2/16/18

Today I started working with SolidWorks. I started by making a rectangular base and extruding it to get a rectangular prism. I then filleted one edge of the prism. I selected the edge, and made the fillet half an inch, creating the curve shown below.

Next, I made a revolved cut with a rectangle. The revolved cut was a 360 degree angle with a rectangle, making a curved cut. The preview is shown below, along with the cut created.

2/19/18

Next, I drew a rectangle on the filleted side of the prism, and extruded another prism connected to it. I used the "Extrude Boss/Base" feature for this. The preview is shown, next to the result.

Next, I used a chamfer tool to create a slant on the extruded prism. The distance was 0.25 inches, and the angle was 45 degrees. Preview and result are shown.

2/20/18

To finish off my practice piece, I added another small rectangle on the side opposite the side with the prism. I then slightly extruded this piece, like before. Then I selected the draft tool. Once the screen appears, I select "Manual" next to "DraftXpert." This gives me a little more control over what I am doing. For the Neutral plane, I selected the outermost face(pink in screenshot), and for the draft faces I chose the other 4 visible faces of the prism(blue in screenshot). Then, for the draft angle, I typed 15 degrees. Preview and result both shown.

Here is my finished test piece. I will move on from this and create a new project, hopefully some sort of warship.

2/21/18

I am starting my second piece, a warship. I started by making a thin, long, rectangle for the base.

Next, I fillet both sides to get the curve a ship would have. I choose the 4th option from the Fillet Types. I select the different sides of the prism to get the curve I want. The Side Face Set 1(blue) is on the side, the Center Face Set(purple) is on the bottom, and Side Face Set 2(pink) is on the non-visible side.

2/22/18

Next, to give the piece a boat like feature, I made a rectangular extruded cut into the top, leaving a border, to create an edge around where people would stand on a life sized version. The cut is 0.3 inches deep.

2/26/18

I sketched a rectangle, and extruded it. This will be the base for the warship's guns.

Next, I chamfer the base so I can angle the guns, similar to an actual warship. The angle is 45 degrees, and the distance is 0.25 inches.

Next, I create the guns by sketching circles on the chamfered face, then extruding them by 1 inch. I do this two times, and slightly adjust the positioning of the cylinders

To give the cylinders a better, more gun-like shape, I fillet the edges. The radius is very small, at only 0.025 inches, but It is able to give me the right shape.

To round the base more, and make it more realistic, I fillet all the edges of the square with a 0.2 inch radius

2/28/18

Next, to get a better body shape, I chamfer both sides of the boat to get an angles look at the ends. I use a distance of 0.3 inches and an angle of 45 degrees.

After this, I fillet the inner edges to get a rounded look. I use a radius of 0.5 inches, and select the inner edges of the original prism.

Finally, to finish off the edge, I fillet the chamfer on the ends of the ship, creating a smoother pattern. Once again, I use a radius of 0.5 inches.

To really get a better gun shape, I use the hole wizard on the cylinders that are the guns. This gives a much more gun-like property to the piece. I solved one problem I had with this feature. Originally, it put a hole through the entire piece. However, I selected "Up To Surface" under "End Condition" and selected what would be the standing area on an actual boat(purple in picture). This made it so the holes didn't punch through the whole piece.

The next step on the ship is hollowing it out using the Shell feature, so it can hopefully float. The shell is 0.06 inches thick. You can't see a difference after you click the check mark, but the shape has now become hollow.

For a final aesthetic feature, I add another gun in front of the existing one. It's going to be slightly smaller, and have two shorter guns on it. I start by making a square and extruding it.

Next, I chamfer the piece. The distance is 0.3 inches and the angle is now only 20 degrees, rather than 45. This will make it so the first set of guns points more forward, and not up so much. (The screenshot says 25 degrees, but I changed this to 20 to make the difference more obvious)

3/1/18

Next, I add the two cylinders onto the chamfered face. I extend the cylinders out by an inch, like last time, so they look like the same gun, but just in a different position.

I fillet the edges of the prism, like before, selected only certain sides. The radius on this piece is only 0.125 inches. This is because if it was any bigger, the guns wouldn't fit on the flat edge. This did require me to adjust the positioning of the guns after filleting.

And to finish off the shape of the gun, I use the hole wizard again. I use the feature that allows the holes to only extend by a length that you choose, and I chose 1 inch so it would only go to the end of the cylinder.

This is the end of my Warship design. I'm going to make one more shape to use a few more tools, and then I will print all the pieces.

To start out my new piece, I make a simple rectangular prism. Then I sketch a circle, and click revolved boss/base. This creates a loop around the prism.

Next, I create a circle and extrude it to get a cylinder.

For my final tool, I mirror the cylinder to double its size.

3/2/18

Today, I'm going to print my pieces. I save all my pieces onto a hard drive, making sure I change the file type to STL. If the file is not an STL file. the printer won't print it. You click Save As, and go to "save as type." Find STL, and select it. Then head over to one of the computers by the 3D Printers.

Open up MakerBot Desktop. A pop up should appear, with a box on the screen. Click Add File on the top toolbar.

Select the file you want, and it should appear in the box. It may be rotated incorrectly, like mine was. Click the circle shaped button on the left side of the screen. This is the rotate tab. Rotate your figure as desired.

Next, click the icon with the two squares. This is the scale feature, so you can make your figure smaller. What works best is scaling down the figure by 50%. This is what I did. It ended out a little bit smaller than I liked, but I kept it at this size as I added other files as well.

Add any other files that you would like, and repeat the process of rotating them and scaling them down. You will need to move some pieces around by using the cross icon. This is the positioning tab. Make sure you select Lay Flat so that the files are actually on the printing area. Move the files as far away from the corners as you can.

Select Settings on the top toolbar. This brings up a pop up. Verify that the settings are correct. Usually they should stay the same, but making sure is always the best idea. The Number of Shells should be 2, the Layer Height should be 0.2mms, the Infill should be 10%, and Raft and Support should BOTH be selected. When finished, X out the tab.

Go to devices in the top left corner of the screen. Select either Big Bird or Cookie Monster if you are on the right side computer. These are the names of the printers, and each printer is labeled, as shown below.

AND THEN I PRINTED IT

3/5/18

I click the big red print button, and the computer begins heating the printer, and transferring the file to the printer. You can see on the printer screen how far it is. MAKE SURE THE TRAY IS COMPLETELY CLEAN BEFORE PRINTING!

You can turn the red knob on the printer to view different stats about the printing process. The screens show all the pieces on the tray, temperature, progress, and other information.

3/6/18

The next day, my shapes are printed and complete. There were no errors with any of the shapes. One I take off the rafts and supports, the shapes can be seen in their full glory. My personal favorite is the Warship because it's not just a garbage shape created for the project, it's me actually using my skills to create something. I think this project was a success!