MIT CSAIL’s ‘Foundry’ Software Aims to Simplify Multi-Material Design & #3DPrinting | #3DThursday
The software, called Foundry – ‘hierarchical material design for multi-material fabrication’ – is the project of a small group of CSAIL students. You can find more direct information on the project here.
Today’s multi-material 3-D printers are mostly used for prototyping, because the materials currently used are not very functional. Users typically create preliminary models, make rapid adjustments, and then print them again. New platforms such as MIT’s MultiFab are developing highly functional materials appropriate for volume manufacturing.
Foundry, meanwhile, serves as the interface to help create such objects. To use it, you first design your object in a traditional CAD package like SolidWorks. Once the file is exported, you can determine the object’s composition by creating an “operator graph” that can include any of approximately 100 fine-tuned actions called “operators.”
Operators can “subdivide,” “remap,” or “assign” materials. Some operators cleanly divide an object into two or more different materials, while others provide more of a gradual shift from one material to another.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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