16/03/2023: Our new assignment 'Technical Experiments' requires us to 3D model a small object, scale it up and then use our paper prototyping skills to make a physical version of that object. 

I chose this Lego piece I found lying around on my desk:

It had an interesting shape and I thought it would be a good first project as I had never worked with 3D modelling software before.

After watching some Rhino tutorials, I jumped in and made a rough draft of what my final model would look like based on the skills I had already learnt. The controls and commands took some getting used to (still have some camera troubles) but on the whole, I think it turned out fine:

I then began working on my final model using the skills I had learnt from doing my draft. I first made measurements of my object and then translated those onto Rhino. Before long, just as with my draft, I began encountering issues with my mesh, so I had to find a way to repair it (Google and YouTube tutorials to the rescue!). I then scaled it up so it fit inside a 400mm3 cube and used UnrollSrf to explode it out. There were so many individual pieces that it went out of the grid, and I had no idea how I was going to print it out and make it into a paper model without going mad labelling every single piece. 

I then had an idea where I would just arrange the pieces into a net-like format and then print it out. That way, the layout was intuitive, and I didn't have to label every single piece. 

I began ideating the different methods of assembling the model. I did not how know sturdy the card for making the model would be so I had to try and figure out a method of optimising the sturdiness of the model so it wouldn't just fall apart as the sides were all tilted at an angle.

Idea no.3 spoke to me the most as it made the most logical sense but it still was not perfect as assembling it like that would be difficult. Additionally, because the middle pillar had been cut off by Rhino when I repaired the mesh, I needed to create extra parts for it so that it would be long enough to attach to the base of the model. 

I struggled to think of a way I could assemble the model as painlessly as possible, but an idea soon came and this was the only iteration I ended up doing (hastily scrawled on a note pad because the best ideas come to you 5 minutes before midnight while you desperately try to complete a physics quiz at the same time).

So now that I had a complete idea for the assembly, I began modelling out what the net would look like. Here, I went through three ideations before settling on one I liked the best.

The Unwrapping Process:

Edit: When I did this, I did not realise there were options in the command line to unwrap the surface so that the individual shapes were all connected so I ended up manually tweaking each individual face so that it would all lie flat. This took me around two hours extra but it was a good work out for my spatial reasoning!

The 3 Iterations:

Next, I printed out the pieces and began manually drawing on the glue tabs as I did not have time to figure out how to model them all on Rhino. Here is what my prototype looked like (I used tape instead of glue for efficiency). 

In the prototype phase, I discovered a crucial error in my initial idea on how I would assemble my model. The side piece of the octagon on which the pillars sit would not cover the entire perimeter if I assembled the model in the order: Pillars > Octagon > Base. 

After I was satisfied with my prototype, I began making my final model and because I had already worked with the shapes and pieces, the process was smoother than I had anticipated.

Assembling the pillars:

The gluing process was quite stressful as I needed to hold each freshly glued piece in place for several minutes before it had set strongly enough to hold its position (headphones and some good music really helped).

Final Model: