The Course

The Bartlett School of Architecture has the most comprehensive digital manufacturing suite dedicated to education and research out of all UK Built Environment Departments and Faculties. The suite includes a £500,000 3D printing and laser sintering facility and advanced 3D digital manufacturing machinery for wood, plastic and metal.

The Bartlett is offering places on this cutting edge course for up to 50 qualified applicants. Students will learn how to export handmade models into a digital format, and how to construct digital models for 3D printing or prototyping in nylon, wood and metal.

Learning is project based and developed in tutorials. Students are expected to bring a design proposal to the course that can be used to explore different modes of 3D digital representation and fabrication. The design proposal can be in the form of a physical model, 2D digital drawings or 3D digital representations. Possible design proposals include a building, a fragment of a building, a component, a piece of furniture, a piece of jewellery, a sculpture or a decorative item.

The course lasts for 2 weeks and is full time. Students are taught in groups of not more than twelve.

THE STRUCTURE

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO MANUFACTURING AND MODELLING SKILLS

All students:
Staff will demonstrate interfacing with a 3D scanner, Z Corp printer, Selective Laser Sintering, laser cutters, CNC Router and 3 and 5 axis milling machines.

Students will then break into groups, to learn software applications:

For students without 3D modelling skills:
A Rhino 3D workshop.  Rhinoceros (Rhino) is a stand-alone, commercial NURBS-based 3-D modelling tool, developed by Robert McNeel & Associates. The software is commonly used for industrial design, architecture, marine design, jewellery design, automotive design, CAD / CAM, rapid prototyping, reverse engineering as well as the multimedia and graphic design industries.

For students with 3D modelling skills.
The possibilities of Magics. Magics RP, from Materialise (Leuven, Belgium) is a critical software solution for digital manufacturing. The package is used for manipulation of file formats including: .stl, .iges, .vrml, .obj etc. Tools include a) Diagnostics of data integrity, dimensions b) Complete file fixing in preparation for digital printing c) Creation of tools from positive forms d) Part colouring for colour 3D Printing.

Alternatively students with 3D modelling skills can choose to learn the possibilities of Mastercam. Mastercam started as a 2D CAM system with CAD tools that let machinists design virtual parts on a computer screen and also guided computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools in the manufacture of parts. Mastercam has grown into the most widely used CAD/CAM package in the world.

All students:
Students will then untertake initial exercises where their work will be imported into the 3D scanner, Z Corp printer, Selective Laser Sintering, laser cutters, CNC Router and the Bartlett CNC milling machines.

WEEK 2: PROJECT WORK

Students then select aspects of their chosen project and develop 3D files for one or more media guided by individual tutorials. The work will then go to trial, manufacture, assembly, redesign and final presentation.