What I wanted to do for this project was fairly ambitious for someone who was taking a 3D design class for the first time, but I figured there was no harm in trying. In essence what I wanted to make was a flower pot, like the title says. However I wanted it to be more than just a vase which is really quite boring. I wanted to create something that is interesting in itself with or without flowers (preferably with) so that you don't need a florist to make your flower decorations look nice, anyone could put their flowers however they wanted.
The design had holes already in pre designed patterns so really you don’t have to be very artistically gifted to decide where to put flowers, only what kinds. What I settled on had a bowl for water and tubs that looked like a weird sculpture through which there were holes for the flower stems. The best part was that I wanted it to be a fountain as well. This part was the real design challenge because it wasn’t just “how do I make this shape”, I really had to think about the practical aspect of what I was making. I had to find a way to actually get the water from the bowl to the top of the structure, where there was a flower like shape which would have the water spilling out of it. This was hard for a few reasons. I don't know how pumps work exactly or where to get one a good enough size for my design,so I ended up trying to design my own.
What I would need was to design a screw in a tube that would be airtight so that the water would be carried up and not fall down the gap between the two pieces. I would also have to have a place to put the motor under the bowl so that connected to the screw but somehow was also watertight in order to prevent the motor from getting wet. This was a challenge due to the part with the motor.
I had created most of the whole design in another 3D modeling software better for artists because it allows the creation of more interesting shapes (Rhinoceros), but transferred it over to the one I use now (Fusion 360) because it is better for making components to a machine and having things very precise. The transfer was not very smooth, and meant that if I wanted to continue with implementing the pump I would probably have to start over.
The school year was coming to a close so I decided to call it at that. I had made a screw and made it printable, but still needed a motor to spin the pump and had not tested if it worked. If I were to do it again, which I am planning on doing, I would have planned it more carefully in the first place because the design went through many iterations. I would have made places for some of the pieces to connect so that the design could be modular instead of having to be printed all in one. I would have made it all in one software, although I am not sure which one yet because they both have pros and cons. Lastly I would have done some things differently that I learned about the softwares and modeling, and I would have tested it more to see if it worked rather than just going through until the end and hoping it would work.