A couple of additional renders. The night render of the bubble building took a ridiculously long time (10+ hours) so even though I'm not thrilled with the render that's it for that model. The second is an interior of one of the Moore inspired houses.
Coen,
Cool model! Hope to see more SU sculpture here. If nothing else to get the architects to loosen up a bit. FWIW, my experience is that making these can be very addictive.
Fred
@juanv.soler said:
what **production material **are you thinking of, fbartels ?
Juan,
As I noted in an earlier post I want to try using Ductal as its cost is within my limited research budget and it just might work really well.
Fred
First test of the part. The photos pretty much tell the story. No surprises in terms of the pieces going together as designed.
I didn't put much stress on the hub because I definitely don't want to break the prototype. When (and if) I'm able to reproduce the part in a production material then I'll really tighten up the bolt and stress test it.
Bob,
Thanks so much for sharing the leads!
Since this "system" is open source I hope that you and others will be interested in trying your own variations on the theme. One of the cool things about the system is that it is scalable. When I first got interested in TINs I thought they would make a great building toy and still do. In this entry to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge I tried to make the argument that a TIN building system (or toy) would help people think outside the box. (BTW, there are a lot of interesting design proposals on the BFC pages.)
I'm focusing now on a version that could be implemented with inexpensive materials by local craftspeople, but that is just one of many possible paths to explore. If anyone is interested I would like to consider working with a few people to develop a proposal for the 2009 International Development Design Summit.
Fred
So after two days of not being home to sign for the FedEx delivery I finally received the parts from Harvest Tech today. For some reason my initial reaction was that they were smaller than I was expecting but they are in fact perfect (thanks again to Bob Watkins for creating the CAD file). The next step is to make some molds from these prototypes and see if I can reproduce the parts using Ductal. I found what I think is just the stuff for making the molds from Areo Marine Products.
Shaun and Eduardo, thanks for the comments.
Shaun, (or anyone) do you have any recommendations for better trees?
Thanks,
Fred
A couple of renders of my second attempt at a Henry Moore inspired house. (Actually, I was just looking for some way to use Subdivide and Smooth in a house. 
)
I'm going back and experimenting with Podium on some of my old models.
This first one is perhaps a little dark but I like the general effect.
Remus... no house building for a long time ... if ever. This is still in the nature of a wacky research project.
Anyway, while I'm waiting for the prototype hub parts to arrive I thought I'd get to work on the socket and "spoke" parts. After getting a little nervous regarding some of the health issues related to working with PVC I've switched to bamboo for my spoke material. This was always my long-term plan but my miniscule research budget made PVC more appealing until the health concerns overrode the cost concerns.
I'm working with 1.5" diameter (roughly) bamboo. In the ends of the bamboo sections I'm glueing 1" diameter dowel lengths in which I've drilled a hole for 1/4" threaded rod. On one end of the threaded rod I've glued a 1" diameter wooden ball which will fit into a socket in the hexagonal hub part (in theory). The threaded rod is used so that the length of the spoke can be adjusted.
I'm trying to use materials that are inexpensive and might be readily available in a third-world country, with the exception, currently, of the hub part. I am trying to get a hold of some Ductal primarily to use as a roofing layer, but I also think it might be possible to use Ductal to make the hub part. If that is possible then all the parts could be made or purchased locally wherever bamboo can grow.
As always, comments and suggestions and fellow collaborators are welcome.
Some pictures of the socket/spoke parts.
I'm working with a rapid prototyping service called Harvest Technologies (and Bob's model of the part) to make two copies of the part out of a Nylon/Glass-bead composite material. They are charging me $85 per unit for a total of $170. Since I'm new at this I'm not sure how this compares to other options (in particular to using a local machine shop with a CNC cutting device). The person I dealt with at HT was very helpful and took the time to answer all my questions. The parts should arrive next week and I'll provide an update with pictures then.
As always, any advice or suggestions much appreciated.
Fred
Wow, extraordinary work! You are really pushing SketchUp to its limits. To my amateur eyes the concept looks great and the execution is outstanding. Some of the most creative original architectural design work I've seen on the forum.
Mike,
It is remarkably easy. The video tutorials here are very informative.
... and one more render before I call it a day.
Thanks for the comments guys. Much appreciated. Did one more with a darker background.
I'll call this... "Almost Bedtime"
I had to get away from SketchUp for most of the summer. Needed to clear my head. The release of Podium for the Mac provided a good reason to get back into the game. These renders are of one of my House 2.0 designs. I've always wanted to do night views of my models and now I can thanks to the great work of the folks who produce Podium. 
Bob,
Thanks so much for taking the time to help with this!
I believe, after comparing the two files, there was a problem with my original file in the sockets not being perfectly centered on the sides. If you take a look at the attached file you will see that in your model (on the bottom) the sockets are centered and in my original (on the top) they are not. Your version looks perfect!
Fred
Bob,
Thanks for taking a look. It's attached to the original post in this thread.
Units are imperial. We are stuck in the mud here in the States.
F
Jason and Bob... Thanks for your suggestions. Helpful and appreciated. Bob, any thoughts on who might be willing to model this piece in one of the programs you mentioned? I'm on a Mac and I think all those programs are Windows based.
Remus... This is a prototype hub piece for my TIN roof structures.. nothing swanky.
Fred
Remus,
Thanks for the excellent ideas! A local machine shop. I suppose such things must still exist. I'll do some research.
Regards,
Fred
I'm interested in getting some prototypes of a part made but am not knowledgeable about the best way to go about doing this. The part is displayed in the image below and the two attached SketchUp files. Prototypes could be created out of any reasonably strong material. The spherical sockets are 1" in diameter. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks, Fred
TIN Structural System Part.skp