20110121

Bezier Splines in SketchUp Using Ruby Scripts: AECbytes Tips and Tricks

Bezier Splines in SketchUp Using Ruby Scripts: AECbytes Tips and Tricks: "Bezier Splines in SketchUp Using Ruby Scripts"

View topic - [Plugin Beta] Curviloft 1.1a - 12 Jan 11 (Loft & Skinning) • SketchUcation Community Forums

View topic - [Plugin Beta] Curviloft 1.1a - 12 Jan 11 (Loft & Skinning) • SketchUcation Community Forums: "Curviloft 1.0 is a script dedicated to Loft and Skinning, that is, generation of surfaces from contours.

Loft by Spline joins separate contours, open or closed, by smooth splines
Loft along Path joins contours, along a given rail curve.
Skinning create surfaces bounded by 4 or 3 contiguous contours
Curviloft examples.png
Because there are many solutions to calculate Loft and Skinning geometries, the script offers various options to adjust parameters depending on the configuration of contours."

20110120

Open Stair

Open Stair: "SketchUp ToolBox Engineering ToolBox"

The Camping Addict » » Fiskars/Gerber Sport Survival Utility Tool Pack

The Camping Addict » » Fiskars/Gerber Sport Survival Utility Tool Pack: "The Fiskars/Gerber Sport Survival Utility Tool Pack is essential for any effiective survival kit. Approved by NATO for their soldiers, this kit has the best and most useful products on the market. The pack itself measures only 12″X 11″X 3″, yet contains five of the highest quality tools that are necessary for most emergency situations"

we dont do retro » Blog Archive » Consumer Adoption of Rapid Manufacturing Technologies – Part 3

we dont do retro » Blog Archive » Consumer Adoption of Rapid Manufacturing Technologies – Part 3: "Consumer Adoption of Rapid Manufacturing Technologies – Part 3
08Apr08 by Matt Sinclair"

So far I have looked at ways in which rapid manufacturing technologies might become available to consumers, and the reasons why product design for rapid manufacturing is easier than for mass manufacturing. In the final part of this extended post I want to address the only other remaining hurdle to consumers designing and manufacturing their own products: the tools they will use to design with.




Consumer co-design, sometimes called co-creation, is a topic that’s been written about at length by design researchers. At it’s purest it involves the end user, or typical representatives of end users, entering the design process and creating products or services as part of a design team. In practice though, co-design is often little more than an enhanced customer research exercise. End users might be asked about their needs and desires, encouraged to offer suggestions, and even invited to critique proposed solutions. But there is no doubt it is the designers who are expert, and who make the final decision.



As a designer myself, I confess I find it difficult to break free of this mindset – surely my training and experience mean I am able to understand what a market of consumers will want better than an individual consumer themself might? But the point is, what I think will end up being irrelevant if consumers are able to design their own products. Why should a consumer care that I think their product is crass or crude, if it’s exactly what they want, and they’ve made it? At the moment though, I have one trick up my sleeve – I can use CAD, to design a product and to communicate that design to the means of production, in a way that no non-designer can. All the time designers and design engineers can monopolise the expertise needed to create CAD data, consumer created products will not happen


Stirling Marblehead Yacht Racing Club Inc SMYRC

Stirling Marblehead Yacht Racing Club Inc SMYRC: "Constructing a sail"

class A surfacing | class A surface| Digital Sculpting - Geometric Continuity 101; overview

Class A: Geometric Continuity 101: "class A surfacing | classasurfacing | class A surface| Digital Sculpting" Post by: adamohern on February 09, 2009, 12:07:47 PM


...In this class-a we’ll be talking about G0, G1, G2, G3, and G4 continuity types, and exploring what they mean at a very basic level. This will be a very high-level overview, and in future tutorials we’ll delve more into the details of what these concepts mean in the context of class-a surfacing.

Digital Sculpting - Class A Surfacing
Knowledge and Definitions - Surface and Curve Continuities



20110118

Build Your own 3D Scanner Using a Webcam | The Daily CatchUp

Build Your own 3D Scanner Using a Webcam | The Daily CatchUp: "I knew this was possible, but the person in this article has managed to create a very accurate model indeed! The product is called MakerScanner and it uses the principle as MakerBot in terms of development. The project is completely Open Source and thus shareable without (expensive) licensing fees.
You can set up your own 3D scanning and 3D Printing company literally is days, with technologies such as this for 3D Scanning and the MakerBot or RepRap for 3D Printing.
Short URL: http://news.sketchucation.com/?p=3987"

Build Your own 3D Printer With MakerBot | The Daily CatchUp

Build Your own 3D Printer With MakerBot | The Daily CatchUp: "A few years ago when you’d say 3D printers are coming, people would have said you’re out of your mind. But today it is a reality and there are many different companies now who specialize in (low-cost) 3D printing solutions.
Then there are the hobbyists, the so-called DYI or Do-It-Yourself people. MakerBot INDUSTRIES is a companies which sells Open Source ‘plans’ that allow you to build and operate your own 3D printer.
Check them out at the MakerBot INDUSTRIES website.
Also see the page for using Google SketchUp with MakerBot.
Short URL: http://news.sketchucation.com/?p=3847"

View topic - Plugins Index (update 2011-01-08) • SketchUcation Community Forums

View topic - Plugins Index (update 2011-01-08) • SketchUcation Community Forums: "Plugins Index (update 2011-01-08)
by Jim on Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:19 pm
This is a list of SketchUp plugins which have been posted on the SketchUcation Plugins Forum."

YouTube - unfold_tool_example.wmv



YouTube - unfold_tool_example.wmv: "Here is a video example of one way upi can use Jim Foltz Unfold plugin for Sketchup.
Please be sure to visit Jim's site and check out more cool Sketchup Plugins he has been working on.
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007...

For more examples of the unfold tool in combination with Sketchup and the Phlatscript used to bring virtual objects into the real world using the Phlatprinter please visit us @ http://www.phlatforum.com
Thank you for watching
Mark and Trish
Phlatboyz,LLC"

Jim's SketchUp [Plugins] Blog: unfold

Jim's SketchUp [Plugins] Blog: unfold: "Click and Drag Unfolding

by Jim on 5/26/2008 5 comments Links to this post


This is just a demo video showing a new interface for my Unfold Tool. Instead of needing to click every segment of a curve, you can click and drag to select them.

Special thanks to alz for the suggestion."

Gauss Map and Curvature - Wolfram Demonstrations Project

The Gauss map maps the unit normal of a surface (on the right) to the unit sphere (on the left). The area surrounding the point on the surface is thus mapped to an area on the unit sphere. As the radius of the loop approaches zero, the ratio of these areas approaches the Gaussian curvature of the surface at the point, which is also equal to the product of the principal curvatures (the maximum and minimum curvatures of the normal sections through the points).

Select a surface from the top pull-down menu (a description is given in the menu, but the function is displayed on the button). A point may be selected by moving the 2D slider. The Gauss map maps a loop around the point onto a loop on the unit sphere. Move the "normal" slider to observe the following: Looking down the normal vector, if the surface has positive Gaussian curvature at the point, the loop on the unit sphere is traversed counterclockwise (positive direction); if it has negative curvature, the loop is traversed clockwise (negative direction). About a degenerate saddle point, the loop may wind more than once on the Gauss sphere for each time around the point on the surface. Move the "radius" slider to observe the following: The loops will change size. As the radius of the loop approaches zero, the ratio of the surface areas contained by (1) the loop on the sphere (counting orientation and multiplicity of the loop) and (2) the loop on the surface approaches the Gaussian curvature of the surface at the point.

Below the graphics is some curvature data. The surface areas contained by the loops, their quotient, and the Gaussian curvature are given. Further, the Gaussian curvature is equal to the product of the principal curvatures, which are defined to be the maximum and minimum curvatures of the normal sections through the point. The normal sections corresponding to the principal curvatures are shown in the surface graphic.

Curvature (Wolfram MathWorld), Gauss Map (Wolfram MathWorld), Gaussian Curvature (Wolfram MathWorld), Normal Section (Wolfram MathWorld)
Principal Curvatures (Wolfram MathWorld)

Gauss Map and Curvature" from The Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Contributed by: Michael Rogers (Oxford College/Emory University) 

Snapshot 1: elliptical paraboloid




Snapshot 3: degenerate saddle

Snapshot 2: hyperbolic paraboloid





The Geometry of Bending

The Geometry of Bending: "Purpose of this page
When you bend a thin strip of an elastic material you get a beautifully shaped curve. What geometry does this curve follow? Please help unravel this mystery by commenting these posts!"

Math on the Street: Mathematical Origami Links

Math on the Street: Mathematical Origami Links: "Links
Instructions for Making Origami Polyhedra
Instructions for Making Other Origami Figures
Mathematics in Origami
Using Origami to Teach Standard Mathematics Topics
Origami as a Field of Mathematics
Applications of Mathematical Origami
History of the Sonobe Module"

History of Curved Origami Sculpture

History of Curved Origami Sculpture: "History of Curved Origami Sculpture
Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine
[Croatian translation]
There is a surprisingly old history to curved origami sculpture, going back to the 1920s at the Bauhaus. We give here a partial history focusing on the earliest known references."

Curved Folding Papers - Curved Folding

Curved Folding Papers - Curved Folding: "Curved Folding PapersThanks to Tomohiro for this really useful set of links to papers discussing curved folding:
If you have more papers, then post a link in the comments..."

20110117

Stand Up Architecture: Freeform surfaces from single curved panels

Stand Up Architecture: Freeform surfaces from single curved panels: "Freeform surfaces from single curved panels
Since I found out last week that the proposed system only can be used to make single curved surfaces I started searching for methods (for example a Rhino Plugin) to convert a freeform surface into single curved (developable) panels.

I found out that Rhino has a method for lofting developable surfaces on basis of polygons, curves or Bsplines. I tried this method to loft some Bsplines into developable surfaces, but I experienced some problems, especially with lofting complex shapes. In these cases, the method doesn’t produce very fluent shapes, in comparison to double curved lofting methods.

On the internet I found a very interesting paper called 'Freeform surfaces from single curved panels'. The paper describes a method to approximate double curved surfaces by single curved D-strips (click here to read this paper). The method was developed by H. Pottmann. Besides the geometrical explanation of the method, the papers also shows some very convincing examples of freeform shapes which are constructed out of developable (single curved) D-strips............"

Lamina Design



Lamina Design: "About Lamina software
Lamina 1.0 makes it easy to fabricate large scale free-form structures from planar (sheet) materials like plastic, metal, or plywood. This fabrication technology can be applied to interior design, building architecture, lighting, signage, clothing, and sculpture.
Lamina 1.0 uses computer methods to build precise physical structures in the real world. Your 3D model is approximated by a number of 2D parts that are numerically cut and attached to fabricate the final structure. Laser cutting, abrasive waterjet cutting and plasma cutting services are widely available and make creating parts inexpensive and fast."