Day 332: Solid modeling course day 2

Yep, still dealing with printing issues so I have the dual extruder on. Ugh!!!!!! 5 HOURS still left on this print. Why does 3D printing have to be so sloooooooow?!

Well yesterday was day 2 of my solid modeling course, today is my last day of the class. Unfortunately tomorrow is my 3D printing course and I still haven’t got my printer well behaved yet. I guess we get to see all the 3D printing troubles! In any case, let’s talk about how the class went yesterday and what I have planned for today.

I’m kind of sad about the turnout to be honest, not a lot of people are showing up for it, which is fine I guess, it means I can focus more on the people who are attending. Unfortunately I had absolutely zero questions or feedback for the things I was covering. It was a Bob Ross scenario, I’m talking to the camera while I’m hoping everyone at home is following along. For those of you interested in learning solid modeling, I’ve got an online version of the course that is more in depth that you can do at your own pace by visiting my Solid Modeling for Beginners category.

So yeah, it’s been interesting teaching online. I can’t see anyone and haven’t really interacted with the people I’m teaching so it’s really throwing me off. I just don’t have any feedback to let me know if I’m doing a good job or if no one cares. I guess at the end of the day it doesn’t matter as long as people get something out of it and (hopefully) a few people find a love of solid modeling they didn’t know they had.

Yesterday we covered the differences (or really the similarities) between solidworks and sketchup. Then I broke into designing a rocket (the one from the course I just linked to) so they could follow along and do the same thing on their computer while I was working through it on mine. I thought it went well, but at the risk of repeating myself for the millionth time, I got no questions or feedback, so I’m really not sure how everyone else did or if they even tried it themselves.

Today we’re going to compare some more between the two software and I’m going to model a lamp type object. I’m going to attempt to get some feedback from everyone so I know how I’m doing, but who knows.

In any case, it’s been a busy day, I had my smaller solidworks class this morning and that was a fail too. I wanted to solid model a tree and it came out looking more like a banana. We got a good laugh, but I wasted the whole class basically accomplishing nothing! That’s what I get for modeling things without any sort of practice before I start. It did give everyone a chance to see that I make mistakes too and sometimes planning things doesn’t mean they will end up the way you want.

With that, it’s time for me to get ready for the third and final solid modeling course, then tomorrow we are talking 3D printing, that should be a good change of pace! Fingers crossed this class goes better than the one I had earlier today, I’m never going to be able look at a banana the same way again.