Complete this tutorial, demonstrating how to build a Mustard Bottle.

Part 4: Repeating Wall Panel
Propose a design for a repeating, tile-able* wall panel for a specific place on the RISD campus.

• The place for the panels must be specified by the designer. It is the expectation that the panels would fill all, or at least a significant portion of the wall(s)
• Location can be interior or exterior wall(s)
• work in groups or individually. If working in groups, one panel design must be created by each group member
• panel geometry must be producable via 3 axis CNC machining
• panel dimensions are set at 12″ x 12″ with a depth variable of 2″

*Repeating and tile-able are used here to mean that when multiple instances of the same panel (or group of panels) are placed adjacent to one another, the resulting pattern has an aesthetic integrity equal to the consideration given to the individual panels.

Due March 13

• Photographic documentation of the location on campus for proposal
• Studies showing exploration of tiling/repeating concepts
• Studies showing exploration of concept in context (drawing, model, collage, etc)
• In-Progress CAD model.

Due March 20

• CNC ready CAD file

Due April 2

• CNC Machined tile model
• Rendered/composited view of repeating panels in context
• Rendered view of panels repeating

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Download this Rhino file and build the toy boat indicated by the orthographic drawings contained in the file. The result should look like this:

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Download this file for use in class. Also download the plugin, “auxpecker” available here.

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