Geometer

We have been printing more physical half scale modules that snap together to ease the design process.

We are starting to notice an error in alignment, when trying to close angled sections it seems that the modules are too long, but to create parallel structures we need to standard length. Playing around with it some more we decided to add a shortened piece as a bridge for these angle errors.

Some other modules were developed to allow for easier execution of symmetrical structures and for making leg terminators. These are modules L-Q being printed today to add. There is also a short terminator for single leg ending. as needed in the below example.

We are debating adding graphics to communicate the module name and leg numbers as well as a sort of indexing system to determine angle between modules. Either this could be a saw tooth mate at fifteen degree increments or it could just be two graphical indicators.

With this modification you would be able to express ex.: A2-15-C3 when module A, arm 2 connects to module C arm 3 at 15 degrees clockwise from aligning marks. The argument becomes whether hydro-graphics or pad printing would make sense, embossing.... etc. How to print on such a structure? How much information and precision is needed?

To add to the complexity, these are half scale modules so the above "Desk" would be very small in fact; how do we develop a sense of scale? A half scale person model is out of the question, far too big. Yet the dilemma is that we also can't make the snap together modules 1:1 scale due to costs associated...

Definitely a challenge. This is where VR really helps out, its unfortunate its such a fringe practice.

Nearly all mold designs are done now so we are getting ready to send them out for a quote for production elsewhere due to time constraints. At this point we need to just start designing things and then move to production in time for our final presentations.

I tried printing the molds and some extra connectors for the snap together set.

Something was weird with the tank to begin with.... But maybe the resin was old?

Either way, a small setback.

It's very inefficient to 3D print every joint connector for the snap together sets.

Since this type of medium seems like it will be so popular, I made a mold.

With this you can connect twelve modules together with a single casting. I think that expanding on this and making a tree which has enough connectors for an entire "set" will make sense. The end user can cut them apart to save a little labor and organizational nightmare.

If we decide to really scale up production an alternative design will probably make sense. This mold only looks complex to save some some material on the printer.

Once a casting is made the master can be used to make more molds exponentially.

Making molds for the actual snap together modules will be a little more annoying.

Right now I am thinking a block mold with a five piece insert assembly for each end point... Definitely not the simplest of setups. It would likely require the precision machining of small metal components. At that point we'll be so close to automation that I might as well go the extra step and make a machine with jigs and everything.

Jason is sick and can't bring materials to school, so while additional hydrocal is on the way we decided to try and cast some modules out of concrete.

Definitely not the cleanest method haha.

The mix was a little too watery I think, but I left them for only a day and then de-molded them.

Ouch! Where I used pipe clamps to hold the modules together the molds cracked.

However, as I took the molds apart it didn't look too bad...

There were plenty of air bubbles but all modules were actually pretty stable!

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The 3D print adds a really cool texture, almost like a fingerprint.

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All in all, I would call this progress. We definitely need to maybe use a more flexible mold material in combination with tape/flexible straps for actual concrete. Otherwise we need to find a material which changes less dimensionally such as hydrocal. A vibrating jig or air evacuation system might also help.

After some scaling issues were corrected we were able to make some snap together modules; an entire module set is printing currently. On the Form 2, at half scale all modules take around ~15 hours to print and the connectors takes about another four.

We were able to successfully combine two modules!

This is very encouraging, we're going to start accelerating production of molds while doing form finding sessions.

After a few days of drying the weight decreases by more than half and the structure is much stronger.

3/20/19 set 6 session

We will upload video of Mindesk workflow when editing is done, but as expected there are just some arrangements that are difficult to line up. This might be fixed with using Mindesk for Solidworks as opposed to Rhino but we don't have the latest Solidworks edition installed yet (and understand that most don't have access either way...)

So our response is something we have been talking about for a long time but avoiding due to material investment. Since set 6 has been performing well in trials we are going to move forward with snap together modules. We have gotten feedback from the beginning that this might be a more natural way to start working with Geometer.

The largest challenge is having snap together joints that can still rotate and be separated at will. Second is material optimization and scaling/resolution. Preferably they could also be cast, but no obvious compromise has been found.

Our current working idea is to have a hollow recess at the arm terminus and a male to male snap adapter. Tolerances will need to be close.

A couple variants have been designed and will be printed today for testing. We plan on making the "play" modules at either half or quarter scale for economy, but this invites resolution problems. We hope that if successful this will greatly augment the possibilities of Geometer and lower the barrier to entry.

We have been growing more mycelium and filling mold assemblies with better success than last time.

We are hoping to participate in Ecovative's design challenge https://ecovativedesign.com/submission-requirements

Material was very dense and healthy looking. We left it longer in the initial growth stage due to spring break, this was the cause of our update delay.

Our current clamping method allows for some over-stuffing, we are still looking for a quicker way to combine the molds and apply more uniform pressure.

After only 3 days of growth we have a solid structure again!

After 4 days:

The mold will be removed today!

We have also started producing more molds for set 6 after a successful form finding session, a video will be uploaded as soon as possible. Below is module K.

Unfortunately all of our mycellium was contaminated with mold so we have to consider this batch a total loss.

We are going to try casting concrete and hydrocal next while waiting for our next batch to grow.

We did get some growth, but clearly the mold won.