6. Computational Couture

Research & Ideation

Additive manufacturing, most known as 3D printing is the process of creating a physical object from a digital model, build layer by layer. It can create complex geometries that weren’t possible with traditional technologies. It is one of the most used technologies for rapid prototyping since when it first emerged in the 1980s, was only used for prototypes because it wasn’t suitable for the fabrication of production pieces.

References & Inspiration

Minima | Maxima was commissioned for World Expo 2017, an event with a history of architectural and engineering innovation. This project was developed on the premise of research and development to achieve structural integrity through ultra-thin, self-supporting structures that find their strength in the double curvature of their form.

I also founded the work of Dines Kumar,he worked with different exercises of printing on fabric, One of them to assemble like an origami, so I really liked this idea of hardening fabric to archive a complex, volumetric object

For this week's assignment I wanted to experiment not really in modeling, but in getting familiar with grasshopper since it was my first time using this plug in.

So, I wanted to make more like a sample book of some parametric basic designs that I could use for future projects.

Tools

• Grasshopper
• Rhino3D
• Ultimaker

Process and workflow

For this assignment I worked with two programs, Blender and Rhino.

Blender

I followed a tutorial from YouTube to model a ball with parametric design; it was a simple exercise to start experimenting a little.

I used different modifiers to get to the final form:

I wanted to change the from of it to develop a series of charms for a necklace, so I change form edit mode to sculp mode to be able to drag and move control points of the sphere. Once I made three different form, I exported them as stl.

This is not the first exercise of 3d printing that I made for this curse, In the week digital bodies I printed the scan I made, so all the information regarding the software Ultramaker is there, go check them out please since there is important documentation regarding exporting files, how to use Ultramaker, how no level the machine, etc.

I change the configuration of the temperature, the type of supports, and activated the retraction to minimize the errors when printing.

The printing settings:

Charms Outcome

Rhino/Grasshopper

For a second exercise, o wanted to work with parametric design in grasshopper.

In our local class, our instructors teach use one route we could take to make a Voronoi design in a 3d and 2d design, but I still wanted to experiment more in what patterns I could make.

I wanted to do a little container but with fabric, so I looked for inspiration, and founded kind of like a tulip purse, I founded perfect for this week assignment since I wanted to have a sample book but didn’t know in what design to apply it. So, I did a different pattern for each petal.

The first thing that I did was to design in rhino the layout, whit curves and surfaces using a template shown in this tutotial

I watched lots of tutorials of how to develop different shapes in grasshopper, but most of them used some plugins, so I basically took the first part when they teach how to make the patterns with the shapes, and then I followed the same path as the one my instructors teacherd me.

TUTORIALS: Circles Triangles

I discovered in one tutorial a tool that helped me to organized the points that grasshopper generated, and also to control the number of them; forming a sort of grid

Here is each petal and the grasshopper to get to that pattern:

Voronoi

Circles

Hexagons

Hexagons variant

Octagon

Squares

Traingles

Traingles variant

Once I had them all, I assigned a thickens of 0.8mm directly in grasshopper before baking them, and finally baked the last node of each of them to passed them to Rhinocenteros as a solid.

In Rhino I extruded the circle of the center and the rings where a cord will pass. Then I finally exported the file in stl.

3D model

Tulip by userfabricademy on Sketchfab

3D printing on fabric

I imported my document to the program PrusaSlicer, I programed an automatic stop to place the fabric, and It will then print over it and “trap it” in between layers of plastic.

Since this type of machine has 5 extruders, I selected the one where I charged the filament (TPU Silk, Cream White 0.75mm), The supplier says to use a temperature from 220-240 if using a speed of 100-200%.

Then I finally selected the type of plastic “FLEX”.

Once all the configuration was ready, I saved the gcode in the USB of the printer. I selected my file in the printer monitor and finally started it After 1hr the printer stopped in the layer I indicated, I placed the fabric with some magnets and clips to the hot bed, keeping it the flattest possible so I wouldn’t have any problem with the nozzle. I placed the automatic stop in the 2nd layer so it would have a firm base, and it wouldn’t separate from the fabric

When it was done, I took the hot bed from the printer and using a spatula I separated the piece form the hot bed.

Tulip