designosaur

(sketching, computational construction kits and craft)

The Designosaur is a simple modeling program that empowers people to create their own models of dinosaurs or dinosaur-like skeletons. A Designosaur creature is assembled out of pieces of thin wood, plastic, foam, or other material. The pieces fasten together using a notching system with identical notches; pieces slide together in 'X' fashion such that their planes are orthogonal.
In Designosaur, designers draw individual bones and indicate where other bones attach by specifying notch points. A notch is a joint that connects exactly two bones. Notch parameters (width and depth) are provided later on, when the designer is ready to produce a physical model on the laser cutter.

web page: http://code.arc.cmu.edu/~johnsogg/designosaur/

researchers: Gabe Johnson

sponsor: National Science Foundation ITR 03-26054

last updated 6.22.2007 by Gabe Johnson