Help making a 3D design

[Randy]

Hi.  My name is Jan Hunt and I recently learned about i3 Detroit from a fellow student at Schoolcraft College.  I met with Jody yesterday and got a tour of your facilities.  i am a novice art welder and I hope I to be able to use your facility also.  I have a concept for a metal sculpture that I would like to make and a very crude model that I made that is not to scale.  I talked it over with Jody and he suggested I send out an email to the public group to see if any one could help me out.

The problem - The sculpture I want to make would be an outdoor sculpture approximately 6 ft high, possibly higher.  It involves 3 steel verticals approximately 2 - 3 ft wide and bent towards the center near the top.  The verticals would be placed approximately in a triangle, and would be anchored in concrete for permanent installation.  I would like to incorporate fabric that joins the three verticals running from one to the next possibly through a slot  through (not sure at what level the slot should be) the vertical with a twist in the fabric that would allow it to remain flat when it passes through each of the verticals.  The materials to make something like this would be expensive and because I don't have the knowledge to be able to draw a 3D scale model, first I don't know if the concept would work the way I am picturing it and second, I don't know how much steel I would need.  I know nothing about 3D design except that I am pretty impressed by those that do.  I would be grateful if someone would be willing to help out.

Thanks,  Jan Hunt

[Karen C]

Hi Jan!

I'm trying to picture what you're describing, but I think even seeing a rough drawing would be much better. You could always try to draft it in 3D by using Google SketchUp. There are a bunch of video tutorials to learn how to use it and it's all free.

Could you attach a picture of your concept to this email? Even just a quick sketch.

I recently moved to Wisconsin, so I can't really help in person, but I do have skype. Hopefully someone a little more local will chime in and help so we don't have to try to resort to that.

Good luck!

Karen

[Randy]

Karen,

Thank you for responding.  I honestly can't draw and tried several times to sketch something up but I will try again.  I did make a crude not-to-scale model and if all else fails I will take a picture of that.  In the meantime, I will try Google SketchUp.  I have never heard of this so am very unsure.  My computer skills are strong but narrow in scope, you know, Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc.  All business related.  I will take any help I can get at this poing.  Let me fool around with it a little bit and see what happens.

Thanks,  Jan

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[Greg Smith]

As a 3d artist in wood and some forged iron experience, I would start with card board or foam core, using windows screen for the fabric. 

Greg Smith

[Dan Bovinich]

Hi Jan, this doesn't sound too difficult, but like the others, I would need a drawing, hand made is fine with dimensions (preferably). I am a SolidWorks 3d CAD guy with over 15 years experience. Send a pic of the drawing. Best if you have a front and top view.

Dan

[Randy]

Thank you so much.  I am not an artist so I am not sure how well I will do on the drawing but I will try.  The problem with dimension is I don't know what they should be.  I know what I would like but don't know if that would work.  I don't know anything about CAD work so the questions I will ask come from ignorance.  Is it possible to adjust the dimensions and placement of what is drawn?  I want to have the material flow from one vertical to the next so I don't really know how high to make the first and the proportionate heights of the remaining two to allow the material to flow from one to the other.  I will try to draw.  Forgive the crudeness.

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[Daniel M Bovinich]

Hi Jan, 

CAD is easy to adjust dimensions. About one mouse click, then type in new numbers. But I can't read your mind, or be positively sure about your description either. If I try to go by your words only, I could build something not even close to what you want, wasting my time. And after you build things in CAD it's not hard to change features, but time consuming. If the CAD model is mostly, flat, square, rectangular, round or other normal geometric shapes, it's fairly easy. But, if you want a freeform shape - that- is very difficult. FOr example, if you pick up a large boulder, and tell me to model it, that would be almost impossible to do unless you had a lot of time and special measuring equipment.  Things like hands or faces would be very difficult. 

Gotta run. I hope this helps....

Sent from Dan's iPhone, please disregard typo's. 😜

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