The Construction of the Bridges!

Materials Used:

• 3D Printer (Afinia H479)
• Paint

Programs Used:

• Autodesk 3ds Max
• Autodesk Maya
• Afinia (for 3D printer)

The Bridge, like the Eskimo, had to first be designed on the computer. My design process was the exact same as the Eskimo's. I first designed the Bridge in Autodesk Maya. I then imported the model into 3ds Max, which allowed me to re-scale the model to the correct dimensions. (Cm: 6.524 X/  1.996 Y/ 2.574 Z)

Then I then exported the model as an .STL file. I opened up the model in the Afinia program and thus began the 3D printing process!


Bridge #1:

When designing the bridge, and the board for a matter of fact, I wanted to make sure that I could use the same bridge for both of the spots that bridges would be placed in. The main reason for this was to reduce the costs for the board game if it were to ever be put into production. This would also reduce the setup time by a few seconds because you wouldn't have to figure out which bridge went in which spot because they would both fit!

There were many problems that I noticed with the first bridge, but there were three major problems. The first being, the bridge was not long enough, it could barely fit into the gap and even then it was balanced precariously. The slightest jog would knock it off. Not good for a game with so many moving pieces. The second major issue was that the ends of the bridge did not form a pivot, this means that the bridge would not tip well when hit by a snowball. The last problem was that the bridge was very skinny and easily prone to breaking.

Bridge #2:

For the second bridge, the main changes that I made were making the ends of the bridges pointier so that they could pivot easily when hit by a marble. The second change I made, was elongating the stilts at the bottom of the bridge which made it so the marble had a 100% chance to tip the bridge.

I still needed to make the bridge longer as it had the same problem as the first bridge. Also, the bridge was very thin making it difficult to place an Eskimo onto it without taking a lot of care.

Bridge #3:

Bridge #3 only had one change made to it. The bridge was widened so that multiple Eskimos could be placed on the bridge effortlessly.

The bridge still needed to be longer, so that it could fit across the gap properly. You may also notice that strange white blob with a green dot on the top of the bridge. That was not part of the design. When the 3D printer prints an item, it creates a plastic "raft" for the item to be printed on top of. In this case, the raft slightly fused to the top of the bridge and could not be fully removed.

Bridge #4:

Finally! The 4th bridge was extended by an extra 50% compared to the previous bridges! This made the bridge even more accessible for placing multiple Eskimo's on. Also, the bridge did not require to be carefully balanced on the board, you could place it down quickly and not have to worry about it tipping over!

While testing out the bridge, the little stilts at the bottom snapped due to the flimsiness of the bridge. This shows that the bridges had to be thickened up even more.

Bridge #5:

The only difference to the fifth bridge was the thickness. However, I still felt that the bridge was still prone to breaking.

Bridge #6:

Bridge #6 was made even thicker then the past bridge. To test out the sturdiness of the bridge, I threw it against a wall four times and it did not break. :)

Bridge #7:

The last adjustment that I made to the bridge was due to manufacturing reasons. Like with the Eskimo's and their arms sticking out, the stilts at the bottom of the bridge would increase the cost for the creation of a mold. This is due to the fact that they were separate causing a gap to be created in between them. This would make for a more complex mold, thus increasing the cost for creation. I decided to push the two stilts together not only creating one sturdy, stronger stilt but also decreasing the cost for manufacturing.

The 7th bridge I had printed by Shapeways which is a company that can print high quality versions of your models. When I received the bridge from Shapeways, I then painted it with brown paint which I think suits the bridge excellently!


Here is a photo of all the different bridges lined up:



The bridge works perfectly, and is hit by the Snowball every time! Also, I achieved my goal of only having to create one type of bridge that fits in both gaps on the board, reducing the cost of getting the game created!


If you have any questions on some of the specifics, please ask and I will try my best to answer them!
If you have any feedback on how I could have improved the design or the overall process, I would love to hear it!

Thanks,

Marlon :)

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