State of the Blog

Guys!

Bloggers app sucks a lot. It doesnt save much, anytime you try to upload images, it boofs.

Also, I am down to phone -only  transmissions for another week or so. I didn't get a chance to post - but Frankenstein's Computer Died - CPU and MoBo have been RMAd.

I dragged my feet a lot on getting the RMAs processed and then packaged and sent.

But honestly, I was super surprised at the turn around from AMD for the processor - Had to ship to Miami, which has just been hit by Irma and expecting Maria (maybe) it left my house on Wednesday last week and returned to me Thursday this week.

The Mobo, which went to Walnut, Ca left on Wednesday as well, it was approved, but isn't supposed to be home until Tuesday.. SO maybe Frankie 2 will be better.

I've been using my down time to create maps and backstory and have even had a couple d&d sessions!

I'll document them later, suffice to say 5e is fun and all the numbers are weird.. My Darling Cousin has been DMing. His Girlfriend, our friend and his boyfriend, who recently returned from out of state, and I are braving his story. I'll write that one out when I have more time.

Designs & Dungeons & Dragons

As I like to joke when doing math, science, political and basic common sense assessments - I have an art degree. (technically.. It's only a 2 year/Associates of ARTS, but whatever, it counts) That said, I have been putting my skills to use for my dungeoneering adventures.

Most recently I have created a battlesheet for all my spells/powers, abilities and armor. (I know we have character sheets, but this is 100x easier for my brain to process) I was planning on using InDesign but got frustrated with some settings and ended up using my old friend Photoshop.

Sidenote: I recognize the goofiness in taking a picture instead of just saving a jpg from photoshop, but that would require effort, and my phone was super handy. Plus you get to see my notes and stuff.

I am in the process of swapping from a scattered/mostly melee attacker to a mid-range leader/controller style. I have been swapping my melee for Ranged and burst attacks. This will allow my passive buffs (like Virtue of Valor) to hit the longer ranged Sorcerer and Ranger, and the melee Barbarian and Paladin. Especially since I am a tiny-bit squishy, so I need to stay out of melee range at best.

I used Photoshop to arrange all my Powers/Spells, rituals, bonuses, languages and other abilities. I also added an area for my weapons and armor, so I dont have to dig that sheet out for reminders. There is ample space around the margins for notes (my reminder to self that I need to pick up ranged weapons and an implement, since I started swapping melee for Ranged powers mid-dungeon..)

I have color coded for Heals, Movement and Damage. So if someone needs to be healed, I can skim my page to see what I have open. I also have the action type color coded, so Standard/Minor/Immediate-interrupt, so I can remember to use my minor actions each turn if needed, and if stuff happens (missed hits or bloodying/killing) I can look at the yellows and see if anything triggers.

On top of this, I have downloaded a flashcard app, so I can study my spells in my downtime - I have such a hard time remembering what I need to do. I should probably set up another set of cards with "this is the situation, what spell should you use" so I can get quicker. I just started using the cards between Session 3 and 4, and I already have noticed a difference in performance speed.

Interlude

I guess I could have taken more photos of what I was doing, but I was generally busy being grouchy and frustrated.

It is recommended to do maintenance on your machine frequently, especially after a meltdown like the one I had earlier in the week.

I ended up dusting out the fan by the extruder and tightening the belts. I took out some screws and put them back, etc. nothing too labor intensive, just tightening and printing calibration squares.

Nothing exciting at all, but here's a post to keep the masses entertained.

On a side note - for those of you hobbyists you are looking for deals on 3d printing, some dude on reddit has collected a list of 3d printing sales, filament and printers!

 Push Plastic is having a sale - buy 2 get 1 sale. I seriously contemplated spending my christmas present budget on it.

Programmed to be Wild Part 1: Intro to Design

I often open up my programs and don't even think twice about how they help me make my printer work. The recreational 3d printing community is a cool crowd. They are really supportive, and like many in this new generation, they are all about open information. Hiding information behind paywalls is a thing of the past. The information is all out there for us to learn, you just have to know where to look, or how to look. In that spirit, there are many free or open source programs out on the web for the many stages of 3d printing. The main stages for me are design and printing.

For design, I usually use Google's Sketchup, because it is simple and best of all - they have a great free version. It's easy to teach yourself: there are all kinds of free resources out there - like Youtube... If you have any aptitude for software, it's remarkably intuitive. I use this to design or try to make edits to other people's designs. Most of my designs are very loose prototypes with the two neatest ones being a deck box for Magic: The gathering, and storage bins for Ticket to Ride, neither printed or tested yet.

For finding files to print that I don't have to design myself, there are a ton of links. The majority of my prints, so far, have come from makerbot's Thingiverse. I have only posted a couple pictures of prints - the polite etiquette is this: If you use a free file, upload a picture/rating/comments to let the maker and other users know how it worked out. The best thing is that sometimes the prints don't work right on certain machines, or some users don't know how to edit the files to work, so people with the skills will create "remixes" that will work as intended. I have used the remixes of a few files - the Voronoi elephant, for instance, originally had rounded feet and trunk, but the remixer flattened them so it will stand up properly - most important for printing.

Though a quick google search can tell you that there is no shortage of sites with free/open source .stl files (the files my printing software uses), I thought a quick round up of honorable mentions would be nice.
Pinshape has a lot of duplicate stuff that I have seen on Thingiverse.
My Mini Factory has a ton of cool fan art, jewelry, scans of sculptures from the real world. Categories such as Accessibility, Fan Art, Props and Cosplay, and Scan the World. I could definitely get lost looking at all the neat files they have. Not many Board game Organizers
YouMagine has some standard stl files, a few board game organizers - but you have to look for the right terms. Fashion, Toys, the standard 3d garb that on the big sites.
The Guys at 3d Printing For Beginners have compiled a pretty decent list of 3d model repositories, if you are looking for some good resources.