Interlocking 3D structures

• Main Author: Yang, Lee Wei
• Other Authors: Chi-Wing Fu, Philip
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computing methodologies::Computer graphics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63065
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Interlocking concepts are generally non-trivial, and take time to comprehend fully. This can be seen in interlocking toy puzzles demonstrating a part of this abstract concept. This report aims to show the application of the interlocking mechanism on practical uses in reality, in particular, on furniture. The goal was to design furniture joints in a way where external gadgets would not be required; instead, parts would interlock with one another to compose the furniture complex. This goal was established after a great deal of ideation, leading to the initial phase of the project. The main phase saw the in-depth analysis of interlocking 3D furniture, where local analysis and global analysis was conducted to break down the problem into smaller components to solve, before the solutions were combined. New concepts were introduced, such as Inside-Common-Outside Vectors in local analysis for depicting the configuration and type of a local joint, as well as Local Interlocking Groups in global analysis for overlapping smaller problems to conceive the global interlocking state. The project drew to an end with rendering and clean-up of results in order to produce a visual representation of the problem and solution.