Mechanical drawing of aquarium

[Moontanman]

IMG_20170813_0002.pdfI want to produce a drawing of an oddly shaped aquarium. The shape is so odd it's difficult to visualise, doubly so if i want to help someone else to visualise it. Does anyone here know how to draw objects, something like a mechanical type drawing. The actual shapes and proportions are more important that dimesions. 

 

The aquarium consists of three round tubes, It's easier to state sizes so the three round tubes are 48" in diameter, the center of each tube would be at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. Each side of the triangle is 96" long and each tube is connected to the next via a rectangular tank 48" long and 24" wide and the height of each tube and rectangle can vary between 48" to 15" tall.  Here is a top view. 

 

aquarium.pdf

Edited August 13, 2017 by Moontanman

[Sensei]

 

11 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

The shape is so odd it's difficult to visualise, doubly so if i want to help someone else to visualise it.

Download Blender or other 3D application (trial version of LightWave 3D, Cinema 4D, Maya, Max 3D Studio etc. etc.), make model in it (thickness of object = thickness of glass of aquarium), set material transparency to f.e. 75%, diffuse 25%, Index Of Refraction (IOR) 1.33 (1.5 could be also fine), set some specularity, and reflections, enable ray-traced refractions. Add some also transparent material as water inside it, diffuse color set to bluish/sea color, other settings similar to above. Add to water procedural displacement texture ripples or so to mimic waves on the surface.

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Sensei

[Moontanman]

6 minutes ago, Sensei said:

 

Download Blender or other 3D application (trial version of LightWave 3D, Cinema 4D, Maya, Max 3D Studio etc. etc.), make model in it (thickness of object = thickness of glass of aquarium), set material transparency to f.e. 75%, diffuse 25%, Index Of Refraction (IOR) 1.33 (1.5 could be also fine), set some specularity, and reflections, enable ray-traced refractions. Add some also transparent material as water inside it, diffuse color set to bluish/sea color, other settings similar to above. Add to water procedural displacement texture ripples or so to mimic waves on the surface.

 

Well that is easy for you to say  I have a free version of something called sketchup but so far It's not exactly user friendly... 

[Sensei]

Just now, Moontanman said:

Well that is easy for you to say  I have a free version of something called sketchup but so far It's not exactly user friendly... 

You need to watch some video tutorial on YouTube, so you will grasp idea what to do, which tools press to have certain effect.

Try this for lesson:

 

 

[Moontanman]

The idea behind this aquarium is to allow pelagic fish to be kept, the shape allows vortices created by currents and the general shape of the tank to make it easier to keep pelagic fishes.

[Moontanman]

3 minutes ago, Sensei said:

You need to watch some video tutorial on YouTube, so you will grasp idea what to do, which tools press to have certain effect.

Try this for lesson:

 

 

Thank you Sensei, I will keep trying, I think maybe I need to start out a little simpler and work my way up to cylinders connected via rectangles, drop offs and ramps.  

[Moontanman]

file:///C:/Users/Moont/Pictures/Saved Pictures/New Photo Print.el6.Data/aquarium.pdf

[Moontanman]

TPD_Application.pdf

[Moontanman]

aquarium.pdf

[Moontanman]

aquarium.pdf

[Moontanman]

One more time! 

 

 

[bimbo36]

My sister is an architect , and a good artist too . She does drawings like these all the time .Maybe i should ask her to draw something like this for you ...

[Moontanman]

10 hours ago, bimbo36 said:

My sister is an architect , and a good artist too . She does drawings like these all the time .Maybe i should ask her to draw something like this for you ...

 

That would great!  The main detail not shown in the picture is that the cast cylinders are not of equal length, one is 72" tall the next would be 48" tall, and the last would be 24" tall. The rectangles are the same height as the cylinder behind it but always "48" long and 48" wide the rectangle connecting the 48 would be 24" tall.

After the 48" cylinder it connects with the 72" via a rectangle 48" long X 48" tall and 48" wide. This would be a drop off of 24" to the bottom of the 72" cylinder. now the rectangle connection between the 72" tall cylinder and the 24" tall cylinder would be a sloping ramp up from the bottom of the 72"  to the bottom of 24" cylinder. 

 

That would be wonderful dude, this tank is designed with pelagic fish in mind, the reversing currents (every 6 hours the current would reverse and cylinders become vortices.)

[bimbo36]

No problem , let me see what i can do . I already talked to her and she says she can do it in sketchup .Give me one day ...

[Moontanman]

9 minutes ago, bimbo36 said:

No problem , let me see what i can do . I already talked to her and she says she can do it in sketchup .Give me one day ...

Thank your sister for me. Much appreciated! 

[bimbo36]

Hello Moontanman ,

First of all , Sorry for the delay . She made a rough sketch of the design , i hope you are looking for something like this .

Even if this is not what you had in your mind , we can change it .

Is this the sort of Aquarium you had in your mind ?

She said she needs a little bit more time to work with the graphic software .

Will give you the 3D image of it in 1 or 2 hours .

[Sensei]

Screen-shot from 3D application:

 

3D objects:

Aquarium.obj

Aquarium.lwo

 

[Moontanman]

7 hours ago, bimbo36 said:

Hello Moontanman ,

First of all , Sorry for the delay . She made a rough sketch of the design , i hope you are looking for something like this .

Even if this is not what you had in your mind , we can change it .

Is this the sort of Aquarium you had in your mind ?

She said she needs a little bit more time to work with the graphic software .

Will give you the 3D image of it in 1 or 2 hours .

 

6 hours ago, Sensei said:

Screen-shot from 3D application:

 

3D objects:

Aquarium.obj

Aquarium.lwo

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time and trouble to do this guys. My description was evidently further off than I thought, both of you rendered it upside down! All the surfaces have to have the same height, the cylinders and the rectangles all have open surfaces, the water level will be the same at the surface in all parts of the aquarium. They are all interconnected so a current can be made to flow in one direction causing vortexes to form in the cylinders. Every 6 hours the current shifts resulting in a short time of turbulent water and the flow shifts to the opposite directions for 6 hours imitating tidal currents. The bottoms of the cylinders and rectangles will all be at different heights above the floor, supported by a stand. 

 

Sorry I didn't get back to you. This is my first time online since late last night, I think I got a bug of some kind, been in bed all day, or more accurately in the bathroom. 

[Sensei]

Something like this?

Aquarium 3.lwo

Edited August 16, 2017 by Sensei

[Moontanman]

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

Something like this?

Aquarium 3.lwo

Spot on Sensei ! I answered this a while ago but evidently I accidentally deleted it instead of answering. The reason for all this odd shapes, ramp, dropoffs, and cylinders. Is to direct fish into the current while removing any walls they could swim into at high speed and at the same time give them the feeling of swimming into a current and the choice of swimming in and out of cylinders. 

One thing I do different than most aquarists is I like to start out with small fish and allow them to grow to get used to the shape of the aquarium. Most public and private aquariums like to start out with large fish to impress viewers but ultimately many of the large fish don't do well transitioning to a captive environment from the wild...   

 

I am seriously considering applying for a patent on this, not sure if it's unique enough to be patented. 

[Moontanman]

15 hours ago, Sensei said:

Something like this?

Aquarium 3.lwo

Sensei what is the program you used to render that image? The thickness of the plexiglass should be much thinner and the rectangle connecting the 2 foot tall cylinder to the 4 foot tall cylinder should be 2'X2'X4' (height width length) The rectangle connecting the 4' tall cylinder to the 6' tall cylinder should be 4X2X4 and the rectangle connecting the 4' X 6' cylinder to the 2X4 cylinder should be 2' wide and 4' long but it should slope up from the bottom of the 4X6 cylinder to the bottom of the 2X4 cylinder. 

 

Great job btw, my attempts to render this was always in 2d, the 3d version helps enormously when explaining this aquarium and it's shape and purpose.  

[Sensei]

14 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

Sensei what is the program you used to render that image?

It was LightWave 3D. It's destructive workflow, which means there is no easy way to modify it after it's done. Unlike non-destructive workflow, i.e. modifier stack and history stack, in which you can modify parameters of applied modifiers after the fact (and the rest of 3D object is automatically regenerated, as it's procedural object).

Download some 3D app, or use Blender or SketchUp. Take my 3D object as starting point, and boolean subtract one cylinder from my cylinder to make walls thinner.

 

Blender boolean subtraction of one 3d object from other 3d object:

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by Sensei

[bimbo36]

God dammit , she is a bit busy with a marriage function of a friend of her , will get back to you asap once she returns .Sorry to  keep you waiting like this .

[Moontanman]

7 hours ago, bimbo36 said:

God dammit , she is a bit busy with a marriage function of a friend of her , will get back to you asap once she returns .Sorry to  keep you waiting like this .

No problem dude, time is one of the few things I have plenty of.

[Moontanman]

On 8/14/2017 at 0:14 PM, bimbo36 said:

No problem , let me see what i can do . I already talked to her and she says she can do it in sketchup .Give me one day ...

Here are revised pictures.