Is Your Design Documentation Complete? The Independence Test

Project documentation can take many forms, depending on the requirements of your task and the nature of your project.

In this post, “documentation” refers to the record of your work and experiences that you present as evidence. Rather than discussing exactly what documentation should contain, I want to share a simple way to judge whether your work is complete—and become more confident in assessing it independently.

Becoming Your Own Critic

Instead of repeatedly asking your teacher whether your work is complete, you can reduce that uncertainty by learning to become your own critic.

For example, you may be required to document your construction process each week. You might photograph your progress and the tools you used, then describe the processes you followed, the challenges you encountered, and how you overcame them.

Even after doing all this, you may still wonder whether you have left something out.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to determine whether your work is ready for submission.

The Independence Test

Recall a time when you relied on instructions to build something—a small piece of furniture, a figurine, or a model. If you built it successfully on your first attempt, what made that possible? Would you have achieved the same result if the instructions or illustrations had been unclear?

Now apply the same idea to your documentation.

Your documentation should clearly communicate what you did. If someone reads it and returns with questions, what might that tell you?

We usually ask questions when the information we need is missing or unclear.

Put Your Documentation to the Test

Give your documentation, working drawings, or project records to someone else and say:

“Now you make this.”

If your documents are clear and complete, that person should have very few questions. If questions arise, use them to improve your work. Add the missing information, revise your drawings and annotations, and review the order and flow of your explanation.

The goal is not necessarily to eliminate every possible question. It is to discover whether someone can understand and reproduce your process without depending on you to fill in important gaps.

More Than a Completeness Check

By doing this, you learn to review your own work independently. You also practise collaborating with your peers and help one another develop the ability to produce clear, high-quality work.

Conclusion

This post is not about how to create documentation or how to score an A. It is about developing the initiative to reflect on and review your own work before relying on an authority figure for reassurance.

That independence is perhaps one of the most valuable qualities you can demonstrate.

#DesignDocumentation #ProjectDocumentation #DesignProcess #TechnicalDocumentation #DesignEducation #IndependentLearning #ReflectivePractice #ProjectBasedLearning #StudentProjects #AssessmentTips

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DesignJournalSOS Blogspot Has a New Home

A happy announcement after 19 years:

DesignJournalSOS now has a new home.

What began in 2007 at

https://designjournalsos.blogspot.com

is now also available at:

https://designjournalsos.com

The original blog is not going away. It will continue to grow alongside the new website.

So this is less a move, and more an expansion.

Same DesignJournalSOS. A new home. Still growing.

#DesignAndTechnology #DesignEducation #TechnologyEducation #DesignProcess #DesignJournal #DesignPortfolio #CAD #3DModelling #LaserCutting #DigitalFabrication #STEMEducation #TeachingResources #DesignJournalSOS

From Sketch to Print: Designing a Custom 3D-Printed Clipboard Pen Holder

Here I go again, making either something better or just another variation for the sake of it. I designed a clipboard pencil holder previously. Now I thought of holding a pen. The pen I frequently use. 

Not because I like it, but because I bought them in bulk. And really, they are not too bad. Else why would I bother making a clipboard pen holder just for this specific pen? 

To begin, I always start with a sketch of the most basic potential holder design. One that first comes to my mind. Before that, I would sketch the cross-section of the pen, then the holder 'gripping' it. See Fig. 1. 

Figure 1: A quick few minutes Pen Grip Sketch

As I sketch, a mental calculation simultaneously refines and considers subtle details like a ‘clip grip’ at the pen’s end. This provides extra hold while enhancing its overall aesthetics.

I’ve determined the top of the ‘U’ shaped grip should slightly pass the pen’s centre for a better grip.  The other dimensions like the flat section for attaching to the note pad’s reverser are simply estimated.

  

Figure 2: Series of photos showing the pen-grip in action

Figure 2 displays a batch of photos showing the 3D-printed pen grip in real life.  When placed correctly at a specific angle, the pen clicks neatly into the grip with a satisfying ‘click’.  It remains securely fixed even with light handling. However, any nudge on the un-gripped pen section dislodges it. Despite this, the pen fits the grip perfectly.

Figure 3: Tinkercad model of the second iteration

I felt the initial print could have been improved.  For the next version I doubled the horizontal grip section’s length and added slots to the flat section.  The Tinkercad model is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4: The new improved pen-grip design

Figure 4 shows a comparison between the first and second 3D-printed pen grip designs.  Visually, the second variation appears to offer a better grip than the shorter one.  It’s easy to guess which I used on my notebook.

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#3DPrinting #Tinkercad #ProductDesign #IndustrialDesign #DesignProcess #RapidPrototyping #PrototypeDesign #IterativeDesign #DesignThinking #Sketching #TechnicalSketching #CADDesign #MakerEducation #STEMEducation #DesignTechnology #EngineeringDesign #DigitalFabrication #3DPrinted #FunctionalDesign #ClipboardHack

3D Printed Pencil Extenders: A Simple Lesson in Design Thinking, Sustainability, and Iterative Problem Solving

Once upon a time, pencils used to be nice and long. As they serve as tools for ideas, sketches, and notes on paper, they gradually become shorter over time. Eventually, even the smallest hands can no longer hold a pencil that has been reduced to a tiny stump steadily enough to do its work.

But that doesn't mean we retire them. At least, I don't.

Pencil extenders can easily be bought from stores. However, with 3D printers and modelling software at our disposal, we can put our heads together and make our own.

Figure 1a shows a pencil holder I made quite some time ago. As students use the pencils, however, they gradually become shorter and shorter—to the point where some are simply too short to be used comfortably.

Figure 1a                      Figure 1b

That inspired me to design pencil extenders and, subsequently, a holder for them (see Figure 1b), allowing these pencils to continue serving their purpose for as long as possible.

The images that follow (see Figure 2) are screenshots of the pencil extender holder model from Tinkercad, alongside photographs of the finished 3D print doing its job. If you're interested in the design process behind the pencil extender itself, you can read about it here: Click HERE.

Figure 2

Learning Point

So what's the point of showing you this?

Design doesn't stop at any stage. Every solution solves a problem within a particular context. As you may already know, every solution often leads to a new problem, a new design challenge, or even an opportunity to extend the original idea.

In this case, I had my pencils neatly lined up and ready for students to use. But what happens when they become too short? I created an extender for each one so they could continue to be used. Then another question emerged: if full-length pencils deserve a holder, why should these shortened pencils in extenders be left lying around? They deserve storage too.

Figure 3 shows the complete setup—from brand-new pencils to those nearing retirement and now fitted with extenders.

Figure 3

What do you think comes next?

• What new design opportunities do you see? 
• What potential improvements or extensions can you foresee?

Have a go. Let me know in the comments what you think.

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#3DPrinting #3DPrinted #PencilExtender #PencilHolder #DesignThinking #IterativeDesign #ProductDesign #DesignProcess #DesignEducation #STEMEducation #STEAMEducation #MakerEducation #MakersGonnaMake #DigitalFabrication #CADDesign #Tinkercad #3DDesign #EducationalTechnology #EdTech #TechnologyEducation #DesignAndTechnology #DTEducation #ClassroomInnovation #TeachingDesign #LearningByDoing #ProblemSolving #CreativeThinking #InnovationInEducation #SustainableDesign #ReduceWaste #CircularDesign #Upcycling #Reuse #Sustainability #StudentLearning #EngineeringDesign #RapidPrototyping #3DPrinterProjects #MakerSpace #DesignChallenge #Prototype #IndustrialDesign #EducationBlog #TeacherLife #TeachingAndLearning #FutureReady #HandsOnLearning #CreativeEducation #Innovation #DesignInspiration

How to Avoid Sizing Mistakes in 3D Design: Model Accessories First

In this post, I'll show you how I designed and printed a coffee bean grinder, brush, and measuring spoon holder. See Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

I've seen too many instances where a student's completed 3D design turned out to be the wrong size despite looking proportionately correct.

This happens because students often start by 3D modeling their design as the first step. But what's the problem?

The moment I sketch the accessories (items or objects to be held or stored) into their design, the holder almost always ends up looking tiny compared with the accessories. What happens next usually requires extensive modification, sometimes even re-modeling the entire 3D design.

This is how to avoid making the same mistake ever again:

• Always model the items to be held or stored first.
• Then model the design that will hold or store those items.

Here are the steps:

• Firstly, make a list of the items you want to hold or store.
• Secondly, make notes about their dimensions. I call these the "Critical Dimensions". (see Fig. 2)
• Next, before modeling your design, model all the accessories first (see Fig. 3).
• You don't have to model them exactly as they look.
• Use basic geometric forms to represent each item.
• Finally, model the design. Then place the items into the model and see if they fit (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 2: Critical Dimensions of the coffee grinder, brush and scoop

Fig. 3: Modeling the accessories first (see the three items on the right hand side)

Fig. 4 shows the coffee grinder (round cylinder), the brush (narrow cylinder), and the scoop, all positioned on the holder. These are their final positions after a few rounds of adjustment. You can see that all the items fit nicely on the holder. The holder not only looks proportionate, but it is also the correct size.

The image on the right shows the actual 3D-printed holder with the accessories in place. They all fit nicely.

Fig. 4: 

Left: The Tinkercad Model. 

Right: The actual printed design.

Conclusion

It is not necessary to model all the items or accessories before modeling your design. In fact, if you model your design using actual dimensions during the development phase, you may be able to get it right on the first attempt.

However, in my experience, many students either miss the instruction that their design must be modeled according to its actual proposed size, or they are simply too excited to see their design in 3D and forget about the dimensions altogether.

Whatever the case, I believe it is good practice to model the accessories first. This gives the designer another opportunity to evaluate whether the placement of the accessories is final or requires further adjustment.

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#3DDesign #3DModeling #3DPrinting #Tinkercad #ProductDesign #DesignThinking #RapidPrototyping #CriticalDimensions #ToleranceDesign #DesignAccuracy #DesignProcess #EngineeringDesign #CADDesign #STEMEducation #DTEducation #MakerEducation #DesignInnovation #ProductDevelopment #DesignSkills #TechnologyEducation

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intellect?

We may be using the term AI too casually.

“Artificial Intelligence” may be valid as a technical label. But in education, much of what we call AI may be closer to Artificial Intellect.

Why?

Because intellect deals with memory, knowledge, patterning, repetition, and processing what is already known.

But intelligence, in the deeper human sense, includes perception, discernment, creativity, and the ability to meet something new directly.

AI is powerful. It can retrieve, organize, summarize, and generate outputs with extraordinary speed and efficiency.

But efficiency is not the same as intelligence.

That is why the real question in schools is not simply whether students should use AI.

The real questions are:

• What am I using AI for?
• To learn? Or to avoid learning?
• What am I becoming through using it?
• More competent? Or more dependent?
• Is it helping me build skill?
• Or replacing the very process through which skill is built?

AI can be a powerful support for learning.

But it can also become a shortcut.

And that is the danger: high-quality output, low-quality growth.

So perhaps the conversation we need is not only about what AI can do.

It is about what its use is doing to the student.

That is the real question.

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Isometric Drawings Basics and Applications

Welcome back to the basics. In this post, let's talk about ISOMETRIC drawing ... (again). 

(For past posts about isometric drawings, tips, techniques and practices, click >> ISOMETRIC)

The Isometric drawing is one of many 3D drawing techniques you can use to present your ideas. They are both useful and easy to produce, but they are not the best 3D simulation of an object.

Easy-Peasy

Easy because a basic block is simply three pairs of parallel line (see the gif presentation above). 

However, a simple as it may sound, most students struggle with getting the pairs of parallel lines right -- as a result, they often end up with distorted blocks. Look, this can get pretty mental, especially when one sincerely thinks he's got the parallel line orientations the right way, when in reality, they diverge in different directions. You can call that 'sleeping', or unconsciousness.

Unfortunately, the only way to get past this frustration is to develop a sense of awareness that the lines have strayed, and to be able to correct its path - and an intention to practice (getting them right). Which means sketching, and more sketching practices.

I have students who never seem to get past decent. The only reason seems to be -- no practice.

Usefulness

Definitely one of the most effective (and commonest) 3D drawing technique around. One isometric perspective shows all three views of a single object. 

The downside is when you have a looooooog object, this is where it begins to look funny. You know that when an object is far away, visually, they get smaller. Not that they become physically smaller, but perspectively, due to distance, they appear smaller. But that is not the case at all with an isometric drawing. You can have a full kilometer long 20mmx20mm cross section bar drawn full-scale on paper, the end of the rod will look just as big (or tiny) as the front. 

If you must solve that problem of forever-parallel-lines, the close cousin of isometric is the 2-point perspective. Just in case you might be curious about who's the cousin of 1-point perspective -- that's the oblique drawing.

Applied Isometric Drawings 

In the real world of objects and products, things are more than just three pairs of parallel lines.

In addition to learning how to draw a basic 3D isometric block (long, short, wide, narrow, fat, skinny, and so on), you've got to be able to manage slopes, curves, slots, holes, debosses and embosses too (see here >> ISOMETRIC). Have a look around you. Identify how many things you have that is a square block. Probably none.

The example (below) shows the evolution of ONE basic 3D isometric block, expanding into an infinite surficial possibilities. Generally, the following list are three extras mixed into and/or added to a block, to make any known or imagined forms: 

1. block cuts and add-ons (stack ups)

2. slope cuts (non-isometric lines)

3. ellipse (holes, fillets)

One VERY IMPORTANT (or rather, INTERESTING) point to note, is that, each of the three extras listed above MUST (or preferably) be generated from ... an exactly proportioned isometric block.

Look closely at each drawing. You'll notice in every cut, slot, hole, slope, and so on, is a guide-box. A square (or rectangular) cut is another wire-framed box within or outside (stacked or extended). A non-isometric slope is derived from two points marked on two isometric edges. An ellipse (the isometric perspective of a 2D circle) - from an isometric surface - on both ends of a block makes a cylinder, or a flat-topped cone.

Conclusion

The isometric drawing technique is a useful tool both in sketching and drawing, throughout the design process. They can be used for quick ideation sketches to detailed working drawings. Anyone can learn how to sketch and draw an isometric. But a decent and convincing sketch is more than just technical proficiency. Sketching and drawing is an ART - a line has flow and life. Every stroke is significant line from light drafts, to pin-point guides, to the last finished line.

For more examples, look here > ISOMETRIC). You may find something relevant and useful for your learning and exploration. Email me if you wish to see an expansion or demonstration on how to draw any of the isometric drawings you see above.

#IsometricDrawing #TechnicalDrawing #DesignSketching #3DSketching #ProductDesign #DrawingBasics #DesignEducation #DTeducation #VisualCommunication #SketchPractice #IndustrialDesign #EngineeringDrawing #PerspectiveDrawing #DesignSkills #SketchTips

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Wooden Metatron Standing Clock - Adobe Illustrator and Laser Cut

Availability of technologies like the laser cutting machine with illustration softwares (the Adobe Illustrator) has made design and prototyping the Archangel Metatron Standing Clock an easy affair.

 

The Archangel Metatron Standing Clock was almost designed rom scratch. I got the Metatron sacred geometry online and had it vectorised. 

I held the naked clock mechanism on one hand, and visually determined a nice mounting height with a steel rule from the table top. The spine, was designed as I measured (and noted) the dimensions of the clock mechanisms case. There, was where I figured out details of holding, securing, and how it may stand on two layers of a rounded base. Decisions about the final dimensions are scribbled on scrap paper (below left).

So what inspired the act to design, and make? Firstly my living room is missing a clock. Secondly I wanted to see how quickly I can create one. Thirdly, a Metatron geometry reminds of balance and harmony in the universe. 

#metatron #archanglemetatron #clock #clockdesign #standingclock #designandtecnology #productdesign #lasercutting #adobeillustrator #innovation #creativity #time

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Tinkercad 3D Design & Print - Pencil Extender

A pencil extension gives life to ... ... pencils. Pencils that are too short to be practically held. 

One way is to buy a pencil extender, but, it is way more cool to design and print one yourself. And that's what I did.

However, that being said, one can always improvise and use any available material(s) such as rolled paper at the end of a short pencil and some tape. But if you have access to a 3D printer and a free platform like Tinkercad, that'll make it look much cleaner and more product-'designerly'.

Below you'll see the 3D model of the pencil extender and the actual product in use. The extender has slotted 'windows' on both sides so users can 1) see where the end of the pencil is, and 2) use the slot to 'dig' an ultra short pencil out if the entire pencil is stuck in the holder. 

A regular pencil stays nicely in the holder, however I still use tape to bind the opening of the holder to make a tighter fit, so the pencil may be more stable when it's being used.

In design, there will be iterations. No matter how well the thought or plan is. As much as I wanted the pencil to work first time it is printed, reality is far from the truth.

I eventually went with version 3 (the image below shows up to version 2) where I continually modified the hole and the side gaps of the holder, with more aesthetic refinements. 

So here you have it.  A short pencil extender. And now all pencils are loved till they are no more.

#pencils #productdesign #productinnovation #innovation #creativity #pencilextender #designandtecnology #technology

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