radical_dreamer: переводы

→There are strict relations between science and art. This fact is quite natural: on the one hand many living organisms exhibit innumerable and wonderful symmetry aspects which, in turn, have significantly influenced the artistic practice. On the other hand scientists have realized that one of the most efficient ways of unveiling the laws which govern the universe is
to make resort to symmetry considerations.

→Plastic filaments are now produced in two standard diameters, 1.75 mm and 3.0 mm. The 3.0 mm filament is somehow an older standard and is slowly being upstaged by the 1.75 mm that can be pushed slightly more easily, controlled a little better and sometimes leaves fewer tails hanging off the sides of your object. Anyway, many current printers are still using 3 mm filament, and sometimes it's slightly less expensive than the 1.75 mm one.

→Currently (spring 2013) there are two different types of plastic widely used for low-cost 3D printing, and a few more that are less common. What is interesting is that more plastics are being developed and tested, that will offer a much wider range of physics, chemical and mechanical characteristics, thus paving the way to a number of new applications for 3D printing. Availability of new printing material may quickly change the filament market.

→• MakerWare [51]: pretty and simple to use software to control the Makerbot Replicator and Replicator 2 printers, it also provides its own slicing engine, optimized for stronger, faster and more consistent results. Additionally, Skeinforge can also be selected as embedded slicer engine.

→• Cura [50]: it’s developed by Ultimaker with the goal to make 3D printing as easy and streamlined as possible. It includes everything that is needed to prepare a 3D file for printing and to print it, and it’s fully preconfigured to work on the Ultimaker 3D printer.

→• KISSlicer [49]: with a simple graphical interface and the claim to be quick and easy-to-use, it may be a good choice for the beginners of 3D printing. A “pro” version that adds support for multiple extruders and multiple objects (and a few other extra features) is also available for a price of $42 ($25 for “educational users”).

→Didactical concept
Independent learning is possible throughout the whole process. Starting with the idea and ending with the printed object. The 3D printer is a secure tool and absolutely risk-free when used by students. The iterative process is convenient for classes because sketches can be adapted and reprinted at any time. Consequently, a product can be developed step by step. In addition, it is a good alternative to classic „learning by reading and writing“ education, since the work is rather “learning by acting”.

→In this calculation are not included the countless hours of work which were spent to assemble the Ultimaker, to get the know how to control the 3D printer and to learn the work flow from idea to finished print.

→Overall we calculated expenses of 3500€. Most of the costs were paid by the University of Teacher Education Bern thus the hours of work of Gregor Lütolf were provided by the University of Teacher Education Bern. The expenses for each assembly set of the Ultimaker reached about 1500€. Further on we bought tools and printer filament (PLA) for another 200€. The printer filament costs about 30€/kg. The school of Steffisburg payed about 150€ to print the citymap, and financed the final presentation event.

→The time and effort to built up the Ultimaker, about two days, was done during working hours at the University of Teacher Education Bern. This effort would be a lot of time for a teacher, but it turned out being a good investment since they gain understanding into the technics of the 3D printer, valuable in case of future trouble-shooting.

→Expenses and expenditure of time
3D printing at school means a big time investment. The acquisition and assembling of the printer are time-consuming. In addition, one needs to get familiar with the controlling of the printer. It might be useful to establish cooperation between school and an advising- and education-center. In such a venture, the center may supply the technical support and the school may plan the educational setting.

→Conclusion - What did we learn from this project?
We were surprised by the highly motivated students throughout the whole project. They hardly missed any lessons, even if they had other events to attend to. Based on our observations and the feedback given by the students, some of the motivation was due to presence of the 3D printer, which gave them the opportunity to get their ideas and models to real life objects. Other motivation came from the easy to use free software tools, the possibility to use a PC for the only two hours each week at school, or the fact that they were free to design a building of their dreams. Some of the students had more experience in using CAD software, others put more hours even at home to design the buildings. In the end, all of the students came up with a printable design of their own. We also encouraged the more experienced students to help their colleagues.

→Final Presentation
One of the buildings is getting printed
A presentation of GüggelTown for parents and other interested people was arranged during the final lesson. The students presented the workflow of the 3D printer live on the Ultimaker. The findings of the project GüggelTown and their formation were presented on several small information points.

→Printing
The objects were printed. Despite of optimized settings (filling only 5%) the Ultimaker took about 120 hours to print all the buildings. That’s why most of the prints were accomplished over night.

→To introduce the students to the modelling process on a computer, they were given the task to sketch a ship. The only assistance they got was a tutorial document of Tinkercad. No further instructions were provided by the teacher.