OBDF 110

 Hollow Form 3D Print Concepts     Above are my ten hollow form concepts for 3D printing. My favorite is number 10; I think it's the most "artistic" shape, and it seems to hold a lot of movement. Depending on the group critique, if concept #10 is decided against as a reasonable print, then my second choices would be number 5 or 6, because I like the twisting action in the shape.   

 Final Papercraft Project      I chose a carabiner because it's an object I use multiple times a week, and it's an object that is a great example of physics and engineering. I t's used in a belay system to keep climbers secure, and it's made to be extremely light and extremely strong while also being ergonomic. When climbing, you are very much relying on the carabiners to keep you alive. This object is one that I am always fascinated by because it is a great example of form and function working together, with both being equally as important and prevalent in the design.   First draft sketches of a carabiner   Prototyping I began prototyping several versions in Rhino. It became obvious that a rounded profile such as a true carabiner would not make for an easy unrolling process. I therefore opted for a geometric appearance to ease in the unrolling and folding process.     I used the unroll feature in Rhino and laser cut the pieces above to ...

  Prototyping Paper Projects     I began modelling the carabiner in Rhino, and it soon became clear that an exact replica would be very hard if not impossible to unroll and fold back up properly.           I decided the profile of the carabiner would have to be more "pixelated" so as to provide a clean fold. This meant the profile had to be geometric. I explored a rectangular and hexagonal profile, as shown below, using the "extrude along curve" tool.        This tool didn't quite work out, as the extrusion wasn't a uniform thickness along the curve. Eventually, I used sweep1 tool and that worked much better with a square profile. I built the carabiner and shaped the profile for where the gate would fit. Then, I divided the extrusion into five sections so that the unroll process would be neater.      Above, slight panic when I forgot to turn off explode before unrolling. I'm happy with the directio...