rapman-education's posterous

rapman-education's posterous

Dave White  //  A place for educators, teachers, lecturers and students to find "stuff" about RapMan,BfB3000 and BfB 3DTouch printers... The unofficial Blog by Dave White, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of D&T in Clevedon School UK.

Sep 25 / 9:28pm

3D printing with Adobe Photoshop!

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Yes, you did read that correctly! It is possible to create 3D objects for 3D printing using Adobe Photoshop. It came as a bit of a surprise to me too. I suppose I have had my head buried in the more CAD approach of PTC Creo and Autodesk Inventor to notice that Photoshop has this capability.

So, how did I "discover" this capability? ... Well this evening after school I had the pleasure of meeting up with some guys from Adobe (Senior Product Managers, Digital Imaging Architects and the like) together with one of the Directors of Bits from Bytes.... All to discuss 3D printing in education.

I suppose I really aught to apologise to everyone, our 1 hour meeting stretched to well over 2 hours and they had to travel up to Birmingham from the Bristol area afterwards, as usual my enthusiasm for this technology got the better of me and I bombarded these guys with examples of how we use our 3D printers and how this all fits into our D&T curriculum.

So, what's next.... I really must find out more about how Adobe Photoshop works with 3D objects and see what can be done in schools as I can already see how a different approach (other than CAD software) could be useful for students designing in schools and colleges.

Filed under  //  education   software   teachingandlearning  
Sep 4 / 8:49pm

3DS Cubify web apps... In education?

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As most people who follow my escapades in 3D printing in education will have probably gathered I a great fan of the 3D Systems / Bits from Bytes machines... currently RapMan kits and the fantastic 3D Touch. But I Also keep an eye on what is happening in the 3D printing world in general. So unsurprisingly I came across Cubify and the Cube printer (unsurprisingly because it is part of the 3DS portfolio of machines). Anyway, one of the impressive things about Cubify is that they are supporting the use of their machines with web apps to generate parts that can be printed on any 3D printer (they export as .stl files).

At the present time there are web apps to create bracelets, earrings, tags, rings, defenders, UFO's, robots, licences and crowns. The apps can be accessed here http://cubify.com/apps.aspx

Now I'm very keen for students to 3D print their own designs but the Cubify apps open up all sorts of new educational opportunities. Now students can easily customise basic designs using the apps that are very easy to use and then print their own ring, bracelet, tag etc. So exposure to 3D printing technology need not only be for those students who have a working knowledge of 3D CAD software! And of course this also means that we can capture these youngsters at an even younger age.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the app to work on my iPad, so I'll have to fire up my trusty old laptop and see how I get on with this. Hopefully in the near future I shall report back and share my experiences.

 

Filed under  //  education   primary   printing   software   student   teachingandlearning  
Aug 31 / 9:33pm

RC revolution ... And a new competition!

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Checking in on the Bits from Bytes blog I came across a brilliant example of a RC car designed and built by one of the BfB crew using a 3D Touch printer. All the parts (apart from electrical ones and the nuts and bolts) have been printed in ABS or PLA. Very impressive!

I couldn't help but notice that the guys at BfB have also launched a new 3D printing competition with some fab prizes. Check out their blog http://rapmanv3.blogspot.co.uk/ ... Information is inside the RC revolution post. Judging is by "likes" on their Facebook page... And as for rules... Very few, so why not send in your entry and maybe you (or your school) could be a winner.

photos courtesy of BfB

 

Filed under  //  article   printing  
Aug 19 / 2:44pm

3D Printed iPad Sound Deflector

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I've been ferreting around looking for new project ideas for 3D printing with my year 9 students and where better to look for inspiration than Thingiverse? Ok this "research" has spawned a few ideas... But more of that later... But I did come across an intriguing device to fit onto an iPad. This device designed by "tomlombardi" clips over the speaker grid on the rear of the iPad and redirects the sound forwards. I was a little sceptical about the idea but thought I would give it a go... So I downloaded the file http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16140 and printed it out.... Amazing results... The sound is most definitely redirected towards the front, it sounds louder and clearer and of course with the iPad on a stand to watch video or listen to music there is probably a little less sound disturbance for others in the room.

Anyway that's deflected me away from doing some proper work... Suppose I had better get back to it.

 

Filed under  //  printing  
Aug 18 / 9:32pm

3D Printing for Microcontrollers

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One of the things I have been intending to do this year is to look at updating the 'systems and control' work that we do with students in year 8. We have been using the "Picaxe" micro controllers but with the developments that have been going on I decided that we might need to look at Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Both of these systems cost considerably more than Picaxe so before doing some experimenting with students I thought that it might be good to put the boards in some kind of container.

So I found a lovely printable Raspberry Pi case on Thingiverse and printed it in nice shiny red PLA. As you can see in the pictures it came out very well.... But what about Arduino? I couldn't find anything suitable so I fired up my PC and using Creo2 designed my own, again in lovely red PLA.

Well, so far so good... Now to get down to learning how to program!

 

Filed under  //  education   hardware   printing  
Aug 7 / 4:37pm

Claystruder 2

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Back in 2011 I had the pleasure of meeting up with Dries Verbruggen aka "Unfold" when he visited Bits from Bytes HQ. I had a great time with Unfold showing me his Claystruder for 3D printing with clay, mashed potato and chocolate paste. Using his claystruder and a RapMan machine he produced some lovely clay pots that could probably not be produced by any other pottery/ceramics technique.

Anyway, Unfold has been at it again... And has updated his claystruder. I'm now just wondering what wonderful ceramic designs he will come up with next?

The design for his claystruder has been uploaded to thingiverse where you can find more details, or why not visit his blog here http://unfoldfab.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/road-to-better-paste-extrusion-episode.html

And to see some more of his fantastic ceramic creations check them out here http://unfoldfab.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/print-print-print.html

Note. Photos are from Unfold's blog/website http://www.unfold.be by Kristof Vrancken

Filed under  //  hardware   printing  
Jul 30 / 10:55am

iPad tripod... Revisited

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I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my iPad. I want to plug things in and control things but I just won't let me do it... But some of the camera apps are superb, however many like the slow motion or time lapse really need a steady/fixed iPad. Hence my desire to fix my iPad onto a camera tripod.

As you might realise I have tinkered around with this before and produced some trial designs, but none of them were very professional or even finished. So here is my latest iteration and it's pretty close to being successful.

My previous designs were trying to be as universal as possible in its fixing to the tripod by using the standard camera fixing screw. The iPad is however pretty big and heavy and using just this single fixing didn't fill me with confidence so I made the decision to use the quick release mount on the pan and tilt head of the tripod.

Of course the "wedges" under the top plate create a huge overhang but this was simply overcome by printing the plate and wedge parts as separate items to be slotted together. Although I have a triple head printer I didn't want to start printing with support material, in that way the design could be easily made on a single head machine.

So I now have a secure mount for my iPad perhaps now I can play a bit more with some of the camera apps and have the peace of mind that it's not going to fall off the tripod. And maybe I'll love my iPad a bit more!

 

Update... Just added a video of the tripod mount to YouTube .... Photos taken with iPad, video created with iMovie, music composed and performed with GarageBand... Perhaps I do like my iPad quite a lot really:)

Component parts can be downloaded from thingiverse iPad tripod mount by davewhite60 - Thingiverse

 

Filed under  //  printing  
Jul 23 / 9:16pm

3D printing ... In a roundabout way

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Check out this blog post by Dughall McCormick (twitter @dughall ) http://dughall.com/?p=276

Dughall is an E-learning consultant for the local authority in Kirklees UK. He has been involved in a 3D printing project in primary schools. The students designed and made 3D models of (Olympic) stadiums. It's obvious from the pictures in the blog that everyone involved had a brilliant day... And the quality of the designing by the year 4 students (8/9 year olds) is fantastic.

Filed under  //  Primary   printing   student  
Jul 4 / 5:23pm

West of England ICT Conference 2012

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Our D&T department got a special mention in the keynote speech by Tim Rylands at the WEICT12 conference?... All about the way we are using our Bits from Bytes 3D printing with students.

Rather than repeating about Tim's fact finding visit or what we actually do with our 3D printers why not scroll down through my department blog and see for yourself.... It really is cutting edge stuff!

http://www.clevedonschool.org.uk/blogs/products/

And of course here on my RapMan Education Posterous blog there is a load of information to browse.

Filed under  //  D&T   Product Design   conference   education   news  
Jun 14 / 8:57pm

3D Scan for 3D Print with 123D Catch

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I have just uploaded a new Teaching and Learning Resource onto the BfB Wiki.

This one is an introduction to using Autodesk 123D catch to 3D scan objects for 3D printing (using PC, Web and iPad versions)

wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/3D_Scan_and_Print_with_123D_Catch

After reading this you might like to visit the "Technical Resources" section of the BfB website where Ed Sells has posted a more in depth "how to" guide.

Dave