diff --git a/week3/Readme.md b/week3/Readme.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e41574e --- /dev/null +++ b/week3/Readme.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +## Intro to Reverse-Engineering + +Q. What is reverse-engineering? + +A. Stepping backwards from a finished design, analyzing how it can be re-created, usually for the purpose of modification, enhancement, or re-production. + +Q. Why would we want to reverse-engineer? + +Reverse-engineering is used for far more than simply re-creating commercial products (making a "knock off"). Throughout history, many of mankind's best scientific advances have been the result of reverse-engineering designs from nature. + +In modern times, reverse-engineering has become ever more important. Today many products are intentionally made to break or to become obsolete. For such objects to continue to be useful instead of heading for a land-fill, reverse-engineering plays a vital role, allowing makers to extend the life of their tools and every-day items. + +Reverse-engineering is also an outstanding outlet for creativity and personal expression, allowing creative people to customize and personalize the items we carry with us every day. + +In this third lesson of Practical Printing we will walk through a reverse-engineering exercise based on a common device - a tablet. + +### Reference Images + +Reference images are vital for reverse engineering and can be obtained any number of ways. We will focus on two methods - a 2D scanner, and a camera. + +#### 2D Scanner + +The big advantage of using a scanner is that items scanned will be preserved at accurate scale when we attempt to use them in a CAD software. + +Of course the down-side of a 2D scanner is that many objects will not fit properly in the scanner so it's use may be limited. + +#### Camera + +Using a camera allows us to take a wide variety of reference images. But there are a significant number of disadvantages as well: + +* Lens distortion - ALL photographic images suffer from lens distortion, and the smaller the lens the more they tend to distort. This can play havoc with the accuracy of reverse-engineering. +* Orientation - it is difficult to orient objects relative to a camera in a way that provides good reference surfaces. +* Shadows, tricks of light, etc. - These can all make it difficult to cleanly re-create designs. + +### Exercise 1: Reference Images + +We will use a combination of techniques involving both the scanner and a camera. + +* Scan the two faces of the ipad +* Using a level, set up a shoot for the other surfaces of the ipad including the bottom, top, and sides + +### Exercise 2: Photographic Editing + +We will prep our images before bringing them into modelling software. This is important, as it is virtually certain that the images will have a certain amount of rotation in them, along with the lens distortion. Use Inkscape to remove rotation in the scanned images, and clip them. + +The images taken by camera will not know their scale, and so they will need to be fixed in scale along with rotation. (They should not have a perspective problem, provided the images were taken at perfect level) + +### Exercise 3: Reference Images in CAD + +Learn to bring images into FreeCAD and orient them on their correct planes. In Inkscape, a common graphic/vector editing software we will learn to: + +* Rotate Images +* Create a clipping mask +* Scale a clipped image +* Export a corrected image + +### Exercise 4: Modelling + +Learn to model using the photographic reference material. Topics covered include: + +* Multi-body modelling +* Use of the "additive pipe" (also known as a sweep) +* Using boolean operations (for cutting out ports) +* Cloning bodies +* Slicing bodies as prep for printing \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260816-192301.FCBak b/week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260817-152954.FCBak similarity index 81% rename from week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260816-192301.FCBak rename to week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260817-152954.FCBak index 6ed5c77..6d40e2d 100644 Binary files a/week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260816-192301.FCBak and b/week3/ipad/ipadcase.20260817-152954.FCBak differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/ipadcase.FCStd b/week3/ipad/ipadcase.FCStd index 83dfd22..575cd9e 100644 Binary files a/week3/ipad/ipadcase.FCStd and b/week3/ipad/ipadcase.FCStd differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-bottomslice.stl b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-bottomslice.stl new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9454b3 Binary files /dev/null and b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-bottomslice.stl differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-leftslice.stl b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-leftslice.stl new file mode 100644 index 0000000..659f5be Binary files /dev/null and b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-leftslice.stl differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-right-slice.stl b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-right-slice.stl new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9a2743 Binary files /dev/null and b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-right-slice.stl differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-topslice.stl b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-topslice.stl new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cfeead Binary files /dev/null and b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase-topslice.stl differ diff --git a/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase.3mf b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase.3mf new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44a42a1 Binary files /dev/null and b/week3/ipad/slices/ipadcase.3mf differ