Charlotte - FabLab de Charleroi Fab Academy website
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2. Computer Aided Design

This week I tried several 2D and 3D designing programs to find the ones that suit me best.

My journey

At first I had to catch up on the first week so I worked on the website (design and content). After finishing the biggest part of it I tried several the Onshape, Freecad and Inkscape programs for 2D and 3D designing (I'm already familiar with Illustrator and Autocad).

Creating my Fab Academy website

To save myself some time, I chose to download a free template for the design. I chose "Editorial" from html5up.net (thanks to Saskia Katarzyna Helinska for the link in her own website ! ;) )

Html5Up page showing the free template named Editorial.

Working on this website gave me the opportunity to put my hands back into HTML and CSS. I realize now how much I've missed it.

I also took pleasure in choosing all the pictures based on cats ! You're welcome for that ! ;)

Printscreen of my Canva account open on my Fab Academy cat images searching work.

As I have a Canva Premium account, I searched the pictures in it and also tested their AI picture generator. Not as good as the well-known ChatGPT and Dall-E but not too bad (see the pictures of assignments "Computer Controlled Cutting" and "3D Scanning And Printing" on the Assignments page).

Good to know : Canva's compression algorithms optimize the size of the images without loss in quality ! It also let's you select the quality of the .jpg export before download.
Printscreen of the Canva's Jpg export options

To choose the colors and get the right hex code, I use the Coolorspalette generator. It helps you find inspiration, match the right colors and gives you all the color references (hex, rgb, cymk,...).

Coolors website that helps you find the right colors for your designs.

I'm having trouble changing the icons on the homepage and align everything correctly.

My homepage with the missing or doubled icons from Font Awesome

The template uses "Font awesome" in it's free version but the icons references don't seem to work. I will check on that later and maybe add my own made ones.

Page of the free Font Awesome icons

Image compression

Whenever I'm taking printscreen, I compress the images saved with XnConvert, which it's a free software that helps you convert and compress your images files in whatever size or format you need without quality loss.

XnConvert's website to download the program.

The other interesting thing is that it can convert several images at once (big time saving!).

Printscreen of several images imported in the program to be converted at the same time.

Discovering Onshape

I already did a training course on Autocad several years ago so I tried other softwares, starting with "Onshape".

Onshape website's homepage.

I first tried to understand it by myself but I quickly found out that it isn't the good way.

Printscreen of my attempt on Onshape without tutorials. Printscreen of my attempt on Onshape without tutorials.

So back again with my best friend for tutorials, Youtube.

As it is also easier for me to learn fast in my own language, I obviously searched for videos in french and found these made by PolyFab Normand Brais Formations.

Printscreen of Polyfab's onshape introduction tutorials. Printscreen of Polyfab's onshape pipe cover exercice.

I followed their simple exercice of making a pipe cover and learned :

  • How to use the planes and create sketches
  • Printscreen of a cercle sketch on the front plane on Onshape.
  • Extrude my cercle, create holes in it and move them in another place
  • Printscreen of the 3D object with holes created on Onshape.
  • Export the file and create the drawing sheet of the object with the size informations
  • Printscreen of the 3D object drawing sheet with size informations created on Onshape.

Here's the link to my file on Onshape.

Discovering Inkscape

I regularly use Adobe Illustrator. To try another program, I thought about Inkscape because I will have to use it with my own embroidery and sewing machine.

Printscreen of Inkscape website's homepage.

I've already tried 1 or 2 times tu use it but hated it as it isn't as user-friendly as Illustrator but the Fab Academy is a good excuse to give it another try so, thanks to Youtube (again), I've saved a tutorials playlist made by "Savoir pour tous" video to learn it step-by-step.

Printscreen of the Inkscape tutorials playlist made by Savoir Pour Tous on Youtube.

My Project

I've decided how I wanted my pet house/box to be built and assembled.

Panels will be square and the holes to attach the accessories hexagonal to look like a honeycomb on some sides, like this 3D printed tools storage panel idea you can find on printables.

Page on Printables website where you can download the honeycomb structured wall storage for tools

Menu

  • Homepage
  • Assignments
  • Week per week
    • 1. Project Management
    • 2. Computer Aided Design
    • 3. Computer Controlled Cutting
    • 4. Embedded Programming
    • 5. 3D Scanning And Printing
    • 6. Electronics Design
    • 7. Computer Controlled Machining
    • 8. Electronics Production
    • 9. Molding And Casting
    • 10. Output Devices
    • 11. Mechanical Design And Machine Design
    • 12. Input Devices
    • 13. Networking And Communications
    • 14. Interface And Application Programming
    • 15. Wildcard Week
    • 16. Applications And Implications
    • 17. Invention, Intellectual Property And Income
    • 18. Project Development
  • Final Project
  • About Me

© Charlotte - FabLab de Charleroi. Fab Academy 2024. All rights reserved. Design: HTML5 UP.