Hybrid Object Design (Comprehensive)

For the Hybrid object design project Emily and I originally compared our concepts and we both really liked her design with the flipped tetrahedrons. We chose a couple of my own as well though  I did not feel like they were strong enough concepts. I went back to the drawing board and made the chess piece looking model with the flipped heart shapes on it. From there we started mixing our concepts on paper and in rhino.

 (Emily P.)
+
 (Zach T.)
=
   
                      (Version 1)                                                (Version 2)   

Sketching out some concepts:
-Different Punches on the sides
-Different ways of stacking the triangular shapes
-Different ways of combining out objects


Original Tetrahedron model.


Seeing what the model looks like twisted or with supports on the corners.


Decided to turn the footprint of the model into a pentagon with more sides to closer mesh with the shape of the round chess piece.


Test flips. Checking where the shapes will be able to support one another.


First full sized concepts.


We tried a diamond, teardrop and heart shape to punch into the side of the base model and both felt that the tear drop shape was the best.


Final Concept


Trying out different twists with the final concept. We decided on the middle one.


After we chose which one we wanted to print I exported the shape and went through the whole Meshmixer and Slicer process to prepare the file for the printer. It turned out that the original file was not a "closed polysurface" so when I tried to use the repair function several parts were filled in creating this ugly blob. (Later on I realized that I may have not been using the "Join" and "BooleanUnion" functions properly)


I also noticed in the side view that this whole time I had been building off of the wrong center point, which caused the whole object to be slightly skewed.

The following class I remodelled the entire object with some slight changes such as cleaning up the inner shapes, working with a hexagonal base rather than a pentagon, slightly different tear drop punches, and thicker supports.

I tried to support the objects so that they would intertwine, but I didn't think it was going to be strong enough and opted to line them up straight on their edge so that they completely meshed together.  

Once the object was completed we decided to go without a twist, and once again went to the 3D printer. During the first print the column running through the center of the object detached from the print bed so I remodeled it to have a wider base to stick too. Then I printed the model and it took roughly about 4.5 hours. The only issue we had with our design in the final print otherwise was that the tear drop shapes did not have a steep enough slope when flipped upside down. When printing this caused a layer to be printed horizontally and then the plastic would sag and repeatedly do that over and over again creating a very uneven textured surface. 

Final printed object

I really enjoyed this project and have to say it was great working with Emily. I would like to fix the tear drop design flaw and try printing a smaller version in the future.