Tag: CGTrader

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We’re gonna blow a 60 amp fuse

A classic song lyric goes,

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t, we going blow a 50-amp fuse

You Can’t Always Get What Your Want by the Rolling Stones

I wasn’t frustrated, but I beat them by 10 amps. This week I blew a couple of 60 amp fuses. As a reminder that I need to order more spares, I have two blown fuses on my desk. I decided that they could be used to test what kind of results I can get modeling with photogrammetry. I get questionable results when I have labels that are on a cylindrical surfaces. Since your eye knows what to look for when looking at text, texture errors in the labels really stands out.

The following story is about how I converted the photogrammetry model into a good mesh with good topology. If you’re interested in how I messed up and blew a couple 60 amp fuses, then jump to the end.

Continue reading “We’re gonna blow a 60 amp fuse”
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Start/Stop Combo Button

I posted a start/stop button on CGTrader today. I was looking for something to model in low poly and I was inspired during a walk through our machine shop. The start/stop button on the bandsaw is a little detail that can be added to machine models.

Reference Photo

My idea was to model it buttons with details (hi-poly) and then again with no-details (lo-poly). Then bake the diffuse and normal maps from the hi-poly model to the lo-poly model. It didn’t work as suspected.

Continue reading “Start/Stop Combo Button”
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Pressure Gauge

I found this pressure gauge buried under the pile of un-used parts. I can’t image when I would have purchased a 10,000 psi pressure gauge…made in China. My guess is…I didn’t buy it. It’s not up to the quality my customers expect. It probably came on some equipment and we replaced it. It does however have a unique “Danger Zone” graphic on the dial. I figured this might have artistic appeal.

It was uploaded to CG Trader and I got my first sale 3 days later.

https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/industrial/part/10000-psi-pressure-gauge

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Resistor Collection

Wasting time is such a waste (duh). Once you have modeled an object, it is great to have a library of part. The question is…how do you organize them in a way that you can find the part you need and easily import the part into you new design.

Today was my first attempt a building a library in Blender. I created a Blend file with 57 different configuration. There are 19 different resistance values (as indicated by the resistor color code) and each resistor is saved in 3 different mesh forms. The first form is straight. The 2nd form has both terminals bent at 90 degrees for horizontal mounting on a breadboard. The 3rd formation has one terminal bent to 180 degrees for vertical mounting on a breadboard. Continue reading “Resistor Collection”

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Picnic Table

3D models can be from your imagination or from real world items. Today’s model is from the real world.

I modeled a picnic table from one that is available at Home Depot. I used the online photos in fspy to get the camera position. The fspy camera positions and the phone are then imported into Blender with an add-on. I then drew and aligned picnic table elements in Blender. When it was all done, I scaled it to real world sizes and added weathered wood materials. The materials were created with overlapping UVs. This allowed me to get decent resolution without using huge images.

The model is available at CGTrader.

Continue reading “Picnic Table”

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A collection of knobs

Collection of Knobs - 3D models

2 posts in one day. That’s a first.

I’ve been working on this collection of knobs for a while. I thought it would be simple. But like most things…simple is rare. I ran into difficulties controlling fillets in meshes that were sub-surface ready. The model would look good until the sub-surface modifier was added. You can get some strange looking artifacts if you don’t have good topology.

The collection of knobs is available at CGTrader: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/electronics/other/collection-of-12-knobs