One step at a time

Hello nerds! I am so sorry for the late post and I sincerely apologize.

As you guys remember, my team and I were tasked to create an Augmented Reality experience for the CNC Milling Machine to guide the end user to operate the machine with ONLY the instructions given by the tablet/hololens.

A few days ago my team and I went to a workshop to learn how to operate the CNC Milling Machine. What's a CNC Milling Machine you might ask..... It is a machine that is used to slot, drill, and shape usually a metal work-piece. Sound cool AM I RIGHT?! Well, it is MORE satisfying looking at it work! #oddlysatisfyingvideos

I would be lying if I wasn't drained out after the workshop. There were SO MANY buttons and steps to remember/follow before cutting your work-piece.

LIFE HACK: Take as many videos if you're at any kind of workshop, or you will forget EVERYTHING - and that defeats the purpose of going in the first place right?

ANOTHER LIFE HACK: bring PORTABLE charger! Do not repeat my mistake and you can thank me later ;-)

To summarize, before you start cutting ANY kind of work-piece, you have to measure all the tool's length that you will be using & set the work-piece coordinates.

We all know that life ain't always sunshine and rainbows... We ran into some difficulties detecting the icons on the control panel of the CNC Milling Machine... I think it has a mind of its own, it pops up as and when it feels like -______-. We are currently trying to use 3ds Max to import and export from Inventor to Vuforia - hopefully, it works! *fingers crossed*

We will be also having our first presentation on the 4th week. Please wish us all the luck that we need, and I'll see you again next week! hehe

Ashley

A First For Everything

Another week has flown by and just like the previous week, I'm amazed at how much I've learned and discovered! There were many highlights this week along with a couple of challenges. I started off my week with a fresh panel ready to work some coding magic. I did some coding back in my first year and I enjoyed it very much. I'm not very good at coding, but with some new found knowledge, I explored Vuforia Studios and its features. We opted to use Vuforia Studios as it is an efficient and easy-to-use tool that transforms and contextualizes data to create meaningful, actionable experiences tailored to a specific audience, and in our project, for industrial use.

To be completely honest, learning Vuforia Studios was a really hard task for me. I started off feeling lost due to the limited video tutorials and it was difficult for me to understand some instructions provided by the PTC website itself. However, after a couple of attempts, i started getting into the hang of things and enjoyed the process. I used CSS coding to play around with the design of the buttons. I explored different colors, fonts, and sizes that I could produce with some tweaks to a single code. How fascinating is that! The possibilities of one single code.

As days passed, we delved into mastering the use of the CNC Milling Machine. but before that, I had to prepare myself with some basic knowledge of the machine. From what it does and its functions, I created this graphic for new users, like me, to understand CNC Milling Machine a little easier and less complicated.

After our session at the workshop, we had a better understanding and grasped the use of the machine at a faster pace. There was definitely a whole lot to comprehend at the end of the session. Subsequently, the team came up with the list of things to do and explore. I was assigned to craft a 3D model of some tools and features of the machine.

So in a nutshell, what can I take from this week? I've learned that there are so much coding features that are left undiscovered and it is up to me to explore. Don't get me wrong, there were some cool things I saw and wanted to create, but it definitely takes a longer process than just one coding function for the feature to happen. Not to mention, my new found obsession, watching CNC milling videos. And if you've read Ashley's post, she mentioned #oddlysatisfyingvideos. Well yeah, I'm obsessed with watching those videos... but I should probably get back to working my coding magic. So excuse me while I try to figure out this sophisticated coding witchcraft!

All the best & See you soon!