Tutorial 3 - Building Blocks

This weeks assignment to create a solid was plagued by a multitude of failures...however, their were glimmers of success hidden deep inside. The trapezoidal shape was chosen as a way to create structures that could move in any of the x,y, or z planes by linking up through their sloped faces. It was discovered however, that the multi-solid command only creates shapes that can have their planes "contact constrained" on the two parallel surfaces (top and bottom, not any of the sides). In an attempt to overcome this, I created another plane on one of the faces and played around with the "Symmetry" command (as shown below). The symmetry command however creates cloned shapes that lose their initial information regarding the various sketches and planes put into them, and thus became worthless in the effort to create dynamic shapes through the initial part relationships. These relationships include keeping the top an bottom triangular shapes sized as a function to one another. A vertical height bar also moved the top plane up and down.

As I moved on from the symmetry function, I attempted to create a new trapezoidal shape with a curve much like the pipes from the example. However, I lost the ability to make permanent constraints and was unable to link the modified sketch to any relationships. Also, the sketches began to disappear, even though "hide/show" was never selected. These sketches existed, but could not be seen unless the mouse scrolled over them (and they were not made to be construction lines either). They were completely useless. As I exited the sketch mode, I also noticed that the "multi-section Solid" disappeared from my 'part' page and could no longer be accessed. It still existed on the tree, but could not be made visible...which in turn caused me to lose my solid shapes on the 'product' page as well (right two images below).



I did however back up a copy of the initial part, and so I went back to work skewing and changing the solids in order to see the way in which they acted on one another. A new problem quickly arose however, as the constraints I placed on the solids in the 'product' page quickly became useless with small yellow exclamation marks next to one another. I left them alone and made new constraints which seemed to work as I updated the original shape. All the constraints had to be limited to the top and bottom parallel planes, making for a vertical structure. Though I could tilt the object by placing the flag on it, the solids were not intelligently related, and so they are kept in vertical orientation.

Though I am unsure why I lost so much info/control of my sketches as the night went on, or why I can no longer make permanent constraints (I think we went over how to fix that in the first week), but I have learned how to set solid shapes up in relation to previously made parts. Going forward, I would like to find out how to take advantage of all sides of a solid, and not just the top and bottom planes. Setting up a plane on one of the sides after making the solid did not seem to help, and so I assume the key lies into how the shape is actually constructed from the onset.

Tutorial 2 - Wichita House Mod

In creating this structure, the roundness of the base was held as constant while the emerging structural supports manipulated. The height each support was tied to the length between the outermost and innermost circles on the ground plane. A mid point circle was created in this plane as well, which when moved, changed the shape of the structures above (see diagrams showing constraints at bottom). All members maintained their angular orientation from one another, so to prevent twisting of the structure.

In all 5 variations, the base kept its original shape and location, while the structural members were pulled, skewed and collapsed per the relationship with the ground plane below.

Based (loosely) on the Wichita House, the design features a window and 2 vent stacks that change in size as the surrounding members expand further away, of contract closer together. The stacks also shrink in height as their radius is reduced.

Tutorial 1 - Sketching the Plan

Plan: Wichita House by Buckminster Fuller

The floor plan of the Wichita House was created using a set of constraints that defined the distance of each room element (bathrooms, bedrooms, tables, couch) in relation to the exterior circular building envelope.

By changing the diameter of the exterior wall, the house essentially pulled itself apart into a donut shape where the room elements either gathered together or floated away.

At the most extreme end of the progression, the Wichita House has divided itself into a vast circular hallway broken up by rooms perpendicular to the flow of traffic. More abstractly, the movement of the elements parallel the movements of galaxies within our own expanding universe. Given a large enough area, rooms will eventually become their own fully independent entities with no possible interaction between themselves.

Exterior Diameter values were 3.1 (original), 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.0 units.