Ribbed Cup

Intention

My roommate and I have an assortment of mugs and tall glasses in our apartment, but we lack smaller, more lightweight cups. My idea was to create a pair of fairly simplistic and cute looking cups. 

Context

My apartment's style is modern and is composed of many geometric objects and amenities, so I wanted my cups to be fairly modern and geometric as well. I used some of the glasses and mugs in my apartment for reference in scaling my own 3D-printed cups. Here are some that I took into consideration:

Process

Here are some inspirations and preliminary sketches:

I liked the idea of vertical ribs because isn't plain but it has a simple geometry that goes with the apartment. I decided to explore angle of the cup's edges and the density of the ribs in some more sketches:

After getting a good sense of the form and ribs of my cup, I used a ruler to measure the dimensions of an existing glass in my apartment to get a relative measurement for my cup dimensions. This is when I decided on a bottom diameter of 60 mm and a height of 90 mm. Here is the glass I used for reference:

When I began creating my first iteration in Fusion360, I tested many spline shapes and applied them to a circular pattern to create the ribs of the cup. This was probably the most challenging part since I couldn't seem to form the idea rib shape at first. Sometimes the ribs were asymmetrical and other times they were too curvy. When I was finally satisfied with the shape, I extruded the sides and closed the bottom. 

When I looked at my first iteration, I felt like something was lacking. In thinking about potential additions, I realized that I've seen many short-rimmed mugs and ribbed glasses online and in real life, but I haven't seen many reusable cups that are both short-rimmed and ribbed. In my next iteration, I wanted to combine these two features together.

After adding a short rim, I realized that it looked too much like a trash bin. It was not only too sharp and aesthetically unpleasing, but it would be uncomfortable to drink from. In my next iteration, I decided to add fillets to the rim to round the corners. 

Product

I created an STL final from my final Fusion360 design and sent it to the 3D printer, giving it a 7.5% infill. Here are some different angles of my final cup.

Reflection

One of my biggest challenges was trying to develop the best curvature and pattern for the ribbed surface of the cup. I tried to extrude different patterns, but kept having to go back and change the spline. This is because what I anticipated at the 2D stage did not resemble what I actually saw after extrusion, in the 3D stage. In the future, I would try to create more detailed sketches ahead of time. Another thing I learned is to modify original designs and sketches in order explore new options. Taking risks is important in achieving the best version of a product.