TEACHING REPORT

School of Architecture & Environmental Design

Industrial Design Group

Supportive course: Rhinoceros 3D Fundamentals

Instructor: Seyed Abolfazl Ghaderi

Participants: 19

November 2019

The course was an extracurricular class commissioned by the Industrial Design Student Scientific Association. The Association is responsible for organizing supportive classes, seminars, and activities in order to improve the quality of education for students. Generally, supportive courses are held in the fall semesters and are between 10 to 12 sessions. Here is a summary of activities during the Rhino 3D course, which was held in 2019. Each session includes a few sample pictures of the instruction material/assignment/student work.

The objective was to teach the fundamentals of 3D modeling using the Rhino 3D and how to implement the learning outcome in the Design process and product presentation.

Session 1: Introduction and User Customization

Generally, first-year students comprise the majority of the participants. In this regard, in the first session, the primary objective was to connect with students by talking about Design, their future goals, and how learning 3D modeling software can help them in the process. Then an introduction was provided, about the background of the software and its application in the industry, presentation, and education. The second part of the class tried to familiarize the students with the interface of the software and how to customize it. Customization was mandatory in the class as it speeds up the working process with the software and increases productivity. This includes UI customization, Mouse and keyboard shortcuts, and other settings.

Before customization

After customization

Session 2: 2D Drawing-1 (Lines)

Modeling instruction started with line tools as the fundamental of drawing. Furthermore, considering its 2D basis, which makes it easy to grasp, some tools in the Aid-bar were explained, such as Ortho tools, Snap tools, Gumball, etc. other than that, students started to learn how to control the process by selecting, dragging, and so on. The 2D drawing-1 explained measuring, snapping, and angling. Students were then asked to do a couple of assignments based on what they have learned.

Class

Assignment

Session 3: 2D Drawing-2 (Curve tools)

The third session followed the previous session on 2D drawing, with a focus on curves and curve tools which included but were not limited to fillet and chamfer, in addition to the remaining geometric shapes. The assignments in this session were more complex and needed a more analytical view and calculation.

Assignments

Session 4: Surface creation-1 + Keyshot rendering-1

Surface creation-1 was a slow transaction from curves. The commands which were more dependent on curves and less on the surface were prioritized for better comprehension. This covered revolving, patching, lofting, etc. Students learned to model a bottle using these tools and were commissioned a similar assignment. In the process, they also learned about layering an object as they encountered their first multi-layer object. Starting from this session, Students also began to work with Keyshot in order to render a bottle, which was limited to interface and materials introduction.

Student work

Session 5: Surface creation-2 (surface tools)

In this session, a few more surface creation commands were explained from which students could create ring objects. This involved Sweep rail tools, plus some surface tools such as Blend, Offset, Match, etc. A ring was modeled and rendered as a reference in the class as follow.

Class

Student work

Session 6: Surface creation-3 (Solid tools)

The remaining surface commands were introduced in this session. The focus was on network surfacing, because of its broad utility and features. At the end of the session, a Verner Panton chair was modeled by this command with a little integration of Solid tools such as fillet edge and Booleans. Students were asked to find and modeled similar products using the Network Curves command for their assignment. Furthermore, they were assigned to try to model a headphone, based on their so far knowledge. The goal was to engage with a more complex product before starting to design one in the class.

Assignments

Session 7 & 8: Product 1 (iPod mini) + Keyshot rendering-2

After teaching all the necessary commands, the remaining ones especially the ones that correlate curves and surfaces were transferred through a product design process. This process took two whole sessions. The participants learned how to use three images as references, how to project curves, text, images on a surface, and use other curve and surface commands to model the product. Then the project was imported into Keyshot where more features such as environment lighting and material texturing were explained.

Student work

Session 9 & 10: Product 2 (Organic Shampoo bottle)

The next project was a less industrialized product, with a more unified design so students could try to organically play with the surface and curves and make a unified shape. (The class had a lot of absences in session 9, so a modeling process was shared with them, which follows as bellow)

Student work

Session 11 & 12: Final projects and Correction

In the final two sessions, students started to work on their final projects, which they had already decided on the topic. The project could have been a model of an existing product or an original concept. during these two sessions, students came to ask questions regarding the process. (Considering that every project might have had a unique modeling method that was not covered during the class) Here are some samples of the final projects.