SketchUp MNPCtech & Bit-Tech.net case design contest #5 - (Deadline moved to September 1st)

Then let the games begin

 

I've created a gallery of some "Tortuous" inspirational imagery for everyone

It's a bit of an obscure theme and I thought a starting ground might be helpful for others... as it was for me.

The gallery below has a bunch of images, they represent my own interpretation of the theme.

Please feel free to make use for your own endeavors:

*CLICK IMAGE FOR ACCESS*
​

*j

 

thanks langer ! that gave me an awesome idea !

 

NP mate.

Also, I had a folder filled with neat chairs and furniture, I just added a bunch more images to the gallery.

 

I'm not a gifted as you all in the realms of Sketchup or any other program for that matter, but I'm working on giving the impression of twisted without twisting anything, the theme still evades me, I dont think its for basic beginners, but here's what I'm working on.

 

Here's a super fast mock-up for an idea that didn't really pan out:

I imagined the use of a long continuous length of 4" wide carbon fiber tape to wrap a simple stealthy box.




I'm using card-stock because I can visualize the result in 10-mins, whereas this would have taken hours to sketch in proper perspective. A good thing too, because I'm not happy with this at all.

 

Click to view full size!
Got it working. Thanks for the guide 13eightyfour. Not done yet and added the colour because it looks better when the edges are hidden. Nothing internal yet but that doesnt matter its the case that matters. What do you think?

 

I started out trying to make s quick miniature of whatever this thing is....

....But decided it could actually make a pretty cool case


- Imagine the top being sealed off with transparent acrylic.
- The parts would be fabricated from carbon fiber.
- The outer shell would simply slide off and would be painted white
- All the cables would run though the single opening in the side of the shell - to emphasize the tortuous idea.
- The air intakes and exhaust would be concealed by the outer shell and out vent around base of the outermost edges.

Enough talk, here's a shitty paper mock-up. I think I'll draw this idea out tomorrow and see what comes of it.





Motherboard might sit something like this:

*j

 

Everyone's in some great designs coming out already and I'm sure there's still a lot to come

Cant wait to see what you pull out of the bag using Ai Langer your tech drawings always manage to blow my mind

 

The staircase design reminds me of Roger Dean's art

 

so it opens like a flower
interesting

 

Not really had any 3d progress, but heres a montage of bits from my sketches for it.


Is it wrong that i want it to 'breathe' all on its own.

 

Wow your sketching skills are crazy dude!

 

I'm loving this theme - lots of fun.

Here's a continuation of the "staircase" idea - I had so much fun tinkering with paper and glue last night, that I spent the morning making an improved model instead of starting a perspective illustration.

The model is 1/4 scale at 10CM across, making the real thing ~15CM tall and 40CM in diameter.

As stated before:
- The top is made of transparent acrylic.
- Fabricated from carbon fiber.
- The outer shell would simply slide off and would be painted white
- All the cables would run though the single opening in the side of the shell - to emphasize the tortuous idea.
- Just like the wires, all the air has to navigate the spiral to get into the case - it's then vented out the back.

I like to put a large focus on feasibility in my designs, so I've put a lot of thought into the assembly and construction.
The entire design can be made from 2x40"x40" flat semi-flex 1/16" carbon fiber panels and could easily be fabricated in an afternoon after cutting out the parts.

Here was the plan:


Start with a pattern printed on card-stock:


I printed a few duplicates and cut-them out, and glued 3layers together for some strength:


The 'parts' then get installed, room enough for 2xSSDs, Mini-ITX, fanless PSU, and perhaps even a GPU:


Drop on the Fibonacci-esque shell:




Cover the entire unit with the outer shell - "window" came from the top of a tupperware container:





The parts:


The underside:


The tools / aftermath:


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It's amazing how strong paper gets when you layer and glue it together. For example I made the "ring" section of the outer shell with 9 pieces of card stock - overlapped to created 3 layers - and it was strong enough to support my weight (before I delicately glued in the plastic cutout to act as a roof).

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Constructing this started as a total tangent, but I'm starting to quite like the idea.

Opinions? Should I finalize the idea and draw it in Illustrator?

*j

 

Roger Dean in cardboard... Now there's a challenge! It would be more like a combination of both of Langer's paper models.
@1384 - I like the bellows idea. I think a set of double bellows hanging from the underside would be very menacing.

-My version of torture involves polygon editing...

-Lots of polygon editing.

-I find it odd I always start with one style in mind and end up with another.

Ninja'd by Langer! I like the idea, but the shape on the outside is still basically round. -Gotta break up the profile, man!

 

I agree with you cheaps - I challenged myself this morning with the idea of doing 1-mod-concept per day, so I imagine the design will evolve.

I noticed you wrote "Torture", you do realize that Torturous and Tortuous aren't synonymous? Because I made that mistake at first... lol

Torturous:
1 a : causing torture <torturous inquisitions> b : very unpleasant or painful <a torturous day> <torturous self-doubts>
2 : painfully difficult or slow

 

My eyes aren't that good. It explains why the definitions didn't match up.
Mine will still fit by the time I get the face on. I may get a chance to do a concentric pattern top if I can standthe edit time involved.

 

I love the folding idea BTW, makes a great modular bench idea.

It would be really cool if you could offset the fins in a bit of a twist, making it look like 1 giant corkscrew when closed.

 

I'm begining to understand the task at hand, I'm so slow.

 

Oh, sh! Sethn's getting into it. It looks like an orbital laser cannon at this point.

@Langer - I thought of that, but I'm had a hell of a time getting the fins to mesh just like they are. With this software it's 10 mins of modeling, 2 hours of de-corrupting the surfaces.
V2 will be in that vein. I was thinking something that looked like waves.