Puzzle Cube Project
Teacher - Ms. Ziglejeva
Due - 3/19/14
Due - 3/19/14
Define a Problem
Generate Concepts
These were the 20 sketches of different puzzle pieces that I drew. At a later point in the project we selected five of the 20 possible sketches to make into our cube, which is why there is a circle around 5 of the parts.
Develop a Solution
The Document to the left is a histogram that displays the size of each cube and the standard deviation. This was used to ensure that each cube was with in a certain range of size. If the cube was out of standard deviation then it could affect how well the cubes would be glued together into the larger pieces.
This slide show shows the five pieces of my puzzle in a multi-view sketch. The multi-view sketches were both hand drawn and made on Inventor. The sketches created on Inventor also have dimension lines that show the size of the parts.
The image to the right shows the isometric view of the puzzle cube and it also shows how the different pieces of the puzzle cube come together to form a cube.
Construct and Test Prototype
I had to color the 5 puzzle pieces to match the sketch's colors that I made on inventor.
Finished puzzle cube prototype
Answer Key - Shows all three layers of puzzle cube
Answer Key - Shows middle and bottom of puzzle cube only
Answer Key - Shows bottom layer of puzzle cube only
Evaluate Solution
This table shows how fast six different people were able to solve my puzzle cube. 5/6 of the people were not able to solve it. One person was able to solve the puzzle cube but it took them one minute and two seconds (62 seconds).
Present solution (Conclusion)
- The design process is a systematic problem
solving strategy that has certain steps to help an engineer develop a solution
to your problem. The design process steps (in order) are
1. Define a Problem – This step is where you state the problem and list the criteria for the solution and the constraints on the solution. This step involves making a design brief.
2. Generate Concepts – This step is where you begin generating ideas for how to solve the problem using the criteria listed in the design brief. This step involves making a decision matrix, researching and brainstorming.
3. Develop a Solution – This step is where you chose which of your ideas from the second step, generate concepts, best fits the criteria and constraints. This step involves making technical drawings.
4. Construct and Test Prototype – This step is where you use the technical drawings from the third step, develop a solution, to construct a prototype and test if it works.
5. Evaluate Solution – This is the step where you evaluate how your prototype works as a solution to the problem. This step could include recommendations on how to improve the prototype.
6. Present a solution – This is the step where you present the solution as either a project portfolio or a presentation - My first experience with inventor was that it is
a rather simple program to use, so far. The only problems that I had were when
the angles on my pieces wouldn’t be right so I would have to rotate them so
they were corrected. The other problem that I experienced was when I would
forget how to do a certain step but when I asked either the teacher or another
student they helped me.
- It is important to create a model before
constructing a prototype because it allows the person creating the model to see
if their solution to the problem will effectively solve the problem and if it
meets the criteria given to them. This helps the person creating the model see
if there are any flaws in their design before they spend money to make a
prototype. Programs like Inventor are a good way to build the model.
- While constructing my model in inventor I used
two types of constraints to take the individual piece’s degree of freedom away.
The two constraints that I used were flushing and mating. Using flushing I was
able to take away the degree of freedom that allowed the pieces to move up and
down on the y axis or side to side on the x axis. Using mating I was able to
constrain the degree of freedom that
allowed the piece to move side to side on the z axis.
- When someone says “I used a design process to
solve the problem at hand.”; it means they used all the steps I’ve listed above
to solve the problem they’ve been faced with. In the design brief for our
puzzle cube project it states the problem at hand, that a furniture company
wanted to reuse their scraps to make a profit. It also gave the design
statement, that I must design, build,
test, and present a puzzle system made of scrap ¾” cubes for a person who is 3
years old or older. It also gave me the criteria for the puzzle cube. They also
would have used the second step of the design process, generate concepts. In
our project we did 20 sketches of different possible puzzle cube pieces for our
generating concepts. They would have also done the develop a solution step. For
the develop a solution step of the
puzzle cube project we did multiview sketches both on inventor and in our
engineering notebooks by hand. The next step they would have followed is designing
and testing a prototype. For this part of the design process in the puzzle cube
project we constructed the five individual pieces of our puzzle cube. The next
step they would have followed was evaluate a solution. For this part of the
design process in our puzzle cube project we did a conclusion on our website.
The last step of the design process they would have followed is present the
solution, which was creating our website in the puzzle cube project.