If you are going to be in the NYC area for August 11, you should consider signing up for Industrial Designer Matthew Borgatti‘s “Intro to Solidworks” class at NYC Resistor — a great way to learn this iconic solid modeling / CAD tool from a designer/artist who uses this tool for everything from testing laser cut assemblies to designing complex multi-part mold for soft robots.
If your interests lean more towards building 3D objects with laser cutters than 3D printers, check out some of the other 3D maker classes coming up at NYC Resistor, including a several sessions of “Fire the Lazzzzor! Learn to rapid prototype using the 35 Watt Epilog Laser” (so that you can gain access to cutting your own work on Monday nights on their Epilog) and a dedicated Adobe Illustrator for Laser Prototyping class.
Speaking of essential 3D skills that do not involve 3D printing, Numi Prasam will be offering an Introduction to Patternmaking class that teaches the counterintuitive dark arts of planning for 3D surfaces from 2D flats and wax paper templates. Planning a dress so that the fabric breaks just “so” as it hangs on a human being can be a tougher design challenge than CADing up the enclosure for your next electronics project.
From the “Intro to Solidworks” class description:
SolidWorks is a fabulous program for designing in 3D. It is robust, generates watertight geometry, and is the industry standard for everything from prototyping mechanisms to designing molds. Chances are that plastic thing you have on your desk right now was designed in SolidWorks. The unfortunate thing is the program’s more intimidating than going to your first day of high school with a big fresh forehead zit.
My name’s Matthew Borgatti. I’m an industrial designer who’s been using SolidWorks for over ten years, and I’m here to help.
This 3 hour class will take you through the basics of drawing shapes, extruding them into 3d, and what kinds of tools are suited to what kinds of jobs. I’ll be touching on sketching, the basic theory behind solid modeling, and the kinds of stuff the program is and isn’t good for. Hopefully you’ll leave the class feeling confident enough to start putting SolidWorks to use in your own projects and ready for more advanced CAD challenges.
Prereq’s
- Solidworks installed on your laptop, and your laptop
- At least some preliminary poking into Solidworks
Matthew Borgatti‘s body of work is impressive not only for his sleek designs and out-of-the-box thinking, but for the sheer variety. He’s done everything from building monsters for movies you’ve seen, to making a mobile, open source, MIDI-controlled pipe organ, to producing his own fashion accessory line. He’s also a prototyper, teacher, graphic designer, illustrator, and product designer whose latest obsession is soft robots. When he installed his Anywhere Organ at Maker Faire New York, a local robotics team used it to rock a rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Borgatti inspires.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!