Tool driven design

The relation between designing and recording design

Discussion

What is the different between this 2 kinds of form exploration?

One-off Definition of plan

Making Versus Designing

Craftsmen made products one-by-one according to the plans in their own mind

Workmen made products in a batch according to a well documented plan made by designers

Is design – documentation a one way process? How design-for-manufacturing manifest?

What is Designing?

Designing is the generation of a Design description(s) by an agent(s) under the

influence of certain constraints, preferences and evaluation knowledge

David C. Brown

Discussion

How to measure an ink bottle? Will you measure diagonally?

Maxima, Minima and Orthographic Projection

Identify major axis in the form

Project profiles according to the axis

The profiles will likely be local maxima and minima

Tool driven design

The shape of artefacts are driven by the limitation of tools that define it

We design with orthographic projection in mind to save us time

Machine driven design

The shape of artefacts are governed by the tools that shape it

The tools are in turn governed by the machines that drive its motion

Milling Machine (落地镗铣床 )

Vertical Lathe (转塔车床 )

Construction plane driven

The way CAD operate mimics traditional practices

Surface Plates

Free-form design

True free-form design work on 3D space directly

Coordinate system is still needed to interface the free-form with underlying mechanical structure

Adapted from MIT OpenCourseWare 4.212 Design Fabrication

End Note

How a product is manufacture affect how its form should be defined

How a form is defined affect how we shape it

CAD and CNC liberate designer from the realm of basic geometries

But CAD still affect how we shape a form

End Note

The last 4 lessons: Form As GeometriesThe next 5 lessons: Form As NURBS

Surfaces