Bringing our Design Proposal to 3D Sketchup -Susette A.C.

These past few days, Comfort4U has been focusing on our 3D model and final presentation. I am the only person in the engineering pathway in my group so by default I was put in charge of our Google Sketch up, little did my team know, I had no experience with Sketch up before this project. These last classes have been filled with experimentation, frustration as well as trial and error. As I am creating our chair on Google Sketch up, I’m slowly learning how to maneuver this program. I’ve come to learn that it’s pretty tedious creating things on Sketchup. In order to be good at creating a 3D model one must be patient, be willing to mess up, take risks and have good communication with their team. So far I’ve only added the cushions to our comfortable chair, and it took a whole class period as well as communication with my group. I didn’t want to crate something that not all of my group members agreed with because I could have a vision for a certain feature and the rest of my team could have another, so communication is definitely key!

This is an image of Comfort4U's chair created on Google Sketchup. This is the beginning stage of the final 3D model. — This is an image of Comfort4U’s chair created on Google Sketchup. This is the beginning stage of the final 3D model.

Before my group and I began creating our presentation and Sketch up, we split up the work regarding our pathways and talents. I’m in charge of creating our 3D Sketchup because I’m in engineering, but Daisy will be helping me because she is also very creative even though she is in the Biomedical pathway. Gabriela, Claudia and Daisy are also mainly in charge of our final presentation and the Biomedical aspects of our chair because they are all in Biomed.

After deciding how to split the work, Gabriela and I took measurements of an ARS chair that we use on a daily basis. Below are images of the chair measurements that Gabriela and I recorded. We jot down the measurements in both inches and centimeters for ordering and Google Sketch up purposes. We had to get these measurements to figure out the amount of foam we would use. After navigating many websites for the most economic foam, we agreed that the seat foam would be 4 in. thick and the back area would be 3 in. What we have envisioned for the seat is that the foam will be cut at an angle since studies have shown that sitting at an angle improves comfort and posture. (The Kinematics of Sitting, Miller) For the back of the chair we are going to keep the foam in place by tying it with a belt, as well as the cover that will go on top of the foam will keep the foam in place. (We made our cover teal because we wanted to add color to our ugly, dull school chairs.)

Daisy was also looking into adding a feature that beeps when one’s posture falters. Adding this feature requires a lot more research, but it’s something that my team and I are yet to discuss and consider adding to our design. We are also not sure if we want to incorporate the pedal system into our chair or not because our budget of $93.00 is a constraint.