Final project idea: a way for me to never lose my keys again.
I'd never CADded before, so this week was unfamiliar territory right out of the gates. The assignment this week was to think of a final project idea and model it in multiple ways, so the major challenge for me this week was projecting 12 weeks into the future and wondering what I might be able to make using the skills that I have yet to learn.
Modeling a milk carton on OnShape
As mentioned above, I'd never CADded anything before, so I wanted to start with something simple. I was with a friend, and we decided that his carton of Trader Joe's matcha almond milk would be a good starting point:
Weird doorknobs, and getting locked out
To read about how I came up with my final project idea, see my final project page.
Trying OnShape and FreeCAD
To model my final project, I decided to first draw it out on paper, then model it using OnShape (building on my previous milk carton modeling experience). As an extra challenge, I decided to also try FreeCAD, which I had never tried before. OnShape is pretty intuitive and easy to use, and it wasn't long until I had modeled something resembling the silicone outside of the wearable. FreeCAD was much more difficult- I found that it was not forgiving of the mistakes I was making as someone new to CAD. While I got something that looked vaguely like what I was going for, I was unable to make the shapes line up as accurately as I had managed to in OnShape. I probably just missed a few basic commands or buttons in some menu. For now, though, I'm going to keep working in OnShape for my weekly projects, but I plan on continuing to play with FreeCAD each week to try and improve my knowledge of it.