Nega-Thing
Not for building!
Why didn’t I think of this? Why is there not a Nega-Thingiverse? Just think – a website for sharing the negative space of things. What am I talking about? How about this OpenSCAD model “60mm x 25mm fan model” by Thingiverse citizen MiseryBot? 1 MiseryBot’s description really explains it all:
Not for building.
Just to be used for modeling.
MiserBot’s model was specifically intended for taking fan-shaped chunks out of other models. 2 Using the OpenSCAD difference function you can easily subtract a “60mm x25mm fan model” shape from any other digital model. I think this is a neglected area for design and development – the production of negative-things.
| Tagged with | fan model, miserbot, nega-thing, openscad, Thingiverse, un-thing | 6 comments |
6 Comments so far
Allan Ecker
I invite you back, yes BACK in time to the year– 2009, when, yes, I had not received MakerBot #33, and I was modeling blanks for things:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:450
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:453
Now, my intention was to painstakingly graft shapes /around/ these objects using Blender, but this was also before OpenSCAD existed! But these shapes might come in handy :3
cyrozap
The iPhone 4 CAD data I posted can be used to make cases and docks by subtracting the negative from anything.
Allan Ecker
I’ve added the tag “negative_space” to the fan, the CAD data, and my parts!
Now the Negaverse lives within Thingiverse, and as an added bonus there’s no danger of thing anti-thing annihilation!
John
Why would you want that level of detail in a negative model of a fan? It would leave material intruding into the path of the blades. You’d be far better off with a space envelope describing the space that the fan requires with the blade area solid. Unless your doing visualization type modeling and just want to see how it looks.
Syvwlch
You could simply toggle the inclusion of the internal detail with a boolean input parameter: fan(negative_space_only=true).
While you’re at it, you could add another parameter to show little cylinders to punch out the mounting holes too!
decora
I beleive the Tao Te Ching mentions something like this… something like
The spokes make a wheel, but the hole for the axle makes it useful,
The cup is well made, but the empty space makes it useful
Usefullness comes from what does not exist
A better translation is here : http://www.wussu.com/laotzu/laotzu11.html