The “Industrial and Interaction Design (IID) tree” describes a 3D printed sculpture made of multiple parts that connect with a uniform thread. The project starts out with a posted canvas in the studio for one week on which the students share ideas around the topic “I love IID because…”.
Anyone is encouraged to participate. Especially overnight many contributions took place. This crowd-sourced collection of themes is analyzed, organized and attributes/key themes are developed.
Each students selects a theme and ideates how this theme could be embodied in a 3D object that adheres to several constraints.
A successful SolidWorks part adheres to these constraints:
• Apply thread template
• 3D printable; printed upright, Must fit within X:75mm, Y:75mm, Z:150mm
• Function in the ecosystem of the IID tree
• Design embodies chosen attribute/key topic
Translating sketches into a 3D SolidWorks part file is its own challenge. While enjoying creative freedom in between the male and female threads, the accurate modelling of the threads was key to fit parts together. Certain considerations were important to optimize the part for 3D printing.
On presentation day, students pinned up their 16 x 9 inch rendering mounted on black matte photo board and a brief description printed on a 5×7 card onto the studio wall.
I created a base and Y-connectors to enable the assembly of the tree-like sculpture. Selecting the order and arranging the 3D puzzle that formed the IID tree was a memorable group activity.
Not only were the results high quality, the students also had fun working together and seeing how the individual contributions form a complete product entity.
The renderings and descriptions communicated the individual contributions in detail.
This animation was a test render for the new 256 core render farm on SU servers. The clip also shows CMF considerations, which the students could not include in the 3D printed parts.