Solidworks Cam 2022 Tutorial

[Dulce Donten]

Idecided to model a cactus as they have always fascinated me, and they are the only plants I own or can keep alive! So, what am I going to showcase? for this tutorial I will demonstrate the use of the loft feature using the normal to profile constraints. I will also show you how to use component patterns within an assembly to add the spike component onto the cactus. You will need to download the cactus pot and cactus spike parts here

A polygon and circular sketch pattern were used to sketch out the profiles of the cactus loft feature. I created a larger cactus profile above the first and then took the loft feature, when I select the profiles, they loft straight to each other. To get that rounder more organic cactus shape, you need to select start and end constraints and select the start constraint drop down, for this option I chose normal to profile. This creates the curve on the loft all the way around. If I had wanted to, I could increase the direction number to increase to curve to the next profile, but in this case, I kept the direction number at 1.

To create the top of the cactus I used a very simple trick, the dome feature! Selecting the top face of the lofted body and the dome feature, I had to untick continuous dome because of the shape of the lofted face, I increased the height of the dome until it formed a recognizable cactus head. The dome feature can be a very powerful tool to create more body onto complex profiles like this.

Continuing with this way of creating the cactus form, I used similar processes to create the cactus arms. With the arms, when lofting sketch profiles I again used start and end constraints chose normal to profile for both the start constraints and the end constraints to create the bend in the arm. The bend of the arm could be manipulated again using the direction number. The second arm was created using move/copy bodies and was scaled up larger to scale 1:2, it was then also rotated around the temporary axis of the plant pot.

The next step was to create some guide sketches in preparation for placing the cactus spikes within the assembly. I added a converted edge sketch along one of the cacti edges and added a point in preparation for adding a cactus spike for patterning. I also used the 3d sketch to add points onto the arms of the cactus, spacing them apart proportionately to where I wanted to add spikes. Once I was happy with the placement of all my guides I saved the part and inserted it into an assembly.

Once in the assembly, I could insert a spike part into the assembly and mate in coincident onto the first guide point I added onto the curve. The spike part has a point sketch within the revolve of the part to assist in the mating process within the assembly. The spike could then be patterned using the linear component pattern drop down, I selected curve driven component pattern. For the pattern direction, I used the guide sketch from the cactus part and I added 7 instances along the curve at 27mm apart. To have the spikes run tangent along the curve to look like a cactus, I ensured I had the settings on reference point with bounding box center selected, the curve method had offset curve selected and the alignment had tangent to curve selected. This allowed me to place all the spikes almost perpendicular to the curve.

The next pattern feature I used was the circular component pattern feature, for this I used the plant pots temporary axis and selected all 7 of the patterned spikes to pattern, in the tutorial I patterned by 6 instances, but for my renderings I created 12 so that the spikes would be on all 12 outer edges. The final step was to drop in duplicates of the spike part to attach onto each individual point from the 3d sketch. From here I could mate the spikes onto each point with a coincident mate, this mate did not fully define the spike, it just holds it by an anchor point so that I could then manually drag the spikes into a position that looked right. Once happy with the positioning of the spikes I could fix all the parts into place if preferred.

My final cactus modelled was rendered with SOLIDWORKS Visualize. I enabled depth of field within the camera settings for this rendering to focus on parts of the cactus and blur out the background. I also added an orange peel bump texture to the cactus appearance to mimic the skin of the cactus and added a box and complex wall model to add a shelf and wall background too so that I could place the pot onto the shelf, up against the wall backdrop.

I designed these heartfelt themed keyrings for myself and my husband, he will keep the key and I will have the heart, I had them printed by 3D Print UK, in an SLS Nylon, the heart was dyed red and I kept the key natural. So, diving in to some of the things I featured in my tutorial, you will see the use of dome, revolve, mirror bodies and sketch text. If you would like to add the keyring to your model, you can download that part here.

Starting with the heart, I sketched and extruded a very thin heart shape, from here I could select the front face and apply the dome feature, because of the shape type, I needed to uncheck the continuous dome box. Once applied, I could repeat the feature onto the opposite heart extrusion side to create a 3D heart.

An important step in the design was the keyring hoop, this is where I would attach my designs to a keychain, so it needed to be strong enough and large enough for the chain to attach and not break. I had some breakages in a print when I designed it too thin, so be aware of this, dimensions needed might differ depending on your printer material and your keychain thickness. At the joining edge of the hoop, I applied a small fillet, which adds material and can strengthen the join.

Moving onto the key, I took an angled ellipse and the sweep feature, using the circular profile setting I chose the ellipse for my sweep path. I could then mirror this body over and merge the two together to create a heart shaped key handle.

For the text element of the key, I created a guide sketch for the sketch text to sit onto. Using the sketch text tool, I can select my sketched line as my guide curve, and type LOVE in all caps. You could use a different word or name, but you would need to amend the text size to ensure it fits within the 12mm space and also amend the revolved shape in the heart that acts as a tooth in the heart barrel. I used the orientation buttons to flip my text onto the line, then unchecking use document font, I changed the spacing between the letters to 70 percent, to create an overlap in the text, highlighting the text I could also make the font bold, which would like the text overlap, strengthen the print. You can choose other font, but I just changed the height until the text overlapped onto the keys bar and when extruded mid plane it merged onto the key.

For the main duck body, I used the globe surface as the starting shape, and snapped it onto my guide sketch. I switched on the symmetry tool along the ZX plane, that way I could edit the shape on one side and the duck would remain symmetric. A green line shows me that the symmetry feature is active and along which line it is mirroring. Before I began modeling, I altered the transparency of the shape to see the guide image underneath.

When I got to the tail of the duck, I needed to extrude some of the shapes faces to form the tail. The view from the top of the duck is very square. Again, I only needed to move points from one side of the duck to reshape the profile. The tail needed more loops to taper it more and make it easier to shape.

The next feature of the duck was the squeaker hole. For this element I revolve cut a dome out of the base and cut a small hole into the duck by 2mm from the geometry. This hole allowed me to select its inner faces and shell the duck body by 1mm. To finalize this feature of the duck, I revolved a lip profile around the opening of the hole which some molded rubber ducks have.

Sketching onto the XY plane, and viewing from the top, I sketched a perpendicular line midpoint to the end of my line, to sit facing the ducks head where I want the eye to project from to split the ducks face. I added a new plane selecting the line and the midpoint of the perpendicular line as the reference so that the plane sat along my sketched guide.

From here, I sketched an ellipse near and in line with the eye from the image. Sketching the eye directly on top of the guide image would sit wrong, so I sketched to the right of the eye on a slight angle. Then using features and split face, I could select all of the faces of the duck that the sketch needs to project onto. Once applied, I can see when I hover over the ducks face that the face has split to form the outline of the ducks eye. I repeated this process for the pupil of the duck and mirrored the eye over.

With the duck fully modeled, I applied appearances to the ducks body, bill and eyes, this makes it easier to preselect parts in SOLIDWORKS Visualize and edit the individual appearances and colors. I saved my rubber duck and opened it up in SOLIDWORKS Visualize to render, you can see an animation of the ducks falling at the end of the tutorial.

For this 3D Sculptor and SOLIDWORKS tutorial. I used xShape from the 3D Sculptor role on the 3D Experience Platform to create some realistic pieces of fruit. For the purpose of the tutorial I only demonstrate modelling the apple and banana. The tutorial is fast pace so feel free to pause as you go along. The modelling type in xShape is very freeform so your models will be slightly different, especially as there are no reference images used for the modelling. The finished xShape models are exported as STEP files for SOLIDWORKS, where I could add appearances and decals. The finished fruit is added to a premade assembly which is available to download here along with the decals needed for the apple and banana model.

Starting with the apple, to begin modelling you need to choose a subdivision surface shape, this decision when modelling can make a model easier to create as these shapes acts as a base for all your modelling. So, for the apple, I used the globe. You have the option once the shape is dropped to add more control loops to the shape but it is best to keep your shape simple to begin with and add more control loops as you go along. You can copy how I model my apple in the tutorial or use reference pictures or an actual apple yourself to model from. The great thing about 3D Sculptor is the ability to create irregular organic shapes quickly which was ideal creating these fruit shapes. During the tutorial I demonstrate a range of modelling features such as, symmetry, insert loops, subdivide faces, fill edges and delete faces/loops.

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