3D Design of the Mounting System¶
A 3D design has been created for the base that will be used to mount the remote on the cane. This document outlines the process that was used to create the design and the renders of the device. The software used to create this design is blender.
Boxing and calculating space¶
Initially, I used the measurements from the pcb, esp32 and battery holder to create outlines in the 3D design software. Using the outlines and some calculations, I created the box that represents the remote control case, which should fit all the other boxes inside. This was done so that I know what needs to fit within the base and calculate its size accordingly. The following images show the process in detail.
PCB, ESP32 and battery outlines:
Remote outline:
Result base model after building on top of the outlines:
3D modeling¶
I used the several tools to model the mounting system and the remote.
Extrusions¶
The extrude tool in Blender allows me to create new geometry by pulling or pushing on a selected surface or set of vertices in a specified direction.
To use the extrude tool select the portion of the object that you want to extrude. This can be done in Edit mode by selecting individual faces. You can invoke the extrude tool by pressing the “E” key or by selecting “Extrude” from the toolbar or the context menu.
Boolean modifiers¶
Boolean modifiers can combine multiple objects or shapes. They work by using one object to cut, intersect, or merge with another object, creating a new shape that combines the properties of both. Two or more objects are required. The object to modify is selected, and a boolean modifier is added to it from the Modifier tab in the Properties panel.
There are three types of boolean modifiers. The Union modifier combines two or more objects into a single object by merging their geometry together. The Difference modifier subtracts one object from another and the Intersection modifier creates a new object that contains only the parts of the original objects that overlap.
An example of where I used this was to create the insertion for the magnet on the base. I created the magnet model using a cylinder, then I placed in the position that the inseartion should be. Using a boolean difference modifier I created a hole in the base that fits the magnet exactly and then removed the magnet model.
That created some ngons and I attempted to fix the using the triangulate faces function. This is far from optimal but it saved me time that I needed for the other parts of the model.
Bevels¶
The bevel tool rounds off sharp edges and corners of a 3D object. This is done to selected edges or vertices.
To use the bevel tool enter edit mode by selecting the object they want to edit and pressing the Tab key. Next select the edges or vertices to bevel by clicking on them while holding down the Shift key. The bevel tool can be activated by pressing Ctrl+B. This will bring up a dialog box to adjust the size, shape, and number of segments of the bevel. The changes can be seen in real-time. Once satisfied with the bevel press Enter to apply the changes.
I used the bevel tool to round sharp edge in the model mainly to improve the appearance of the model.
Rendering¶
I wanted to create a 3D render of the device to receive feedback before printing it and also showcase it to the client to show the progress that we have made. To do this I had to adjust the lighting, add materials and textures to the models of the scene and configure the render settings. Finally I created a simple animation to show the design from all sides.
Rendered image:
Texturing and materials¶
To create a nice preview of the base I created a cane object that give a good idea of the size that the base and the remote have in relation to the cane. Both the base and the cane had to receive textures that match their materials.
The base received a procedural material since it will be made of plastic. Because the material is procedurally generated I didn’t have to use any images or spend time unwrapping the UVs of the object.
The base material:
For the cane I was not sure how to texture it so I chose a simple wooden texture that contrasts very well with the base. I used a wooden texture and unwraped the UVs which determines how the texture will be projected on the model.
Infromation on UV unwrapping can be found on the blender docs
The unrapped UVs:
The cane material:
Lighting¶
3 point lighting¶
I used a simple 3 point lighting setup for my scene. The key light creates the dominant shadows and highlights on the object. The fill light is used to prevent the shadows being too dark. The back light is used to separate the subject from the background.
More details on the this video
Colors¶
I used different colors for the fill and back lights to create a more interesting mood in the scene. The pink and light blue contrast well with each other and create a more interesting scene.
Animating¶
For the animation I folloed the instructions this video by blender forge to make an infinite 360 spin animation of the object. I grouped the cane and base in one empty object as parent and then added a key frame to the parent at the end of the animation to rotate 360 degrees on the Z axes.