Digital Fabrication » Rhino

CNC Milling Machine

iaac — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:35:12 +0000

As an overall analysis of Design Studio I “ZEBAR” Project, the assignment claimed for a 3D model of Barcelona. Following the admistrative subdivisions of the city, a digital 2D CAD format map was created by tracing closed polylines for streets, blocks and buildings. It was decided that the entire city would be considered flat and only the topography of the most important mountains (Montjuic, Collserola, El Carmel) would be shown since the scale is 1:2000 and not all details would be seen.

Rhino file

Therefore, the printing was separated into 2 parts, the flat and the topography, in our case Ronda del Dalt street was the subdivision element. Having decided that, the extrusion of all the buildings was done considering that each floor is 3.5m high. The blocks were extruded to a 0.3cm height and the base 3cm due to the thickness of the material. After receiving the topography treated with RhinoTerrain plugin, we had to place the buildings on it. We placed them above the terrain and then individually chose Curve>Curve from Objects>Duplicate Edges. Selecting each edge of the base of the building, we joined the lines and hit Project. Click on the terrain to project the curve on the topography. Then we moved vertically the building to the lowest point in the terrain so the building would be placed inside it.Then “Boolean union” all the buildings, blocks, and streets in order to create one single object. Eventually Create a mesh of the object by applying the command “mesh” and place the model on a sheet size is 1990 x 990 mm. Since our barrio is a big area, we have to split the area into 2 parts in order to fit into the sheet.

Buildings on Collserola Mountain

In order to materialize the 3d model we chose foam and milled with the CNC milling machine. The file was first prepared to be read by the machine through a simulation of the milling using Rhino Cam. To start milling, we used 2 tools with different diameters. First 3cm tool to take out the excessive material, and then 26mm to give detail into the map.

Foam Model milled with different tools

Saint Gervasi milled

During the milling process, the northern part of our area was only engraved and not milled. After sometime working on the file to find the mistake we realized that some meshes were open and invalid through the command Analyze>Edge Tools> Show Edges. We used the command CloseCrv to close all the polylines and redid the extrusions and meshes. Finally with Command “What” we knew there was no more invalid meshes and the file was ready to be reprinted.

Laser cutted plywood bench

iaac — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:55:39 +0000

This work is a collaboration between Ayber Gülfer and Jordi Portell and describes the design and fabrication process for a laser cutted plywood bench for the Digital Fabrication Tools class.

We wanted our bench to be a node to articulate a sequence, so we bended the box.

Plywood furniture fabrication using model ribbing techniques and laser cutting.

Idea and model

We wanted to design a bench that could be able to articulate a system of different benches and get out
from the straight arrangement giving more flexibility, so we curved our element. We had two different
strategies to do this:

1. cutting the bench in diagonal at the sides preserving the given bounding box.

2. bending the bounding box itself.

We worked in two models following this two strategies and, at the end, we choose the one that we liked the most. This blog entry presents the design following the second strategy and the fabrication process of the design we chose (first strategy). We used Rhino and Grasshopper as modelling and ribbing tools and a laser cutter to fabricate the parts.

Bounding box resulting from revolving the contours forming an angle of approx. 30º.

Modelling the seat and considering to have a floor lamp integrated

Extracting the floor lamp volume from the model with inner shell.

Setting the planes to make transversal cuts determines the ribs separation.

Transversal cutting planes (ribs) from intersection curves.

Ribs in the longitudinal direction. Some pieces had to be cut in order to be assemblable.

Both x and y rib systems together and ready for intersection.

Final result for the design strategy 2 (bending the box).

Fabrication

We choose the model produced following strategy 1. not for the strategy itself but because of the more elegant asymmetrical design and better level of development.

Final result for strategy 1. Cutting edges in diagonal preserving the original bounding box.

Backside of the bench selected for fabrication. Some ribs were divided before fabrication.

Cutting with the big laser cutter at IaaC.

Assembling the numbered pieces.

The Table Bench

iaac — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:21:40 +0000

Group:
Carolina
Renata

To think about a bench is to think about several people. And several uses. Some people read, others sleep, some sit and some eat. Sometimes it’s just good to be able to do it all. For the IaaCommunity Bench, we decided to keep it simple and keep it working. A table bench. As the section of the bench was predefined to enable the different proposals to connect, we started by defining that the top of the bench would be flat and the bottom would look like… a bench! The editing process begun by creating a cage with the command CageEdit>Select the Bench>BoundingBox> x=15, y=10, z=4. With the Control Points on, we repositioned the points so we could have the form imagined by us. After the form was defined, we needed to close the interior surface using the command Curve> Curve From Objects> Duplicate Edges. Then to create a surface and finally close the bench, we used the command Loft.

The next step was to use command Contour to create sections of the object in X and Y axis. For that, we created new layers, one for each axe. After creating the “ribs”, we created a new layer called “Intersections”, and used the command “Intersections” to create lines in the intersections between the ribs in X and Y axis. Those lines were used as guidelines to create pipes at the intersections between the ribs.

Using a Grasshopper script we chose ribs on the x-axis, the y-axis and the intersections lines in order to be faster instead of copying and moving each pipe one-by-one manually. After the intersections had been made, we baked the axis individually and grouped each rib by using the TOP view and selecting each line separately.

After we made a new layer called DOT, we used the Dot command to name each rib and group it with it’s piece so we would be able to move them around without getting the order of construction lost. We then rotated the ribs so they could be in the same direction. We trimmed each section in order to get the connection edges. Finally we used another script to engrave the numbers and our name in the pieces under a new layer.

To finish the process we deleted the previous layer DOT and drew a rectangle with the dimensions of the wooden board (1200×2500) under a layer Wood. We manually placed each rib on this plane in order to make the most efficient placement and the less use of materials. Finally we created a layer Cut and renamed all the ribs on that layer. The file was then ready to be exported as a .dxf format.

Cobogó: A Trip from Brazilian Modernist Architecture to 3D Printing

iaac — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:20:23 +0000

Group:
Carolina
Renata

Marcio Kogan's contemporary approach.

Cobogó is the name of the hollow elements, originally made of concrete or ceramic, created in the 20th Century. Its name derives from the initials of the surnames of three engineers that worked in Recife, Brazil: Amadeu Oliveira Coimbra, Ernest August Boeckmann and Antônio de Góes. These elements follow the same principle of the old wooden elements of Moorish architecture: solution to the closure of structures. While looking for references to fabricate a 3D printed brick, it was natural to end up looking for elements that were already used in architecture. The hollow sections found in cobogós were perfect to spare material without compromising the stability of the structure. Re fabricate old elements paying an homage to our own backgrounds while having the chance to give it a twist. A trip in space and time.

To create the brick, we chose 5 different decoration patterns of cobogós. We constructed five solids with dimensions 21.67×21.67x2mm. For all of them we did an offset of 2mm to keep the boundaries required for the material not to break. Then we drew polylines to create the designs or rectangles. After a polyline was done, we did Extrude Closed Planar Curve with the same thickness of the original solid. With that we could erase the internal curves to avoid having unneeded geometry on the surface. Then we did Boolean Difference between the bigger solid and the ones created with the Extrusion of the Curves to make them hollow as a cobogó.

Traditional ceramic cobogós used in Brazil's Modern Architecture

Finally we categorized each cobogó as different layers and copied and alternated them to construct the mosaic pattern. After the first wall containing 6 bricks on the x-axis and 3 on the z-axis, we used Boolean Union to create a single solid. Then we deselected all Snaps, leaving only End and then starting constructing the remaining surfaces. Copy the first wall and then rotate it on the same edge. At the end with the 4 walls created, we joined them by using Boolean Union. The same process was done to create the top surface. Once it was positioned, we did a cylinder at the center of the connections with a radius of 19.5mm and thickness of 2mm. By doing a Boolean Split between the cylinder and the top surface, we were able to split them and delete the internal parts that weren’t necessary.

After that we extruded the cylinder to its entire height required, mirrored it for the other side of the brick and Boolean Union these elements to create the top surface. Afterwards we copied by the end point to create the base and finish all sides of the brick. The caps of the cylinders of the top, as well as the cylinder of the bottom, were left open in order to use less material and try to make the brick cheaper. Finally to close the brick we used Boolean Union for all the elements to join.

After the brick was a solid, we verified the edges using the Edges tool to make sure there were no naked edges.

After that, we made a Box with the dimensions of the Cage, and choose Analyze> Mass Properties> Volume Centroid to be able to find the midpoint of the area. Choose CageEdit>Select the Bench>BoundingBox> x=4, y=10, z=4 and grabbed the 4 centered points of the brick to Scale them with the Origin point based on the Volume Centroid drawn before towards the Center of the volume.

With that, what was a straight wall became a curved structure, that could only be constructed with new technologies, such as 3D printing. The old and the new – as always – walking together.

“Bench” MODEL and Laser Cuttering

maria carolina aguirre arteaga — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:20:08 +0000

by Carolina Aguirre/Carolina Miro

The second assignment required decomposing the 3D design of a piece of furniture, into 2D elements to laser cut them as its pieces. It was also important to consider that the model would be part of a fluid whole later on, so it had to respect the limits given for it and the shape of its initial and final faces.

Resuming the design process, it was developed inside the boundaries given and taking advantage of some free space to give it some movement through the invisible cage. Then, the its top was modified by using control points to give it some flatness that would allow it to be useful as a confortable bench.
The result was a dynamic element which provided excellent prospects for successful fabrication as also its integration with the other designs.

With the design already completed, the 3D model was modified to be produced using the laser-cutting machine. The surface of the design was offset and contours were created. Intersecting surfaces were made from these contours and cilinders where placed on them, which were later trimmed to create voids in the elements in order to be able to join the pieces. The intersection slots were made to be 2.8mm wide, creating a snug fit for the mounted panels. Finally, the various pieces needed to be separated and projected, side by side, onto a cplane which had the same dimensions as the wooden panel to be placed in the laser cutter.

Once the 3D design had been translated into the 2D layout, its file was exported to the laser cutter. A 3mm thick wooden plank was cut into the various waffle pieces. The cutting process was closely monitored in order to comply with the necessary safety precautions, such as ensuring that the cut pieces didn’t obstruct the machine while it was still in progress and of course to control a possible fire.

After the pieces were cut successfully and without any incidences, they were assembled to be part of the final product.

“Lego Brick” MODEL and 3D PRINTING

maria carolina aguirre arteaga — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:59:42 +0000

by Carolina Aguirre/Carolina Miro

The most important part of the process was to find a way to relate the main anchorages of the brick and have a fluid way of connecting them to have a structure that supports all the brick. This was possible by taking advantage of the 3D printing facilities and using a series of modified pipes that follows a trace through the two main cores of the structure and at the same time cover the internal space.

Regarding the Rhino/Design process, a spline was used to trace a way that covered the entire brick diagonally. Then a Pipe followed that trace and used different diameters as forming the pipe to create gaps on its structure.

Then the same pipe served by mirroring it to form a kind of net that later would be covering the internal space of the brick by overlaying them. It was mirrored to the other three corners, one by one, until the entire brick was covered.

The next step was to connect this elements and at the same time create two core elements to complement the structure and make it supportive. The core structures required also to include the two respective anchorages. So it was proposed a symmetrical form, based on a spline whose form was determined by the anchorages given; and that would be revolved in its axe to be formed. At the end, the tubes intersected by the cores where trimmed, to allow the anchorages to be free to be used.

Finally, the model was ready to be exported and 3D printed.

Fabrication process

iaac — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:24:49 +0000

This work is a collaboration between Ayber Gülfer and Jordi Portell and describes the fabrication process for the Lego-like-brick exercise in the Digital Fabrication Tools class.

The nurbs modell was converted to a mesh and exported as *.stl in order to send it to the fabrication laboratory.

Brick as nurbs beeing modelled in Rhino 4.0. Unifying the parts.

Nurbs transformed into mesh in order to submit to fabrication.

We rendered the modell with Blender 2.54 to see the final result. We assigned materials and lights in order to have a realistic look at the piece before fabricating.

Model checked and rendered in Blender 2.54 (view b).

Model checked and rendered in Blender 2.54 (view a).

We submited the file to the FabLab and where notified by the assistants that our model had no problems and could be fabricated in the first batch.

We went to the FabLab and recovered our fabricated modell with the colleagues that had their modell fabricated in the same bunch.

Cleaning the first powder layer. A batch of 4 bricks in the machine.

Cleaning the surface once removed from the machine.

Getting rid of the powder.

The most powder removed. One can see the general form.

Removing the powder from the inside with a paint brush.

Last operations before completion.

Cleaning the remaining powder from interstices with pressurised air.

The finished brick ready to be reinforced by projecting glue on it.

Finished modell where the fabrication layers can be seen.

The brick at Iaac. A rest of fabrication powder remained in the inner edges and has to bee cleaned.