15 January 2016

Improve your imagination and learn to work with solid shapes



Hello ,

In-spite of including many online resources for helping you learn about math solid geometry and their manipulation, I'm getting a number of comments on how to solve them; especially the question "unfolding of solids". So, in this post, I've covered their basics and will try to make you understand the process in a simpler way for your easy understanding  - by considering and elaborating the process for some examples. I will begin with basics and then move to the topic 'How to analyse/visualize unfolding by imagination' at the end of this session.

Before that, here are my recent videos, uploaded in 2020, on 

What to start, How to learn the basics? 

How to solve design aptitude, non-verbal, and Ability questions with examples



PART 2


3D solid in different views


Math solid shapes are usually viewed best in isometric drawings. View which the solid is usually 30 degree inclined with the horizontal as shown in the sample picture below are usually isometrics. They are best examples of 3D because of solid being represented in 3 co-ordinate directions.


The four common projection we come across in drawing or Engg. graphics are - front view, left side view, right side view, top view. Although bottom view is there, but it has not much significance coz  most of the times, it will be a single plane surface shape.

For your additional info, let me add other types of views as taken from Wiki (note: the list includes photography views too!)
  • Bird's-eye view
  • 2.5D
  • Cross section
  • Cutaway drawing
  • Exploded view drawing
  • Fisheye lens
  • Panorama
  • Worm's-eye view
  • Zoom lens


Now, consider a solid shape (first angle projection), and when they are unfolded, you can get the following transformations as shown below.


unfolding of the first angle geometry


unfolded views


Ok, above are some basics, now let me add an example that I drew personally (in color) for your better understanding, the solid has been rotated in different directions for you to realize how it gets oriented. Also, it's important that you should note the continuation or break of surfaces in every view.



Figure also shows the direction of view, which I consider as front instead of our regular way of taking arrow in left! The following set of figures shows the same solid viewed in different 3D positions. Note that any black surface that you might see in the pics are just their shadows and has nothing to do with actual solid.





Now, the front view!


right side view is shown below, notice that the yellow box on top of the rectangular box covers the view of the blue triangle and so the triangle won't appear from left side.


Below figure shows the backside view. Observe how the view is similar to front view except the swapping of positions of the blue and yellow positions. This is not always true but for this specific geometric shape.


Below figure shows the left side view (little distorted). Actually the blue triangle width and the yellow square/retangle width are of same size and so they must lie in the same line. But because of little distortion while making the picture, it turned little. Hope you understood and don't get confused.


Ok, now that we have seen some basics, we will move to solving the question "Unfolding of solid shape" by taking an example.

Unfolding solid shapes 


Below image shows the example that I considered with unique alphabets for each surface - for easy identification. I also included back view that depicts clearly the visible surfaces, such that both the views covered all the surfaces except the bottom surface, which I think is not necessary to show here as you can easily assume that.


(Note: You may want to click the image for enlarged view or to download)

Now, let's say I unfolded the surface with tag 'A', which when unfolded will assume the below shape. A is unfolded from vertical position to the horizontal position by rotating towards us as shown by the arrow in the image below (just like opening the front door of a box).



Unfold B now from vertical position to the horizontal position by rotating to the right as shown in the below image. (Note: You can unfold in any order, it really doesn't matter, I took this way. But if in exam they show options in unfolded view, then you may have to put extra effort in determining which way they unfolded. If you understand the way I proceed here, then it will be easy to identify any unfolding!)



Now, I will unfold both E and D surfaces together to vertical plane as indicated by arrow in the below image. 


In the above two images, note a line tagged 'p' which will actually not be a line when A and B are unfolded but an empty space, I just included there for your visualization, in the next image, I removed that to show you how in actual the solid looks when the surfaces A and B are removed. 


Now, I unfold surfaces C and F as shown in the below picture. C to the right and F to the back (indicated by arrows in the image).


Now, I'm interested in bringing all the surfaces to the ground. I mean make them flat/plain by unwrapping as indicated in the below image.


Finally, to put together, and when viewed from top, the unfolded solid looks like below



The above is only one possibility, like I mentioned there are many possibilities, I took time to draw some possibilities as I showed in the below images, can you try yourself to make some more if you get free time ? I bet you can, if you understood the above steps :)






How to count no. of surfaces in given solids


I hope you enjoyed this, as well as understood how to deal with similar questions. I'm expecting your imaginative skills to be better from now especially when dealing with solid shapes and manipulations. 

Good luck :)


54 comments:

  1. Thank you! That was really helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this . It was really helpful 😊

    ReplyDelete
  3. what is the sequence for last 3 images?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. all the four unfolded shapes are not related to one another! just that their surfaces are oriented differently w.r.t other surfaces in every different unfoldings. They don't have to be in sequence.

      Delete
  4. What is the expected time to perform this task?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi.
    There are mistakes in the projections of the 3d object in the first figure.
    The L's on the top and bottom should be interchanged and mirrored about horizontal axis.
    Similarly, squares on left and right should interchange their positions while mirrored about vertical axis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello there,
      No, they r correct! that positions r rightly given. That's how views are drawn. Check in resource page for guide materials.

      Delete
  6. THERE CAN BE A LOT AF WAYS TO UNFOLD THE OBJECTS. DOES IT MATTER WHICH ONE WE CHOOSE ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. depends on the option you are given. It matters though!

      Delete
  7. I am mother of a 11th standard girl. I would like to know if joining a course now in Silica for her would be helpful for her NID and UCEED preparation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know their course structure and offering, but I'm sure that it should help her in some way. If you can afford the fees without much difficulty, please go ahead. There is no wrong for being in safer side. Best wishes for your daughter ma'am.

      Delete
  8. How to prepare for numeric apptitude test

    ReplyDelete
  9. hi Bhanu I am not getting last three images ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. kajal, they are visible and are opening as usual, I just checked. Try reloading the page as the reason could be because of incomplete page loading, or try the same page different browsers. Probably your regular web browser has some issues.

      Delete
  10. Sir I would like to ask u something .. For game designing .. is UCEED better or NID ..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi bhanu sir,

    I got 194th rank all over India through your notes and guideline. Thank you very much for the blog you post. They are really helpful.

    Thank you once again...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mahesh,
      Glad to hear the gud news. Congrats and best wishes for your design career :)

      Delete
    2. Hello, so with such good rank did u enroll into a design college or you still had to settle for something else ??
      And if u did what college did u get at that rank?
      Request u to reply asap .
      Thanks

      Delete
  12. Thank You sir!, this site is most useful.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sir,as I want to become a game designer I don't get where to join? So pls help me(good collages) I am trying for uceed too,and what can I do if I take animation designing in iitb

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hello sir, I am preparing for UCEED 2019 and I am very confused about the mathematical part of the syllabus. It would be a great help if you tell me what type of mathematics related questions I should prepare for.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mathematics as such might appear in the exam. You can try mensurations. Try aptitude questions as listed in the resource page of this blog.

      Delete
  15. Sir please tell how can we make composition with shapes only

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not getting what you mean by make composition with shapes. Can u clear?

      Delete
  16. If I crack uceed by chance, it would be because of you.

    ReplyDelete
  17. hello so sir which colleges are better to learn design IITs or NIFTs u think ??Is the Curriculum at IIT for design really good u think or could it be better at NIFT?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IITs and NIFTs are two different tracks. What’s your interest? Which kind of design you’re interested?

      Delete
  18. which one is better for product design?iits or nid?
    btw thx for everything

    ReplyDelete
  19. Plz tell me what is the minimum percentage of 12th board is needed in IIT b.des? ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The eligibility criteria says you need to have passed the 12th. You can check this page (or official uceed brochure) for more details
      http://www.uceed.iitb.ac.in/eligibility.html

      Delete
  20. how can i prepare perfectly for uceed please give some tips

    ReplyDelete
  21. can u do such a session on how to make a folded figure from an opened one??

    ReplyDelete
  22. Please tell the Wikipedia link from which you have named down the different views

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. not getting your ques. The above images are all prepared by me.

      Delete
  23. Are their any tips for solving the count questions? In which we have to count a particular numebn of something which pretty difficult when displayed on screen.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Finding this blog really helpful! Thank you for summarising each part: :D

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thank You so much sir, Is it possible to get uceed without going for any coaching?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, it is possible. But you need to be confident enough to give part B and Part A. If not, you can self-prepare based on the topics that you need to improve (after you solve some previous papers).

      Delete
    2. thank you so much sir for helping design aspirants like us.

      Delete
  26. hello sir , tysm for creating this blog.
    Can you please share 2019 part-b solutions

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hi I'm preparing for uceed. Pls consider this- as much as I love the resources you have collected and handsdown to your efforts, the way in which the information is put together is very haphazard. Only after multiple visits to this website, the information begins to seem a little less overwhelming. There are a lot overlaps of links and webpages. Hopefully you can segregate them decisively under certain head/sub topics only.

    ReplyDelete

Your comment will be sent to Bhanu for his approval. It will get published after his approval. You will receive mail for all the replies to your comment.