2.3 Examples of work

The following two sets of images show how the appearance of an object is effected by changes to the build parameters.

First set shows the same CAD data build in 3 different ways.

Figure 1 shows the wire frame simulation of the virtual model, the CAD data.

Figure 2 shows the object built on a Selective Laser Sintering machine. This technology has a high resolution and minimal stair-stepping, the object is a close match to the CAD model.

Figure 3 shows the same model as in figure 2 , but build on a FDM system. The image shows the vanishing of facets as remnants of the wireframe and the starting dominance of the FDM build structure.

Figure 4 shows the same CAD data but scaled down to 20% compared to the objects above. The build structure has cancelled out the underlying CAD wireframe.

Figure 5 shows an object which had been built on appx. 30 degree angle in relation to the x-y plane.

Figure 6 shows the same CAD data as in figure 5, but the object was built parallel to the x-y plane.

The second set of images show the same CAD data build on the same system with the same parameters but oriented in 2 different ways, which caused a different build pattern for each of the finished objects.

The objects orientation, scale had a direct influence on the decorative qualities of these patterns. Michael Rees comments on this by saying:' Stair stepping is another exquisite outcome of the creation of parts in additive fabrication. The surface and its stair stepping comes together on an object in a way that is mysterious and beautiful.'

Conclusion

New technologies open up exciting ways for the creative mind to make new work that can exist happily within the context of craft, as long as the hand and the eye is given access to all aspects of control of these technologies. Malcolm McCullough, a Professor of Architecture at Harvard, writes in his book Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand , that anyone who gives form with software, whether in architecture, painting, animation, modelling, simulating or manufacturing, is practicing personal knowledge and producing visual artifacts that, although not material, are nevertheless products of the hands, eyes and mind. [9]