How I Did It
First I had to think of an idea that fit under the constraints of the project. It needed to be under 5"x5"x5", and must be able either a tooth brush holder, a coin holder, or a phone holder. I choose to make a phone holder because I thought it would be nice to have a speaker for my phone in my bathroom. I had many ideas, as is illustrated in the first of the below pictures, and at first I was going to execute the elephant design. However due to time constraints, I was not able to do something that complicated. I settled with a more simple design, but something that would still provide a challenge. It is a box with a slot for my phone in it. At the bottom of that slot are many holes for sound to go through. Those holes empty out into a larger tunnel that goes in two directions, curves, and then opens up to the world with an amplified sound of music. After I completed my design, I uploaded it to Makerbot, orientated it the way I wanted, changed a few settings, and then saved it to my flash drive which I took down to the 3D printer. Once the filament was in order, I pressed the print button and waited for it to be completed.
What I Learned
I learned a lot about the Inventor software in this rotation. Unlike in the previous two rotations, I had to start from complete scratch with my designs. It was difficult, but overall the most fun I've had in this class. What I really like about Inventor is the new type of way it made me think. I had to logically put the design I had in my head into the software step by step. Usually what I do in my brain is just mesh it all together, but Inventor made me really think hard. The most difficult thing to execute on my design was my curved tunnel part. This Mr. Willaurer helped me with. He made multiple sketch planes and extruded many figures in order to obtain the wanted result. I learned that in Inventor in order to get one's desired final product, it may take multiple steps to create a single feature. I learned that patience is key, and I also learned not to doubt myself when I'm pretty sure I know the answer because my gut is usually right.