Monday 17 June 2013

New Technology

Despite the litany of errors that have crept in I've quite enjoyed the experience of producing the various buildings over the last month.. I've surprised myself with how well I've managed to blend in the thin clear Wills corrugated sheeting with the thick stuff, and whilst I know my first ever serious attempts to build windows from scratch don't hold up to scrutiny from less than eighteen inches away I know I've learned a lot from making them.

On the other hand the sunk cost  fallacy  means that when I do make a mistake it is that much harder to ditch it and start again because of the effort to have got so far. That, of course, was one reason for my original plan to used card structures.

Reflecting on this what I should have done is continued with the idea of producing card prototypes based on drawings in Sketch up and only committed to cutting plastic once I was sure the drawings were spot on.

The one complication that put me off doing that was the need to modify the drawings to take into account the change in material dimensions that comes with the shift to plastic. Not being that used to Sketchup on a regular basis it is the sort of stage where I could see me adding a whole set of new errors.

Another layer of complexity is added if you use embossed brick sheet or corrugated material, where you want to place corners and windows in ways compatible with the brick pattern.

So what is the solution for the next version of the buildings?

I'm definitely going to use Sketch up.but what I'm also contemplating is using the drawings to get parts laser cut. or 3D printed. For corrugated buildings I could then add SE Finecast  or Ambis sheet. I'm less certain how to deal with brick buildings, though fortunately  Llanrhaiadr Mochnant didn't have many of those.


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