We were challenged to to come up with and item we use everyday and to create a new and improved version. I'm always refilling my dog's water dish, so it is something I interact with everyday.
I then found 10 different examples of that item for inspiration.
I then sketched out my idea. It was a raised water dish because my dog has had some problems using bowls that sit on the ground. It also had a 2 liter bottle to keep it at a certain water level which would make it so that I would have to refill it less.
After I had a sketch I went in Inventor and designed it. First I made the main part with the dish.
I made the spot for the two liter bottle with chamfers to have the bottle sit lower in the dish. I also added a way for the water to get to the dish.
I added the legs and fillets to smooth things out and elevate the bowl.
I then set it up to print upside down so that there would be less support material needed. I also had to print it scaled down so that it would fit on the printer. Then I printed it out over night.
I pulled the support material out and I had a good scale model of the final water dish.
I realized that the legs would be to small and skinny to hold up the amount of water that would be in it. I redesigned the legs before printing it again.
We had tried to print it three times but it kept warping.
When it was all set up for the fourth time, I stared printing it. It was going to take about 110 hours to print it. It ran out of filament and we didn't have any more of the exact same so there is a slight change in color.
When it was about 77% done the power went out. This cause the print to be stopped and not able to be restarted so it is about 4.25 inches shorter than it should be. I'm very mad that this happened, but I'm not going to print it out again.
Once I took out the support I had the "finished" print.
I learned that almost every time you design something you need to design it more than one time. You need many prototypes to make something perfect. Also if something isn't working you may have to try to change things to make it work.