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3D printing, Blender, hacking, tricks

Printing Fractals on MiniFactory

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Last week, we had our 8th International IT Week for Students here at HAAGA-HELIA where I work. We had teams from Spain, Denmark, and Finland, and we looked into issues like mobile games development, robot building on the Arduino set, and on the Danish day, fractals. My good friend and colleague from Coopenhagen North, Anders Kalhauge, presented a lecture, and the students then led a workshop into fractals.

Fractals are odd creatures. Wikipedia says that

“A fractal is a mathematical set that typically displays self-similar patterns, which means it is “the same from near as from far”. Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale, or, […] they may be nearly the same at different scales. The concept of fractal extends beyond self-similarity and includes the idea of a detailed pattern repeating itself.” Continue reading Printing Fractals on MiniFactory →

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3D printing, Blender, cutting edge technology, hacking

Happy Hacking Day 2014 a success

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Yesterday, Feb 11th, was the day of the 2nd Annual Happy Hacking Day at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences.

The word ‘hacking’ has a notorious sound to it. That is due to the early days, when so-called black hat hackers broke into computer systems with malice and forethought, and caused widespread havoc (today we also have white hat hackers, who are good guys, and grey hat hackers of whom we are not so sure).

But you need to remember, that Wikipedia states this:

A hacker is someone who loves to program or who enjoys playful cleverness, or a combination of the two. The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking. However the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done: Hacking entails some form of excellence, for example exploring the limits of what is possible, thereby doing something exciting and meaningful. Activities of playful cleverness can be said to have “hack value” and are termed hacks (examples include pranks at MIT intended to demonstrate technical aptitude and cleverness). Continue reading Happy Hacking Day 2014 a success →

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Blender

Part 2 of the 3D Printer post

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Welcome back. In Part 1 I explained the basics of 3D printing up until the time we start the printer itself, ie. the virtual design using Blender.

To get an idea of the printer, this is an introductory video from MiniFactory, which is a Finnish company. It costs 1,500 EUR, about 1,800 USD, and it can print objects using either PLA (a corn starch based substance), ABS plastic, or even nylon. It was delivered almost ready to print, and I think it is an extremely useful and suitable device for entering the fascinating world of 3D printing.

Installation is minimal: you plug in the USB cord, install Repetier Host, run through a calibration routine, place the material spools in the rack, and you’re good to go. The next picture identifies the main parts of the machine – click on the image to see it better.

Continue reading Part 2 of the 3D Printer post →

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Blender

3D Printing has arrived at HAAGA-HELIA, part 1

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Oops – a little time has elapsed since my last post; my apologies.

But now there is something new to report. HAAGA-HELIA, being the progressive school it is, approved my purchase request in short order, and bought a MiniFactory v3 3D printer to augment the 3D capabilities of the school.

As it stands, we have a course in Basic 3D Design with Blender (3 ECTS), and another one called Extended 3D Design with Blender (3 ECTS). These are a package that will first give you a solid understanding of how to do 3D, and in the extended course, students get a problem-based view into a subsection of Blender that they get to choose. It can be material creation, texturing, animation, modeling for game engines, or whatever can be deemed sufficiently large to warrant the 3 study points. Now we can add 3D printing to that, but at this point I am not sure of the format of the course.

Continue reading 3D Printing has arrived at HAAGA-HELIA, part 1 →

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