3D Printed Furniture Designs: VR/AR Progressions

We are continuing to refine, improve and redesign the furniture that we are printing for the Dolls House project that has been featured on this blog.

We have seniors laser cutting the wood and are now redesigning our furniture.  As we have explained on this blog, the first designs have been AR/VR using the iPad App for Tinkercard.    We allowed students to design basic shapes using the main interface and also use pre-made shapes such as the television which is mounted on the chest of draws shown left.   This photograph includes a 3D Printed bed from the first run of prints, but the other details in the room, as taken via the window of the Dolls House are projected.

We have pushed our seven and eight year olds to look out how they can use Tinkercad to improve their designs.   We have asked them to add features to the furniture that they are planning and using their details and creations to inspire the other students in the classroom.    Instead of getting somewhat basic designs 

An example of this is shown left - you can see the progression from the initial bed design from a Y4 student, they have added the head board to the bed, the design on the bed spread, etc - then wanting to add something else an original bedside table with the oversized clock.

The student has been able to produce this and make it independently.  They have AR/VR the design to check its viability and we will then move forward with the 3D Printing of the prototype.   Of course as we are producing a scale model for a dolls house we would anticipate the design will be in the two hour or so range for printing time.

You can see another example of the progression here.  This is another idea for a design, a couch based around three basic Tinkercad shapes.   The seven year old student has manipulated the designs and then used Tinkercad on the iPad to AR/VR the design into place - the dolls house to ensure that the size is correct.   You can see one of the 3D Printed designs in the background.

The next stage is the challenge of how to extend students who have completed the initial designs? The answer has come from the students themselves.   One of the students had the idea to create a counter where they could have a sink and a series of typical counter

features.

The design shown next is the second stage.  A student has built a kitchen top and used the features of removing a sink from part of the design.   They have also started to consider the cabinets that might be present and the kitchen space and the bench space.

This has been printed and measures 70mm long to the join and is a further 50mm across.  It is 20mm across and took just over two hours to print.   This will undergo significant changing and development moving forward as students work out how to create different aspects of the design.