Design Technology - Printing Out 3d CAD Files

Here are some images and videos of recent student work being printed out from 3D CAD files on some of our  new equipment. Students created these products using Sketchup, a computer 3d modeling software package. What you are seeing in the images below are the first versions, or first prototypes, of each item. The design process allows for rich feedback as students can now handle and use these items and make adjustments and changes as necessary. This is called rapid prototyping. It creates great feedback through tactile and real-use scenarios which can then be incorporated into subsequent, improved versions. This prototyping technique is different from traditional techniques where few prototypes are made, many of which are not very realistic.  3D printing enables quick, iterative product design and improvement in a way other technologies can't.

3D Printing Club Paves the Way

Last year's 3D printing club managed to pave the way for this year's Design Technology class. This group of students helped assemble our first 3D printer and pushed our knowledge of 3D printing to a new level. This year we are hoping to continue exploring 3D printing, CADesign and to be able to do more with this exciting technology.

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

We have just begun using CAD software (Sketchup) in order to design something useful and then print it using our 3D printers. (Learning Center)

Think of something smallish that you would like to design for 3D printing.  Some ideas are:

• a holder that allows a smartphone to be connected to a tripod
• tripod connectors like the one shown below (they get lost at school)
• a cable holder that keeps cables on a desk (projector cable, audio cable, power cable...)
• headphone hangers to put around classroom
• cardboard connectors like MakeDo

Vocabulary we'll be using:

1. faces (on surfaces in Sketchup)
2. x, y, and z axes
3. Push / Pull tool
4. Orbit tool
5. Follow Me tool
6. "healing" a surface in Sketchup
7. isometric view
8. solid (water tight)
9. coplanar

The final product.

It starts with an idea. And a lot of good measurements.

The original item

3D printing takes patience. Failures = learning.

Creating the design in CAD software.

Tech Deck Design Ideas

Students have recently completed designs for the soon-to-be painted tech deck in the middle school. They used Adobe Illustrator to create the main design and then used Photoshop to virtually put their design on the back of each bench. We have been talking about the importance of prototyping and how today's tools like Photoshop can help us get great feedback before committing a lot of time and money on the real thing.

Students will vote for their favorite design and it will then be painted with help from middle school art class students. Below you can see some of the designs:

Tech Deck rendering made with Sketchup CAD software