Week 2 - Journal

During our Hands-On, Minds On exercise, I created a quick sketch for sunglasses inspired from the shape of a peacock feather using Rhinoceros which is a commercial 3D computer graphics and CAD application software. In comparison to Fusion 360, it is much more free form and I have been using it for about 10 years now. 

On Rhino, I used an illustration vector of a peacock feather and traced it using circles, control point curves, and arcs. The process felt relatively easy for a quick sketch and had I continued working on rhino, I would have been able to finish the whole sketch and adjust dimensions in a couple of hours and even giving it a bit of a 3D effect by bending and adjusting its spines.

• Fusion 360 to create the design 

• Ultimaker Cura for slicing the STL/3mf file 

• Prusa i3 Mk3 machine for printing the glasses arm/temples

• PLA filament for printing

• LaserWork 6 for preparing the DXF file to be laser cut.

• Plywood sheet to execute the frame design

Things were much different on Fusion 360. I created a new file (saved as Glasses) and I inserted the same image on the program. I really struggled with placing the image in the correct place and size in relation to the origin point and the lens diameter I was working with. Once I drew the feather shapes around the lens using the spline tool. I drew a circle tangent to the lens which I thought I would use as a mid point, and a guide for the mirror plane to make the other half of the glasses as well as the nose bridge of the glasses. Then, I decreased the image's opacity so the workspace and sketch lines look more visible. Next, I used the line drawn from the circle's center to mirror the lens and the result did not look promising as many lines were horribly overlapping and that the nose bridge was misplaced in the design.

I realized that the design was getting more and more complex but decided to take the risk anyway. I moved the circle down since it was not really helping me achieve anything and it might be used later in the design. Then, I kept the same line I used to mirror in place though. I soldiered on and mirrored the sketch again and gradually started deleting and cleaning the unwanted lines. I also worked on using some constraints on several points and lines in order to have a more defined sketch. After that, I drew a line on top of and parallel to the design I created as I realized that ergonomically, the nose bridge was too low and the arc directions were inverted. The best option I had was to mirror the whole mirror and continue working from there. 

What started as an attempt to transform a majestic peacock feather into glasses turned into a nightmarish pair of angry owl goggles! I did multiple trials to try to enhance it into the intended shape but I was too deep into the design and there too many constraints to allow me to edit on the sketch. I was also worried that some of the lines were not mirrored correctly or accidentally shifted while I was moving and deleting some lines. The last straw was when I exported the sketch and opened it on laser works only to find a hairball of messy lines. It was concluded that I will have to call it a day, take a deep breath and start over again with a more definite plan. 

Take 2.. Action! This time I started by doing some proper research on glasses in terms of proportions, dimensions and styles. I found this website that had very clear information on each aspect of eye glasses design like frame size, lens size, frame styles,... etc. I took a screenshot of the frame style closest to the one I want to achieve. Having learnt from my mistakes (as well as the following week's lectures!), I started creating components to make my work more organised. I started my frame design (only one half) using the rectangle tool. Then, I imported the screenshot of the frame as a guide. After that, I took a step back and decided to go for the line tool to draw an asymmetric quadrant to help me achieve a more accurate result. I created fillets on each inner edge to make the sketch follow the frame curves.

I decided this time to avoid using the spline tool as it was hard to define and relied more on the arc tool to draw an abstract form of peacock feathers enclosing on  each other. I also paid attention to overlapping lines and adjusted them by constraints or trimming. There were lines inside the frame that I had to split using break as I did not want them to be cut but rather engraved or speed cut for aesthetics. When I was satisfied with the shape of the frame, I started adding fillets as most of the arcs' meeting points were very pointy or sharp. Next, I use construction lines to measure the width of the nose bridge (the space between the frames) then created another construction line constrained from its midpoint and perpendicular to it. The latter line was used as a mirror line to mirror the frame of the other eye. I also drew the screw at the top right end of the frame. I used my own glasses as a reference.

After the frame design was mirrored, I created the nose bridge. I first started drawing arcs from the construction like but it looked too standard in relation to the flamboyant design of the frames. So I decided to decided to extend the arc until it enclosed into a full circle which I then used to draw an abstraction of the center of a peacock feather. I also added more fillets and trimmed some overlapping lines to make the shape cleaner. Once I was happy with the final outcome, I finished the sketch. I started extruding the frame. Even though it was going to be cut and engraved on a flat surface. I decided to play around with the design and extrusion levels to create a more 3D look. I also made sure that each extrusion was a clearly labeled, separate components.

Now it was time to sketch the glasses temple arms. I did some research and took a screenshot from this reference to use as a guide as I traced the lines. I started with 2 well defined rectangles with an angle between them. Then I started drawing lines between them, connect and redefine again as the shape changes. I had to use the spline tool to create the curved end that would rest behind the users ears. I also had to adjust the arc radii at the tip of the temple to ensure a smooth clean curve is produced. After finishing this sketch, I started a new one using its inner surface as a plane. This was used to create the connecting piece between the frame and temple arms. I extruded this part joined to the temple arms to create one solid part. Finally, I added 1 mm fillets near the connections and 2 mm fillets near the temples' tip. 

The glasses temple was mirrored to create a pair. Before joining them, the main frame was grounded to parent component so it won't move from its place when joining. I hid the other temple arm and from the assemble list, I selected join. When repeating the same steps with the other temple, the temple was in the wrong direction so I had to flip it before joining. Next, I added the M3 screws and nuts and similarly joined them in their designated places. Later, I decided to explore different materials when added to the design. With a little help from the internet, I was able to create the glass frames from transparent acrylic in peacock colours (blue, green, & purple) as well as adjust lighting. When I was happy with the result, I experiemnted with rendering tools like lighting to have a finer look of my design.

1. Defining sketch: In both attempts, I struggled greatly with defining sketches even though I tried as much as possible to define each measurement. However, I did not stress over it as the mirroring action created several constraints.

2. Extruding lines: In reality, the lines were going to be visible by the laser machine speed cut. While rendering, I tried to extrude a line but couldn't. I found this link that tried to explain it but given the time constraint, I decided to try it later 

3. Rendering: As mentioned earlier, I wasn't sure how to change the colours of materials used in the render so I did some research until I found this link which explains it very well. The same goes for setting the light, background and camera angle in my render which I also learnt from the internet.