pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Woah.

The season of boredom is definitely here.

-Nick

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

God save all of us that have no off season.

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Can you describe the steps used to model the ball?

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Ha! that's why I'm working. I'm still incredibly bored, but at least I'm too occupied to start doing weird stuff.

Btw, how'd you do this? Just change the size of existing models or what?

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

I tried inventor-ing before.

That thing is beautiful.

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

I can't take credit for the ball. I tried for an hour or two, then put up a contest in my Google Talk status to see if anybody else could. Half an hour later, my friend David (who is very skilled at Inventor) sent me back a pic of the incorrectly-woven ball from the manual and animation. It was, however, completely accurate to the manual. I asked him if he could do a correct one, and ten minutes later, it was done (Did I mention he was skilled at Inventor?)

I think the general concept is to have two types of bands, orange and blue. The orange bands have 1/3 of a pie in the center, such that when three are joined to form one whole pie, the bands form a triangle on the ball. This was repeated with the blue bands, and the two pies were joined at the center of the ball. This pic should explain it better:



(BTW this is the same model that was used on our button design, if you happen to have any 449 buttons)

The trailer is original size, existing model. The model was made as described above. It was enlarged to be 25 feet in diameter.

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

And I thought the track balls were big

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Somebody build that thing! :)

How much polycarbonate and spandex would it take?

-vivek

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Six polycarb strips 32 inches x 78.5 feet, not counting the overlap needed for the rivets. Slightly less than twice the spandex, so about 78.5 feet by 60 inches?

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

How thick would the polycarb be? I doubt 78 1/2 feet would last long if it was 1/16"

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

The plastic would be about two inches thick, keeping things to scale (assuming 1/16 original thickness)

Unforunately, McMaster doesn't seem to sell 4" diameter pop rivets.

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

Wow I am glad to see that I am not the only person that does not have an off season.

The sad part is now I am done. :(
I graduated High School :)

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

I can't tell what's sadder, that the OP was bored enough to make the image, or that CDers are bored enough to calculate exactly how to make it and with what materials. :P

Re: pic: Irony (bored in Inventor)
 

I won't be surprised at this until someone actually makes a scale model of it and proposes that it is a game hint for the field next year...

By the way, nice inventor work.