How To Bring Your CAD To Life With Some Final Touches
It’s blog post #3 and there is still no sign of Eli. I’d held off on this post in the hope that he would arrive and I would be able to show off my finalised CAD with all his little features but alas my deadline is approaching this weekend and I can’t hold out any longer. It’s a pity but what can you do, there were still bits and pieces I could add to my assembly without physically seeing Eli anyway.
The majority of the work was making slight adjustments to dimensions, materials etc that I hadn’t rectified first time around.
The first thing I set about was brushing up on my wheels. After a social media post by one of my classmates I realised they needed some serious work! The standard of the rest of my class was up to its usual high standards. This side by side comparison of my wheels beside those produced by my class reminded me that I’d need to step up my game if I wanted to compete! You can check out the post (and go vote for me of course) here. You really can get caught with tunnel vision when you’re working on bigger projects like this so as tip number 1 I would say stepping back and reevaluating with a fresh set of eyes is really important.
I went back and started from scratch. It was a much quicker process this time around as I knew what I was doing and was of course well and truly back in the swing of SolidWorks once again. So yeah, there’s not much more to say here only here’s the finished result! A little before and after to showcase the changes.
If anyone wants a tutorial on how I went from that to this^ then please let me know and I’d be more than happy to oblige!
Next I decided to incorporate a few wires. It was A LOT harder than it looked but after a few hours and a lot of heavy breathing (from the laptop not me), we got there. I used splines and a lot of trial and error. Creating a shape, seeing how it fitted in the assembly and then modifying it accordingly. I’m sure there’s a better way of doing it but I haven’t figured it out just yet. If anyone has some suggestions or some good links I’d love to hear it in the comments below! The following pictures showcases these crafty little wires. Please do stop and admire them because they really did take ages.
Overall, that side of finishing off of the framework took longer than I thought it would. Changing dimensions even slightly created big trouble in the assembly at times and there was a lot of breaking of mates and subsequent re-mating. Throughout the duration of this assembly I’ve made…
- 30 Distance mates
- 36 Lock mates
- 742 Concentric mates
- 1465 Coincident mates
…and knowing me that probably won’t be the end of it. I’ll be lying in bed and think of something else I can change or better, just you watch.
One awful example of this goes back to (you guessed it) the wires. I made my motors slightly smaller so I could change their orientation and position them more realistically. As a result, the wires no longer fitted perfectly into place anymore and trying to readjust them… well let’s just say I don’t want to have to think about it again.
On the bright side, one thing that didn’t require updating and caused me no hassle whatsoever was my ultrasonic sensor! After the effort I put into it the first time around I’m pretty glad. Maybe next time I’ll put the same attentive detail into all my parts from the outset rather than saying, “Aw I’ll fix that later”. So maybe there’s a lesson here, if you’re doing something, do it right the first time! Don’t be a cowboy CAD’er like me and that my friends, is tip number 2.
That being said, all the fine tuning really has brought the CAD to life. Perfecting the framework and subsequently adding lots of extra fine tuned details has done virtual Eli the world of good! Yes it’s basically the same shape and look overall but see how much more realistic it looks now! I really didn’t realise how much I’d improved until I seen these photos side-by-side so as tip number 3 I would definitely suggest taking some progress photos for when you need a little motivation/ego/confidence boost.
How many differences can you spot?! If you can’t spot at least 12 then you’re not looking hard enough! and no, counting each of the screws individually doesn’t count.
So! Between my last blog and the beginning of this one, you should see the importance of perfecting these the overall basic framework and also be able to do so! “But Aoife, how do you achieve those finer details you talked about above and really bring your CAD to life?” you ask. Well, stay tuned and I’ll tell you!
Okay so picture it, you’re at the stage where you’re happy with your framework but it’s just missing a little… something. You go back and examine your robot (or pictures of your robot in my case) and you look for all the tiny little details you could incorporate and guess what? You just incorporate them! Most of them will just be simple shapes that don’t require much time individually but once you’ve created enough of them it’ll look like there’s heaps of detail. A prime example of this is circuit boards!
As you can see, all I did was create lots of little rectangles and extrude them! Simples! Applying the texture also really brings this part to life and it literally takes two minutes to download and apply.
The above picture also demonstrates some more quick and easy detailing. Well okay, I’ve already said the dreaded wiring took way too long but the rest of it was easy, I promise!
The threads: an in-built SolidWorks function. Insert > Features > Threads > select your contours, et voilà.
The screws: another in-built SolidWorks function. Go to the Design Library (second icon down in the task pane on the right of the screen), click the toolbox, press “Add in now”, choose your units (I usually use ANSI Metric) and then browse the range of screws, nuts, bolts, washers etc etc. You just pick which one you want and drag it towards the desired hole where it’ll then snap into place. How convenient is that?
The writing: More in-built features. Draw a little centre line where you want your writing to sit. Select the text button (it’s the A in the same area as the other sketch tools) and then select your line, write your text, change your font, the size, whatever you want. It really is that simple.
Repeating parts like the pins? Patterns! Make one and then pattern it in the x direction, y direction or both. Easy Peasy.
And lastly don’t forget to apply your appearances/textures!
I think I lost track of what number tip I’m on after that section, there was rather a lot. We’ll just call it one big tip number 4
Well guys, it’s been a journey. My love of CAD has been renewed and I hope I’ve managed to ignite some enthusiasm for it in yourselves also.
Stayed tuned for some more adventures as I tackle my ping pong ball launcher and Rube Goldberg machine next!
