Reverse Engineering NASA 3D Printed Fabric Build in FreeCAD | Part 2 | Chainmail

hi everyone welcome back to the channel and welcome to the second part of this video where we're creating a 3D printed fabric using these interconnecting modules in our previous video we reversed engineered an existing model downloaded from the internet used the mesh design to create slices through that so we could see the internal structure and then recreated that in the part design in this video we're going to be creating a fabric with that so an array of each of those modules we're going to show you two methods to doing that one is using the draft array and the other is the lattice 2 workbench we'll be creating a model like this and exporting that as an STL file so we can 3D print it so I hope you enjoy these videos and let's have a look how we can create this array if you like what you've seen you want to donate to the channel then you can do so via Paypal at paypal.com forward slash PayPal me forward slash Darren b e Stone or at Coffee via KO hyphenfi.com I also run a patreon where you can get Early Access and additional content and that's at patreon.com forward slash mango jelly Solutions links can be found in the channel header on the about page or in the descriptions of these videos so at the stage now that we want to create an array for this and 3D printer now there are a number of ways to create the array for this object we can use the draft workbench we can use the lattice workbench we can even use something like A2 Plus or assembly 4. I'm going to start with the draft workbench and create a simple array with this object first of all I'm going to simplify this to make it easier on us to see what's actually going on so this object is basically a hatskin so we're going to take the bottom of this and write it out for that I'm going to start a new document and we're going to come over to the part design and we're going to create a shape binder so I'm going to come into my NASA fabric and let's make sure it's on screen so we can see it by clicking on the tab and I'm going to select this face now it's important the way we actually select these so I'll selected this face we select the tab and we create the shapefinder so I haven't selected anything I haven't clicked anywhere else create the shape binder and it will say the owner document isn't saved so that's save that first so I'm going to save this and I'm just going to call this fabric array let's go for the process again come back this one if we double click it selects the whole object so make sure we only select the face come to the tab and use the subject binder we now got this sub shape binder that we can work with the reason why I've done this is just making our life a little bit more simple because if we had an array of this then when we're creating like boundaries for our design or our printing error then we're going to have think like 20 or 30 of these connected together it's going to be quite hard to see what we're doing we'll swap those out for the actual object at the end of the process so we've got our shape binder let's go out to view and toggle axis cross so we know that's in the middle as well just get our bearings I'm going to come over to the draft workbench and from there we're going to be using the array tools and the modifications and array tools they are available from the toolbar and we'll see those here they're in a sub drop down with all the right tools here I'm just going to hide the Grid in because we don't want that and I'm going to click on the binder come up to modifications array tools and array so we're just going to get an idea of how to use this so the array tools allows us to create a right we've got the X and Y intervals and the number of elements so we can work out with basic mass of where we want to place these but it gets a bit more complicated when we want to add say a bit of a margin in here or a bit of a padding to allow these to be arrayed with space which we need to do with our current model so I'm going to take the defaults maybe reduce this down to something like 60 and the same for the Y interval so the X interval will go along the X the red and the Y inter 4 along the Y and just hit OK so we have an array a very simple array of four elements now I need to place these basically by the side of each other if we remember back to our model these would link now by the side of each other and linked now we can do that by coming in and changing the X amount I have more so if I added 3 in here we can see if I zoom out we've got three going along here I'm going to keep them to two and we're going to change the actual interval X so we go into 4X and you can see we've got 16 here we're looking along the x-axis so if I pull this in and hit the refresh say Ctrl r on Ubuntu or whatever the refresh is on your RS then we can move those but we're going to need to move those into place and move them along the wire to get them in the right position there is an easier way what I want to do is be able to transform one of these you can use a little trick if we come up to the array and find the expand array this one here at the moment is set to false if we open up the array we have the binder Within so let's come to the expand array and set it to true and see what happens each of the array elements is expanded out into the separate entities this means I can find say this one and you can see it highlights on the left and right click transform and we can get an idea of the position of where this is supposed to be by just moving it into position zooming in and I'm going to move this along the X and also along the Y to get it in the right position so I think I want it about here so you can see this is a lot quicker to get a rough idea of where it should be if I hit OK what can then do with that array that array element I can come down and look at the placement and read off the placement so my position along the X interval this one was on the X interval or here is X 6.4 and Y 10.8 so 6.4 and 10.8 come back to the array look at the interval come down to the interval X and type in here 6.4 and 10.8 along the X and Y now if we come up to that array and come back and look down to the expand array and set that to false and click off that's updated and they're now in the right position we just have to deal with the Y so that's a quick way of getting that into position let's have a look at the array and still with the y-axis we can do the same if we wanted we can expand it out but I'm just going to come into the wire and have a look we'll see what we've gone here so it's the y-axis and I can bring this down I'm using the refresh edit refresh which is control and R my keyboard and I can bring this down into position again I have to change the X to get it in the right position so let's bring this down and well I've had enough so I'm going to go up and look at the expand array set that to true and look at this one and what we'll do is right click transform and this will give me the Y interval now so I'm looking to bring this down to about here we could just read off the previous position and calculate from that but if we're more of a visual kind of person we can use that there so now I've got a placement of minus 6.3 10.8 so -6.3 and 10.8 so that's come back to the array and the Y interval you can see we've got 6.4 10.8 so this one is going to be minus 6.4 I know it's 6.3 let's go for 6.4 and 10.8 let's go on to the array now and click on the expand array if I can find it which I always lose there it is and set that to false and click off now we've got our right so we've got our array but we need to print this in some kind of shape to do that I'm going to come over to the Sketcher and use a simple sketch in here along the X Y plane and use something like a rectangle for the shape so let's say I wanted to print it in a square with a length of 100 millimeters by 100 millimeters make both those sides equal hit close this can be any shape you want the good thing about using a shape binder is that it's transparent and we can see that through there another way to do it is take that sketch coming to the placement use the position and set some z-axis to bring this up above that array this means that this is always on top and we can understand where our boundaries are before our right let's now take that array and increase it out along the X Y interval now you'll see something when we start doing this it'll go into a diamond pattern so that's a bit of a problem there in that we're going to have excess of this there are other ways of writing we could say create an array and then create another array going across but the good thing about this array is that we can transform this and get this into a shape that we want let's say that's come in and place this along here so you can see that there and increase this out to say 15. by 15. and we'll right click transform and it's okay it's going to enter position and then removing the rest like so but we want to remove whole hexagons so we've got all these hexagons in here we say we don't want this one we don't want this one we don't want half ones in here so we can get the array set on here or we can transform the sketches coming to the sketch coming in the placement and the position and transform that along the X and the Y and just get into position let's say something like that so I can see straight away that I'm going to be missing out all of these and all these going along here because they're not four hexagons and along here so I need to remove that from here somehow we can't cut because it's an array of objects we want to keep these objects together we can't use half an object in there so that's coming to the right and utilize the expand array again so that's a true we've expanded this out into separate sections so you can see them all here and these can be hidden if I click on one Press A spacebar I hides it or if I just select the section I want then we can export that out I'm going to come up use edit and box selection and box selection say these and press the space bar that hides them or we can use the edit box selection make sure our top is aligned correctly and we'll just rotate this around let's just Escape that so escape the Box selection and that brings that back around the Box selection for some reason was holding on to the viewpoint so now we've got the Viewpoint around here and we'll use the Box selection again it's worth remembering the selection for this so box selection and shift B so if I use shift and B I can take a box selection within here like so those and then when we look on the left hand side here we can see which ones have been selected now because those have been selected what we can do press the space bar to hide them and we'll use the reverse so now we select all of these and press the space bar again that toggles the selection so it changes what's been made visible to Invisible and invisible to visible so we've got those there this selection was the one that we did before so we may want to box like that let's bring back the sketch if we can find it there it is there so we may need to box like that and just get rid of that spacebar I'm going to go for that I know these are outside of this but we're going to go for that for the time being so that's my array ready how do we swap this for our current element so and that's a fabric this one here because we've got the sub-shape binder in there at the moment I'm just going to save that I need to replace it for that object if we look back at the binder make it visible it's sitting here the array its base is the binder here this can be changed so if I click on that that can be changed that's cancel now of that so I'm going to come into the NASA fabric and select that body I'm going to come back making sure I don't select anything and use the link so this item here is make link and we've got make sub link as well so select make a link the body has been pulled in and you can see that sitting there take the array the base is the binder let's change the base now to what's been linked so let's come down the body's there let's hit clear click on the body and hit OK we've now replaced that binder with all those elements and we can see them all in there and they're all connected together and basically we're ready to go with that so we built our array we need to export this out for 3D print to do so we use the array on the left hand side here we first need to convert this to a mesh let's come over to the mesh design workbench and we've got tools in here to convert shapes to mesh and it's this one here great mesh from shape all available from meshes and down to create mesh from shape first of all make sure the array is selected and then use the tool and we'll get some options on the left hand side for the tessellation let's just go for the standard and hit OK freecad will convert that array to a mesh to look now we've got this array mesh that's hide all the other objects by pressing the spacebar and the body and now we've got this mesh here this can be exported out so to do that make sure it's selected and go to the file and export and we can select the STL from here save and hit yes we now got the array as an STL file ready for 3D printing for a lot more flexibility that's used lattice 2 workbench so I've got lattice 2 workbench already installed it's an external workbench that has to be added by the tools and add-on manager this is lattice to workbench and what it allows us to do is say create a sketch as the backbone for our Ryan so I'm going to create a sketch in here first I'm going to create a new document and we're going to save this as lattice assembly I'm going to go to file and open the recent file of the NASA fabric I can click on the body I'm going to import that I'm going to import that into our assembly unfortunately our file has disappeared so let's bring that back in so we've got those two there make sure the body is selected come over to the other Tab and use the link now if I create a new sketch along the X Y plane I can create some kind of Backbone in here let's say a single line like so and hit close I can come over to the lattice to wear bench and select that line come out to lattice too and I'm going to use a linear array of the very first one linear Ray span slash n we can change that and we will change that now I've got the linear array what we can do is take the body control click the linear array come on to lattice 2. and come down to populate with coffees populate with copies it places a copy of this object on each of those points if we come into the new icon in the tree View and I span this out we'll see a linear rain here now this is where we change the span end so let's come down and find the generator which is spanning and change this to step n this allows me to define a step so before we won't be able to do that if we use the span n and if I hit 10 here you'll notice that when I click off these move so I can get these just by using the step and refreshing the screen in the correct position so I'm going to go for something like 12.5 and click off so I've got those connected now let's hide this one by clicking on it and pressing the spacebar and now we can take the linear rate and come down and look for the count and increase this count how many we want so going across there what this allows me to do is create multiple lines in some type of shape and set those out with the linear array and this method to create the shape that we want let's try that so what I've done is deleted everything except for the linked body and we're going to come over the Sketcher I'm going to rough out the shape that I want so I'm going to create a new sketch along the X Y plane and hit OK now here that's come over to the model and just hide this body by clicking on it and pressing the spacebar let's come back to the task Tab and create the shape that we want in here so I'm going to go for a simple shape just for this demonstration and we say we're going to have a shape something like this so this sort of shape and connect back up now what we can do is use lines and connect up a number of lines going across here and we can set these some distance away and this will be the flow of those links along these lines so something like this obviously we need some distance across here to figure out how they're going to link together that's close and come back to the lattice to workbench so we have our sketch let's select one of the lines the top one and use the linear array I'm selecting it from the toolbar click on it linear eye gets added and we can do the same for all the rest so we're adding linear arrays as we go down you see this one's going the wrong way let's click on the linear array let's come down to the data tab and look up and find reverse and set this to true then we'll click off they're now flowing the same way because our model was symmetrical then this won't really matter and we've got the same for these and we can change these as well I'm just going to add them and highlight the ones around the wrong way come down to the data tab and look for the reverse and set that to true I'll set all those to reverse let's show the body control click the linear array the first one that is two populate with copies populate with copies that's added them in there let's do the same with this one but the body has gone inside this populate linear array of body I've just select it from in here control click the next linear array which is this one and do the same that is two populate with copies I'll play it with copies we can click on the body and control click multiple arrays and do the same that is two populate with copies populate with copies and that adds them all to those and create separate objects I'm just going to control set that and just work with these two now I've got these two we can adjust the sketch let's come back to the model and show those arrays and we'll move these up and press Ctrl r or the Refresh on your keyboard once they're in the right position or more or less in the right position we can then work on the rain I can see that we've got a distance here that's not equal to the distance on the left hand side let's come out to sketch view section to set him through there and we'll set some distance between these two with a distance between this point and this point of 13 millimeters let's do the same on this side of 13 mil use a refresh edit refresh and our linear array as all to position come back to task and hit close now we can deal with the Orion we need to step these as well so we need to offset this forward we'll do that in a minute let's click one of these populate linear array of body and come into the linear rate let's come down and change it to generator and step in now we can alter the steps so zoom out and reduce this down so they connect up and I'm going to come around to the other side because we can see what we're doing better around this over side so that's that's good and we can add the number of counts log here so let's increase the count so we've adjusted the step so these are closer and that's come down to count and what was just here and we can increase this and say about eight so count of eight across here let's do the same with this one so this is going to be the same so we've got to take basically the same parameters so step 13. so this one here open that up click the linear array count 13. come down change the generator step in and looks like I've made a mistake there so let's check this linear array so count is eight step is 13. so let's change that so count is eight step is 13. so we've got those in there and they're stacked quite nicely but let's say if these were on a straight so we've got those there and well we can see actually they're intersecting so we need to make some adjustments but we've gone right across this line we need to offset this to the right so that's coming to that linear array and come down to the offset so we've got offset here let's offset this by one this will offset the whole lot by one step try 0.5 and we can adjust this back 0.25 0.2 so it's looking almost right there that's do some minor adjustment up on the sketch and change this length 12.5 and the same on this side 12.5 close that and we have our connections going across there they're all connecting quite well maybe we can pull this closer together on the sketch and change both of these it's a 12. and close that we've got a much better connection there and it's basically a case of repeating this across the shape so we can repeat this all the way across this shape using the same techniques as we did with these two lines so that's how to use the lattice workbench to create the shape as you can see we can set up multiple lines in there and multiple linear rates what we're going to do now is 3D print one of those arrays and have a look to see what it looks like when it comes out on the printer thank you if you like what you see and want to donate to the channel then you can do so via Paypal at paypal.com forward slash PayPal me forward slash Darren b e Stone or at Coffee via KO hyphen fi.com forward slash m-a-n-g-0 I also run a patreon where you can get Early Access and additional content and that's at patreon.com forward slash mango jelly Solutions links can be found in the channel header on the about page or in the descriptions of these videos I thank everybody that's donated so far it really helps to keep the lights on so I can produce more content and also expand the channel thank you for liking commenting and subscribing to these videos and I hope to see you again in the next one

Channel: MangoJelly Solutions for FreeCAD

Views: 2,931

Keywords: CAD, three, 3D, CNC, Printing, solidworks, autoCAD, freecad 0.19, freecad 19, freecad basics, basic course, fundamentals, learn freecad, freecad beginners, freeCAD 0.20

Id: vAdy7YVD1fI

Length: 30min 32sec (1832 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023