Project 5

Script

Geometry

How it will look when finished

How it looks with script

For this assignment I went out to try the metaball script, as I have seen it create some very interesting geometry.

Actually making the metaball was simple, but it took some real thinking to get the geometry ready for building. I thought about waffling it, as that seems to be a very good fall back option, but it proved impossible to do it without losing some of the better parts of the geometry, such as the 3d holes.

Then I went to sectioning, but the problem would be building it once I had the parts cut. It would be almost impossible to line up these seemingly random parts. To get around this I created an equal amounts of square surfaces in the z direction, and then split surface with the geometry edges. Then using a list item I selected all the "outer" surfaces, which I would then use to cut.

Using the square outer pieces, I can now identify each separate surface and easily put together the geometry after sectioning.

Update: Due to laser cutting time and material constraints, I had to cut down the size of the geometry, reducing it by 33%. I also changed the way I was going to cut and make it, getting rid of the square outer surfaces to cut down on materials needed - with this trusting in myself to be able to put it together well without the guides. However, with the scaling and taking away of the outer planes, I messed up the shapes that needed to be cut, and only printed half of the necessary planes, and 39 extra top pieces. However, instead of getting rid of these pieces and starting again, I added them to the final model, as it developed past what I had created and I quite like the final product.

I believe what I did to mess up the shapes to be cut, was that I had a "list item" component running with the script and had it set to 0, which then didn't include the "1" shapes.

Finished Product