Week one starts with simple execises to make a puzzle with CAD sofwares with parametric tools. I spent a while to learn the fusion 360, even though I am more comfortable with Rhino. I wanted to make a bridge construction which can be adjusted to different spans. There are only two types of puzzle in the system: a horizontal piece and a vertical piece. The horizontal piece has 3 notches with two notches at the ends at a fixed angle. I used block command and grasshopper to adjust the notch parametriclly

This is the inital idea of the bridge. You can assemble to different length according to different pieces you put together . Eventually it becomes a circle

In plan, I tried different ways to assemble the pieces. Notice the different overlay patterns

The two ends will bite in other pieces from above, while the middle notch will bite other pieces from below. In the end, I used hot glue gun to fix all the pieces in place, even logically they don't need any glue to stay together. The gravitational force will keep all the pieces together.

The second part of the execise is to make a laptop sticker with the vinyl cutter. By choosing a png file, I can run through an app provided to trace out the boundaries of the png file. The computer then can send the trace information to the vinyl cutter.

I tried some different patterns but I ended up using an electro symbol to put on my laptop cover

I have to place a large piece of sticker paper cut out from a roll on to the machine, and let it run. Some sticker paper rolls are not the best in quality, and the top layer tends to peel up and mess up around the corners. I apply another layer of transfer tape to transfer the sticker without its backing on to my laptop case. Then I need to use a tweaser to remove the extras. It is harder than I imagined!

Here is the link to download the png pattern to cut your own!