06-09-2011 21:48

MattC9

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Hey have you seen 44's VEX mech.'s? they work great! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS8P0ZnK7PA

06-09-2011 22:51

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Yeah, 44 was one of the reasons we dropped the project, we saw them in person at worlds and were amazed and gave them credit for first HS vex legal mecanum. But another reason for doing this design was to make HS legal VEX omnitread, that ran on the concept of the mecanum wheel. Not sure if it would have worked very well but it was a cool idea and only wish it was more feasible to make...

- Andrew

07-09-2011 00:18

sanddrag

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Beautiful render. What was it done in?

07-09-2011 00:22

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

It was rendered in 3ds max on one of our members... er a super computers I guess you could call it!

- Andrew

07-09-2011 01:03

msimon785

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

*quietly shies away ... xD
That render quality is INCREDIBLE. I am completely in awe. After looking at the full size picture, I was almost under the impression that this was a finished product, in tangible existence and completely tactile. It was not until I read further that my suspicions were put to rest.
Good Job. I believe you just inspired me to start a download of 3ds. I need to learn how to render actually photo-realistialy. That said, it'll take a lot of work to get to that skill level.
Wow. I am really in awe.

07-09-2011 01:25

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Good design skills take work. Rendering, not too much skill as it is patience and having an eye for lighting and textures along with a solid computer/software package. (Trust me, I used to spend more time making something look good in a render than I used to spend on the actual design).

07-09-2011 01:45

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Glad to do some inspiring! And there are more to come! Just have to be a little patient I will post here the render when the final robot is released

Believe me when I say this the render its self was not done on my personal computer (not enough power) Something this size would probably literally burn my computer. I am running about 5.2 Ghz of power with 8 gb of RAM, while the computer this was rendered on currently has about 31.5 Ghz of power with 24 GB of RAM. It pumped out this render in under an hour if I remember correctly.

If you look at the difference between this render and the other one I just recently posted you can clearly see which computer did which picture


Happy Rendering!

- Andrew

07-09-2011 09:19

Andrew Schreiber

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

As a former animator I'm taking offense to this. Creating an effective render takes just as much skill (and imho a little more talent) than designing something. The artist must take into consideration the angle of the part, the lighting, what you can show off and what you can't (for static images) and several other factors that all contribute to the quality of the render. Remember, the point of a render is to convey the design in a simple and effective manner. If you make a render of a dark piece on a black background than you are not being effective. Just the same as if your goal was to design a ball shooter and your design sprays gear teeth across the field.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't discount the work other people do just because it looks easy. I've read books on lighting, hundreds are articles on shot composition, and spent tons of time practicing to learn what every setting can do to an image (for my camera which is a very similar artistic pursuit). Engineering has rules that can't be broken, arts have rules that can't be broken except when they should be... or when the artist feels like it... or when it looks good. It is a completely different mindset and, if you take the time to really learn it, I would claim it is as hard as any engineering.

07-09-2011 10:08

sanddrag

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Can you explain? I'm not aware of anything currently with such high clock speeds. Are we talking a networked rendering cluster or multiple cores or what?

07-09-2011 10:16

Ether

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

If scaled up to FRC size and weight, the roller gaps might become an issue.

See the discussion in posts 1, 15, 16, and 19 about roller gaps at this thread.

07-09-2011 10:40

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Sorry you feel that way, but I still stand by my statement. Perhaps Solidworks' rendering software just lends itself to making nice renders easier, your experience with animation rendering may have been different. And like I said, some people can just have a good eye for that type of thing. Should've added in "in my opinion"

07-09-2011 11:23

Andrew Schreiber

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Except this was not done in Solidworks. I have experience in Solidworks' rendering system and I do say that it makes most renders acceptable (it is hard to REALLY screw it up).

But... I suppose this is what I get for saying that something artistic is hard to a bunch of engineery types.

07-09-2011 12:11

Chris is me

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

This isn't a Solidworks drop and play with some settings and go render, as obviously indicated by the quality of the render. It's a 3DS Max render that obviously had quite a lot of time put into it.

Why are we bashing students for being so proud and inspired by a part design that they make a beautiful presentation of it? Yes, the render isn't as important as the CAD file, but no one was saying it was.

07-09-2011 12:15

Roger

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Not to take away the work you did rendering these (they are incredible; having done renders way back when in AutoCAD on a 386 computer I know there is a ton of work involved), but the thumbnail photo of the other photo has the strange effect of two little fuzzy animals with big bulgy eyes. It doesn't show in the larger photo, but now I can't look at the Image Gallery and not see them lking back at me.

07-09-2011 12:19

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Oh no no no, sorry you misunderstood, I wasn't commenting about this particular render. I was directing that at Matt from 1515 because I have talked him a lot and he mentions learning how to render better quite often. The comment wasn't directed at the OP. I wasn't bashing anything.

07-09-2011 12:58

Ether

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Is the purpose of the dual rollers to increase load-handling capability?

Did you consider instead using a single row with larger rollers, to reduce gaps and overlap ?

07-09-2011 14:03

Andrew Remmers

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Lots of cores threaded together, I would have to ask the owner of the computer exactly what specs of it but I know its a Dual-Hex core 2.66 Ghz Or something like that. While I only have a dual core.

The dual roller we find more efficient from experience in the past with mecanums however the challenge of the design with a dual roller is much harder than a single roller. I can assure you in the second wheel (also posted) the wheel has a perfectly round projection.

That might be the work of the image converter... CD wouldn't take the original photo because it is a 40 MB file. And CD also wouldn't handle the smaller PNG file. SO I had to find a converter online since I don't have photoshop or anything on my computer to convert to a JPG file. I just looked at it and saw what you were saying.

If you are interested in the FULL quality image send me a PM because I have to track down the file and I can attempt to email it to you.

- Andrew

07-09-2011 15:00

R1ffSurf3r

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

to me, engineering is an art

07-09-2011 15:06

Andrew Schreiber

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

Then you should understand how difficult other arts, such as writing and drawing, really are.

07-09-2011 15:07

R1ffSurf3r

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

music for me

08-09-2011 06:24

Roger

Re: pic: VEX Mecanum Wheel/Tread

I'm glad you see it too. The illusion is only in the thumbnail; the full photo it takes some effort to see the fuzzy animals. I don't think it's the conversion that does it, just being a tiny picture, and the natural loss of detail. I copy/pasted the thumbnail into Paint Shop Pro and at triple size the left fuzzy could go either way (animal or wheel), but at 4x there was enough detail to make it a wheel first.

Thanks for the offer of the full photo, but I must decline. If I save everything I liked, even electronically, I'd fill up my hard drive pretty quickly. As it is (before computers became my storage closet) I have a basement full of stuff. I'll just keep the memory of fuzzy mecanum wheels staring back at me and this (amusing?) picture...