There are two main image design types: Rasters and Vectors.
Rasters are based on colouring each individual pixel on a canvas, so out of say a 2400 by 1080 pixel
canvas, its made up entirely of about 2400x1080 different RGB settings for each pixel. For the more
complex softwares, they add a 4th variable into the setting, opacity. This is great for preserving
the details and colour complexities in paintings and photographs, not so great for your Hard Drive.
Vectors on the other hand, are formed by listing a set of mathematical equations, that then indicate
to the system, to turn any pixel along this line to a certain colour or opacity. This is great when
precision matters more than the colours and the details, such as in Blueprints or 2D Autocad files.
Take these images for example:
You might have to turn up your screen brightness. This is a by Aristotle Roufanis, "Alone Together"
Zoom in a little to see the level of detail in this. This image was edited likely with a Rasterring
software, because the level of line precision is far less important than the detail in the image.
Also, think about the memory storage behind this image, this is 1400 by 1049, unlayered, which means
1400x1049 different colour codes, across the entire canvas, could you imagine rendering this with only
equations. But if you zoom in close enough, you can see the individual 90 degree cuts, between each pixel.
If this was used to guide the extruder of a 3D printer, you might not get a very crisp curve or line
on your product. not to mention, not all those pixels are entirely #000000 Black, which might give the
printer some ambiguity as to whether it should trace that pixel or not.
If this was used to guide the extruder of a 3D printer, there would be little or no ambiguity to the
printer. The instructions would be just be to follow the line marked out by this equation. Additionally
you can have a very fine level of angular precision and spacing, where 1mm is not a certain number of
pixels, but a mathematical definition based on the canvas.
When it comes to applications, Rasterring on a software like Gimp would be fairly good at something such
as covering up photoshop mistakes, or smoothing out an image. While Vectors on a software like Inkscape or
Autocad would be better for guiding the head of something like a Laser cutter. Do use a Mouse for drawing.
There are usually two parts to this process. You would first have to know how you intend to create the actual
object. If you are designing something fairly large, its recommended Not to 3D print it, as it would likely take hours.
Whereas if you only require something small, but with a very intricate 3D shape, then fall back to 3d Printing.
My rule generally, is to try to break the object down, and see if I can build it with several 2D pieces, or do
I need very intricate 3D details and shapes. There are some grey areas to this but for the most part, this works.
If you intend to Laser cut your final project, you should design the entire project in separate stages
using Fusion 360. Once you are satisfied with the look, start splitting the pieces down, and record each of the
part dimensions, then redraw each of the pieces down in an Ikea Flatpack style in AutoCAD for later on.
The next few project designs as references are listed under the 3D printing and the Laser Cutting pages,
but the first two will be listed below, The Wine Glass, and The Eye of the Universe.
Today, we will be designing a little Wine glass in Fusion 360. This would be fairly short as
it is a fairly simple shape, and I drew it entirely by rough estimation, so none of this was
measured. First, get a decent reference image on google, and start a sketch on one of the
Vertical planes, which will make the next steps easier.
Next, start drawing the rough side outline/cross-section using the Polyline or the Spline
function. Its fine if it does not look good, you can edit that later on by dragging points.
Now you can drag the points to form a slightly more elegant shape.
Be sure to finish off the remaining outline with the Polyline tool,
which will help form decent straight lines, and give a nice blue highlight.
Next, use the Revolve tool under create, to sort of pull the sketch around
a central point. Do switch to the Homeview so you can tell if its gone wrong.
Finally, use the Shell tool to carve a hole into the top of it, set the thickness
down to about 2-3, which is fairly accurate to most wineglasses.
Overall, I would say this one went quite well. This tooke me about 20 minutes.
I would not trust this to be anything close to structurally sound, but I am sure
this can be printed. The printer might include scaffolding between the bulb and
around the base of the stem.
Today, we will be designing a small plaque in Fusion 360, and then autoCAD, for reasons
which you will see later on. This is from the video game called "Outer Wilds", this was
an obession of the ancient species, and all over the solar system they draw this symbol.
First, we need our reference image. Import one under Insert, Canvas. Browse the file from
somewhere on your computer. I do not think it matters too much if its a Jpg or Png.
Pull the reference image to somewhere generally centered, forget about the scale for now.
Now this is where it gets tedious, I decided to start tracing each barb individually.
There is probably a more efficient way to do this, but this is the way I chose to do
it because the Point Snap setting below allows you to estimate how a 3D printhead might
be restricted when printing the fine details.
After about 40 minutes, I ended up with quite a neat outline of the design.
Originally, I was going to extrude it and print it as a plaque, so I scaled it
up and extruded the piece to about 1cm thickness, and gave it a simple base 1.5cm thick.
It was about that point I started measuring the size of the smallest details,
the smallest triangles are about 0.15mm wide, while the 3D printer extruder
is about 0.4mm wide, which leaves me with 2 options: I can either Scale it up
further, or remove some of the small details.
I decided not to follow through with either of them,
as the Printhead might start melting off the pieces it already laid down, and
the fact that this was already about 15 by 16 cm big, which from past experience
would take about 8 hours or more to print. Additionally, you do lose abit of detail
with 3D printing.
So the next step was to upload the raw sketch in DWG form over into autoCAD.
I think my next plan for this is to cut this out on a clear sheet of acryllic
and then again on a translucent colour like blue or green. I might insert the
coloured pieces into the clear piece. And maybe sandwich that between two blank
clear sheets of acryllic, seal it in with acetone to make it look like a hologram.
Its either that, or just engraving the design in on a light burn setting, and then
cut the perimeter out, so I dont end up wasting too much acryllic. It would look
quite good on a clear sheet, then colour the engraved sections in with a blue/purple
whiteboard marker. But overall, I am fairly satisfied with the base design of it.