Week 0: Computer-Assisted Design


For this assignment, I tried to think of a fun little design project that I could use in the future, and which could benefit from the modality of the modular pieces that we aim to laser-cut in the next assignment. I want to make a ukulele whose fretboard you can remove and make a lap steel guitar instead. I thought having a modular string instrument could be really fun.

It was my first CAD project, and my laptop was undergoing difficulties, so I had to use another PC from the lab on which I installed FreeCAD. I found a drawing of a ukulele and I started sketching my piece on the XY plane. I used parametric design all along to keep track of the dimensions I used.

I created the fretboard separately in order to form an assembly, and I used another sketch on the fretboard to cut the thinner part of it.

I finally design another body for the head of the fretboard, and cut a hole inside of the body.

Notes to a future me (learning outcomes):

  • Fix your laptop and use Fusion360, FreeCAD crashed too much.