W3 - Lamp Shell : 6 Steps

This is a report of failure...

The idea is to create a lamp shell similar to the cerebral cortex surface.

Step 1:

The generative system was made in Grasshopper with Kangaroo, to simulate physics like tension, anchor force, inflation, etc on the mesh surface.

Step 2:

The system can produce various forms in different depth, smoothness and scale of the mesh surface. However, I understand the more radical the form becomes, the more overhang issues will arise, so I optimized the parameter to where the sphere has a nice density and variation in height but also keeps less depth.

Step 3:

The overhang issue still persists since the cortex surface will go beyond the layer below without any support, so I added a graduate change based on height to eliminate overhang on lower layers but keeps the depth variant on higher layers. I also put it into a sculpturing tool to eliminate dramatic changes in the horizontal direction through manual sculpturing process.

Step 4:

The last step is to flatten the bottom layer of the sphere to reduce the most dramatic horizontal change as well as attach a lamp socket on the bottom.

Step 5:

However, the first few layers failed due to the overhang issue. Although I have thought about this from the beginning, since I did not include this validation check in the generative system, I had to go through a deconstructive process to adjust the model, and the result turns out don't work. Now I have limited approaches to fix it after the deconstruction, except a manual process or writing a validation script.

Another thought is this is related to the breaking-in-period, like getting a new shoe or a new jacket, you need to wear them in a painful way until they are broken in. I got too used to my old printer on which I usually print with support and spent a lot of time tunning into a best mode with appropriate slicer settings. If I have time to test print and play with the setting to figure out a best setting, I should be able to implement the limitation of the machine into the design before actually making it.