Algorithm Art Coding Designs in Beetle Blocks Create

Algorithm Art Coding Designs in Beetle Blocks © Create Education Project Ltd. 2017 1

How to use this resource This presentation has been designed for whole class display on an interactive whiteboard or screen. Each page contains lesson notes which can be viewed in normal, outline or notes page view modes, alternatively the slides can be printed with the notes. The navigation buttons in the bottom right corner operate as follows: Home – click to go to the first page of the Presentation. Help – click to return to this help page. Contents – click to go to the contents page, then click a page number to go to that page. Star – if the star is yellow click this button one or more times to reveal items on the current slide. If the star is grey there are no items to reveal on the current page. Previous page – click to go back to the previous page. 8 Page number. Next page – click to move onto the next page. © Create Education Project Ltd. 2017 2

Contents 4 Getting Started 22 Attribution 5 The Beetle Blocks Editor 23 Copyright & Credits 6 Creating 2 D Shapes 7 Creating 2 D Shapes - Square 10 Creating 2 D Shapes - Triangle 11 Creating 2 D Shapes - Other Shapes 14 Creating 2 D Shapes - Circles 15 Creating Artistic Shapes 20 Saving Your Design 21 Exporting Your Design as a 3 D Model Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 3

Getting Started 1. Go to the Beetle Blocks website www. beetleblocks. com 2. Create and account and login 3. Run the Beetle Blocks Editor Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 4

The Beetle Blocks Editor Main Menu Blocks Scripting Menu Area Viewport Drag programming Programming Blocks blocks into this area and snap together to create your program Watch your program play and change display settings Beetle Properties Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 5

Creating 2 D Shapes Start by drawing (extruding) a line, then turn the beetle and draw another line. Runs the program when the green flag is clicked Resets the Viewport Extrudes a line behind the beetle as it moves. Angle of rotation Distance to move in mm Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 6

Creating 2 D Shapes - Square Now try to draw a square Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 7

Creating 2 D Shapes - Square Could you simplify the program by using a repeat block? Add how many times you want the block to repeat Insert the blocks you want to repeat here Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 8

Creating 2 D Shapes - Square How would you make the square bigger? Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 9

Creating 2 D Shapes - Triangle Now try drawing a triangle How many times would you repeat the move and rotate? What angle would you need to rotatez by? Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 10

Creating 2 D Shapes – Other Shapes What do you notice in the square and the triangle examples about the number of repeats and the angle you rotate z by? Angle of Rotation (z) X Repeat Value = 360° Using this rule you can draw other shapes 4 x 90 = 360 Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 3 x 120 = 360 11

Creating 2 D Shapes – Other Shapes How would you draw a pentagon? Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 12

Creating 2 D Shapes – Other Shapes Now try drawing a hexagon and an octagon? Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 13

Creating 2 D Shapes – Circles How would you draw a circle? Turn a small angle and have a large number of repeats, The smaller the angle and more repeats you use, the smoother the outline will be. Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 14

Creating Artistic Shapes Now you can create simple shapes, you can combine them and use repeat blocks to repeat and rotate the shapes a number of ways to produce artistic patterns. Can you make this hexagon from 6 triangles? Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 15

Creating Artistic Shapes Try adding more repetitions to overlap the individual shapes. Example: Notice that the outer repeat and rotate numbers also equal 360 when multiplied together, this gives a uniform shape. Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 16

Creating Artistic Shapes Now experiment with other shapes and different combinations of rotational angle and repetitions. Example: Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 17

Creating Artistic Shapes Now try moving a shape in between each repetition. Example: Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 18

Creating Artistic Shapes • Try drawing the first letter of your name. • Try other letters. • Try combining different shapes. • Make repeating patterns from your letters and shapes. Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 19

Saving Your Design 1. Click Main Menu Button, then Save As… Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 2. Enter a filename, select to save to browser or cloud, then click Save. 20

Exporting Your Design as a 3 D Model 1. Click Main Menu Button, then Download 3 D model as… 2. Select STL 3. By default the download will be called beetleblocks_export. stl Rename the download file to something more meaningful. Beetle Blocks Algorithm Art 21

Attribution The images in this resource are all screenshots from Beetle Blocks is a project by Eric Rosenbaum, Duks Koschitz , and Bernat Romagosa, with additional software development by Jens Mönig. Learn more about Beetle Blocks at www. beetleblocks. com/about The Beetle Cloud is free software released under the GNU General Public License v 3 (GPLv 3) © Create Education Project Ltd. 2017 22

Copyright & Credits © Create Education Project Ltd. 2016. These resources have been produced for educational use to support schools who wish to explore 3 D printing technology. Visit www. createeducation. comto learn more and/or access additional resources. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non. Commercial-Share. Alike 4. 0 International License. To view a copy of this license visit http: //creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4. 0/ © Create Education Project Ltd. 2017 23