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Here is a reminder of the expectations for the next assignment, as we discussed in class.

Design a three piece family of cutlery or serving utensils. Your design must satisfy the following requirements:

• the three designs in your family must share a consistent form language. wherever possible, reuse or modify geometry from one piece to the next (the handle, for example)
• at least one of the pieces in your family must be a spoon
• carefully consider the contextual and utilitarian aspects of your typology, as well as your intended user. How do these factors affect your aesthetic decisions?

For Tuesday (April 9), you should begin working on concepts for your design so that in class we can discuss your intentions and you can begin working. This work can be in any form (sketches, drawings, models, preliminary CAD models), but should be at a high enough resolutions to facilitate productive discussion and should provide clear, actionable direction for your next steps (not tiny doodles). The next phase of this project will be to model and render your family of objects. We will also realize at least one of them in full scale, with rapid prototyping (we will discuss this technology further).

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If you are (attempting) to work on the computers in the Furniture Computer Lab and you get a message that says “No Sim found” when you launch MasterCAM, it’s an annoying but easy to fix problem. For these two licenses of MasterCAM, a USB “sim” (or dongle, hardware key, etc) is required for the software to work. If you look behind the iMac, you will see a black lock box with a USB cable running out of it – you just need to make sure that this USB cable is fully inserted into one of the USB portse for it recognize the “sim”.  After you’ve made sure it’s fully inserted, try launching MasterCAM again.

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Hi Everyone,

Ale and I went to James Dean to check on the progress of the CNC repair.

He said that it should be repaired and running smooth tomorrow, Monday.

To make the process as smooth as possible, he asked that we come to him in two groups on two different days.

He thought, and we agreed, that a google spreadsheet would do this well.

Here is the GOOGLE DOC

Add yourself to a group. If you can be ready by tomorrow, sign up with group 1 and get your foam and your file to him tomorrow. If you need until tuesday, put your name in group 2.

Sorry for such short notice.

MK

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Mikyung asked for help with MasterCAM:

“i got it to cut my shape but i cant cut the tabs out…
it only cuts the contour outline out and it seems like its not leaving the tabs…
please help me!”

She attached her file and after taking a look at it, there were two causes of her problem:

1. linking parameters
The “linking parameters” need to be set properly for the software to recognize the top of the stock and the desired depth of cut. Here is a screen shot of the settings you should use when cutting a 2″ thick piece of stock. keep in mind

• everything should be set to “absolute”
• the “depth” is expressed as a negative value

2. tabs

The tabs are a little finicky, but there are a few key settings that will help to make sure they work.

• Make sure to turn on “Tab all”
• Use “vertical moves” – “ramp moves” tends to cause problems
• make sure the “tab thickness” is significant enough to actually provide some connection – .125 or more should be good for foam.
• In most cases “automatic” tab position will provide adequate placement. If you do need to manually position tabs, make sure you understand how to do this (See the demonstration video.)

Here is a screenshot reviewing settings you should use for this project:

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As you are working on your toolpaths in MasterCAM, please don’t forget to set the Tool Settings properties to NOT “assign tool numbers sequentially”. Please also check the box next to “Warn of duplicate tool numbers”. Both of these settings can be accessed from your machine group’s properties.

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Apparently some of the computers in the BEB might be missing the tool libraries. I’m working on this, and this afternoon I made sure the computers in the Furniture Lab are up to date. If you can not find the tool library, I suggest you look in the following directory:

C:/Users/Public/Public Documents/Shared McamX5/Router/Tools/RISD_Tools.toolsdb

One note: in the videos I say to look for RISD_Tools.tools, but RISD_Tools.toolsdb is the preferred file, if you have the option.

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I just wanted to update everyone on some issues concerning the CNC machine. Some of you may have heard that there have been some problems with the machine in the BEB. Indeed there have, I spoke with James Dean this afternoon and apparently one of the motors/encoders have malfunctioned and need to be replaced. He expects them to be in tomorrow and he will replace them as soon as he can. Of course, this complicates things with the timing of our project. I’ll just ask that everyone do their best to get their parts cut, but I’m anticipating that this might cause some delays. It might expedite things if some of you can pair up when you get your parts cut, but if your files are set up properly, it should not take more than an hour to have James or the monitor double check your file, set up your stock, cut your part and clean up. Let me know if you are having difficulty or have other issues.

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