Background Transport poverty has long been cited as one of the key limitations for individuals and their communities to achieve their potential. In short, transport poverty (cost and time) limits access to resources, jobs, social interaction and mobility. Correspondingly, City Councils need to take account of this in the planning of infrastructure, transport systems and […]
As the PhD draws to a close, I have produced a demonstration video of the Brixelation tool. It allows Hybrid Prototypes (LEGO + FDM Printing) to be easily created from 3D geometry. The flow diagram below shows how the tool works. This tool was created as a Blender plug-in – leveraging the powerful functionality of […]
This week Chris and I have been in San Francisco visiting the Autodesk headquarters. Representatives from several of Autodesk’s lighthouse institutions had been invited to discuss the future of design and manufacturing education and how Autodesk could fit into it. It was great to develop the relationships with the Autodesk Education contacts and networking with […]
Hybrid Prototyping’s first journal paper has been published in Design Studies, Vol 62. It describes a simulation study that investigates the potential benefits of coupling LEGO and low cost 3D printing as a novel Hybrid Prototyping tool. This is the fundamental underlying concept to David‘s Thesis on investigating and characterising hybrid prototyping and is a […]
The potential benefits of coupling LEGO and FDM printing in a hybrid prototyping have been shown through idealised simulations, however it needs to be feasible and practical to implement for it to be a useful approach to prototyping. This figure illustrates in 2D how a design can be prototyped out of LEGO and FDM printed […]
Brixelate and Kitify are two Blender addons written in Python that help designers create physical, editable versions of their designs. Check out the video below to see them in action. Brixelate Brixelate takes an 3D object and packs it full of LEGO bricks. The type of LEGO bricks used can be changed, as well as […]
Using physical objects when prototyping has enormous benefits and affords tangibility and presence that are lacking from digital files. However creating prototypes takes time and money, this project is investigating how construction kits and additive manufacture can be combined to add flexibility and reconfigurability into this process. Project Lead: David Mathias
Welcome to the new Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab website.