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Posted by: parel Sep 2 2004, 06:09 PM

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Files that go with this tutorial can be downloaded here: http://www.productdesignforums.com/Downloads/mousetut.zip
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Many IDers are not familiar with the surfacing in Solidworks. It might be handy to go through a simple product like a mouse to walk through how you might go about modelling in solidworks. Over the next few days I will go over how to go about doing this in Solidworks.
I sketched this concept over lunch so the design might change over the next few days hehee Hopefully we will have a helpful series

Posted by: Renzsu Sep 2 2004, 06:16 PM

This should indeed be interesting, I do all my modelling in rhino, so I'm curious to see if Solidworks can keep up a bit.

Posted by: Dot Kite Sep 2 2004, 06:42 PM

Hello parel,

Well, great initiative !

Keep on providing us with nice stuff....!

Best regards

Posted by: waikit Sep 2 2004, 10:06 PM

parel, thanks a lot again. i finally can start learning solidworks!

Posted by: Dot Kite Sep 2 2004, 10:15 PM

Dear waikit,

Well, SolidWorks is very easy to use if you ever had any experience with other parametric modellers. If not, I still believe that is easy to use once you understand what the "Parent/Child" topic is, and once you learn to model with the planes and axis! So, don't worry . . .put some energy to it....and for sure you gonna love it!

Greetings

Posted by: waikit Sep 2 2004, 11:04 PM

dot kite, thanks for your support. just need more motivation to start with solidworks. this coming tutorial of parel will certainly motivate me, because it will be first posted on this forum right parel?

Posted by: wgc Sep 3 2004, 03:49 PM

Nice tutorial, keep em coming...!

For me, solidworks is very intuitive especially if you know other modelling software. (I use Alias and Rhino mostly, since that's what they had at my school.) You can do a BOM and exploded views with a couple of mouse clicks in solidworks. But it's also rather expensive, especially if you are a student.

Also, check their website- they team up with local training companies in many areas to offer a free intro class. All you have to do is sign up. I got a limited trial version cd of the previous rev to take home (unfortunately, it wouldn't install though).

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:06 PM

Today I will go through initial set-up for ID in Solidworks 2005. (We can figure out some work arounds for earlier versions as we go along for those with earlier versions) When you use SolidWorks it initially feels as if you are drawing with crayons or something. You free-form draw a thick blue-lined circle wherever you want it with no constraints (very unsettling for those used to pure parametrically driven models). What a novice program! It even looks like crayon. However, the simplicity isn't indicative of an underpowered program, but of intuitive interface. If you want an unconstrained circle somewhere, SW won't argue with you, but go with the flow.

You can soon learn a whole palette of tools that allow very complex geometry in very few steps. However, Solidworks out of the box does not show all the tools that I use on a consistent basis. I will show you how to customize the layout for ID purposes.

This is what I see when I initially open Solidworks. There is not a whole lot to look at. This is because the interface subtly changes depending on the type of edited document

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:08 PM

Type Ctrl+N to create a new document. Click on Part. The opening screen will not look like the one below. I have removed all the commands and toolbars, so that I can start out fresh, and only show common commands. To remove a toolbar click on the edge of the tool bar and drag it out into the display area. This makes the toolbar a standalone dock-able window that you can close out.

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:10 PM

Click Tools -> Customize. A dialog box opens up that looks like this. Click the following options within the toolbar options. This opens up the toolbars with commonly used commands

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:16 PM

Your screen should then look like this (hmm I cant seem to upload the image..will try later)

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:18 PM

Next drag and drop the new toolbars into the grey areas surrounding the display area to clean up the display. Arrange the toolbars as you deem logical. Your screen should look something like this:

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:21 PM

We still don’t have all the commands that we need. Click Tools--> Customize. A dialog box opens up that looks like this. Go to the Commands tab, and in the scrolling Category menu go to Sketch. Add the commands that I have circled in the menu to the sketch toolbar on the right of the screen by dragging and dropping

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:22 PM

Scroll down to Features Category and drag and drop the extra commands. I will explain what most of these tools do later in the tutorial.

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:25 PM

You can also optionally remove commands that you rarely use by dragging and dropping them into the display window. This does not work during regular use, only during customization

Posted by: parel Sep 3 2004, 04:27 PM

You should end up with a screen that looks like this (minus the doodles) Tomorrow I will go over the modeling strategy that we will use. It is very important to think about how you are going to model an object and your overall strategy before you actually start using Solidworks

We went over some house-keeping today. This might be tedious, but dont worry things will get a little more exciting the next few days.

Posted by: iddidy Sep 3 2004, 11:51 PM

Hey Parel,

Thanks ever so much for this tutorial, I have not been able to find many surfacing tutorials for solidworks. this one looks great! keep them coming!

Posted by: parel Sep 5 2004, 09:42 PM

Here are some approaches that we can possibly take. Approach 1 has the disadvantage of having a degenerate point where all the isoparms come together. This can make the surface quality difficult to control. We will probably have a hybrid of Approach 2 & 3 taken to another level

Posted by: parel Sep 5 2004, 09:43 PM

This is not the mouse we are planning to model just a quick stand in to show some basic modeling techniques

Posted by: parel Sep 6 2004, 06:03 PM

Over the next few days, I will try and break down how to make this mouse. It is composed of surfaces that are later knit, shelled and split into various components. This kind of method is what is referred to as a "top down" assembly. The actual construction method turned out to be a variant of Approach 2. My sketch shows a crease in the mouse. I decided not to model it because first it would have taken a little longer to think through and explain and second-it wasnt looking all that good .

Posted by: littlecog Sep 15 2004, 11:33 PM

Here is a saddle I modelled in Solidworks using the same method as your approach No1. I think it is a very fast route to creating complex surfaces but I sometimes struggle with maintaining tangency. Approach No2 takes longer but is more reliable I think.

Posted by: parel Sep 17 2004, 02:46 PM

These are the underlying surfaces to model

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:13 PM

The following part deals with inserting backgound bitmaps to use as underlays. Also the curve formed at the interface of the red part and the grey plastic is important. So we will define the character line by means of a 3D curve (3D sketch).

Solidworks uses flat planes called construction planes to create flat curves (2D sketch). These curves are then used to create geometry. The default construction planes are the Right, Front and Top plane. Designers used to Rhino and Alias can be confused by the construction planes. The default constuction planes are not actually views. Refer to Solidworks documentation to learn more to pan, zoom and dolly the camera.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Inserting Background Sketches:</span>
1) Click Right plane.
2) Insert >Sketch, to start a sketch on the Right plane
3) Within the sketch Tools>sketchTools>SketchPictureto insert a background sketch. Insert a cropped view of the mouse in the right hand view. I used Photosop to crop out the different views. It is useful to crop each view as close to the bounding envelope as possible.
4) Draw a line that passes through the origin, and dimension the line to 120 mm. This line will be used as a reference to scale the background bitmap
5) Double click the bitmap. Drag handles will appear that will allow you to scale the jpeg to the 120 mm construction line. position the highest point of the sketch over the sketch origin by dragging and dropping

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:15 PM

Repeat the previous procedure on the Front and Top Plane. It is convenient to position the jpegs so that the baseline passes through the origin.

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:17 PM

Sometime it is more useful to have more than one view of the model

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:18 PM

Creating the 3D sketch:

In addition to 2D sketches, SWX allows you to create 3D sketches. which are splines with control points that can move in three axes. They are very useful to define character lines/ bone lines of a product.

1)insert>3DSketch
2)in the right view use the spline tool to trace over the bitmap. It defualts to create a flat curve in the Right Plane.

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:20 PM

Similar to Rhino and Alias you can move the control points in the Top View to match the bitmap. (Hint: Hit Spacebar to get default views like left , right , top etc:)

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:25 PM

Solidworks Rant Time:
The spline functionality is still not fully implemented. The spline control handles of 3D sketches are VERY buggy unless you constrain them horizontal, vertical or tangent to a construction line.

eventhough you cannot use spline handles to the same degree in 3D that you can in a 2D sketch they are stiil a big leap over 3d splines in 2004. The curves will just be a little heavier because you use control points to define curvature rather than the spline handles

Edit: Do NOT pull spline handles in 2005 3D sketch. They are uncontrollable unless they are constrained horizontal, vertical or tangent to an existing 2D or fixed 3D line (even then you have to use the property box to input length) This has been corrected in 2006 though so...phew!

Posted by: parel Sep 20 2004, 03:27 PM

Tweak the curve to match your sketch lines. You have just defined a 3D character line!

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:04 PM

This is what you should see when you open the file from the beginning of the tutorial. You will see a trimmed surface loft and a bunch of curves. I wanted to start with just curves, but the side section curves are created with curves that are tangent to the trimmed loft surface. The side section curves are also constrained to pierce the 3D character line that we previously created

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:07 PM

Start a Loft between the Edge of the Trimmed Surface and the 2D sketch "Plan View" All required sketches should be in the folder "Sketches for the Main Surfaces" which is nested in the history tree.

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:08 PM

Start editing the loft so that it is curvature continuous at the top. This is done by editing the Start Constraint to "Curvature Continuous" in the drop down menu.

Define the loft a little more with guide curves. This can get a little squirrelly along the center line because the guide curves at the rear and front (Rear Section of Side Profile and Front Part of Side Profile ) along the center-line are cut (convert entities) from the Profile Sketch. Use the secondary history tree in the modeling window to pick the right sketch

To create a smooth connection along the center line click the guide curves and choose Normal to Profile to make the loft smooth along the center line.

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:10 PM

Mirror the surface bodies along the Right Plane. Generally mirroring the bodies (as opposed to Faces or features) is the most straight forward because the computer does not have to calculate too much information

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:11 PM

If at any point the sketches become annoying or too busy CLick View>Sketches to toggle visibility of Sketches. You can do the same thing with planes, curves, origins etc:

I have toggled sketch visibilty so that I can choose the edges of the surfaces to define a planar surface

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:12 PM

Use the bottom edges of the lofts to define the bottom planar surface

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:14 PM

Knit all the surfaces together to create a Solid. Check the box that says "Try to form a Solid" (the process is similar to creating a closed polysurface in Rhino)
This will give the model mass properties and gives you the ability to use solid modelling tools on the model

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:15 PM

Shell the solid to give wall thickness of 2mm. If you click on any faces that will create an opening in the shell because those selected faces will not be included in the final shell. So in this case Dont click on any faces because we are interested in keeping all the surfaces

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:16 PM

Fillet the bottom edge 2mm

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:18 PM

Created an extruded surface with the 2D sketch that defines the material break between the two colored plastics.

This will be used to split the solid body into two bodies along the character line that we defined earlier

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:19 PM

Split the body using the extruded surfaces.

Pick the surface
Cut the part
Pick the Bodies that you want to keep from the resulting bodies

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 04:21 PM

Go to the Solid Bodies folder and pick the top part of the mouse and hide it

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:23 PM

You can see the wall thickness now that you can see inside. Fillet the top edge. Fillets are cool from an engineering perspective they eliminate stress risers at sharp edges, and allow for easier ejection from tooling. Fillets also make your final renders look good because they catch light well.

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:24 PM

Hide the bottom and fillet the edge of the top component

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:26 PM

Create an extruded surface to split the top component again.

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:28 PM

Split the model with the extrude. In hindsight it would have been better to combine all the splits in to one command

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:39 PM

You can change the color properties of any object by right clicking on it and going to color

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:41 PM

Cut extrude the opening for the mouse wheel. Offset the sketch plane from the sketch plane by about 5mm (this option can be found in the first drop down menu).

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:49 PM

Extrude the mouse wheel and in the Direction1 and Direction 2 options set them to offset from surface. Create the extrude .5 mm offset from the inner walls of the opening. Uncheck the box that says merge result. SWX by default tries to chunk features together into one solid mass whenever Solid features are used. Most times this is preferred but sometimes you might might to makuse of multi- body features (as in the case of the scroll wheel.

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:51 PM

This fillet is a full round fillet. Pick the three consecutive faces of the cylinder to create the fillet

Posted by: parel Nov 6 2004, 05:54 PM

Posted by: waikit Nov 7 2004, 01:10 AM

We really appreciate your great effort on this very interesting tutorial. Well done. Thank you again!

Posted by: Renzsu Nov 12 2004, 11:59 PM

oh my... that's pretty.. that rubber looks really convincing!! photoworks, is that part of SWX?

Posted by: parel Nov 13 2004, 04:00 AM

Thanx for the encouragement Renszu. Photoworks is the rendering add-in for Solidworks. It comes with Solidworks Professional. Photoworks is not the best rendering system in the world, but it can be coaxed to produce very nice renders

Posted by: USRobotics Nov 16 2004, 08:46 AM

great initiative ! very impression

Posted by: norah Jan 26 2005, 07:29 AM

Posted by: norah Jan 27 2005, 04:47 PM

I figured it out. Select the Extruded Surface as the trim tool geometry. After doing the split command, I had to hide the Extruded Surface from the tree manager in order for it not to show in the graphics area. It's a very nice ID-based surfacing tutorial for SW. Thanks, Parel.

Posted by: parel Jan 28 2005, 06:03 AM

The fillet2 surface is because I filleted the sharp edge on the Extruded surface. This saves you from creating two fillets later.

Posted by: norah Jan 28 2005, 07:28 AM

Parel, your tip and tutorials are so helpful and greatly appreciated in this forum.

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:22 AM

I figured out how I wanted the ribs to look like in the sketch in the folder "Rib sketches" Extrude a surface that goes past the outer surface of overmold

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:23 AM

This creates a rib that you can lay onto the surface of the overmold

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:25 AM

Create a 3D sketch and create intersection curves between the surface extrude and the outer surface of the overmold.

(Hit Esc after you create the curves to back out of the intersection command)

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:28 AM

The curves in green are the curves on the surface of the overmold that you want to map your gripping ribs to. as you can see there are four ribs to be mapped by means of the deform tool.

So we will have to make copies of the revolve.

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:31 AM

Use the Copy/move Body Feature to make 3 copies of the revolve. Do not specify a displacement (all the copies will overlap and look like one revolve even though there are 4 bodies). This is so that we can use the centerline of the Revolve sketch as an initial curve
(Ignore the surface extrude . You can hide it)

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:35 AM

The Deform tool uses curves to map your geometry to curves. The initial curves map to your geometry, and then Solidworks interpolates the change in geometry from the change between the Initial and Target Curves.

Pick the revolved bodies one at a time to deform them to lay on the overmold area of the mouse.

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:39 AM

When you are performing the deform command, hide all the revolved bodies except for one. This makes it easy to select the body you want to work on.

As you can see in the tree, there are 4 deforms performed t omodel each rib

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:41 AM

Mirror the grippy bodies to the other side

Posted by: parel Jan 30 2005, 12:43 AM

Combine all the grey parts into one Solid body

Posted by: norah Jan 30 2005, 06:20 AM

Great! I can't wait to try it this week. Incredible gloss or shine in the render! You had previously mentioned in your post a DOF Photoshop in Photoworks. Is this a plug-in?

Posted by: Renzsu Jan 30 2005, 12:07 PM

Hm.. a shot in the dark here, but I can imagine you could render a zbuffer frame in photoworks which indicates distance from the camera in a black/white gradient. You could use this image in photoshop to create a blur in your render with intensities taken from that zbuffer frame..
This is something you can do with 3dsmax, but it's a common feature amongst 3d software so I think photoworks could do something similar.

Posted by: abhinav Jan 30 2005, 04:13 PM

great tutorial.. each n every step is explained better and meticulously than any other 3d tut. good for reference. thanx a lot to parel.

I think u could try more lights in order to clarify the details, which are the asset of design. 3d max has surely got better rendering engine than photoworks, though i m not sure 'bout the new version of solidworks. but 3Dmax has wide options to play around with materials, environments and camera focusing. the skylight with a white matt ground gives photorealistic appearence.

nice job :-)

Posted by: parel Feb 4 2005, 05:20 AM

Max has a better interface with Mental Ray, which is also the rendering engine for Solidworks office. When I said I add DOF in photoshop . I was talking about Depth of field, and blurs. I approximate what that looks like by using feathered selections, and the FIlter>Gaussian Blur.

Posted by: parel Feb 5 2005, 04:49 PM

Renszu-Photoworks does have the capability of z-depth rendering. Here is a progression to give you an idea of what Rensu was talking about Norah. You can even uses the raw render below and the depth cue rendered image to approximate DOF. As you can see you dont really have to go to the effort of doing a depth cue render if you already have a picture in your minds eye of what is farthest and nearest to the viewer

LIke Ive said before-Photoworks is not the best rendering system by any means but it can do decent stuff

Posted by: starlion Feb 6 2005, 07:06 PM

thx you , it's very very cool stuff , thx a lot

Posted by: stonemonkey Feb 10 2005, 06:28 PM

Posted by: Renzsu Feb 10 2005, 07:41 PM

Posted by: parel Feb 18 2005, 02:21 AM

If anyone has has feedback please PM me. I would appreciate the info. Pretty exciting that there have been more then 10,000 views!

Posted by: thydzik Mar 21 2005, 09:16 AM

Hi

I'm a newbie to solidworks, i started trying the 3d splines but stopped because it was so annoying to use.

I managed to find a better method that allows for more control with the curves.
You draw the top and right splines as separate 2D sketches, then select 'project curve' and select both sketches the outcome is the 3D curve your after.

I'm now going to follow the rest of your tutorial, as its extremely helpful.

thanks


EDIT: i've just realised that whats created is a curve not a sketch, and I can't seam to be able to mirror it...
EDIT2: how did you mirror your 3D sketches?

Posted by: parel Mar 21 2005, 01:09 PM

For some reason you cant mirror curves or 3D curves yet. What I typically end up doing is modeling the half model and then mirroring it. Then I tweak the driving curves to update the mirrored geometry. It would be much less resource intensive if you could mirror/virtual mirror a spline cage.

LOL the 3d sketch curve is finnicky. Your method is a standard practise in Solidworks for curve generation. I am hoping that the beta coming out will solve these issues with the 3D sketches. At the Solidworksworld Conference this year a stated goal this upcoming release was to "win the hearts of consumer product designers (ie ID)" Lets hope that this promise carries through.

Posted by: skinny Mar 25 2005, 12:40 AM

Great tutorial, thanx a whole lot.

Posted by: coyote.p Mar 25 2005, 07:07 AM

Yes!! great tutor.

Posted by: kris_modeler Apr 24 2005, 09:59 AM

I didn't know you can do this stuff in solidworks. I know Rhino3d and I am learning Solidworks and I like the approach of this tutorial in Solidworks,

I have a question. I am having a problem with making a planar surface.

does planar surface work only with 2d Sketch curve?

is it possible to convert 3d Sketch curve to 2d Sketch curve?

thanks, great tutorial.

are there going to be other tutorials?

Posted by: parel Apr 25 2005, 02:04 PM

The program does not make a planar surface when the input curves are not planar. Make sure that all the edges used to create the surface are planar.

To remedy the situation, you could do a surface extrude very close to the planar edge and mutually trim the sorrounding surfaces and the extrude.

Re: 3D to 2D sketch.
Create a plane using three points that pass through the 3D sketch.
Then convert entities to create the 2D sketch.

Re: does planar surface work only with 2d Sketch curve?
Planar surfaces will work with any planar input from surface edges, 2D sketches or 3D sketches. The only condition is that the inputs all need to lie on the same plane.

Posted by: allenhung May 5 2005, 05:46 AM

Hi master,

I am so appreciated for the skill that you taught us. Thank you very much for your hard work, here is my homework according your curve file.
I think it is important to make it clear the function how to bulit the shape before you beigin. and I think it is not easy for me to make the stech that you inform us. i need more lesson to practice.
another question is I find the final render you made is very amazing, but I don't know how to get such effect in photoworks. hopefully we can leern such skill from you later.

af all, I appreciat for your good lesson. I am a chinese and a biginner on the software and the ID field. Thanks again.

allen

Posted by: parel May 7 2005, 06:21 AM

Allen-very nice! I am glad that you made it through the tutorial! You are the first to post work. Could you PM me regarding what you found easy and challenging? This will help me formulate better tut later on.
If anyone has completed the model please feel free to post screen grabs

http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=781 for render setup
http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=1177 for more on h

Posted by: AcidRatZ May 11 2005, 01:46 AM

I've been using SolidWorks for about 5 years, mainly machine design and sheetmetal work. I haven't had the opportunity to work with surfaces -- much.

Your tutorial is one of the best on the net, really appreciated. The deform command is something I would have never used and or figured out that you can use it the way you did!

I have thought about attending my VAR's advanced course, but the cost is somewhat prohibitive and not sure it would cover surfacing in depth. Finding useful stuff like this on the net is real help. If you ever run short of work you should write a tutorial / book / guide / CD on surfacing / industrial design with SolidWorks. Such guides are extremely lacking , I and a lot of others would be more than happy to pay for such a guide.

Regards

AcidRatz

Posted by: addk2 Jun 24 2005, 12:07 PM

thought it's simple and user friendly interface, solidworks is more for mech. engeniers.
I have an experience with unigraphics and solid edge.. (the last one is prety like solidworks)
for speed, accurate surfaces, and flexible work,i use rhino, i will never change it.
with nPOWER plug in, one can perform mechanical tasks as well.

Posted by: addk2 Jun 24 2005, 01:04 PM

super tutorial !

Posted by: ParaCAD Jul 11 2005, 01:10 AM

here's mine. New to rendering, And just so so with Surfacing. Used Photoworks. Still have a lot to learn. Thanks for the tutorial. Any future surfacing tutorials that are more advances and using other surfacing functions?

Posted by: sayre Jul 12 2005, 01:42 PM

Parel
Great tutorial !!
I'm a Pro/e veteran of 11 years, but we are looking at Solidworks as a possible replacement in the future. So it was great to see how solidworks handle some real life top down design.
My question is having created this mouse "master" model with it's 4 solids, how does solidworks deal with taking a "linked" copy of one of the solids into a new part for further detailing.
In pro/e you can use a variety of commands to take parametric copies of surfaces etc into new parts, so that you can change a dimension etc in the master which will ripple through to the part file.
Thanks in advance
Stephen

Posted by: schwinndk Jul 14 2005, 09:20 AM

Hi Sayre

This is no problem in Solidworks. You have the ability to both inserting surfaces and parts both linked and non linked into new "parts". (An example) right klik on a surface or a body in the designtree, then insert it to a new part. This can be done with both solids and surfaces.
A nother way to do it, is to open a assembly, and from there klick insert - component - chouse part, or assembly. This is a good way to modify parts, if you have a ground shape of a thing witch shape is the same in all 100 parts, but there need to be a small change on to each of them. If then any changes is to happen to the ground shape, just change it to the master part, and it will change it on all 100. If you get my point!.
Also yo can modify parts on an assembly by edditing the part, and use other combined parts surfaces to ajust this one part. This can be done with or without references. This is also just some of the ways to do it in Solidworks. I hope it helped with some of your questions.

Posted by: IvanRD Aug 14 2005, 01:57 AM

Hi all, I just thought I'd mention CONFIGURATIONS. This is a definite strength in Solidworks, as you can have multiple Configurations within one file - for those parts that can have multiple versions.

For example, all my standard fasteners and parts are done with Configs. When you want to replace an M3 screw with an M4 in an assembly - no need to re-attach assembly relationships (mates) - just replace the configuration and everything stays intact.

You have to see it to beleive it, but configurations are very useful. I know, since I am a SolidEdge convert...

Posted by: charly_senn Aug 16 2005, 03:38 PM

[attachment=1495:attachment]
Hi All,


I've been a reader of these pages for a while now and decided to register in order to upload my Mouse rendering as a means to thank Parel for an excellent tutorial.

I've been using SW for 4 years or so (2.5 years commercially) and still learnt a tonne from the tutorial.

Without further a do, here's my rendering. Modelled in SW2005 and rendered in Photoworks 2. It's not a perfect rendering by any stretch of the imagination but the best I've done to date. It took the best part of a morning to get to this stage, but this included tweaking of the scene through to custom materials, lights etc etc.

Thanks Parel!

Charly

Posted by: kitchenstuff Aug 16 2005, 03:55 PM

Charly,

Good work on the modeling and the render. I've just spotted this tutorial and will surely be working through it as it covers the surfacing I want to brush up on in Solidworks. Just like Sayre, I've come to Solidworks after many years with Pro-e and I'm looking for ways to link surfaces like Pro-e might do with the master model merge technique or the advanced assembly extension's copy geometry command. Schwinndk's tip about taking a surface body, right clicking, and choosing "insert into a new part" has helped me out today.

Thanks.

Posted by: Bruno46 Aug 19 2005, 08:40 PM

Hi, just completed; well almost, the mouse, but ran into trouble on the deform. Each time I tried it the bottom body shifted to the left (front of mouse) turned yellow as though it was the whole preview, but no ribs. I did notice that after selecting the revolve and target curves that the target curve did not reflect the revolve shape, but stayed a straight line. I tried the deform command on another surface I generated, but the same result - what is going wrong? sw 2005.

Posted by: antonio_meze Aug 20 2005, 09:39 AM

Hello,

The tutorial file was already filled with all the sketches but there are 3 of them which I don’t know how to make myself. It is the curves that are present in the 3 planes and are used as guide curves for generating the side surface of the mouse. A section of that curve is on the front plane and also on the lofted top surface. How did you make this?

Thank you,
Antonio

PS. Your tutorial was extremely helpful

Posted by: antonio_meze Aug 20 2005, 09:49 AM

Hi, just completed; well almost, the mouse, but ran into trouble on the deform. Each time I tried it the bottom body shifted to the left (front of mouse) turned yellow as though it was the whole preview, but no ribs. I did notice that after selecting the revolve and target curves that the target curve did not reflect the revolve shape, but stayed a straight line. I tried the deform command on another surface I generated, but the same result - what is going wrong? sw 2005.

Posted by: Bruno46 Aug 22 2005, 03:23 PM

Antonio, what a hero you are!! that was exactely what I was doing. I obviously had a wrong understanding of the deform command. Now it's obvious - Duh!

Thanks again.

Posted by: parel Aug 22 2005, 11:46 PM

antonio_meze,

Those sketches are made with Intersection Curves and splines. Ill try and provide some images later, but basically an intersection curve is created between two surfaces, at their intersection. In this case it is the intersection between the trimmed surface and the Construction Plane.

Then I created a spline curve with three points. This spline was then constrained with the following relations:
1) Tangency relation to the Intersection curve
2) The middle point had a Pierce Contraint with the 3D sketch
3) The end point was Pierced to the footprint of the mouse

charly_senn
thanks for posting your render. You have a very intersting grip area. I think that it would probably work better than the demo file. Very cool. What kind of studio setup do you prefer?

I didnt notice the activity here, the last few days. It is good to see our members are really helping each other out. Awesome!

Hope this helps for now

Posted by: charly_senn Aug 23 2005, 12:11 PM

Parel,

thanks for the feedback. When I did your tute, I only used your sketches and then followed your instructions filling in the blanks that the demo files would have held. So I took a bit of artistic licence on the grip deform. I've rendered the mouse up again to try and show them better - not too much luck.

As for the studio set up, it's probably easiest if I post some screenshots of the material / scene settings. This might help some others get somewhere close.

I'm not so good in PhotoWorks so I am sure I don't need all the boxes ticked as I did in the illumination settings especially.

I saw your renderings and was very impressed with how they caught the light. This is what I was trying to achieve in my earlier posted rendering - this is why it took me the best part of the morning to get to that rendering! There's about 6 lights set very badly in the scene - I just wanted to get 1 decent rendering out - sorry

Charly

Posted by: charly_senn Aug 23 2005, 12:13 PM

material settings for the red upper casing of the mouse:

Posted by: charly_senn Aug 23 2005, 12:14 PM

illumination tick box settings:

Posted by: charly_senn Aug 23 2005, 12:17 PM

scene settings:

NB, floor material is down as blue pastic, but I changed the colour to white - it's just poor housekeeping on the material name.

Posted by: andres_pad Sep 22 2005, 04:21 AM

This is My first post here, looks like a pretty awesome site.
im a first year ID student at the Uni of South Australia. i learnt Solidwork during last semester.
heres a mouse i did and finished (enitrely myself ) over the last couple of weeks...



sorry if posting my own images isnt the done thing or something, let me know

Posted by: parel Sep 22 2005, 04:28 AM

Weell- we typically try and stick with one topic but I reckon its allright to post your own mouse model Looks like a good start though some of the lines could do with some cleaning up
Welcome to the boards andres_pad!

Posted by: andres_pad Sep 22 2005, 09:19 AM

thanks, yeah im happy. and sorry for posting it here.
also, i dont think that the deform feature is in SW2003. thats what im using because we're waiting for uni to upgrade and we therfore cant use a higher version

Posted by: slowhand Sep 24 2005, 10:13 AM

Hello everybody,

I'm new to this board. So let me first of all say: I'm very impressed of the stuff you're doing here. And very special thanks to parel leaving a link to this thread in the german solidworks forum of www.cad.de
It is really great stuff. Thank you for sharing this.

As you all may recognize in the near future - there will be depth of focus in renderings with Photoworks using version 2006. For high quality you have to wait - but it's impressive.
I will do a short session on the trade fair CAT.pro in Stuttgart (04.10.2005 - 07.10.2005). I hope that Stefan Berlitz will upload a copy of this to his website: http://solidworks.cad.de like last year: http://solidworks.cad.de/kh_pw2005.htm

Kind regards,
Ralf

Posted by: ar_yankie Sep 26 2005, 11:21 PM

fabulous presentation u can b a avery good teacher..................thanks it was a real good part of this forum n today i really feel that i m not mistaken by joining this forum

Posted by: Studebakerhawk Oct 5 2005, 06:24 PM

I wanted to try this tutorial, but the files you say are all I need only give me the mouse_curves.sldprt. I cannot get individual BMP files in order to follow your instructions, although I can see them in the Manager. Am I missing something?

Posted by: parel Oct 5 2005, 07:57 PM

The part file should contain the orthos as well. You could save the sketch and crop the views like I did as well

Posted by: Studebakerhawk Oct 5 2005, 09:40 PM

Hi Parel,

I can't save the bmps to the clipboard, but I can save the sketches. However, I SW2205 will not allow me to paste the sketches in a new part. I've worked with Solidworks since 1998, but I don't understand why no-one else has had trouble getting started! Am I just dense? - NO, don't answer that...

Posted by: parel Oct 5 2005, 10:01 PM

I dont cut and paste. I save the different views separately and then in a new sketch go Tools>Sketch tools> Sketch picture. This is how you put a sketch underlay into your files. But you should not have to do that
since the file should have the jpegs.

I just realsed that I had not put the correct pull down menu path my bad. Studebakerhawk Thanks for bringing that to my attention

Posted by: raghu Oct 26 2005, 05:45 AM

hi all I have joined this forum to get a good knowledge bout product design, plz do help me know how to work with surfaces,and make use of commands effetively ,in solidworks, can some one share models containing surface work, i need to practise them,
thank u
RAGZ

Posted by: Namssorg Nov 1 2005, 10:20 PM

First, thank you for the much needed ID-based Solidworks Tutorial. I've been looking far and wide for one, and it's nice to finally find one that is so thorough. (Nice inclusion of setting up solidworks, explaining what things do etc)

I do have a few comments. My first 3D package was Rhino-- and then I dabbled in Pro/E Wildfire a bit before starting to learn Solidworks. On one hand, this is an easy tutorial to pick up for someone coming from Rhino. However, one of the main reasons I spent some time learning Pro/E Wildfire was to have far more control over elements within a model. So I am wondering-- is there a better way to model this mouse, perhaps without using as many splines? Perhaps achieve a similar model that has more sketch-based constraints, rather than free-flying spline anchors?

I was able to model a videogame controller in Pro/E-- using "Method 2" that you have on the first page-- except I used dimensionable arc-lines instead of splines. I love being able to use the 3d curves, but unfortunately it's very tough to dimension them, or pass them onto engineers.

Still-- VERY HELPFUL tutorial! I'm still poking my way around SWX 2006 interface, and this was a major help!

PS. I'm SO happy you included a grippies lesson in this tutorial!

Posted by: parel Nov 1 2005, 10:39 PM

Dimensionable arc lines are the bread and butter of Solidworks and proE. You create a curve by string a set of tangent arcs together. Could you explain "sketch-based constraints" Most of the splines in the model are created on 2d construction planes.

I like splines because they are easier to control and create nicer surfaces and transitions. They are dimensionable in 2006. If you look at the curvature graph of a multispan curve made with arcs compared to splines, the arcs have a jumpy curvature graph.

But I am sure that you have plenty if reasons to like arcs (just like the majority of Solidworks users) It is far more universal and perhaps more self explanatory. My manager and shop guys still think in terms of arcs.

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for a very cool first post. Pass the word on about this site to your friends.

Posted by: evolve Nov 2 2005, 07:09 PM

WOW.. thanks parel. i just found out this thread!!! How did i miss this, doh.

i'll do a quick sketch tonight and work on solidworks and upload my work shortly.

thank you for the tut.

Posted by: Namssorg Nov 2 2005, 10:10 PM

Thanks for the reply! I suppose you're right about the arcs-- I love using splines but they were frowned upon back when I took a Pro/E class-- perhaps they're becoming a bit more acceptable and easy to use these days.

I did think of something else that might help a bit in the tutorial. You do such a great job of 'getting us started' but the thing I find most difficult is "planning out" how I am going to model something. It's a very tough transition for those of us to whom Rhino is second nature... where we can pick a view and go-

I am wondering if you (or anyone reading this) has some good suggestions on how to plan your modelling attack. This is the part that takes me the longest, (Especially when i try to model something using Method 2 in this tutorial) I always end up with sketches that I'm not quite sure to do with, and feel like I'm using far too many steps to do something simple! But maybe it's something that I will get used to over time.

It would be nice to see the thought process that went on between that first spline you walk us through, and the file that we download to start the tutorial.

And thanks for the warm welcome! I'm spreading the word!

Posted by: raghu Nov 7 2005, 05:18 AM

HI ALL ,
I WAS UNABLE TO GET THE DEFORMATION OF THE SIDE STRINGS PROPERLY, SO CAN I EXPECT A BETTER RESULT BY A BETTER TECNIQUE
THANKS



Ragz,
MCAD DESIGN ENGG
CONZERV SYSTEMS

Posted by: evolve Nov 10 2005, 10:31 AM

QUOTE(antonio_meze @ Aug 20 2005, 12:39 AM)

QUOTE(parel @ Aug 22 2005, 02:46 PM)

Posted by: patywagon Nov 16 2005, 09:05 PM

can someone go over how to make all the curves that were already made in the downloaded file?

i know solidworks well enough but surfacing is new to me
i would like to know how you made there to go on with the tutorial
so i can learn how to do this
thanks

Posted by: parel Nov 18 2005, 03:26 AM

Patywagon,
I hope that you have been able to figure out how to make most of the curves. Curve creation is the most important part of surfacing. For the most part the sketch planes here are pretty standard fare. However the intersection curves are somewhat puzzling, so I will go through that here, as it is repeated in all the section curves.

Posted by: BryceVTR250 Nov 18 2005, 04:47 PM

I like this tutorial alot. But I don't have solidworks i have Autodesk inventor. so im attempting to recreate this tutorial in inventor. my biggest dificulty at the moment is i can't seem to get the surfaces to mirror? anyone know how to get around this?

Posted by: BryceVTR250 Nov 25 2005, 09:26 PM

how did you make the top surface? are they two halves. I keep getting bulges at either end of the top loft (it ends up looking like a butt-crack) sorry thats the best way to describe it.

Posted by: parel Nov 27 2005, 03:44 AM

The top surface is a loft that is then trimmed.

Say no to crack- If inventor has the option, make the surface normal to the sketch, or create a reference surface (extruded curve) and then create surfaces tangent to it.

Posted by: BryceVTR250 Nov 28 2005, 08:19 PM

oh i figured it out. can't use the 3d lines i created i needed to use the lower loft surface edges and make them tangent. no triming required. I relised my rails didnt need to be half sections. I used the surface edge- top feature curve and then the edge on the other side and got one surface instead of having to make one for either side eliminating my crack problem. I built the lower body loft first before i made the top.

heres what i got so far

Posted by: BryceVTR250 Nov 30 2005, 06:31 AM

finished tada!



the process was relativly similiar exept in 3 areas. #1 3d lines built with work or sketch points are not easily manipulated alone, you can't just drag one in any direction. so instead i used surface extrusion intersections to get the 3d lines. 2 it's a big pain to get scanned sketches into inventor. so i kinda had too wing the sketches i made . 3 were the ribs. theres no deform type of command in inventor that i know of. so i had to project the axis of the gripp profiles onto the surface get the 3d line from the surface intersection and then sweep out an elipse profile along each line and the revolve the ends.

Posted by: proedesigner Dec 6 2005, 04:51 PM

Parel,
Thanks a ton for providing this highly valuable tutorial on surface design for solidworks. With SoldiWorks2006 just coming out, could you spend some time re-evaluating the toolbar section of the tutorial and provide any updates/revisions in regards to setup for Industrial Design purposes? I'm just getting started with SW and taking advantage of all the latest tools is very important to me.
Thanks,
proedesigner

Posted by: parel Dec 6 2005, 05:09 PM

The interface is still valid, but I will re-evaluate for sure.

Posted by: patywagon Dec 8 2005, 03:26 AM

hey has the original sketches been shown yet?
the ones doign all the guide curves to teh first and second surface loft?
i'd really like to see how that was done!
thanks
james

Posted by: imhioycc Dec 9 2005, 12:10 AM

cool ! l didnt study it befor,than u! L'll learn``````:)

Posted by: scb Dec 9 2005, 09:33 AM

parel...someone...please tell me that this picture:

post-313-1132280806.gif

is from solidworks 2006!!!!!!!!!!i so frustrated that splines in 2005 don' have cvs....oh boy, and if this image is from 2005, how in the heck do you make it so splines use cv's and not those silly handles that make nice curvature practically impossible.

-s

Posted by: parel Dec 9 2005, 03:27 PM

I cant see the image, but from your description, it is from 2006. However the spline control points are stupid and not usable like you would expect. Oh well- another wasted opportunity. However they are improved. But still sorely lacking

Posted by: scb Dec 10 2005, 08:20 AM

ah well..see i just love using rhino to make curves and then i can yank on the cv's...even illustator sucks at this......curavture of curves is always perfect in rhino/alias and if soliworks could do this, even if only on a planar level, it would be amazing...

-s

Posted by: w i l l Dec 10 2005, 08:53 PM

Parel, you said to convert a 3D to 2D sketch you do;

Create a plane using three points that pass through the 3D sketch.
Then convert entities to create the 2D sketch.

How do you convert entities though. Do you roll back to before the plane and do edit sketch to convert entities?


Also,

When would you use, 'project curve' rather than 'intersection curve' to apply a sketch curve to a surface. I can't seem to use the sketch to create a feature (such as an extrude) when using 'project curve' so when would you use 'project curve'?

cheers.

Posted by: Joe McGlynn Dec 25 2005, 09:46 AM

Thanks for a great tutorial! I was able to follow along without any problems, this was a good bit of information. Of course determining the strategy and getting the 3D curves down is the hard part (well, for me anyway)

Here is mine

Posted by: parel Dec 25 2005, 02:59 PM

w i l l
The 3D sketch itself does not get converted per se. All that happens is that it gets projected onto a single plane. So you insert a new 2D sketch onto the plane and then start converting from the 3D sketch. Still can be tricky though

As for project curve, I am not fond of it for the reason you stated. The curves have to be copied by starting a 3D sketch, and then doing convert entities on the 3D curve to convert it into a sketch. For some reason Solidworks distinguishes between curves and sketches. Seems stupid. I am sure it is some legacy isse with regenerating files from 2004 and previous.

Joe McGlynn
You are absolutely right about curve creation being the hard part. Honestly it would take a long time going through and stating different modeling strategies. Thank you for sharing your model. Welcome to the site. Hope to see more stuff from you (mmmmm..choppers)

Posted by: parel Dec 25 2005, 03:05 PM

w i l l
The 3D sketch itself does not get converted per se. All that happens is that it gets projected onto a single plane. So you insert a new 2D sketch onto the plane and then start converting from the 3D sketch. Still can be tricky though

As for project curve, I am not fond of it for the reason you stated. The curves have to be copied by starting a 3D sketch, and then doing convert entities on the 3D curve to convert it into a sketch. For some reason Solidworks distinguishes between curves and sketches. Seems stupid. I am sure it is some legacy isse with regenerating files from 2004 and previous.

Joe McGlynn
You are absolutely right about curve creation being the hard part. Honestly it would take a long time going through and stating different modeling strategies. Thank you for sharing your model. Welcome to the site. Hope to see more stuff from you (mmmmm..choppers)

Posted by: Joe McGlynn Dec 27 2005, 07:37 AM

OK, I have something that should be obvious but I'm stuck.

I wanted to try this tutorial without the "starter file", here is the problem: when I sketch a spline I only get points at the begining and end of the spline. What I'm doing is:

1. Create a sketch (2D in this case)
2. Click on the spline tool (I get crosshairs, not a pencil+spline mouse pointer like the help says)
3. Single click to start, click at each point, the spline seems to be developing OK, but there aren't any intermediate points
4. Double-click to end the spline...doesn't work. Hitting enter twice seem to end the spline.

This is in SW2005.

(yes, show spline handles is on)

This behavior seems odd, is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

Posted by: mikle955 Dec 30 2005, 08:55 PM

Hi Parel! Happy New 2006 Year! Happy New 2006 SolidWorks!

I have decided to publish here my (but it's yours, of course!)
mouse... I would be glad to buy such a mouse in one
of my local computer shops....

And again, and again thank you so much for your tutorial!...
You are a very good teacher... Please provide us another tutorials...
Pleaseeeeeeeeeee.....

Posted by: Zuesdawg Jan 6 2006, 02:48 AM

Joe, click on the main arrow pointer, then click on the spline.

One you have the spline clicked (it should change to a green color) , right click and scroll down to <Insert Spline Point>

When you reclick on the spline, it will let you scroll between each point and adjust accordingly

Just email if you need screen shots or anything.. .

later, Bryan

Posted by: Thathertz Jan 6 2006, 06:32 AM

--->mikle
i think this is the best render yet. Nice one!

Posted by: Joe McGlynn Jan 6 2006, 06:52 AM

I'm doing something wrong.

First, just drawing a spline.

1. Create a 2D sketch
2. click on the spline tool
3. click once on the drawing surface. Move the mouse, a line. Click again, and the line is curved...it's added an invisible spline point. Continue moving the mouse and clicking.
4. Finish by pressing enter once, then moving the mouse to set the tangency for the two ends of the spline (followed by an enter for each end)
5. I have a serpentine line, but when I select it there are only two points -- one on each end. No control points.

What I've been doing as a work-around is to draw a simple spline this way, use "fit spline" and then "simplify spline" to get a properly behaving spline.

I'm on SW2006 SP2 now, it has the same behavior as SW 2005.

Posted by: IvanRD Jan 25 2006, 11:06 PM

Joe, it's because you have the Solidworks 2D emulator switched on. (Autocrap look-a-like interface)

Switch it off ASAP, it does not help to switch from Autocad - you just have to get used to a different way of doing things.

Tools -> Add ins -> Solidworks 2D emulator

Posted by: FunTimePartyTeam Feb 2 2006, 11:31 PM

Hello,

I just found this forum/tutorial at the end of last week. Ive never had a chance to get to know the SW surfaces, and just wanted to say thanks. Here's my mouse...



Boo Yah!

Posted by: kabal Feb 3 2006, 07:55 PM

only used photoworks

Posted by: MR-A Feb 5 2006, 09:19 PM

MR. PAREL,

I CERTAINLY APPRECIATE THE TUTORIAL, DEFINITELY SOME GOOD STUFF TO LEARN!
THERE A COUPLE OF THINGS I DON’T QUIET GET AND HOPE YOU COULD CLARIFY FOR ME...

1. WAS THIS MOUSE DONE AS ONE PIECE TO SAVE TIME?
2. AS YOU COULD SEE MY MOUSE HAVE NO RIBS (HOPE NO OFFENCE TAKEN, I HAVE ADDED THEM ONTO THE WHEEL
INSTEAD). SO, AS I WAS SAYING, THE EXECUTION OF THE RIBS COULD HAVE BEEN DONE SLIGHTLY IN A
DIFFERENT WAY...
3. HOW DO YOU CONTROL 3D SKETCH?

HERE IS ASSEMBLY OF THE MOUSE, DID IT LAST NIGHT...

ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME.

GREAT FORUM GUYS!

Posted by: Ralph Wiggum Feb 6 2006, 10:58 AM

How's it going everybody,

Here's my attempt at the mouse, dunno if you wanna be draggin your mouse on wooden floorboards, but there it is heehe.

Huge thanks to Parel, this forum appreciates all of your help and feedback.

Posted by: menappi Feb 16 2006, 08:43 AM

ok so i designed this mouse and im having the hardest time getting the splines to match up. they are good in top, then the right view is just destroyed, vice versa as i try to fix them. what do i do?

Posted by: parel Feb 16 2006, 02:52 PM

menappi - make sure that you are only manipulating in orithographics. Then if that still does not work- try manipulating by Sketch Triad (Right Click- show Sketch Triad)

MR-A consider editing the SHOUTED post

1. WAS THIS MOUSE DONE AS ONE PIECE TO SAVE TIME?
No- it is one piece because it is a method of design called top down modeling. This is when you want an organic part made of many parts to blend together smoothly. I am sure there are other reasons but thus is why I do it.

2. AS YOU COULD SEE MY MOUSE HAVE NO RIBS (HOPE NO OFFENCE TAKEN, I HAVE ADDED THEM ONTO THE WHEEL
INSTEAD). SO, AS I WAS SAYING, THE EXECUTION OF THE RIBS COULD HAVE BEEN DONE SLIGHTLY IN A
DIFFERENT WAY...
no offence taken (......grumble grumble)


3. HOW DO YOU CONTROL 3D SKETCH?
very carefully- however 06 is vastly improved

Ralph Wiggum- That wood is surprisingly good:) But I think that you should change that environment. Cool stuff-

Posted by: MR-A Feb 16 2006, 05:40 PM

Hey, thanks for the reply...

Ok, I am sorry I didn't mean to and actualy wasnt shouting at all.

I was at work and had to type fast so no one would see me, ok?

I promise that in the future I will try not to use the caps. Sorry...

Will you ever forgive me?



Just kiddin,

its all cool.


P.S. I agree SW 2006 has gotten so much better!!!!

Posted by: menappi Feb 24 2006, 09:16 AM

hey parel, im trying to model my own mouse design, and so i created the 3d sketch with half of the mouse drawn out in splines, and when i go to loft it, i cant select the things i sketches. is there something special i need to do to be able to select them to b able to create the loft?

Posted by: parel Feb 24 2006, 02:56 PM

Why dont you start a new topic and post some pictures/screengrabs? I'll see whats going on with your file.

Posted by: RobMay Feb 27 2006, 06:54 PM

QUOTE(parel @ Nov 6 2004, 03:04 PM)

Posted by: parel Feb 28 2006, 12:15 AM

Sorry RobMay- It was my first tut and I didnt have a lot of time to go into a lot of the details. You can download the file from the link in the first post.

I do backtrack later and explain how to make some of the curves etc:

Posted by: RobMay Feb 28 2006, 12:41 AM

Cheers for the fast response Parel.

Hopefully i'll have a completed model rendering to post soon and see how i compare. I've been after some help with the surfacing features of solidworks for a while so this tutorial fits the bill perfectly.

Thanks for the help.

Posted by: RobMay Feb 28 2006, 04:35 PM

Here's my rendering attempt after a couple of hours tweaking. Feedback and opinions are weclomed. Gonna try some of the techniques shown in the PWx tutorial that Parel has been so kind to provide later.

Also going to drop it into StudioTools and see how the renders compare, i'll post this as and wen it is done.

Thanks again Parel, excellent tutorial.

Rob

Posted by: MR-A Feb 28 2006, 07:02 PM

QUOTE(RobMay @ Feb 28 2006, 10:35 AM)

Posted by: RobMay Feb 28 2006, 07:38 PM

MR-A:

I thought that about the floor to, it was set to be level with the base of the model but for some reason that didn't work!!

I think it needs som adjustments to the lights, especially in the area u've mentioned but need more practise with them.

As for the floor i think thats a reflection of the sky coz in my smaller test renders it was a darker metallic surface, still ironing out some of the niggles!!

thanks for ur feed back

Posted by: MR-A Feb 28 2006, 07:55 PM

I have posted some rendering tips for Photoworks earlier; see if you can utilize them.

Look here: http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=2790

Posted by: mas2 Mar 1 2006, 03:38 AM

okay i am doing this in SWX 2004 and have had to go about it a different way

i drew a sketch on the top plane for the right hand side profile of the mouse
then drew a sketch on the right plane for the side profile of the mouse
next i put in 3 guide curves that are pierced and normal to both of these sketches and lofted between them

so effectively i have half a solid mouse

the problem occurs when i mirror this half and render it i end up with a ridgeline through the centre of my mouse
anyone got any ideas on how to make it a smooth transition?

Posted by: MR-A Mar 1 2006, 06:15 AM

If I understand what you’re trying to explain correctly, then you have to follow directions on the image:



This will ensure that there is no ridgeline on your mouse.

Don't forget to knit all surfaces.

Good luck!!!

Posted by: mas2 Mar 1 2006, 07:31 AM

thankyou very much IT WORKED!!!

also why should i surface knit?

thankyou again

Posted by: MR-A Mar 1 2006, 05:28 PM

QUOTE(mas2 @ Mar 1 2006, 01:31 AM)

Posted by: menappi Mar 5 2006, 09:53 AM

parel, how did you get sucha nice render, i dont understand the process, you combined 3 rendered images? could you elaborate more on what you did?

Posted by: MR-A Mar 5 2006, 05:24 PM

Menappi,

this is for you as promissed...



Offset entities command symbol.

Posted by: RobMay Mar 10 2006, 01:40 AM

Just used Alias ImageStudio to render my solidworks model of the mouse and this was how it came up:



This program is a godsend, so much easier (and quicker) than studio tools and easier and more controllable than photoworks. U shud all give it a go, u can download the 30 day free trial from the alias website.

Posted by: Daan Mar 26 2006, 07:44 PM

Hi Parel,

I read somewhere that you have made a studio setup for indirect illumination. It has a ground floor which curves up in a back floor. Do you have that for download somewhere? I mean this:



Thanks, Daan

Posted by: yoshi Mar 30 2006, 06:12 AM

dudes i hate u all u know so0 much about rendering this nd dat on comps, wer do u learn all this stuff, ...im 15 nd wanna learn..

Posted by: knotfreak Apr 19 2006, 07:35 PM

Hi,

Here's my mouse contribution. Could you help me out with the seat I'm trying to model? As you can sea, the transition from one curve to the other is not smooth. You can see the line down the middle. Also, the ends of the seat are really bad.

Posted by: Darko Apr 23 2006, 07:43 AM

finally had a chance to do the tutorial, learned so much. here's my screen shot:

http://img20.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rbmousetut6yz.jpg

Posted by: baobei6699 Apr 25 2006, 12:56 PM

[font=Book Antiqua][size=6]
Hi Dear Parel, and other lovely SW user,
I have learned PRO-E WF2, now i taking night class for SW, i faced little problems on finsihed the whole model as Parel shows,hope some1 can give me some help.

Im currently stucked by the 4ribs (last 2nd step), Parel says use Insert>boos/base>revole, but it need a axis in SW2006, but it was going so smoothly with some knowledge of PRO-e.

This toturial give more confidences for SW indeed! the little pity thing is i can't finished the 4 little ribs and make a beaufiful rendering pic here

Looking for all of your kind advices:)

amd6699@gmail.com

Posted by: A-train Apr 25 2006, 06:35 PM

wow knotreak, that sadle looks nasty, sorry to say it, but the crack line in the middle should not be there. A tip to avoid these things.
If you are going to mirror a surface; take the mid section curve and extrude it straight so you have a helping edge.
then instead of usign the the center curve, you use the edge and set the surface toolbox on curvature continue setting for that edge.

make sure that the guide lines that shape the surface are tangent to that surface.

If you use that edge instead of the curve, you avoid those cracks in the smooth surface (it will show up in the render)

I learned this using Alias, and it works for a lot of modeling software

Hope I could help

Adriaan

Posted by: knotfreak May 1 2006, 04:55 PM

I went over the seat again using A-train's tips.
What do you think?

Posted by: Renzsu Jul 8 2006, 07:26 PM

As I just started a new internship at a place where Solidworks is used (amongst others), I thought it would be a good time to spend some time getting myself more familiar with it.
Here's my result from the excellent tutorial, I rendered it with Maxwell Render 1.1. The environment is included with Maxwell, I just rotated the lights a bit. Materials were done with the quite good material wizard, overall setup time must've been about 10 minutes.
Here's the result after an hour rendering on my machine:



I'd like to thank you again for making this tutorial, it made me feel a lot less intimidated by the program and get more familiar with its workflow.
I like how the tutorial isn't as short as the ones that are included with the software, it has some repetition in there to make sure things stick.

Posted by: Renzsu Jul 9 2006, 02:17 PM

Here's another render of the same model in Maxwell Render 1.1.
This time I made my own scene and emitters, and slightly changed the rubber material to make it a bit more reflective. Rendertime, about 1.5 hours (resized from 1024x768), slight glare effects added in Maxwell.

Posted by: Renzsu Jul 9 2006, 10:36 PM

And the last render of this model..

Posted by: bowlofnoodle Jul 10 2006, 02:10 AM

The red color and material is really nice, but the white part is a bit off. Can we see the lighting and camera set up?

Posted by: Renzsu Jul 10 2006, 07:13 AM

This is the setup, how strong you want the lights to be depends on the mood you're after, I used Maxwell's multilight feature to interactively change the light strength during the making of a smaller test render. I then simply modified the light strenght in the editor and re-rendered at a higher resolution (multilight slows down render speed). All in all setup time for this render merely consisted of making the stage and playing with the material editor.

Posted by: robbie Jul 10 2006, 07:46 PM

WOW Renzsu the Silver colured plastic render looks awesome! Nice job! How easy is it to use Maxwell with Solidworks? Do ou need to import the models into maxwell or does it works like photoworks (i.e. in the solidworks environments using the models directly)?

Posted by: Renzsu Jul 10 2006, 08:52 PM

You can use it like Photoworks, you need to use Solidworks 2006 or better because it only works if you can create a camera.
What I did though was to just slap a camera in the scene, use the plugin to save the scene as a .mxs file (Maxwell's native 3D format) and edit the scene in Maxwell Studio (making sure the camera focus, scale and all that were properly setup).

Posted by: iddidy Aug 25 2006, 05:17 PM

Hi, Many thanks for the tutorial. I am trying to create the curves for the mouse from scratch and am stuck making this curve.

I know it is a 3d spline, but when I edit the sketch it tells me that it is a fit spline, (what are these?). If I delete it there are three construction splines under it. My question is how do you create these splines on the surface.

Thanks for your help.

Posted by: theBIGone Sep 24 2006, 10:38 AM

WOW this tutorial was very usefull. Only the rendering part was to fast for me, How did you manage to get the blurry and green effect, and how did you put the images together. Was this done with photoworks??
I'd really like to have an answer, but anyway THANK YOU

this is my result

http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mousecurvesgd4.jpg

Posted by: evolve Sep 28 2006, 07:37 AM

Here is my attempt and still working on PW for the right lighting.

I want to thank parel.

Posted by: good luck Nov 12 2006, 10:52 AM

QUOTE(parel @ Nov 6 2004, 03:08 PM)

Posted by: Ryan Olson Dec 23 2006, 11:47 PM

Thanks very much for the tutorial. Came across it two years after you originally posted it and it's still quite relevant and useful. I've been using SW for a few years now but haven't managed to get what I want from the surfacing features... this is definitely helping to point me in the right direction.

- rdo

Posted by: antonio_meze Mar 24 2007, 05:50 PM

yes, I agree. Great tutorial. It really makes you evolve lot in case you are at the learning stages.
Thanks Parel.

Posted by: parel Mar 26 2007, 01:25 PM

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate the encouragement. What do you think would be a good follow-up to this tutorial?

Posted by: antonio_meze Mar 26 2007, 01:39 PM

I am using SW for 3 years now and there are still a few tools that I almost never used and probably don't know how to use to their full capacity. I am talking about some of the shape modifiers like the: form, free-form, shape, dome, deform, indent, flex. It would be nice if some of this tools would also be intensely used in a tutorial. It's just an idea.
Thanks,
Antonio

Posted by: m4rtyn Apr 3 2007, 09:59 PM

QUOTE(parel @ Mar 26 2007, 01:25 PM)

Posted by: parel Apr 10 2007, 07:03 PM

Those sunglass files are actually uploaded. There should be a link on my blog somewhere

Posted by: swan1980 May 31 2007, 10:19 AM

QUOTE(parel @ Sep 2 2004, 05:09 PM)

Posted by: longsbeans Jun 29 2007, 06:21 PM

QUOTE(norah @ Jan 25 2005, 11:29 PM)

QUOTE(norah @ Jan 27 2005, 08:47 AM)

Posted by: potatoman Oct 18 2007, 01:53 PM

Hi

First I want to thank everyone on this forum to encourage and to inspire me! Especially Parel with your tutorial!
I like it a lot, it is explained very clairly and easy to follow, also for non-experienced users.
Thanks

Here's my homework:

Posted by: jjdemery Oct 21 2007, 01:15 PM

Hello everybody,

I am trying to learn concepts unlimited at the moment, we are just introducing it in school so I thought I would have a go at this tutorial. Please give feedback. The mouse was modelled and rendered in Concepts Unlimited V4 SP3.


Jon

Posted by: mikle955 Oct 21 2007, 01:58 PM

QUOTE(jjdemery @ Oct 21 2007, 03:15 PM)

Posted by: jjdemery Oct 21 2007, 02:10 PM

Here is another one, this time I have mantaged the rendered top and side views with the original sketch elevations for comparison.

Jon

Posted by: jjdemery Oct 21 2007, 02:16 PM

Hi Mike,

We teach 11 to 19 year olds product design at college, the seniors use mainly Inventor or ProE. Our Head of Dept asked me to evaluate Ashlar for use in the middle and junior years, this is when we found CU4 which imho has a better interface (the price was good too!) before this we had been using PTC ProDesktop (aaaargh!!!)

Jon

Posted by: mikle955 Oct 21 2007, 02:36 PM

QUOTE(jjdemery @ Oct 21 2007, 04:16 PM)

Posted by: jjdemery Oct 21 2007, 08:26 PM

Heres another few renders. I must say thanks to Parel for the tutorial it has really inspired me to model more ideas, I especially like the way of integrating initial sketches into the modelling process.

Jon

Posted by: ayangya Oct 24 2007, 08:23 AM

Thank you Parel, this is a very nice tutorial. I just start to learn Solidworks and wish learn more from you and others.

Posted by: oliwiak82 Nov 8 2007, 03:39 PM

Hi

Can somebody help me and answer;

Q: why i have only one option in field 1 ? in field 2 i have two options. In the mouse curves.SLDPRT file, there is two options in those two fields.

What's wrong with my sketch ?


http://img69.imageshack.us/my.php?image=012932iq5.jpg

Posted by: Fvanduerm Nov 13 2007, 05:58 PM

Just a quick question.
How are the folders created in the feature tree? ie. rib sketches + mouse wheel

Posted by: parel Nov 13 2007, 06:31 PM

oliwiak82 - Could you use the forum to attach images. My firewall blocks your images

Fvanduerm: Shift click the items in the history tree and then Right Click> Add to New folder.

Posted by: Fvanduerm Nov 14 2007, 06:47 PM

Parel,
Would it be possible to fill out the tutorial in a manner that would explain the procedures used to build the model from the ground up if only in text format? I enjoy this tutorial very much but would appreciate it much more if i was able to see the entire process. For example, you do a wonderful job of explaining how to configure the menus, move on to defining a 3d character curve and then all the sudden we are lofting a surface from a zip file. Great work though.

Thanks much for your efforts.

Frank

Edit: I see this was addressed earlier. Thanks again.

Posted by: Rico Nov 28 2007, 02:57 PM

Hallo! It has been very useful tutorial! 1 year back i made the mouse ready, but i did loose the file. Now I'm stuck in the ribmaking place. In Solidworks 2007 the Move/Copy option is changed, so i'm confused what to do? I'm able to do intersection curves and after that everything is a big fuzz. When selecting with deform the body 1, body moves away and it deforms nothing. Maybe somewhere is a bit more explained how to make textures on a surface

Posted by: Rico Dec 5 2007, 02:38 PM

Problem solved. I did not read previous posts quite well. My bad. Tnx anyway!

Posted by: maxngks Aug 20 2008, 10:10 AM

Thank you so much for this interesting tutorial!! I helped me a lot!!

Posted by: parel Aug 20 2008, 04:06 PM

No prob maxngks.

Posted by: MarkR Nov 4 2008, 07:12 PM

I don't understand this :S I opened the picture you uploaded.. But i don't understand the first steps. Can anyone help me?

Posted by: connman Jan 15 2009, 03:52 PM

Thank you so much for this tutorial parel. I've been using SolidWorks quite a while, but this has taught me about some tools i've never used before. Great stuff!

Posted by: damir1 Feb 21 2009, 02:06 PM

catia v5 with no rendering.

Posted by: damir1 Feb 21 2009, 02:10 PM

rendering not good. but look nice

Posted by: henry81 Mar 11 2009, 07:01 PM

i can't combine two mirror deformed ! but i can able to combine all the other (six) combined and mirror featured

here i attached the image of the two mirror deformed (appears in green (left side in orientation to the screen) and the split which i can't combine and i receive the error

may i know what goes wrong here !!

Posted by: Crow Mar 19 2009, 09:11 PM

Hello
I'm interested with this metod, how to use picture to design products......
Can someone pls. send some information or at least how the metod is coled.
Thanks.

Posted by: henry81 Mar 20 2009, 07:51 AM

QUOTE (Crow @ Mar 20 2009, 01:41 AM)

Posted by: retrospec Apr 8 2009, 04:33 AM

QUOTE (parel @ Nov 6 2004, 11:04 AM)

Posted by: NoDayLikeDoomsday Apr 24 2009, 06:47 PM

Great tutorial! I've been trying to get better at modeling organic objects for a while, and this was the perfect intro.
Thanks!

Posted by: tvvladimir May 13 2009, 09:07 AM

Thank you so much!!! I have got a book on surfacing and all that but it was dead hard for me. Your tutorial is so easy to follow! I love the way you put things like>> Tools> Edges> Split for example and with pictures of tools. Even though you wrote it a while ago I was able to follow even though some icons changed. Did you write a book? I'd by one if you made it. Or perhaps a DVD on complex modelling? I'd buy it! If you already did please let me know, my email is: tvvladimir/yahoo.com.

p.s. I've encountered a problem when doing Insert>>Feature>>Split. Solidworks just shuts down, I've tried many times but same thing everytime . Will try ask on the forum in appropriate place.

Thanks again!!!

Posted by: michal d Dec 7 2009, 12:24 AM

Hey, thanks for the tutorial. I did learn a lot. here are the modles ive done today. i plazed a little with the model.
take care
michal