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Data Visualization Animation of Student Scanned Sample - a Claw!
The Advanced Light Source is a synchrotron, a facility that speeds up and then bends an electron beam to produce high energy x-rays. The x-rays are used by scientists to image different samples. The 8th and 7th graders at our school have gone to the ALS for the past two years and participated in different projects, including x-ray tomography and crystallography.

Data Visualization - a Feather

Based on these experiences, I wanted to delve more deeply into 3D data visualization.  In particular, I have sought to learn how to use Avizo, which allows much more advanced image processing than FIJI (the open source alternative).  One big obstacle was cost: an Avizo license sells for $5000 -- with the education discount.  I emailed Avizo and requested -- and received -- a free trial.  When I looked online for video tutorials on how to use Avizo, I could only find one or two videos. During the trial, I made several tutorial videos of my own.  I then asked Avizo to extend my trial for as long as I continue producing high-quality tutorials. They agreed and it has been a great partnership. I have now made 15 videos, which are hosted on my YouTube channel.  Currently, my tutorials have over 3,500 views and 9,450 minutes watched. 

Our School Director Trying Google Cardboard
Working our booth at the 2015 San Mateo Maker Faire, I was able to explore other makers' work and became interested in Google Cardboard, a virtual reality viewer that uses cardboard, a few lenses, and a cell phone (and app) for viewing. I saw an opportunity to use the Cardboard to display the 3D models of our class data from the Advanced Light Source in a way that would foster a compelling learning experience. I asked the people at Google’s booth if I could have the extra Google Cardboards at the end of the Faire. They agreed. When I returned home with the Cardboards, I did some research and found an app called InsiteVR, which I have used to display the models. I started off sharing the project with my teachers and fellow students.


Meeting with Scientists at the ALS
Soon after, I contacted Dula Parkinson, a beamline scientist at ALS who has been a critical supporter of both our school's work and my independent projects.  We met and talked and he is now planning to put Google Cardboards in the lobby of the Advanced Light Source to showcase for the public the amazing imaging work that is done at the ALS!

I also played around with OpenDive, "free DIY 3D VR glasses by using your 3D printer, a non-commercial project by Stefan Welker" and was able to print out my own set on our school's Makerbot!


Dive printed and ready to be assembled - just add cell phone!

I plan to continue my data visualization work and since its announcement in May 2015, have been interested in learning more about working with Google's Jump! 

- Sam S (9th grader in the fall, BPC Maker Club intern)
The Structure Sensor is a versatile 3D scanner with a host of apps and programs that you can use with it. It is made by Occipital, which licensed the technology to 3D Systems as the iSense.  (Read 3DPI's review here.)  The Structure Sensor adds a infrared camera and projector and uses your iPad's camera to sense color. Since the Structure Sensor's SDK is public there are many programs you can use with it some of these programs include Skanect, ItSeez3D, and Structure Sensor's own collection of apps.






A Scan of  My Computer Set Up
1. Skanect: Skanect is a PC and Mac scanning software (by Occipital). It costs $129. Connecting the Structure Sensor to the software is easy, you just connect both to the same wifi network and they automatically connect if you have free app called Structure open. You see a live view of what the Structure Sensor is seeing when you are scanning. I find you can scan larger objects with Skanect than any other Structure Sensor app or program but most 3D models do not have backs which make it hard to 3D print. Skanect also works with the Kinect.


2. ItSeez3D: ItSeez3D is a iPad app that uses the Structure Sensor to capture 3D data. It creates amazing head scans but each scan needs to process in the cloud which can take about 10 minutes. ItSeez3D does take good scans of objects other than heads.







3. Structure Sensor's own apps: Structure Sensor's own apps (Room Capture, Scanner, Fetch) allow you to use your structure sensor in many ways like playing a AR game, checking how far away something is, scanning a object, or scanning a room. Lets start out with the AR game, it is called Fetch. To start, you scan a area in front of you then a cat on a hoverboard pops on to the screen and you and to move the cat around to reach the ball. The game is on top of your scan data so you can't run through a chair. You can use an app called Structure to see how far something is away or see something in infrared.
To scan rooms you use a app called Room Capture. It works pretty well but it is annoying that you have to stay in one place and not move around. Once you finish scanning you can move around your scan in the app and take measurements. You can then email the room scan to anybody as a OBJ file.



Using the Structure Sensor to scan a Yeti microphone



To scan object you can use Occipital's Scanner app. It can scan objects in color but the color are blended together and not that high resolution. To show you what you have captured the app covers it in white. You can then process your scan in the app and send it to people as a OBJ file.










- Sam (8th grade)
3D printers seem to be popping up in schools all over, thanks in part to initiatives like Makerbot Academy.  However, not every teacher with a 3D printer in the classroom seems to know what to do with it.

UPDATE JULY 2014: Tinkerine U looks promising. You have to sign up but then presumably have access to their training guides, workshops, etc.

ORIGINAL POST: For a long time, the only curriculum I was aware of was SeeMeCNC's SeeMeEducate developed by a passionate high school teacher working with Orion's Delta Printers.  It is pretty cool, you can check it out here.

Since then, 3D Systems has gotten in the curricular resources game with Cubify Education, hoping to be your "one stop shop for tutorials, curriculum, projects and educational information, materials and resources."  While it seems to have a ways to go, there is some potential here if they can garner critical mass.

Makerbot is also sniffing around and looking to teachers to flesh out their educational resources network.

Then, SME (Formerly the Society of Manufacturing Engineers) and 3D Systems recently (6.11.14) announced their new M.Lab21 initiative.  Together, they hope to "bring school workshops into the 21st century with cutting-edge equipment."  3D Systems is providing materials for participating schools, which "feature the latest in 3D design and 3D printing technology, including the Sense 3D scanner, the Touch haptic and prosumer desktop 3D printers, in addition to a suite of Cubify 3D design software [including Sculpt, Invent, and Design."  By mid-summer 2014, the M.Lab21 project hopes to have secured eight industry advisers who can provide leadership and guidance though the development process.



Also launched recently, Printrbot Learn is another initiative sponsored by Printrbot and run by teachers.  They, too, need to build a community, but I really do believe Brook Drumm, founder, has his heart in the right place and has always been a supporter of getting 3D printing into the hands of kids.
We believe that learning should be hands on. We believe that kids should solve real problems using real tools. We believe every kid should be a designer, a maker and an inventor. We believe that kids should Learn by Making.
Headed by teachers, Josh Ajima and Clarence Fisher, Printrbot Learn intends to host tutorials and lesson plans (and contests!) for teachers to implement the technology in their classrooms.

And, of course, the first book has just been released, The Invent To Learn Guide to 3D Printing in the Classroom: Recipes for Success by David Thornburg (and more).  I just picked up a copy and look forward to reading it.

Here are some other resources you can check out if you are interested in learning more about how educators are already using 3D printing in their classrooms:




What are some of your favorite 3D printer curricular resources?
A Text-to-3D model program allows anyone to search a 3D model program with a term like
'bench,' or 'room with windows,' and get a 3D model of the basic geometry.

There are limits, like if you look up a model not in the database, it's game over. The available things right now are mostly architectural features.  The database could connect with other databases, like Thingiverse, to add more available objects.

I think that a program like this will probably be frustratingly limited, because without several descriptions and a very complete tagging system, the program will be hard to get what you want from. Here is a demo, and here is another article.


An example of some of the things in the database 

- By Jane, 7th grade
1. You need something that can spin with an object on it like a record player,  a camera and a tripod. You will also need a computer with a web browser that supports WebGL and an internet connection.

2. Make sure to take the exact number of photos specified because 123D Catch only allows you to upload up to 70 photos. Take 30 photos at a 45 degree angle of the object while spinning it. (see picture on the right)
3. Take 20 more photos at a more elevated angle while spinning the object. (see photo on the left)







4. Take 20 more photos at a low angle while spinning the object. (see picture on the right)
5. Upload the photos to Autodesk 123D Catch App.
6. Wait for Autodesk to process the photos.
7. Select and Delete any unwanted objects in the photos.
8. Then Select File>>Download as an STL.
9. Print on your 3-D printer.


Don't worry if your first try doesn't work.  Try again. In my experience,  it works 50% of the time.
Here are pictures of the completed scan:











We "recently" got an iPad air and have started downloading scanning apps. The one I'm using right now is called 123D Catch a free 3D scanning app from Autodesk. You take multiple pictures at many angles and it puts them all together to make a 3D image. The Styrofoam head I scanned turned out to look a bit like a mask. Still, not bad for a 2nd try (the first was of someones head. It failed). 123D Catch uses photogrametry to work which is using triangulation to find the XYZ coordinates of a voxel.

We also tried using a DLSR camera.to take 70 pictures of a Jackel and then turn it into a 3-D model using 123D-Catch. We got a pretty good 3-D model(on the right).

The next time we tried, we used a record player to spin a bird and took 70 pictures at 3 angles. We got a perfect 3-D model!

- By Sam and Luka (6th grade)

In December we went to the Advanced Light Source as a field trip. We scanned many items at the synchrotron. One item we scanned was an egg shell. While the image we can see on the screen is cool (right), a model we could touch is better!  We just got multi-image TIFF files as a stack back and, in order to make a model, we needed to turn the stack of 2D images into an STL file to 3D print. We did this using Fiji, and image processing package.


Here are the steps we took:

1.You start out by going to FILE >> OPEN. and opening the tiff stack.











2. Then you create a binary from the tiff stack by going to PROCESS >> BINARY >> MAKE BINARY

It turns into this

3. If your model has holes in it that you want to fill you can go to PROCESS >> BINARY >> FILL HOLES.  If your model still has holes then repeat step 3.













4. If you want to make your file smaller then go to PROCESS >> BINARY >> DILATE it will condense 4 pixels to 1 pixels. If you want it super small keep repeating step 4.



5. If their are stray pixels then go to PROCESS >> BINARY >> ERODE. If there are still pixels repeat step 5.











6. Once you complete steps 3-5 you go to PLUGINS >> 3D VIEWER. Don't worry if your computer freezes; this is a complicated process. A new window should come up.





















7. To create the 3D surface you go to EDIT on the new window >> DISPLAY >> SURFACE Don't worry if your computer freezes; this is a complicated process. You should now have a 3D model!















8. To export you go to FILE >> EXPORT SURFACES >> STL(BINARYorASCII)

That is how you take an TIFF stack and covert it to an STL. I took the STL file and put into the Cube software but you can do what ever you want. NOTE: MOST PRINTERS CAN ONLY HANDLE FILES LESS THAN 50 MB.  (If your file is too big, you can simplify / decimate it in MeshLab.)



Finally, here is a print of our first converted data (below): half of a bean that was previously home to a Bean weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus).  That's actual data!  Though this is not a picture of the exact bean we scanned, the image to the right will give you an idea of what the original looked like.  (We are claiming Fair Use on the use of this image!)  We are excited to print more, including the eggshell described above.



(screenshot of reconstructed data from a different, not open-source software)





A group of my 7th graders have entered the White House Student Film Festival with their film, Collaborative 3D Printing.  This video contest is open to K-12 students and the finalists will have their short films shown at the White House.  The films should "highlight the power of technology in schools."

Here is their entry - wish them luck!  The kids did this entirely on their own, without any adult intervention - scripts, filming, editing, music.... all them. :)






How to 3D Print something from a Minecraft single player world  
(A game that lets you create in a pixelated sandbox type of world)

OPTION 1:

Step 0: Have your minecraft creation ready in one of your worlds, and move your character as close as you can to it if possible.

Step 1:  Go to the Mineways site and download the program for Mac or PC. It's free.

Step 2: Run the Mineways application and click File > Open World > the single player world with what you want to print.

Step 3: Right-Click and drag a selection for the size of the file you wish to export.

Step 4: File > Export for whichever you like.

Step 5: Save the file and set your options.

Your model is saved! Print it.





OPTION 2:

There's also Printcraft, which allows you to create something in minecraft with a 40 by 40 square. When you push a button in minecraft, the command block behind it sends a signal to their website, which in turn translates your minecraft creation into a .stl file to download. It's entirely free and easy to use, all you need is the ip, (us1.printcraft.org) and a minecraft account, which is about $27 dollars right now.
How to import a Tinkercad model into Minecraft (post in progress)

Once you have made your model in Tinkercad, click design, just like when you download it to a .stl, but instead of Download for 3D Printing, select Download for Minecraft.  Now, for the next part you'll need McEdit, a FOSS (Free and Open Source) program for doing advanced of Minecraft worlds, which you can download here.  For the next part is different on Mac and Windows computers (If you're using Linux you should be able to do this yourself).

Mac:
          Unzip the folder on your desktop and run the program.  You will need to right click, and then click open, as the app is unsigned.  It will probably tell you to install XQuartz, and if so you can just click "continue", and follow the instructions on the web site that comes up.  The installer failed the first time for me, but on the second time it worked.  When you are done installing, open McEdit again.  It will take a while for anything to load, but after about ten seconds it should show up.  This time, it should open to a screen like this:

          [[Image to be Inserted Here]]

As you see, I already have a couple of world in it, like "Hidey Hole".  Yours will not have these.
Now is the time to create the minecraft world you haven't yet.
Next, you should click on "Load World".  It will look like this.

[[Second Image to be Inserted Here]]

Select the name of the world you want to put it into, then click load.

PC:

Kacie Hultgren, more commonly known as "PrettySmallThings" on Thingiverse, gave this helpful talk at Maker Faire NYC 2013.  While the video below does not show the slides which correspond to her talk, Hultgren kindly provided a link to the presentation on Slideshare.  (If you are interested, Hultgren also has a bunch of 123D Design tutorials on YouTube that you might want to check out, or you can read this MAKE magazine interview with Hultgren.)  





Here are the "Cliff Notes" of her top 10 (fused filament fabrication) rules for designing for print that she "learned the hard way, on [her] own, and from ... culling through the Thingiverse universe and trying to learn from other designers."  Scroll down to watch the presentation or view the slides.

1.  The 45 degree rule - "[FFF] printers do not print with dissolvable support material, so whenever possible," you want to avoid support material.  (Overhangs that are greater than 45 degrees will need support material.)  So keep your layers within that 45 degree or cut up the design and print the cut parts as self-supporting, then assemble.  (see Plated Okapi below)
2. Add custom support material - don't rely on the computer algorithm  - "be smarter than the computer" and design your own. 
3. Ditch the raft - Rafts are "good for beginners" (like us!) since it helps with adhesion and helps level out the build surface if the build plate is not quite level.  But it adds print time.  If you have ditched the computer-generated support material, why not ditch the raft?  Add "mouse ears" or helper disks instead (shout out to TinkerCAD) 
4. Know your details - "double your thread width + fudge factor" = what is the smallest feature you can design?  You need to know the limits of your machine.

5. Design in fit tolerance -  She says this is tough.  She recommends making a test print with many different diameters to see what fits in, so that you can design in the correct measurements.
6. Use shells properly - shells are "copies of the perimeters" or the walls. Two shells is good for most prints, unless you think your design will need to withstand a lot of stress.  Be careful not to use too many shells in a delicate areas, as this may prevent any kind of fill.
7. Optimize walls for thread width -  Take advantage of your thread widths to optimize print time for thin walls.  
8. Orient for best resolution -  Resolution only refers to z-height.  Thread width (generally) does not change - either .4 or .5 mm (measurement of the nozzle).  "It is always going to be the same width, no matter how thin you can make it."  So orientation matters!
9. Orient for stress -  Prints can break along layer layer lines, particularly with ABS.  So again, orientation matters!
10. Tackle print in place - "pull the element designs to the build platform," build out at 45 degrees, "use bridges for captive parts" and "gap print carefully" (<< this #10 tip I'll need to investigate more, since I don't fully understand what she is talking about) - Check out the thought process in orienting this print, Umbrella.

Earlier in the talk, Hultgren interestingly comments on iteration saying that tries to "prevent iterations" (9:53) "We always say it is good to iterate on a 3D printer - it's even better if you can get it right the second time, or maybe the third time, instead of the tenth time."  In the Q & A, she gives this advice: "I used to sort of create a design and then test it until it worked.  And now, I keep all of this in mind before I start and I do as much testing upfront as I can, so that once I send it to printer I am pretty confident that it's going to go ahead and print."

Of course, after I wrote this post, I realize that MAKE Magazine wrote a very nice blog post on this presentation already, you if you haven't seen it already, you may want to check it out.