As the ending presentation for our theme project draws closer, we have started to make real progress on our prototypes. As we are building an omni-directional wheels that are enclosed in a hexagonal casing. In my case, i am in charge of doing the CAD model which is the virtual 3D model of the casing. Initially, we planned to make the casing with an edge of 5cm. However, with the casing of 5cm, we did not consider how the 3 motors would fit, nor which exact motors we would be using. Hence it was quite painful to keep CADing and 3D printing especially since the support material and raft material were extremely hard and painful to remove. Each print took and average of 3 hours to compete which made it hard to make minor adjustments on the fly. This caused alot of thought to be made when modifying the model. CADing and printing and CADing again became a cycle that resulted in many late nights in YueYa building.
When we sent our STL files to a company to print, I was very impressed by the quality of the prints. They printed using resin material and i could detect next to no support material so I wondered how they managed to get such a high quality print. I guess it makes a big difference when professionals use 3D printing. Anyway, as we made more modifications to the design, we are hoping that we will recieve the prints soon. Here’s to making real and tangible progress on our theme project! I’m excited working towards seeing the final working prototype!
