Kara Tucker, a Product Development CAD Designer at Gibson, described the process of creating guitars using SOLIDWORKS. From the challenges of working with wood to the intricate reverse engineering process, Tucker sheds light on the meticulous craftsmanship behind each instrument.

Gibson is known for their legendary guitar shapes, but even with a steadfast history, there’s still engineering and design that needs to be done. (Image credit: SOLIDWORKS.)

Respecting the Wood

Tucker's journey to Gibson began with her experience working with wood and plastic at an escape-game company. Unlike common materials that are utilized in more traditional engineering work, wood is ever-changing and encompasses a range of species that present different qualities both at the production level and over the life of a guitar.

“I would describe my design work with the game company as wooden based structures—cabinets, with hardware, springs and magnets, stuff that pops out at you. The structures need to last because they are interacted with daily, and it’s very immersive. I learned a lot while I was working there and really got a feel for working with different kinds of species of wood.”

Each assembly of a guitar incorporates various woods and other materials that tend to stretch and deform over time. While this can be a challenge when manufacturing, it’s more about designing for what will come eventually—preparing the design to play well off the shelf and still play well after decades of aging.

Tucker and the engineers at Gibson aim to have tight tolerances while respecting the unique properties of wood. That’s why the company imports woods, and dries them to an 8 percent moisture content, lower than the industry standard of 12 percent, to minimize imperfections and ensure high-quality products.

She emphasized the need to work with the inherent characteristics of wood rather than against them, combining the skills of a woodworking artist and an engineer. The mechanical properties and hardness ratings of different wood species must be thoroughly understood to create successful designs.

Preserving History and Reverse Engineering

The rich history behind Gibson guitars is an essential element to not only preserving past features but also carrying them forward as they engineer instruments. To properly design and replicate the instruments, she delves deep into the historical context of each model, understanding the engineering intentions and the production processes of the past.

This knowledge allows her to design with purpose, respecting the original intent while considering the current production limitations. Reverse engineering plays a crucial role in the process, involving the use of 3D scanning technology from Creaform and software such as VXelements to move from mesh to CAD. Tucker and her team capture intricate details and dimensions of existing guitar models, retrofitting them into the SOLIDWORKS CAD environment.

“The shapes of the Explorer; the SG shape; the Les Paul shape. All of that is kind of already set in stone for us. Usually what ends up happening is the product development team will want to copy a neck. We'll take a 3D scanner and scan an artist's neck and reverse engineer that using our mesh-to-CAD workflow. What we're doing is trying to retrofit a very particular feel of a neck onto whatever our modern technology allows us to construct it.”

Neck profiles are a critical element in guitar design. Gibson guitars feature asymmetrical necks with unique profiles, ranging from rounded to slim taper designs. Legacy instruments that have adapted and changed over time are even more unique and vary greatly.

Gibson engineers use a mesh-to-CAD workflow to scan legacy instruments and get them into the SOLIDWORKS environment. (Image credit: SOLIDWORKS.)

Reverse engineering these necks requires meticulous attention to detail, using splines and asymmetrical geometry to replicate their contours accurately. Each model presents its own challenges and the design process demands a deep understanding of the hand operations and material removal during manufacturing.

When Tucker started at Gibson, many of the engineers were still working in 2D CAD. That means a major element of the reverse engineering process isn’t just replicating specific elements of artists’ guitars, but also documenting the shapes in 3D CAD. Creating a digital historical context for the different instruments is important and it allows the Gibson team to understand just how the instruments change over time.

Scanning and creating CAD models of legacy and artist instruments is important for reproducing unique products, and also for documenting. (Image credit: SOLIDWORKS.)

From CAD to Creation

Transitioning from the digital world of CAD to the physical creation of guitars requires planning—and more planning on the engineering side than you might expect. Tucker ensures that the CAD designs consider the manufacturing process, accounting for variations that occur during machining and assembly, as well as the hand-sanding and other manual work that is done to refine the final products.

Factors such as fingerboard dimensions and tensioning of truss rods must be carefully considered in order to achieve a playable instrument. The reverse engineering process often involves accounting for material removal of 50 to 70 thousandths of an inch to achieve the desired final product.

Tucker provided an example of the nuanced engineering that needs to occur when they are reverse engineering instruments for contemporary production.

“We had a carved top, and I took the joining fret information—where the neck joins the body—and that acts as a constraint. The bridge height and the bridge playability that you put on this assembly also acts as a constraint. From there, we have to play around with the design to make sure that the neck and body are joined in a preferred way. There might be a riser involved, or an existing riser needs to be more complex.” The tiny details can make or break a guitar’s design and playability.

Other times, the engineering work isn’t quite so constrained. For instance, they will sometimes have to develop full-on assemblies or rework various pieces of hardware. Tucker explained one project where they were developing a new tailpiece that would be more adjustable and springier. 

“Sometimes, it’s almost like a Mr. Potato Head sort of situation and then in other cases, it's brand-new stuff. It really varies based on what the end goal happens to be. Because I’m so detail oriented, my bosses have to remind me, ‘Kara, you’re not designing a rocket.’ Even though it’s just an instrument, there’s still so much value in keeping the nuanced details in consideration.”

Designing Gibson guitars is a testament to the intricate artistry and engineering prowess involved in crafting these iconic instruments. Tucker's passion for her work shines through as she navigates the complexities of wood, reverse engineering and the preservation of historical designs. Even on a production line, each Gibson guitar is worked by hand and the design and engineering processes take that into account as they develop each instrument.

1. Introduction to using SOLIDWORKS to synthesize mechanisms
2. Adapting traditional graphical methods
3. 4-bar linkage motion generation
4. Optimizing mechanisms for size and smooth motion

This article builds on these previous ones, providing a real-world example of optimizing a mechanism with many different constraints. Where the constraints are too complex to represent in a single sketch, a multi-step approach can be used.

A sketch is set up to solve the mechanism for one configuration of parameter values. A script is then used to solve this sketch for many different configurations and record the values of driven dimensions. Finally, a spreadsheet is used to analyze the results and find the optimum design. In practice some iteration through these steps is required, as shown in the process flowchart below.

A script was created using the SOLIDWORKS API to read in the configurations, solve the model and store the results. It uses three simple text files for inputs and outputs:

Inputs.txt:

This file is created by the user to define the problem to be solved. It has three lines:

• The file name of the SOLIDWORKS part to open and interact with.
• A comma separated list of the driving parameters to be updated by the script.
• A comma separated list of the driven parameters to be recorded by the script.

Parameters.txt:

This file is also created by the user. Each line represents a different configuration as a comma separated list of values with each value corresponding to one of the driving parameters listed on the second line in inputs.txt.

Outputs.txt:

This file is created by the script. It has a similar structure to parameters.txt, with each line also representing a different configuration as a comma separated list of values for each parameter. In this case it is the driven parameters listed on the third line of inputs.txt that are listed.

Understanding the Constraints

The BriefBike design brief was that it needed to unfold, in under half a second, into a stable two-wheeled roller case format. It also needed to have riding geometry comparable to a normal bike and be structurally efficient.

Previously, an early prototype demonstrated the bike can be unfolded in less than half a second. But this design was too wide when folded and the complex relationship between constraints was making further improvement challenging.

BriefBike was designed to have a wide two-wheeled base that can be easily dragged behind you on two smaller castor wheels. This is in contrast to current folding bikes which, when fitted with castor wheels, behave more like the much less stable four-wheeled roller cases. These narrower designs must be pushed in front of you and actively steered rather than simply following along behind. Because the propulsive force comes from a hand quite some distance above the small wheels, they are very prone to tipping over. To be able to move quickly and navigate uneven surfaces, you need two wheels located quite far apart and to be able to pull it along behind you. This then creates a natural trailing link suspension effect.

A key design requirement for BriefBike was that it needed a wide two-wheeled base that could be easily dragged behind the rider.

Before creating the actual mechanism synthesis sketch, a simpler sketch was created to define the basic ride geometry of the bike. This includes parameters such as the wheelbase, trail and head angle. A linear dimension was used to drive the head angle as this was easier to work with in the API.

The RideGeom sketch defined the important parameters affecting the handling of the bike. This was then used as a reference for the LinkSynth sketch which solves for the linkages which enable the bike to fold.

The actual mechanism synthesis is performed by a sketch which shows the four-bar linkage in two positions – folded and riding. Each link is constrained to be the same length in both positions. By adding dimensions and constraints until the sketch is fully constrained, the link lengths and joint positions are determined. Setting up this sketch to robustly solve with a wide range of different parameter values was the most challenging aspect. It was also necessary to change the constraints somewhat as the design evolved.

The main four-bar linkage is represented in this sketch, with the ground link not actually drawn. The three non-grounded links are drawn in the riding position with a thick dotted line and in the folded position in a thick solid line.

Even with this automated approach, it is not possible to solve for every conceivable combination of parameters. The model has a total of 16 driving parameters. If each parameter had just five values, the total combinations would be 150 billion and take hundreds of years for SOLIDWORKS to solve. The method therefore starts with manually testing each parameter, getting a feel for the impact that adjustments make. Only when interactions become difficult to properly explore in this way is the script used to explore an area of the parameter space.

This project went through six iterations, with up to 40,000 configurations tested at a time. Generating a table with all the different combinations is what’s known in design of experiments as a full factorial set. For large parameter sets, an automated approach is needed to create this table. This can be done using Power Query, which comes with Excel.

First, a table is created in Excel for each parameter, listing the values to be tested. Each table is then connected to a query in Power Query which generates a single, much larger table with all the possible combinations. The actual process is a little involved but is explained clearly in this YouTube video. The table of configurations can then be exported into a text file that the script can read.

After the script had solved all the different configurations, I placed all the input driving dimensions and all the output driven dimensions into a single Excel table. This had a column for each parameter and a row for each configuration. I then created additional columns to calculate things like joint forces based on the lengths of frame members. Once all this data was in a single table, configurations could be filtered to find those with the best performance.

This resulted in finding a design with a longer wheelbase, steeper head angle, more direct transmission angles, lower joint forces and a more compact folded package. You can find out more about BriefBike at www.BetterBicycles.org

As both an avid car enthusiast and an engineer, the chance to improve the aerodynamics of a heavily modified C5 Z06 Corvette had the engine in my brain racing at the redline in top gear.

I routinely attend my local Cars & Coffee on Saturday mornings, which is where I was introduced to Mike Gwyn, the owner of the C5 Z06. While talking over geeky car specs, he learned that I worked for TriMech, a SOLIDWORKS reseller in the area, and that I had years of experience with 3D design and scanning. Mike is also an engineer in the metals casting industry and has some familiarity with SOLIDWORKS. He challenged me on how we might improve his Corvette’s performance on the track by adding front wings, known as canards, and a large rear spoiler. These additions aim to improve downforce, consequently enhancing the car's handling and performance on the curves on both the track and through the winding mountain roads that he frequents.

I proposed a collaboration with my friend, “Flow Joe” Galliera, to conduct aerodynamic studies using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Needless to say, Mike was gung-ho for the project. 

Image 1. The Artec3D Ray LIDAR scanner on a tripod next to the C5 Z06 Corvette in a parking lot.

Before anything aerodynamic could be added to the car, a 3D digital representation of the exterior of the car was required. I was grateful for the access to an Artec3D Ray LIDAR scanner. The scanner sits high atop a tripod (see image 1) in the parking lot where I met Mike with his Corvette.

Since the laser would pass through the glass, a white powder spray was applied to the windshields, headlights and taillights to ensure they could be captured. The whole scanning process, moving the tripod to eight locations around the car, took a total of about one and a half hours.

Image 2. The post-processed polygon mesh of the scanned car in Artec Studio 17 Professional.

Just over a million polygons were gathered and post-processed in Artec Studio 17 Professional (see image 2). Because there’s too much data for other downstream processes, the data was first decimated before generating an STL (Standard Tessellation Language) file. The main advantage of the STL file format is its prevalent use, but it lacks small file size and is not computationally efficient for the smooth curved surfaces found on a streamlined sport car.

An observation about the STL format that Joe likes to recount from the COFES 2017 conference is: if the creator of the STL file format knew at the time how widely it would be used in the future, he would’ve spent more than a weekend developing it. Moreover, an STL mesh has very many faceted faces and while some CFD packages can work directly with STLs, our choice of CFD tools requires solid models.

Image 3. The smooth NURBS surfaces generated from the STL mesh in Geomagic Design X.

Fortunately, a common program in the 3D scanner’s toolbelt is Geomagic Design X which can very nicely auto-generate smooth NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) surfaces from the STL mesh (see image 3). This process works well for a car’s continuously smooth organic shapes. Beyond auto-surfacing, Design X can also automatically identify areas of poor geometry definition originating from the scanned data and repair those areas. Lastly, all the surfaces can be formed into a water-tight solid body. That solid could also now be brought into SOLIDWORKS as a dumb imported solid to get to the next step in the process of our Corvette getting its wings.

SOLIDWORKS could have been used to make the swoopy shapes that represent the curvy aesthetics of the Corvette – given enough time and with considerable effort. Because SOLIDWORKS starts with a sketch, its strengths in 3D parametric mechanical CAD can become weaknesses when creating organic shapes. After some trial and error—perhaps using a Loft feature, or some other CAD wizardry—a suitable shape might be found. 

Having recently used Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE in my daily work, I had a feeling that the xShape app would be ideal for achieving my design intent for the canards. Based on sub-divisional (subD) modeling, organic shapes are native to xShape so creating our desired shape should be a breeze.

Image 4. The Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS connector to the 3DExperience platform.

To help with placement of the new wings being designed, the car geometry is brought into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform via the Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS connector (see image 4).

Image 5. The robot triad in the xShape app is used to move the rectangular surface body into place on the car body.

The basis of the canard is a rectangular surface body that can be easily spawned in xShape. Using the translational and rotational operators on the robot triad (see image 5), the surface is manipulated until it is located just aft of the front bumper and before the front tire wheel well. The whole of one edge of the surface is embedded into the car’s body, which will later be trimmed to exactly match the exterior for the attachment lip.

Image 6. The curved canard created in xShape by moving a vertex of the surface body.

Clicking a vertex of the surface activates the robot triad, allowing the point to be moved such that the oncoming airflow will be directed both away from the front tires and into the freestream towards the rear window and spoiler (see image 6). The two edges and adjacent sub-surfaces shared by that vertex become curved and remain continuous; this is the power of SubD modeling.

Placement of the point is based on both experience and judgement, considering various factors such as the vehicle's weight distribution, the airflow around the vehicle and the desired downforce. A determination for those won’t really be known until CFD simulations are run later. The surface can be thickened uniformly to create a solid body ready for CFD.

Image 7. The global origin indicated by the red arrow and orientation stays consistent throughout the design process.

From one software package to the next, the overall design intent drove the entire process by keeping the orientation and global origin consistent throughout; in this case, the Z-axis up and the origin placed at the front lower part of the bumper at center, indicated by the red arrow (see image 7). When the curved canard itself is transferred over into the SOLIDWORKS environment, for example, it comes over exactly where it was placed in xShape. The canard is mirrored using the opposite handed option to place the complementary pair on the other side of the car.

Image 8. The completed assembly with the canards and the spoiler ready for CFD simulations.

The rear wing, or spoiler, assembly comes from an aftermarket performance car supplier as a multi-body solid part including mounting brackets, so this additionally gets imported into SOLIDWORKS and placed at the rear of the car. The completed assembly (see image 8) is now composed of all components to be run in the CFD simulations: the scanned C5 Z06 Corvette body, the curved canards designed in xShape and the aftermarket spoiler.

In summary, the overall design process used here consisted of multiple design software tools to facilitate each step of the way based on what program was best suited for the task at hand. It’s similar to having various machines available in an engineering shop, like a saw, grinder, lathe, drill press and router, to bring an idea to life—though in this case, all the tools are digital.

The process started with digitizing the car exterior, post-processing the data to make a water-tight solid body ready for CFD, forming curvy organic shapes with subD modeling, importing an off-the-shelf third-party part and putting them all together for evaluating their combined aerodynamic performance to improve on the original high-performance vehicle. We expect that the aerodynamic modifications to the Corvette will further improve performance measures, such as enhanced handling, increased downforce and overall reduced drag.

In our next article, we will look at the fluid flow simulation of the C5 Z06 to determine just how well the aero parts will perform.

About the Authors

Christopher C. Duchaine is an Elite Application Engineer and has 10 years engineering experience using CAD to design mechanical and electromechanical systems in the industrial equipment industry. He has worked for over 10 years for SOLIDWORKS Value-Added Resellers at TriMech. 

Joe Galliera currently is reinventing the future of energy at SJK Energy Solutions. He acquired the nickname Flow Joe while working at SRAC and SOLIDWORKS for 18 years as a specialist in FEA and CFD simulations. He is the proud father of a very creative ten-year-old girl.

We covered a lot of material in this design challenge and today I’d like to share three of the more interesting areas of this project:

• Adding paint to the body.
• Running the electrical wiring (without using SOLIDWORKS Routing).
• Blending the neck to the headstock.

My hope is that by the end of this article, you’ll have some new tricks to use when facing similar design and modeling challenges in SOLIDWORKS.

Adding Paint to the Body

Guitars are often manufactured by first carving, sanding and painting the wooden body. After this process is complete, additional machining takes place to remove additional material. Pockets are machined into the painted body for things like the pickup cavity, neck pocket and the electronics area. Similarly, holes are often drilled into this body after it’s been painted.

This will leave us with a two-tone result, with one appearance representing the paint and another representing the machined (unpainted) wood. I wanted to capture this effect in my SOLIDWORKS model, and I decided to do it using the surfacing command Offset Surface.

I first created the basic shape of the guitar body using boss-extrude, cut-extrude and a series of lofted cuts to remove material and create the scalloped shape of the body.

I then used the command Insert > Surface > Offset and created an offset surface with a distance of 0.010”. I used the “Select Tangency” command (found in the right click menu) to quickly select all the faces of the body which are tangent to one another.

Once I had this surface offset at 0.010” I was able to use the command Insert > Boss/Base > Thicken and assign a wall thickness of 0.005,” thickened to the inside of the newly created surface.

Pro Tip: I find that having this small gap (0.010”-0.005” = 0.005” gap) helps to avoid some graphical anomalies that occur when you create thin surfaces directly on top of other solid surfaces.

After creating this thickened solid body to represent the paint, I assigned an appearance of candy apple red to the body and was very happy with the results.

The cool thing about this technique is that I can roll these two features (the surface offset and the thicken solid body representing the “paint”) to the bottom of the tree, rollback above these two features and continue designing the remaining features of the wooden guitar body.

I can add pockets and holes and any other features to the body and when I roll forward these pockets and holes will automatically be cut into this offset surface, leaving me with the perfect results.

Running the Electrical Wiring (without using SOLIDWORKS Routing)

The guitar used in this project has a relatively simple wiring harness comprised of a pickup, a potentiometer, a 3-way switch, an output jack and a ground wire running to the bridge. In spots like this, launching and configuring SOLIDWORKS routing is not necessary (plus I know there are a lot of users who don’t have access to SOLIDWORKS routing). So, to create these wires I utilized a “Stub and 3D Sketch” technique.

I started by positioning these components in the correct locations and mating them to the wooden body of the guitar. As we can see in the above image, the appropriate pockets and holes for the electronic components and wiring have been machined into this body.

Next, in each of these electronic components, I created one or more “Stub” sketches. A “stub sketch” is a simple sketch, usually just short line, which is created at the location where the wire connects to this electronic component. In the case of this 3-way switch (shown above) we can see that there are 2 “stub sketches,” one for the red wire connection and one for the black wire connection. After creating these sketches, I used the Sketch Color function in SOLIDWORKS to change the color of each sketch, which helps with identifying the different stubs and what they represent.

Back in the assembly, I was able to show all these “stub sketches.” This sets me up nicely to create my electrical harness using 3D sketches to connect the stubs. I started by creating a 3D sketch and using Convert Entities to convert two of the red stubs from the electronic components. These two converted entities represent the two ends of a single red wire. While still in this 3D sketch, I created a spline between these two short converted entities and assigned a tangency constraint to the spline at each end. Lastly, I create a sweep using the appropriate wire diameter and then color that sweep red.

After running the first wire, I was able to repeat, repeat, repeat.

Blending the Neck to the Headstock

One of the most common questions I get from students is “how do you blend one area to another area?” such as the neck of the guitar into the headstock. This is one of the more challenging parts of this exercise. The approach I took was to create the neck as one body and the headstock as a second body.

This multi body approach set me up nicely for a blend, using a Loft command to bridge the two bodies. Since I wanted the loft to have a smooth transition, I decided to create a larger gap between these two bodies.

To create this wider gap, I made two cuts, one on the neck body and one on the headstock body. I was trying to leave enough room to create a smooth curved blend region, with a smaller radius on the top and a larger radius on the bottom. That is why I created the cuts at an angle.

After creating this gap, I needed to modify the faces of the headstock. I wanted the transition to be coming from the smooth faces on the bottom of the neck and blending into a set of smooth faces on the headstock. Currently, the headstock has sharp corners, so I needed to do some filleting to smooth out these corners.

After smoothing out these edges, I was almost ready to loft. But first, I needed to make sure that each of the profiles had the same number of edges. The flat face of the headstock had a total of six edges, but the flat face of the neck had only two edges.

When lofting, I always try to work with the same number of edges going around each face (or profile). If there are a different number of edges on each face, SOLIDWORKS can run into issues with the loft twisting and/or ending up with an undesired result. So, I created two planes in the neck area and used these two planes to create two Split Lines along the side walls of the neck. That let me break up the elliptical edge of the neck into six edges.

With an equal number of edges on each profile I was ready to begin the Solid Loft command.

To begin the loft command, I selected the end face of the neck as Profile 1 and the end face of the headstock as Profile 2. I always take care to choose each of these profiles in a similar location, to avoid twisting in the loft.

In the above image, we can see that I selected each profile at a similar location—the upper corner of each face. I also like to unselect the option for “Merge Tangent Faces,” which can sometimes help to ensure that the endpoints of each profile are properly connected.

This loft preview looked pretty good—there was no twisting or anything bad about the loft—but it also looked too straight and flat. I wanted a smooth blend from the neck to the headstock, so I edited the options for “Start/End Constraints.”

By choosing the option for “Tangency to Face” for both the start and end faces of our loft, I was instructing SOLIDWORKS to smooth out the transition of the loft, by making the outside faces of the loft tangent to the outside faces of the neck and the headstock. This tangency option worked out great.

Conclusion

Even if you are not a guitar player, this exercise is a useful way to explore a lot of great functionality in SOLIDWORKS, including:

• Using an offset surface to emulate a part which is painted/finished, and which has machining operations performed after the painting operation.
• Creating basic wiring without utilizing the SOLIDWORKS routing add in.
• Making a loft smoother by making sure each profile has the same number of entities and by using the Start/End Constraint option of “Tangent to Faces.”

I hope you found these tips helpful, and I hope you’ll find some areas in your work where you can utilize these techniques to save time and get fantastic results.

About the Author

Toby Schnaars (AKA: TooTallToby) has been a SOLIDWORKS user, instructor and enthusiast for the past 20 years.  He has fielded over 10,000 tech support cases and has instructed over 200 SOLIDWORKS training classes.  He has earned the ranks of both Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert and Elite Applications Engineer (CSWE + ELITE AE). 

Toby regularly posts videos of SOLIDWORKS tips and tricks on his YouTube channel TooTallToby. 

Before diving into the updates of SOLIDWORKS Visualize for 2023, it is important to know where the product came from. It is easy to get lost in the incremental enhancements and forget how powerful the underlying products are, particularly in a space such as graphics and visualization, which has developed quickly. This is especially critical if you are making the decision to upgrade not just from one year prior (2022) but are instead one of the many users who may skip a generation or more before upgrading.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize’s history goes all the way back in 2016, when the rendering and visualization package was rebranded from Bunkspeed. Traditionally, rendering products for CAD trailed other industries. Over the past few years, the advances in rendering bleeding over from gaming and design technologies have accelerated CAD visualization packages. These advances are highlighted in Visualize 2023, but can be subtle and unless you look carefully, you may miss them. If you are planning to update, we recommend exporting a control model rendering from your old system, then building the same render in the 2023 version of the software. The side-by-side comparison is the only way to see how these enhancements impact your renders, since each combination of lighting, surfaces and settings will be improved in its own way.

The use cases for visuals are varied and start from simple presentation of new models to renderings for packaging and marketing. This means that everyone from design engineers to marketing managers may find SOLIDWORKS Visualization useful. As visualization potential has improved and the opportunity to use the output in marketing has developed, it has become increasingly important to make tools like SOLIDWORKS Visualize be accessible to non-traditional CAD users. Additionally, the quality of output keeps developing. This focus leads to the key enhancements in 2023.

New and Improved Features of SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2023

Let’s first take a look at the major areas of enhancement, then we’ll break down why they matter and who benefits the most from them.

The enhancements can be broken out into a few areas:

Improved Importing and Part Control

Before setting up a scene, lighting and materials, the associations of parts and sub-assemblies are critical. The new enhancements allow you to pull in these native associations directly from the model. Ultimately, this makes it easier to manipulate the components and locate the model within your scene through simple drag and drop positioning.

DSPBR Material Support in Preview

DSPBR stands for Dassault Systems Physically Based Rendering (or sometimes, Physically Based Raytracing). Also enhanced were the previews of Material Definition Language (MDL) based appearances.  This is simply another way of saying photorealistic rendering.

The big shift here is enabling surface textures and material appearances directly in the preview of a model, without the time and resource requirements of a full rendering. No doubt some materials are better than others in their ability to be previewed, so the impact to your workflow will differ depending on which materials you typically work with. 

The best example of this was buried in the SOLIDWORKS Visualize update help files. The image below is from those help files and shows one of the more dramatic materials that was enhanced in a side-by-side improvement. This makes it clear how nuanced a washed-out edge or a reflective glare would be hidden in full rendering but otherwise lost in previous previews.

Improvements in Color Picker

Sometimes a simple action, like picking a color, can be deceptively complex. This is what led to the enhancements in the color picker, which—as the launch video puts it—aims to ensure that “your exact color is never more than a few clicks away.” While you can still add new colors using the color picker and clicking anywhere on the screen to sample the color you want, the color picker now has improved import and save controls. The aim here is to allow designers to develop brand and part specific color palettes that wind up being their preferred colors.

By enabling import directly from Adobe files, CSS files and HTML, the system can ensure that the colors within your render match those colors as they would appear in your other marketing collateral or digital assets. This development of embedded style guides with searchable names will be a huge improvement for anyone who has ever sat in a design review and discussed whether two shades of blue are actually the same.

It’s worth noting that these color palettes can be exported, as well, so that those set up in Visualize can be shared back to SOLIDWORKS native files, further improving accuracy on early previews and ad hoc design reviews.

Addition of Stellar Physically Correct Rendering Engine

This is a Dassault Systèmes Global Illumination renderer, which is designed for higher-end systems; a supported GPU is also fine, but you are likely to want something at the higher end of functionality. This improvement firmly falls in the camp of being hard to quantify. Dassault Systèmes has put a lot of effort into developing high end rendering capabilities, but at a simplistic level Stellar Physically correct is designed to do two things: make fast previews more effective and make full renders more interactive.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize vs. PhotoView 360

While initially rendering tools were an add-on product, a seat of Visualize is included with each Professional and Premium subscription. Visualize is still a standalone product, however, which means it requires an entirely separate installation.  This is in contrast to SOLIDWORKS PhotoView 360, which is also an add-in but is accessible from within the core SOLIDWORKS program. PhotoView is also available within Professional and Premium subscriptions, so if you have access to one you should have access to both.

The standalone nature of Visualize highlights why the new features related to import and control of parts and assemblies is important. Because the visualization may not even be by the same user who has model access and control (while it is the same seat license they can be installed on separate machines) providing intuitive control of a part is critical.

Both rendering suites are similar in their objective of providing photorealistic renderings. You can tailor the background setting and have control of textures, colors and lighting in each. The major difference is in the ease of use and quality of output. Visualize, generally speaking, is developed more for the design and marketing renderings. This is based on the rendering capabilities and explains why there is much made about the new enhancements in physically based rendering (PBR) material previews.

Interestingly, PhotoView 360 does not show up in the marketing list of major enhancements in 2023. This might be an indication of which visualization tool is destined to be the future of full photo-real renderings. Simplistically, there are limitations to building in a rendering tool directly into the core product.

SOLIDWORKS core is already a large install and avoiding bloating of add-ons like PhotoView 360 makes sense. PhotoView works well for early in design products where a quick, but sufficient render is needed. If you are looking for the best-in-class renderings from what your seat of SOLIDWORKS provides, Visualize and the new enhancements in 2023 are the best place to look.

Jan-Willem Zuyderduyn operates LearnSOLIDWORKS.com where he says you can “become a SOLIDWORKS pro in days, not years.”

Rather than teach with boring machine components or slow-paced builds, he takes the more interesting route and provides a free tutorial on designing components for an Aston Martin ONE-77.

Key Takeaways

Zuyderduyn first came to the attention of the Engineering.com community when he modeled an entire Boeing 747 as an assembly of 677 solids. While the final product was not modeled down to all of the mechanical, electrical and otherwise functional components, it is a true-to-life aesthetic version of the plane, and a version that can be further improved in Keyshot and other renderers.

Now Romain Ginestou, a contributor at LearnSOLIDWORKS.com, has taken to teaching us how to model a high-end sportscar. This tutorial provides a SOLIDWORKS starting file to help you get the baseline of the design but then it jumps right into building some of the coolest elements of the car.

Focusing on splines while creating the model of the car, the tutorial walks through every step of basic vehicle elements—except they aren’t basic at all. It’s an Aston Martin.

Getting Started: Top Line of the ONE-77

Ginestou starts the tutorial with a projected curve and proceeds step by step through its creation. Using the Spline tool, we create the topline of the vehicle. Making use of the Smart Dimension tool, we set the distance between the endpoint of the spline and a plane.

The horizontal dimensions are defined in relation to the front plate and the vertical dimensions are in relation to the top plane.

Adding two construction lines from the endpoints of the curve up to the top plane will later allow for easier conversion from a skeletal drawing to a model. Construction lines can also really help with measuring elements of your sketch.

To get a feel for how the spline interacts, click the spline and move the handles. At this point, you can add weight to the handles by using the Smart Dimension tool. It’s also possible to set the angle of the handles by clicking on them and then clicking on a line or plane.

That’s the first sketch.

More In-Depth Design

The rest of the tutorial delves into a number of details, including using the Features Manager, modeling the fenders and dimensioning components in relation to the previous sketches.

One useful tool covered is the use of Trim Entities in the Sketch ribbon. When designing the fenders over the front driver’s side wheel, you’ll create a sketch of a circle. Using the Trim Entities tool, hold the mouse button down while moving around. When the cursor’s trajectory intersects with a sketch entity, it gets trimmed.

We use this tool to create the arc of the fender in true artsy Aston Martin fashion.

To finish off the arc of the fender, we create splines and make them tangent to the remainder of the circle. This is done by first creating the splines, selecting one curve and the circle while holding the Ctrl key. Then, in the pop-up choose Curvature relation.

The tutorial walks through using Splines, the Smart Dimension tool and the Trim tool to finish off the fender from all angles. The rear fender is similar but isn’t quite as symmetrical from the side, which leads to a number of learning opportunities with the Trim and Offset tools, as well as playing with interesting angles.

The trim along the bottom of the ONE-77 that connects the two fenders is complex. Ginestou makes note of using an array of reference pictures in order to create the proper angles and design elements.

As with the other elements of this design, it starts with creating a spline. Dimensioning the spline by fixing the weight and angle of each handle creates the starting shape of the connecting trim.

Switching to the top plane, another spline is used to create the curve. Then use Insert > Curve > Projected…, and select the last two sketches to create a projected curve.

A few more tweaks and splines, and we add the Boundary Surface by going through Insert > Surface > Boundary Surface…, and suddenly the vehicle starts to take some shape.

At the end of the tutorial, we’re left with some of the first sexy curves of an Aston Martin ONE-77: the top line and the lower fender areas.

The full tutorial is available at LearnSOLIDWORKS.com but you can see the whole process, including this tutorial and others, in the video below.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the eBook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

Once I have a design modeled in SOLIDWORKS, if it has any moving parts, I like to create a motion study animation to show them off, especially when the design is a toy. It really brings the design to life. This motion study can be exported directly into Visualize using the SOLIDWORKS Visualize tab. I use the Export Advanced option to export all the model information, including all the parts, separate appearances, decals and motion study information.

If you have multiple motion studies on the go, you can select a specific one from a drop-down list when exporting. All of the information is then opened within Visualize, including the motion study animation time bars. The image below shows how my design would look, as if I had just rendered out my model and before I made any improvements. This way, you can really see how the changes we make can affect the outcome.

Activity Cube First Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Right now, the model is almost floating in a vast background of white, with harsh environment lighting, unrefined appearances and flat decals. The product has no context. So, let’s get to work!

The first thing to do is resize the render region. I prefer to use a 16:9 ratio as it is more commonly used for screens. I normally opt for this size for tutorial videos and blog posts, too. When you do this, you may find that your backplate remains the same size, so if you are using a backplate for your rendering, you need to check Fill Background. That isn’t necessary in this case as I will be importing models to create my own background.

From here on, I changed the environment. For this specific rendering, I kept the current environment, the 3 Point Faded. Instead of changing it, I rotated it to change the direction of the lighting. I like the layout of lights for this environment, but the brightness is quite harsh, so I like to lower the lights slightly to a warmer indoor room lighting. For this specific design, I wanted the environment to feel like a children’s bedroom to help bring context to the product and render.

Before I start working on the appearance of the model, I suggest changing the background type to Color and choosing something darker than your model. This can make it easier to see any appearance changes afterwards, especially if you have lightly colored or white model parts. Of course, keep the background light if you have a darker model.

Appearances and decals are so important when it comes to revamping your renderings, and you have so many options here. Don’t underestimate the power of decal; decals add realism and detail to designs. An example of this is a coffee cup rendering I created many years ago—so far back that I rendered the image with PhotoView 360. The top face of the drinks and the ice cream texture were created using simple decal image files, but this added detail with the appearance of texture and a more convincing finish to my tableware set. This was all before I realized that I could also add bump mapping to a surface to create a new appearance.

Crystal Tableware Rendering in SOLIDWORKS PhotoView 360.

When it comes to adding appearances, it’s a good thing to mix up the colors, materials and textures. You will notice that there are many more appearances to use under the SOLIDWORKS Visualize cloud library; it is definitely worth checking out all the available appearances.

Back to my Activity Cube model and looking at appearances. When adding a wood appearance to my model, I try to avoid having the wood grain go in the same direction on any two parts and avoid the wood grain running perfectly straight. Sometimes when you are rendering an image, it is tempting to make everything look perfect. I am guilty of this, too. So, it is a good thing to try and add some imperfections or inconsistencies to your model.

One way to achieve this is to add textures using a bump map. Bump mapping images can be black and white or, more commonly, RGB value images (usually blueish or purple in appearance) and create textured surfaces by capturing light within the rendering. I utilize this feature for all of my decals. Without a texture, your decals can appear flat and bring down the overall success of your rendering.

For this design, I have decal artwork applied to each side of the activity cube with the toy being predominately wooden; the artwork would be screen printed onto wooden panels. To achieve this finish within Visualize, I added the Brushed Normal bump map to a white paint appearance under the texture tab. Then, with the clock decal selected, for example, I can apply the custom appearance to the decal under its own appearance tab.

Activity Cube Bump Mapping in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

You can see the changes I’ve made have started to take shape on my model, but we still have a way to go. We have a lot of dead space around the model, unrefined lighting on the keyboard keys and some easy-to-apply camera tricks.

Activity Cube Second Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

For the keys, adding an emissive appearance to create lit-up keys was too harsh and unrealistic. Instead, I changed each key to a plastic appearance to give them color, then created a duplicate outer shell around each key, applying a clear plastic appearance with the ‘Square Bowls’ bump map for texture.  To create realistic lighting, I used the Environments tab and created five new area lights, one per key with the light shape on point. These lights were very small and were placed just behind the clear plastic layer. The light colors were also changed to match the corresponding key.

By adding the light colors, I can use the lights within the animation by adding keyframes to each area light. The lights could then be turned off and on using the brightness controls. I use brightness to control the on and off animation of the lights rather than enabling or disabling the lights so that the light progressively turns on and off between marked keyframes. It’s important to have a light enabled to see it within the render window but also to have the light visible if you want the light shape noticeable within the rendering.

Visualize Lights in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Activity Cube Third Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Now to fill in the dead space around the model. For this, I modeled a room which includes a wall, floor and skirting/base boards in SOLIDWORKS. I can then add these models into Visualize and move them around the render window so that the activity cube sits onto the carpet. I added appearances to the background parts including carpet, a painted wall and boards that complement the toy design.

But we don’t stop here. As mentioned earlier, we need to give the toy context for the final rendering. I have a file on my PC of what I call my rendering extras. These files are parts I’ve modeled as accessories for my renderings. These include rugs, shelving, books, toys and even windows. I model these parts to scale, but I can always scale up models within Visualize if the scale looks off.

Adding Background Models in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Activity Cube Fourth Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

For this design, I added a set of building blocks and a floor book storage bin with some children’s books added in. At this point, the rendering is almost complete, but not quite. We could leave it like this, or we could select the Camera tab and enable depth of field. You will see between the images below the difference this can make. You will also notice that cropping the render window down makes the image look slightly less staged and more natural. The depth of field also adds some focus on the details of the activity cube, while blurring out some of the background.

Activity Cube Fifth Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Activity Cube Final Rendering in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

The final step is rendering the animation into a movie. We already have the motion study data within Visualize that we exported from SOLIDWORKS. From here I added in some extra keyframes with the keyboard lights just to include some more fun visual elements. Visualize allows you to choose how many frames you want to render per second. For this animation, I changed it from the default 30 frames per second to 45. I usually like to do this when I have fast-moving parts or if I want to edit the rendering afterwards to slow down sections.

You can see the final results in this animation.

Activity Cube Animation in SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

About the Author

Jade Wilson is a product designer, SOLIDWORKS blog contributor, CSWP and SOLIDWORKS champion from the U.K. In 2015, she became a Queen Elizabeth Scholar for her degree, specializing in ceramics and digital design. She is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user with 10 years of experience and has been using it to inform and create her designs since university to become a freelance product designer with her own company. She has her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in design and specializes in the design and production of ceramics, homeware accessories and wooden toys. She has worked with a range of companies, including the BBC, Bigjigs, Great Little Trading Company and Granby Workshop. In addition, she has exhibited her own work and held workshops across the U.K. and Europe, as well as working in several U.K. universities as a technician and guest tutor. She now creates fun and informative tutorials and blogs for SOLIDWORKS as a blog contributor, sharing her knowledge and ideas with others.

When designing a new toy, I first use a vector drawing software to roughly outline and sketch out a design. Some people like to do a paper sketch, but I have always jumped straight into digital software. Not only does this make it easy to play around very quickly with different shapes, colors and views but I can also translate these ideas into other file types or software such as SOLIDWORKS. Depending on the client I am designing for, I may use either CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator for the vector drawings. Within these applications, I can create custom decals, play with different color palettes, think about overall dimensions of the toy and map out the design from different views before moving into 3D software.

Decal artwork with Corel Draw.

Another feature of using a vector software is to create DXF files. I can create complex shapes within the vector software to then bring into SOLIDWORKS using the Insert DXF option. This brings in the DXF file as a sketch, which can be used with SOLIDWORKS 3D features. A gingerbread-themed train set that I designed for a SOLIDWORKS tutorial was primarily designed in Corel Draw to create the decal artwork for the toy, as well as the outlines of the train set accessories. Vectors are simply drawings created with digital software that can be translated into 3D software and used for generating laser cutting files. Complex shapes or parts that need to slot together like puzzle pieces can be laser cut using these file types.

After I have a mapped-out concept design, I move into SOLIDWORKS and start modeling.

In SOLIDWORKS, I usually prefer to design using a multibody part. This is so that I can play with a design quickly within the part file. Once I have a finished design, I use Save Bodies to export all the separate solid bodies and bring them into an assembly. At this point, I can add any smart fastenings and create exploded views for drawing sheets. One SOLIDWORKS tip I would give at this point is that when you export solid bodies from a multi-body part, open the individual saved part files and from there, add any hole wizard features or decals. If these are applied at the solid body level, the information will get lost when the bodies are saved as parts.

Train station assembly in SOLIDWORKS.

A feature I would be lost without in SOLIDWORKS as a toy designer is Configurations. There are many occasions where configurations are necessary. For example, instead of having to model multiple designs that have slight dimension or feature changes, I use configurations instead. Display states can also be used in the same way within SOLIDWORKS. Display states can be linked to the configurations, allowing you to apply different appearances or colors to designs. That makes it easy to show the toy buyer variations of a design and make amendments to features and dimensions quickly, while also giving the buyer options to choose from.

Any decals I create are designed within the vector software and are exported as PNGs or JPEGs depending on the decal application needed. The artwork you see applied to the train model image was applied as a decal in SOLIDWORKS. During the manufacture of a toy, the decals would be applied by screen printing or heat press. Simpler artwork is sometimes hand painted. SOLIDWORKS offers a range of masking options when applying decals, which allow you to add artwork or sticker-like designs onto the toy parts without covering up an appearance. This matters when it comes to rendering or creating visuals of the design. I can ensure my decals fit the SOLIDWORKS models perfectly by either importing my custom DXF sketches from the vector software or by exporting out a sketched profile or face from SOLIDWORKS and working within that DXF in my vector software to create the decal artwork.

Train with decals in SOLIDWORKS.

Once I have a design modeled in 3D, it is time to create the technical drawing sheets for the factories to manufacture a sample of the toy. These drawings must be crystal clear and include every dimension needed to create the design. Before a toy goes into full production, we go through several samples, but the number of samples needs to be kept to a minimum to reduce costs and speed up production time.

This all depends on communication with the factories, so the drawing sheets need to include a bill of materials consisting of a full breakdown of all separate components (parts only) and also a breakdown of the assembled components (top level only). You are essentially giving the factories the assembly instructions of this new toy. The drawing sheets also need to include exploded views of the toy, the part materials, the required finish and quantities needed. Pantone names for paint colors are also added at this stage. Decal artwork is added to the file separately as a PDF from the vector software.

You can include a lot of information within the drawing sheet, and even add custom properties to each individual part file. Within these, I like to add the Pantone colors, which are used by the factories to select paint colors. So, when you are within the SOLIDWORKS drawing sheet, you can add extra columns to a bill of materials, change the column titles to my custom property and all of my toy parts will automatically update with their corresponding Pantone color.

Drawing BOM in SOLIDWORKS.

Sometimes there are necessary uses for a motion study for the toy industry. I use motion studies for many different toy designs. These don’t necessarily need to be created, but when I create tutorials for SOLIDWORKS I like to show the full potential of the software. If I’m being honest, this is possibly my favorite part because it is where I can bring something I have thought of, designed and modeled to life on the screen.

But on occasion, there is a demand for a motion study, such as showing a toy buyer or the toy manufacturers how a toy needs to move or work. This is also a way to test how well a design works.

This was especially useful for a design I recently created for a SOLIDWORKS tutorial, which involved a toy ironing board. The board needed to collapse flat to the floor but also stand at two different heights for a child. I used a motion study to demonstrate this, as well as to test that the design, the dimensions and all the parts worked together and that there were no interference or collisions detected. Another use of creating a motion study is to show off how a toy works. Once I have a motion study created, I can export it directly into SOLIDWORKS Visualize and render the animation into a video.

Visualize train animation with SOLIDWORKS.

Renderings of a toy design are so powerful they are used for so many different stages of toy design. I use SOLIDWORKS Visualize to create my renderings to get a final visual of a toy. This is the best marketing tool I could use to present a design to a toy manufacturing client. The toy manufacturers can use these to show a toy buyer to get a green light for production, or get feedback from the buyers such as comments on colors, design tweaks and even negotiate on what can be achieved within a set price range.

Once the toy buyer is happy with the design, the next step is to send the design to a toy factory or manufacturer. Along with the technical drawing files, renderings would also be sent alongside this to give the manufacturer as much information as possible to fully achieve the desired finished product. The rendering can show the compete look which includes showing the true colors, materials, finished assembly of a toy decal placement and a wide range of views around a toy.

Rendering of a train set created with SOLIDWORKS.

Another use of the rendering is as the product listing image for selling the toy online. You will see this on some toy company websites, their catalogs and on Amazon or eBay listings. For most people, these images can be so life-like that they may not even notice that the image is a rendering. This allows a company to start selling a toy before they have the finished product. This practice has proved to be very useful when manufacturing has been delayed and final product images are needed for packaging, catalogs or online sales.

A final note on the advantages of using CAD for toy design is the use of 3D printing: once you have your modeled parts, you can save the parts you want to test out as STL files and 3D print them. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. A hobbyist printer does the job for most of these tests, especially when you are dealing with wooden toys which are usually quite simple in construction. You can use the printed parts to test out how parts fit together or how a design might work.

An example for this would be a balancing or stacking toy design. For this, you can print out multiples of a part that need to stack or balance on top of one another and play around with the prints. Of course, you could also use a motion study within SOLIDWORKS to test out how a design stacks, and apply gravity and contacts to the study to get a rough idea of whether your design works. But 3D printing the design allows you to physically feel, play with and test out the toy. This is important to do as you are testing the toy from the point of view of a child whose motor skills or dexterity will not be as precise as your computer software.

3D printing tests can save you both time and money as a toy design company. By pre-testing a design, you can avoid those costly mistakes before manufacturing and not waste your time waiting on toy samples from the factories, which can often take weeks to arrive. There is nothing worse than a toy sample arriving on your desk with avoidable errors.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the eBook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

About the Author

Jade Wilson is a product designer, SOLIDWORKS blog contributor, CSWP and SOLIDWORKS champion from the U.K. In 2015, she became a Queen Elizabeth Scholar for her degree specializing in ceramics and digital design. She is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user with 10 years of experience and has been using it to inform and create her designs since university to becoming a freelance product designer with her own company. She has her bachelor's and master's degree in design and specializes in the design and production of ceramics, homeware accessories and wooden toys. She has worked with a range of companies, including the BBC, Bigjigs, Great Little Trading Company and Granby Workshop. In addition, she has exhibited her own work and held workshops across the U.K. and Europe as well as working in several U.K. universities as a technician and guest tutor. She now creates fun and informative tutorials and blogs for SOLIDWORKS as a blog contributor, sharing her knowledge and ideas with others.

Part 1: A Crash Course in Pitching a Product or Idea

“If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”

If you want to get something in your hands quickly, all it takes is a 3D model in SOLIDWORKS and a 3D printer. In a few hours, you have made your concept into reality—but only to yourself. That’s where it will end if you don’t inspire others with your concept.

Start With the Why, Not the What

You have the “what”—the idea—now you need to convey the “why.” That is the hard part when pitching your idea. The “what” is easy—it’s your idea. You get it. The “why” takes your idea from concept and can help make it real to everyone else. People imagine their reality with it. This shared reality is what makes ideas happen.

How to Start with Why

Don’t tell them about the features and functions. Instead, tell them why or how it will change their life. Listing the features and functions, or speeds and feeds is easy, but it’s not impactful. You can start with the details, but don’t stop there. Take it one step further and explain how it will help them achieve their goals. Don’t focus on the details, focus on the outcome.

Let’s look at a shovel, for example. A homeowner doesn’t buy a shovel because of the features it has. They may not want a shovel at all. What they want is what the shovel enables them to have—shade from a tree they can plant, or privacy and security from a fence they can build.

Don’t Just Inform—Inspire

When it comes time to pitch your product, think about your intention. You want to inspire rather than inform. Have customers imagine their life with your product. You want to inspire your colleagues to work with you to get your project to the finish line. This process will, of course, require some sharing of information, but the intention should be to inspire.  

What’s the Difference?

Pitching your product is an art more than a science. There is nuance in the methodology that enables you get more people on board with your idea and more buy-in from key stakeholders. Again, you will need to consider your intention. There are two categories for this—inspiring or informing. The difference lies in your end goal, but a good way to think about the differences is in the way you share the content.

The means by which you share the content is critical. Think of PDF handouts versus a conference keynote. If the content could be shared via email attachment and have the same effect, then it is probably informational content that has the intention of informing.

The flip side of this is inspiring, which is usually done in presentation format delivered live at a conference keynote or through a reusable asset such as a recorded video or even your website homepage. There is a time and a place for informing and a time and a place for inspiring. Think about what role you want to play and be deliberate with it. When you are pitching your product, a handout or data sheet will inform—but you as a product developer will need to inspire.

Part 2: Creating Content that Inspires

Starting with SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE Tools

Once you have created the mindset for pitching your product, you can create the content and collateral necessary to support you in inspiring your audience. There is a typical five-step process for product design that looks something like this: idea, napkin sketch, 3D model, prototype and final product. This being 2022, most of that can be done in SOLIDWORKS CAD and the cloud-enabled 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

You can get started with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, including SOLIDWORKS desktop CAD, for only $10 per month thanks to the SOLIDWORKS for Makers license. This may be the best deal in engineering, and I love to tell the community about it. To learn more about it you can check out our article here. If you are ready to get started, click the link here. If you want to see how it can be used to help you pitch your product, then keep reading.

Why 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers?

This is not just another sales pitch for the newest SOLIDWORKS tools. I’m a product design consultant in the business of helping people bring their products to market, and the 3DEXPERIENCE tools are my go-to recommendations and truly what I believe are the best in the industry.

You don’t just get the SOLIDWORKS CAD program, you get a complete suite of product development tools that help you go from concept to reality faster and easier than ever before. At the time of this writing, you get 66 applications including:

• SOLIDWORKS Connected: Desktop SOLIDWORKS CAD basically indistinguishable from the commercial application.
• x-Design: Cloud based CAD modeling applications.
• x-Shape: Cloud Based sculpting, surfacing and freeform modeling.
• 3DSketch: Ideation tools combining free form sketching with CAD modeling.
• 3D Markup: View, redline and notate edits on your drawings in the cloud.
• Project Gantt: Manage your team and project with powerful project management tools.

How 3DEXPERIENCE Can Inspire

When we say cloud-based, we mean that it works on any web-enabled device. I use the tools on my iPad and in a pinch, I have even used them on my phone. When you need it, this functionality could be a life-saver for your business.

Imagine this: you are on a flight from your hometown to San Francisco to pitch your design to potential investors. You get settled in your seat and you connect with your seat mate while each of you shares niceties about the weather and spends a few minutes talking about the upcoming trip. You find out that they are a legendary angel investor in products just like yours, and could offer capital and expertise to help you make your vision a reality. Once the plane lands, you may not have their attention again. But for now, they have to hear your pitch.

But you packed your computer into your checked bag because you didn’t want to bother with it during your flight. No problem. Even with the painfully slow satellite connection in flight, you can log into your 3DEXPERIENCE drive on your phone and show off your concept.

They love it! They connected with it on a personal level, and they are inspired by how people’s lives can be different using your product. They are on board and now your life will never be the same—all because you inspired them. It wasn’t the information, but rather the inspiration and the shared vision that makes product concepts become reality.

Tools like SOLIDWORKS and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform helped support you, but your inspirational message is what can truly take your product and make it a reality.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the eBook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

It was during my Design degree studies at Liverpool Hope University in the U.K. that I first came across ceramics. Ceramics have always been a fun and interesting material to work with, almost like playing with play dough. But hand building or throwing traditional pots held little interest. Instead, I became captivated by the precision of using plaster molds and slip casting.

(Image Credit: Jens Steffen Galster.)

However, the process of creating the model for a mold felt rather old-fashioned and quite time consuming. Once the model for a mold was produced, there were then many ways that the mold might not work out. Models for molding are usually created from either plaster or clay, but this meant that the model could either break easily during the mold process, get stuck in the mold because of undercuts in the model or the precision and details I wanted were too difficult or even impossible to achieve.

I started to research the different ways of integrating the two, to achieve something which would otherwise be impossible to create in ceramics without the use of 3D technologies. This meant that I had to know the limitations of traditional ceramic production methods. When it comes to ceramics, plaster molds and slip casting are the most precise method of ceramic production.

(Image Credit: Jens Steffen Galster.)

Taking this into consideration, I began designing my ceramics in SOLIDWORKS. I use SOLIDWORKS like I use my sketchbook—I can design a whole range of pieces without going through the lengthy process of creating them in clay only to find that I’m unhappy with the design. Using SOLIDWORKS, I can create a whole range of pieces and play around with the composition of a collection. I can also render the designs with SOLIDWORKS Visualize and test out colors and finishes.  

I used different projects throughout my degree to test out different designs, as well as to test different manufacturing processes, including laser cutting, 3D printing models for molds and even 3D printing the molds themselves. The first project was designed to incorporate laser cutting for a sculptural vessel collection inspired by layered rock formations and ice bubbles caused by volcanic gases. I revolved traditional vessel forms within SOLIDWORKS and within an assembly. I attached several different sized bubbles onto the vase. Once I was happy with the composition of the vase, I saved the assembly as a part and combined them into one solid body. Some designs were done in the opposite way, with the bubbles instead being taken away from the vessel body to produce craters in the body.

(Image Credit: Jade Wilson.)

The vase was then ‘split’ into 5mm layers using the SOLIDWORKS split tool. From here, I could select all the top faces of each vase layer and export them as DXF files for laser cutting. The layers were cut from 5mm thick sheets of Perspex (an engineering plastic) and reassembled into the vase shape. I used superglue to join sheets together, but also had to scrape away the melted edges created from the laser cutting process. If this edge had been left on, it would have caused an undercut on the model, which in turn would cause it to get stuck in the plaster mold or break edges within the mold.

There are many advantages to using the laser cut Perspex model. First, the model would stay intact throughout the whole molding process. Second, I could pre-plan the overall size I wanted the final casting to be out of the mold, and account for the tolerances within SOLIDWORKS to scale up the model. Another advantage is that I could laser cut multiple models and they would all be exactly the same. From the solid model, I could make multiple molds from one model and have the opportunity for mass production.

When it comes to the disadvantages of this method, I must say the design capabilities of this modeling style are limited. The design must be layered in some way. To achieve a smooth finish, I had to look at 3D printing. With 3D printing, the possibilities were endless.

Moving on to my next project, I wanted to create a tableware collection. While designing my collection, I decided to create something that would be impossible to do without the use of 3D modeling and printing. My work is usually inspired by nature and patterns found in nature, so for this collection I looked to crystal formations. Just like the previous collection, I took a similar approach by combining and subtracting crystal shapes in SOLIDWORKS from tableware forms. This was a feature I added to the drinking cups to not only add a decorative style to the tableware, but also add an ergonomic holding feature for the person using the cups.

(Image Credit: David. J. Colbran.)

The finished design was scaled up by 12 percent to account for clay shrinkage during firing. It was then saved as an STL file and 3D printed using a polyamide material. I discovered the hard way that the surface finish created by most 3D prints isn’t perfect, so it took some trial and error before the process was perfected. I realised that I needed to prep the print surface, so I used a car filler spray paint to fill in the print’s resolution lines. I would then seal the print using a layer of clear lacquer spray paint. Sealing the print ensured two things: less friction on the 3D print surface, making it easier to remove from the mold; and using the lacquer would protect the print from the water and heat created by the plaster while it sets. 

Once I have the 3D printed model, I can use it to create multiple molds for slip casting. The 3D printed model is also robust enough to mold from without the model becoming impaired. I think the biggest benefit of designing my pieces in SOLIDWORKS first was that I could test out my mold within a mold to work out split lines. This helps speed up my production casting.

Rendering using SOLIDWORKS Visualize. (Image Credit: Jade Wilson)

3D printing has also allowed me to see my final product “in the flesh” before committing to making the mold. I can test functionality and size, which has been particularly helpful while designing a tableware collection. I have been able to test the grip of my cups – an important feature, as they were all designed without handles. The lack of handles meant that I needed to add a double-walled feature to allow the cup to be functional. I used the SOLIDWORKS intersection tool to create a body within the cup’s cavity, and the evaluate tool to test out my cup models for their volume capabilities. This allowed me to see how much liquid each cup could hold, and I could modify the model to account for this. By doing this, I could create and print a perfectly-sized model for molding in plaster.

Another benefit of using SOLIDWORKS for my designs was the undercut analysis found within SOLIDWORKS. This tool was invaluable to test out the models before 3D printing them. It was especially useful for designs that I wanted to create as one-part molds, also known as drop out molds. Single part molds can often be seen as simple molds but I could create extremely detailed designs by using SOLIDWORKS.

(Image Credit: Jade Wilson.)

I used SOLIDWORKS from start to finish for my ceramic designs. I used it to design my pieces, scale up parts to account for shrinkages, test models for undercuts, work out how many mold parts were needed to create the final mold, prepare models for laser cutting or 3D printing and render final models to predict the outcomes of my designs.

Once I knew using a 3D print was successful in mold making, I wondered if I could further speed up the whole molding process by just 3D printing the mold. However, it is not yet possible to 3D print with plaster absorbent enough to slip cast from, as the plaster is fused with glue. Instead, I decided to 3D print parts that I could fill with plaster to create the mold parts. In the ceramic industry, this is known as a master mold. A master mold is usually made with a much tougher and a more resilient plaster that you can mass produce molds from. Using this technique, I was able to carry out my ‘Mold of a Mold’ project which enables you to mass produce a ceramic piece.

Rendering using SOLIDWORKS Visualize. (Image Credit: Jade Wilson.)

This project ran alongside my tableware collection and was purely experimental, allowing me to really push the boundaries and discover the possibilities of 3D printing and ceramics. For this project, I had to start by designing the final piece I wanted to get out of the molds. Initially, this involved modeling a geometric mini vase in SOLIDWORKS. From here, I needed to model the mold of the vase, which I could do in SOLIDWORKS very quickly using the combine and split features. From this point, I needed to create molds of each mold part. The casting mold was in three parts, with each mold part needing a two-part mold to create it. Once I had these, I saved them all as STL files and 3D printed them using a similar Polyamide material to the one I used in previous projects.

The molds consisted of three, two-part molds. These had to be tied together and filled with plaster to create the mold parts of the final casting vase mold. Once the plaster mold parts were dry enough, they could be cast in liquid clay, known as slip. The slip I used was a Parian slip, which has a shrinkage rate of 15 percent. With this being a purely conceptual/research project, I didn’t account for the shrinkages in my modeling process. I designed the vase to be miniature for two reasons: the project was an experiment and its always best to start small, but also for cost reasons. At this point in time, I was a university student and the project involved printing six parts to create one design, which would have been costly.

(Image Credit: Jade Wilson.)

Apart from those limitations, this project was successful for a number of reasons. I could make several molds from the 3D printed master mold, which allowed me to cast multiples of the miniature vase at once, again creating a mass production opportunity. Another plus was the speed in which I could produce the casting mold from the print. Creating molds in the traditional method could take me one to two days, whereas this way, I could pour a mold every one to two hours.

The overall advantage of creating a design in a 3D software such as SOLIDWORKS is that you always have a backup of your model. Depending on my design, if a laser cut or 3D printed model is lost, damaged or more molds are needed, the file can be used to laser cut or 3D print another at any point. It is always ready to go!

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS check out the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

About the Author

Jade Wilson is a product designer, SOLIDWORKS blog contributor, CSWP and SOLIDWORKS Champion from the U.K. In 2015, she became a Queen Elizabeth Scholar for her degree specializing in ceramics and digital design. She is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user with 10 years’ experience, and has been using it to inform and create her designs since her university days, up to now as a freelance product designer with her own company. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Design and specializes in the design and production of ceramics, homeware accessories and wooden toys. She has worked with a range of companies, including the BBC, Bigjigs, Great Little Trading Company and Granby Workshop. She has exhibited her own work and held workshops across the U.K. and Europe as well as working in several U.K. universities as a technician and guest tutor. She now creates fun and informative tutorials and blogs for SOLIDWORKS as a blog contributor, sharing her knowledge and ideas with others.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize, referred to as the Camera for SOLIDWORKS, runs separately from SOLIDWORKS and can import your 3D models. Once your model is in Visualize, you can add appearances, lighting, additional models and camera effects to develop your rendering.

Creating an advanced rendering requires an understanding of a couple areas. First, you will need to understand how to complement the model with realistic materials, lighting and supplementary models. Second, you will need to know the camera and output options available to publish your advanced and beautiful, renderings. Each of these is discussed below.

Complementing the Model

Depending on how the 3D model was imported to Visualize, it will usually initially include all its applied SOLIDWORKS appearances, the SOLIDWORKS Scene (HDRI, or high dynamic range imaging) and Camera(s). You can choose to keep these the way they are, customize them in place or complement them with new assets. Depending on the model you are working with, it may look great immediately and require little adjustment. However, to create an advanced rendering, some tweaking will usually be required.

Applying Appearances

Adjust Existing Appearances

By clicking on existing appearances within the Appearance Tab, you can access their individual properties and how they overlay their textures onto the parts they are applied to. You can adjust these existing properties to your liking. For instance, if you have parts that imported with a gray plastic appearance, but you want them to be chrome, you can change the appearance type property to metal and adjust the color and roughness as needed. This can be a great time-saving technique for bulk changing appearances that are already applied to parts.

Applying New Appearances

New appearances can be added to the model either by dragging them from the Visualize Library or creating a new appearance from scratch. New appearances can be created by either copying an existing one or by clicking the plus sign at the top of the appearance tab. These appearances would then be dropped onto the model and customized as needed.

Appearance Textures and Mapping Methods

Some appearances in the Visualize Library include embedded textures, which are tiled images responsible for producing realistic material finishes and colors such as molded plastic, brushed metal, speaker mesh or fabric. Websites such as Poliigon.com are a great resource for additional textures that aren’t found in the Visualize Library. For example, textures for a specialized wood grain, concrete or composite weave can be downloaded and added to a Visualize appearance and further customized.

It is important to note that all Visualize appearances you have customized can be saved to the Visualize library for use in other projects. Simply click the icon beside the plus sign used to create a new appearance.

Controlling Lighting

Visualize Library Environments

The included HDRI environments in the Visualize Library are somewhat limited with the initial Visualize installation. This is because HDRI files can be quite large. The first step to accessing new HDRI environments is to activate the Cloud option on the Library tab. This will allow you to double-click and download any of the environments that do not already have a green checkmark beside them. A green checkmark indicates it is downloaded to your local library.

Using Other HDRI Environments

Websites such as PolyHaven.com are great resources for sourcing additional HDRI environments to use for lighting the model in Visualize. You can also compose your own HDRI environments with the proper software.

There are three methods to activate new HDRI’s in Visualize:

1. Drag the HDRI file from Windows directly onto the Visualize viewport.
2. Click the plus sign icon at the top of the Environments tab and select the file.
3. Save the HDRI file into the library directory on your computer so it can be dragged-and-dropped directly from the Visualize Library. By default, this folder location is Documents > SOLIDWORKS Visualize Content > Environments.

Regardless of how you import the HDRI to the Visualize project, they will all have the same options that can be adjusted to your liking. These options include brightness, size, rotation, ground reflections and shadows. These settings are limited, because most of the influence of the environment comes from the HDRI image you have chosen. In Visualize, it is extremely easy to swap out environments and continue to do so until you find the one that works best. 

Including Supplementary Models

Import and Stage Additional Models

If the 3D model you are rendering will interface with other objects in the real world, it may be advantageous to include those other objects in your rendering. Websites such as TurboSquid.com have compiled endless collections of 3D models produced by CAD designers and computer graphics artists that are available for purchase. You can find just about any model you can think of. However, make sure that the file type is compatible with Visualize.

To import an additional model, with a current project open click on File > Import.

Including supplementary models is one of the easiest ways to boost realism. Some examples of supplementary models could be a hospital patient standing in an MRI machine or perhaps a rocky landscape for an offroad vehicle. These types of models can be time consuming or impossible to model in parametric CAD.

Once imported, you can then stage the additional models by relocating them with the Move tool. The transformation settings found within the Model tab can also be used to position the models with assigned values.

Camera and Output Options

The final step in completing the composition of your rendering is to adjust the camera options and placement, then output the rendering.

Camera Settings

Locating the Camera

Visualize uses the same mouse controls as SOLIDWORKS for zooming, panning and rotating the camera. Most of the time, you will be able to get the camera angle you want by only using the mouse controls. In addition to the mouse controls, the Transformation settings for the Camera can be fine-tuned with greater accuracy.

Lens Effects and Depth of Field

The lens option for Perspective’ can make or break the realism in a rendering. This is especially the case if you are superimposing your model onto a photograph with built-in perspective. Increase this setting for a dramatic forced perspective.

Depth of Field is a great setting to enable for adding a realistic blur effect away from a focal point. To use this setting, you select a focal distance and increase the aperture setting for a shallower (increased blur) depth of field.

Post-Processing (Visualize Professional)

Visualize Professional allows for adjusting post-processing options through the Filters tab in the camera settings. These settings allow for fine tuning of the image color, brightness, saturation, and more to further improve the rendering.

The Bloom setting deserves its own mention as it is essential for making light sources glow as they would in real life. The intensity and threshold values can be adjusted so that illuminated lights and screens are more realistic.

Rendering Output

2D Images

You will only be able to output a 2D image with Visualize Standard. However, with Visualize Professional, there is a collection of advanced outputs that go beyond traditional imagery. Renderings are initiated by clicking the Output Tools option on the heads-up menu and selecting Render as the output mode. This will produce a 2D image identical to the rendered preview seen in the viewport.

Advanced Outputs (Visualize Professional)

In addition to rendering 2D Images, Visualize Professional can output animations, panoramic and interactive Images as well as 360° images and videos for VR consumption. Each of these outputs are separately chosen as the output mode and assigned settings before processing the final rendering.

Conclusion

Regardless of the rendering output format, the goal was to achieve an advanced rendering using only a few simple tools. Even if you used Visualize Professional to output a 360° animation, if the basic steps covered throughout this article aren’t followed, the rendering can suffer and take away from your hard work. It is the material selection, lighting choices, inclusion of supplementary models and camera adjustments that can make or break the realism in a rendering. Challenge yourself to render your own models, customize appearances, find additional models and HDRI environments. Everyone can create an advanced rendering.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS with the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

Good enough is subjective, amorphic—and perfectly appropriate place to call it quits. A good enough design, product or outcome satisfies the stated objectives and is a feasible solution.

Good enough is not, however, the best solution. Good enough often leaves the best solution undiscovered.  

We have reasons to avoid pursuing the best solution. Cost is the main reason, the ever-present constraint on the number of solutions attempted. Other constraints include lead time, performance targets, manufacturability or regulatory rules.

The best solution is a costly goal because the goal line, like perfection, can never be reached. Every solution comes at a cost and attempting another solution will draw from available resources. In this way, each solution competes against the previous one. When do you stop iterating and move to the next step in the process, knowing you have the winning solution?

Winning implies competition, as does best.

One might not think of engineering as competitive. But businesses that employ engineers are always in competition. Grants and contracts are a competition and so is market share. The globalization of industry and the steady democratization of skills has created fierce competition, with more participants, in every industry. While not every internal project is directly competitive, most projects will support a mission that is ultimately competitive.

Engineers have grown accustomed to iterating, but normally do 1 to 10 iterations per problem. They understand the value of iterating, learning with each iteration, or “refining the design.” It normally leads to good enough.

Of course, every engineer will have to balance the number of iterations against the cost to produce those iterations on a per-project basis. There is significant pressure to find ways to increase the iteration/dollar ratio. Tools that increase this ratio are providing competitive advantages that are hard to ignore.

Over the last few years, three tools have caused a shakeup in how engineers think about the pursuit of the best solution.

1. Topology optimization
2. Generative design
3. Additive manufacturing

Each of these tools presents considerable advantages by themselves, but when strung together they have the potential for creating (and confirming) a winning design while reducing overall cost.

Topology Optimization

Topology optimization is an objective-based design method that utilizes finite element analysis (FEA) to determine feasible shapes for a given set of loading conditions.

Topology optimization software frees the engineer from having to guess the overall shape or form of the part. A poor guess can lead to a dead end. This is why so many designs resemble one another. Blazing a new trail can be risky. Engineers are playing it safe.

In a conventional design workflow, the engineer will draw their part in CAD and validate their design using FEA or other numerical methods. If the FEA results show that there is room for improvement—perhaps the factor of safety is higher than required or the lifespan is longer than necessary—the engineer may iterate the design. They may choose to sacrifice performance for gain in another category such as manufacturability or cost of materials. Repeated multiple times, this process eventually results in a good enough part.

Typical FEA visualization. Colors are used to communicate stresses, displacement or other metrics. The engineer can use these visualizations as clues to an optimized shape.

But if the goal is the best shape, the engineer might as well be searching for a black cat in an unlit gymnasium. Other than visual clues, there is little help provided to find the best solution.

Topology optimization flips the process. It begins with the loading conditions. An engineer will set the objective and constraints of the problem and then turn on the optimization. The model is broken down into finite elements and solved. Finite elements with no stress means the finite element is not necessary. If a stress is too high, more finite elements are needed. This way, an optimal shape is systematically derived.

Topology optimized control arm. Three loading conditions are evaluated and confirmed to have room for optimization. Algorithms reveal resultant load paths, which are interpreted as the minimum volume of material necessary to meet the engineering criteria.

The resulting shapes can take life-like shapes and be reminiscent of natural designs all around us. From tree limbs to dragonfly wings, nature has proven to be an exceptional objective-driven designer. But however optimized these designs are, they need to be manufacturable. That has been a barrier to wide adoption of topology optimization.

Topology optimized wheel. The load paths that emerged from the loading conditions resemble patterns found in nature.

Additive Manufacturing

Among the many benefits of additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) is that it enables topology optimized shapes to be manufactured cost-effectively. “Complexity is free,” frequently quoted by the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, may not be true, but complexity is definitely encouraged.

In traditional manufacturing, increased complexity definitely correlates to increased cost. The more complex part will cost more to produce. Project managers are especially averse to individually complex parts because they understand their downstream risk. When a shape is too complex, we’d rather break it down into multiple, simpler parts to be assembled.

However, within the last decade additive manufacturing has emerged as an acceptable method of manufacturing complex parts and has fueled a paradigm shift toward complexity. In a time where complexity is encouraged, topology optimization can deliver.

Generative Design

So, is it starting to sound as if topology optimization and additive manufacturing combine for an easy win? We offer a few caveats:

• Topology optimization works in the concept phase of the design process. The output of this stage is a low-precision model that satisfies the basic requirements of the part.
• This shape must be processed in a CAD tool such as SOLIDWORKS for detailed design.
• The detailed design is validated with more robust FEA and CFD tools than typically found in topology optimization software.
• The validated design is cleared for manufacturing and the drawings or CAD files are transferred to those responsible for making the part. This is where additive manufacturing becomes an option.
• After manufacturing, the part is inspected for quality assurance.
• If the part is destined for assembly, it makes its way there. Otherwise, it is sent for packaging and shipping.

A winning engineering design requires optimization within every stage of this workflow. This quickly becomes difficult because of the sheer volume of possible combinations. At each stage, decisions are made that affect later stages but also previous stages. This is not linear like an assembly line. It’s more like a spider web.

But what may be challenging for an engineer is perfect for iteration through automation.

There are challenges to automation within every stage, but until topology optimization, there was no automation possible at the beginning—the concept stage of a design. Topology optimization tools, by minimizing the effort required of the human operator, enable an unprecedented level of automation at this stage.

Most topology optimization software isn’t currently capable of complete automation, but it is a good start. Rather than a discrete objective, a topology study could be given an array of directives. So too, the constraints (such as manufacturing method and material) could be varied and a user-selected number of iterations could be evaluated. The extreme computational intensity can be mitigated by pushing the number crunching to the cloud, another recent and necessary advancement in technology.

A single component, multi-variable generative design study will result in several viable options to select from. (Image courtesy: Buonamici, Francesco & Carfagni, Monica & Furferi, Rocco & Volpe, Yary & Governi, Lapo. (2020). Generative Design: An Explorative Study. Computer-Aided Design and Applications. 18. 144-155. 10.14733/cadaps.2021.144-155.)

A generative design tool will utilize topology optimization in addition to other layers of optimization, resulting in an array of possible solutions. The array is presented to the engineer for evaluation. The engineer might make a selection based on information not included in the generative design study, such as current supply chain disruptions. Manufacturing methods, material selection, cost of inspection, etc. can and should be investigated at the conceptual stage with this method.

This is the promise of generative design: a holistic automation that ends with the presentation of potential solutions, and from them, we can select the best of the best. It’s our choice.

Learn more with the whitepaper Designers Greatly Benefit from Simulation-Driven Product Development.

Dassault Systèmes has launched a bold initiative to draw in makers, offering them the company’s professional mainstream solid modeler as the main component of a special offering called 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers. We sought out Suchit Jain, SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE Works Strategy and Business Development VP, to find out what type of makers SOLIDWORKS plans to add to their SOLIDWORKS maker community.

A model of a motorcycle dragster fits over a child’s wheelchair. Costume designers, such as Magic Wheelchair, and other makers, will be able to get 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers for $99 a year. (Picture courtesy of Dassault Systèmes.)

“The makers that we are targeting with 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers is a subset of all the makers,” explained Jain. “We are not going after makers of arts and crafts. Our makers will have some digital content, whether it be 2D design files or 3D print files.”

What kind of people are these? Woodworkers who work in 2D. Cosplay (costume play) designers [we remember Christine Getman and Magic Wheelchair who we last saw at a SOLIDWORKS user conference], garage mechanics and hot rodders—all those that have a need for 3D design but have found the cost of SOLIDWORKS prohibitive.

Riding the dragon. Jason Pohl on an OCC custom made chopper. (Picture courtesy of JasonPohl.com)

Jason Pohl Carries the Maker Flag

The poster child for 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers may be maker-extraordinaire Jason Pohl. Pohl is so glad that makers have access to professional 3D design software at an affordable price that he has signed up as the initiative’s “brand ambassador.”

Low price is #1 for makers, says Pohl. Never before have makers had access to professional 3D design software.

“You can rake leaves and make $99 bucks,” says Pohl.

Pohl is a SOLIDWORKS user favorite. Many saw Pohl first on the hit reality show Orange County Chopper, designing the super-stylized Harley Davidson powered motorbikes. They were delighted to see Pohl, along with the Teutuls—the volatile father and son team that led the OCC business—on stage at the 2005 SOLIDWORKS World in Orlando. Preceding them was John McEleney, then VP of Marketing, making what to this day remains the most memorable—and loudest—entrance ever after he fired up an OCC creation and rode it on to the main stage. The SOLIDWORKS chopper is currently displayed at Dassault Systèmes North America headquarters in Waltham. Many companies followed suit, commissioning OCC for their very own branded chopper.

Pohl, a classically trained artist (Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Illinois Institute of Art – Schaumberg) working as an animator in his home state, leapt at the chance to move to upstate New York to work with the Teutuls. To render art on macho metal machines with the world watching—what a dream job.

A Design Business is Born

But the volatility of the Teutuls was too much; the family flameouts spectacular and Orange County Chopper burnt out. From its ashes emerged Jason Pohl’s own design business. (The spirit of Orange County Chopper was revived to live on in Paul Teutul, Sr.’s motorcycle-themed OCC Roadhouse and Museum in Clearwater, Florida.)

SOLIDWORKS users relate to Pohl and vice versa. Pohl is like them in many respects. He uses math, works with metal and big engines on machines that go fast. But Pohl’s work is—let’s face it—better looking than most SOLIDWORKS creations.

“You want the best possible outcome when you design and aesthetics is a big part of that,” says Pohl, who nevertheless understands that our circumstances may dictate otherwise. “Okay, if it is something no one will see, it’s under the hood, it holds a hose, then go ahead, let it rip, who cares how it looks. But if is out there in the open, why not make it look good?”

While the rest of Pohl’s graduating class from the Illinois Institute of Art may paint and sculpt, frequent museums and galleries, wine and cheese parties and jazz clubs, Pohl prefers his garage and workshop.

“I’m in my own lane,” says Pohl. Indeed, his style and his chosen media defies classification. What could you call his futuristic concept cars, customized Harleys, knives, an axe or two and the dragon’s head on display in his gallery? American Male Modernist, perhaps.

Pohl’s choice of media being steel, fiberglass and rubber grants him easier entry into the world of engineers than the world of artists. It is the entry of a Trojan horse, with an artistic flair that engineers can relate to and with a beauty we can’t admit to wanting. Beautiful, elegant, flowing, sexy shapes that make our designs seem so primitive, all cut square and straight, banged into place with hammers. Pohl’s designs are so seductive we stretch to justify them. They have to be more aerodynamic, right?

xShape the Most Welcome Concepting Tool

Pohl has become a fan of xShape, which lets him push and pull on a rectangular solid (it’s a sub-D modeler) until it becomes a gas tank, a swoopy headlight holder, or whatever else. Any organic shape he might have once made in clay in art school—the shapes of OCC’s custom designs, shapes that would be complex in SOLIDWORKS—are child’s play with xShape, which lets you work the shape until you get the shape you want.

A seventeen-year veteran of SOLIDWORKS, Pohl tried valiantly to use SOLIDWORKS for everything, wrestling it to make it give him the shapes he imagined. He used surfacing tools in SOLIDWORKS, mastering complex guide curves, lofting and with heroic measures, he was able to achieve C2 continuity.  

“With the right people using the right tools, you will get the right results,” says Pohl, quite charitably. “There really is no easy button.”

But he was to find that “easy button” in xShape, which he claims to be the perfect tool for the curvaceous shapes he specializes in.

“xShape is amazing,” he says. “It just makes it so much easier. C1 and C2 continuity is built in.”

The xShape app is included in 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers offer for $99/year.

Making a Happier World

Jason Pohl turns a power tool into a motorcycle. (Picture courtesy of JasonPohl.com.)

Pohl’s advice to young makers is make something they want to make. It is now easier to make than ever before.

“You used to have something called a library,” he says. “But now all that information is at your fingertips.”

Being creative and making things will make the world a better place. If we were all to make things, we’d be happier, more satisfied… and kinder.

“We’d help the old lady across the street, not flip off the old lady,” says Pohl.

Pohl sees the Internet as somewhat of a dark place, full of trolls, everyone is a critic and no-one a creator. Pohl had to abandon social media during his time at Orange County Chopper, tiring of the unforgiving scrutiny of the masses.

“I didn’t want to hear that green was not someone’s favorite color,” he says.

Pohl is glad to be able to make what he wants to make. He doesn’t have to confine his art to two wheels.

Pohl is a father of four, with children of “6, 4, 3 years and one 5 months.” Working in his home workshop allows him time with the kids, his wife and a design business that has bloomed.

Doing the Math

It was a riot, says Pohl, recalling his days at Orange County Chopper in the most favorable way. He got to work with Fortune 500 companies, he learned a lot about how a hit show is produced and OCC provided Jason some measure of fame. There’s a lot to making a show, he says, not all of it pure art.

“It was a lot about ad sales and product placement,” he says.

However, from the show, he made connections at SOLIDWORKS, the design software company. After mastering the design software, he is able to satisfy his inner engineer.

“I had a battle with math,” says Pohl of his days as a student. He couldn’t relate to abstract mathematics, math without context, devoid of practical application, i.e., the math engineers are forced to learn.

“But I find I am surrounded by math,” says Pohl, and to his surprise, he is good at it.

All it took was the application of math to something he loved to create, like calculating the volume of a teardrop shaped motorcycle gas tank.

“I can do that.”

Still, Pohl respects the role of engineers and is careful to not represent himself as a degreed engineer.

“I’m an artist,” he insists. “I only pretend to be an engineer.”

The Business of Making

For every product designer and design engineer, the core audience for SOLIDWORKS users, many more are makers. For one reason or another, makers take a different, non-traditional or part-time path to making things compared to engineers. You might end up as a maker after being filtered out of the engineering profession by math classes. Engineering schools use math classes like the military uses bootcamp and end up filtering out much needed talent. Creative genius does not always carry an engineering degree. For example, Leonardo da Vinci, Elon Musk… Jason Pohl.

After 26 years of existence, SOLIDWORKS may have saturated the available pool of professional users in its main markets. Everyone who could be using SOLIDWORKS full time already is. How many will buy another license for personal use is something Dassault Systèmes is certainly exploring to expand the addressable market. At the same time, why not try to reach the infrequent user, the younger and/or budget-conscious user, offering them a professional grade design tool that previously they could only have dreamt of using?

“We recognize that even SOLIDWORKS users by day would have projects in their off-time that could benefit from SOLIDWORKS,” says Jain.

Therefore, an engineer could make furniture in his garage workshop after designing them in the software they are familiar with – at a greatly reduced price.

“It does not make sense for them to buy another license of SOLIDWORKS,” says Suchit Jain, adding that 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers will keep them from having to use unfamiliar, inferior tools just to save money.

Preventing a Runaway Hit

All 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers models and drawings will be digitally watermarked. The files produced by the Maker platform will display with a gear icon (shown above). These files cannot be brought into a commercial SOLIDWORKS program but can be imported though neutral files such as .stp or .iges. Other than that, 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers will have all the bells and whistles of the commercial product.

Files created with 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers will show up a with an icon of a gear with an "m" in it.

“We are enabling the learning of SOLIDWORKS,” says Jain, by making a lot of product available to makers that costs professionals several thousand dollars.  

“We still have our business with professionals who use our products during the day,” says Jain. “But we don’t want to charge a high price to those who want to learn our software and those who make no money with what they make. Like the hobbyist.”

The maker offering is not meant for those earning more than $2,000 a year from their creations.

A Little Help

SOLIDWORKS, not the type of application you can pick up in one day and use it the next, makes us wonder how users will be helped or trained to use 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers.

Communities will be formed to help with software onboarding, says Jain. User champions have been enlisted. In addition to Jason Pohl, other maker champions include Joel Telling, who runs the popular 3D Printing Nerd YouTube channel.

Goal Keeping

Is the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Maker initiative to lure users in and convert them into commercial users? “We expect some may do that, but that is not the goal,” says Jain.

“Our goal is to have 50,000 makers as part of our SOLIDWORKS Maker community in the first year,” says Jain. “After three years, we hope to have 300,000. We may have to ramp users up from the initial $99/year, like we do with the Start Up program, in which start-ups pay 25 percent more each year, but for now, that is not definite.”

Find out more here: https://discover.solidworks.com/makers.

Parts and assemblies that may have no function or purpose outside of amusement for your senses.

It can be startling. Some engineers I’ve worked with—the most curmudgeonly of the bunch—might even be offended at such a sight. “SOLIDWORKS is a mechanical design tool!”

But to them, and everybody reading this, I share my own personal view on this type of modeling in SOLIDWORKS: challenging yourself to create art inside SOLIDWORKS is one of the most rewarding ways to spend time in the software.

Let’s face it – you’ve probably modeled 100 brackets. Some with flanges, and some without. Some with circularly symmetric bolt hole patterns, and some with bolts pointing in six different directions. But at the end of the day, it’s still a bracket.

And in the course of our daily work, we tend to use the same SOLIDWORKS tools over and over. After a while, the challenge of using the software becomes more to do with dodging bugs or dealing with file management than actually experimenting with the toolset.

I’ve been there! It’s hard to find personal fulfillment in that space.

Around the time I gained access to a color 3D printer, I found a way to break out of the monotony.  

Creating art inside SOLIDWORKS allowed me the freedom to explore the limits of my imagination, to design to my desires rather than to drawings, and challenged my supposed expertise in the software.

And it made SOLIDWORKS rewarding again.

Art Requires Vulnerability

Understanding this core concept is essential to harnessing the power of creating art, in SOLIDWORKS or elsewhere. It is why we will always push our own limits and extend beyond our known boundaries when creating art. We’re compelled to perform at our highest ability, higher than we ever have, else we face the fear of disappointment.

It’s a strong feeling. One that is scary, and normally easier to avoid than to expose yourself to. That’s what makes it such a powerful tool for personal growth.

Skill Building Through Creativity

Let me assure you, there is a pragmatic component to my pro-art philosophy.

Only through growing our skillset can we perform “outside our ability.” In reality, we expand our abilities – sometimes in minor ways and in others, substantially.

A recent project I undertook is an example of both simple and significant skill-building through artistic modeling.

Awards As a Platform

At the end of 2014, I was asked to create an award for colleagues at work. It was an honor to be asked, and although I was nervous to embark on such a high-visibility assignment, I accepted. 

I’ll cut to the chase: the result wasn’t overly impressive.

Color 3D printing technology from Stratasys had just emerged and the tools were still very immature, but that doesn’t fully explain the uninspiring design.

In retrospect, I understand that my vision for the medal was limited by my belief that SOLIDWORKS wasn’t a tool for art. That it bears no resemblance to a brush in a painter’s hand or clay on a sculptor’s table.

This particular project certainly didn’t lead me to appreciate SOLIDWORKS’ capacity for artistic expression, but it was a pivotal first step in that direction and still reminds me of an important lesson: creativity is a skill itself, and is developed one step at a time. Creativity requires practice.

Fortunately, this isn’t where the article ends. I want to share this past year’s iteration of the same award, but first a quick word on 3D printing.

The Case for 3D Printing

3D printing is unique in its ability to create complex, full color shapes with minimal skill and labor. Although there are limited materials available and real limitations to size, like SOLIDWORKS it is an excellent tool for art.

There are two distinct reasons why I would recommend 3D printing at least some of your SOLIDWORKS art.

The first is that real, tangible parts add another layer of satisfaction to your efforts. Viewing your design on a flat screen simply cannot match the sensory experience of holding a 3D object that has texture, weight and other physical properties.

The second is that designing shapes that are printable create challenges that are similar to our standard use of SOLIDWORKS. Design for Manufacture (DFM) is a familiar requirement in our work and carrying this constraint over to our art encourages us to carry out our projects until the very finish.

In the course of our normal CAD work, the common rule is that 80 percent of our effort will go into the final 20 percent of the design. The most challenging aspects of our design are heavily weighted toward the little details that allow the part to work as intended. This is where we encounter problems we have no choice but to solve or find alternative routes—or face failure.

Art is no different. The adversity of following rules encourages growth, and ultimately helps create an association between the skills we learn through art with the skills available to us in our work.

One Final, Final Word

3D printing isn’t the only way to bring our SOLIDWORKS creations to life!

If you enjoy woodworking, you might design for manufacture in that medium. Perhaps with conventional cabinet-making tools, or even a CNC router (programmed in SOLIDWORKS CAM, of course).

If you gravitate toward metalworking, you might embrace SOLIDWORKS’ awesome weldment and sheet metal tools for your art. Unconventional use of conventional tools is what this article is all about—explore the possibilities!

And last, or perhaps in conjunction with the above, you always have the option to delve into photorealistic rendering of your art in SOLIDWORKS Visualize. Basic rendering skills can help you decide if your art is ready for manufacture, before spending valuable time and money in that pursuit.

On to the Good Stuff

The beauty of this philosophy is that the growth is limitless. Even after years of creating awards, I still approach every design knowing I’m going to create problems that will be difficult to solve. It’s just the nature of artistic pursuit.

So, let’s review some of the challenges I faced in my latest SOLIDWORKS-designed award.

President’s Club 2020

You’ll recognize this award as the same honor displayed in my first example. Similarly themed too—a beach setting—yet on completely different levels of complexity and skill.

The latest iteration is the result of consistent practice; a cultivated creativity.

And yet, it too was a platform for learning. My uncompromising vision for the award forced me to use SOLIDWORKS in ways I never had before, even after years of use under my belt.

Let’s review some of the noteworthy techniques in this file—some new to me, and some I believe worth sharing.

Sketch Picture

Art is commonly inspired by the images we see, and the Sketch Picture tool is an excellent way to carry that inspiration into SOLIDWORKS. You might use it to replicate an entire scene, or simply mimic a shape that caught your attention.

In this project, I used Sketch Picture to help me replicate this image of a setting sun. Because this is such a recognizable graphic, I wanted to replicate the varying height of the “grooves” perfectly, and Sketch Picture made that task quite simple.

Dome

I haven’t found the Dome tool to be used very often in mechanical CAD—I just don’t think it has enough control to be widely accepted by people designing parts to be manufactured conventionally. However, when you don’t need a tightly controlled convex or concave surface it can be an excellent option.

I used the Dome tool to create the underside of my floating island. Unlike the top surface, I wasn’t overly concerned about the shape itself, it just needed a bulging shape to complete the look. Dome did that fast and let me move onto the next step.

Composite Curve

I’m excited to mention this one! Composite curves help us create 3D curves without venturing outside the familiar world of 2D sketching. In a nutshell, you create two 2D sketches on planes that are perpendicular to each other. The composite curve is created by projecting the sketch entities until they intersect with each other.

Here, I have used a composite curve to shape the top of my island. I needed the crest of the island to follow the curve of the land, and to rise up like a sand dune. The shape of the top surface was critical to the rest of the design, and the sketches required minor tweaking as details were added to the island. 

The actual surface was created using a Surface Fill with the composite curve used as a Constraint Curve.

Offset Surface

I use Offset Surface all the time; it’s a versatile tool in that it can be used for many purposes. My most commonly used offset value is actually 0—in which case this becomes Copy Surface.

I wanted the text in the island to appear like disturbed sand, similar to how a castaway might use the beach to send a signal skyward. This meant the height of the raised text needed to consistently follow the curve of the island.

I approached this by using Split Line to carve the text onto the face. I then used Copy Surface on each letter to create a separate surface entity, followed by Thicken to bring that surface into 3D.

One quick tip: if you intend to 3D print your project in color, you may benefit from using a slight negative offset to begin with. This creates a small amount of intersection between your solids that could help small features adhere to the rest of the part.

Move Face

Most of the features we use in SOLIDWORKS are rooted in a sketch, but there are some that bypass that step and fall into the Direct Editing category. Move Face is one that I use often. Any time I want to push or pull a face and can’t be bothered with a sketch, I try Move Face.

In the image above, all three of these faces were created with Move Face. On the island, the outside surfaces were pushed inward so that they were not touching the outside surface of the award. The gray detail on top of the island is what would eventually become the grove of trees; this surface was pulled outward to create the illusion of a canopy.

Custom Appearances

There are several ways to handle color in SOLIDWORKS – you can apply solid colors or complex appearances to faces, features, bodies or entire parts. You also have the option to use Decals, which act like stickers on your model. This is an area where some creativity can go a long way, because the built-in SOLIDWORKS tools are not the most robust available.

I gave life to this model with the help of custom appearances. Both the sand and the trees are JPG files I found using Google Image search. By adding a File Location to your Appearances menu, you can create a space that it easy to drop images in for testing.

If you plan to 3D print a model you have added appearances to, you may need to use a non-native file format like 3MF. Be sure to check System Options > Export > 3MF > Include Appearances to ensure the file prints as expected.

Experiment with the scaling, rotation angle and mapping style to achieve the look you want. To perfectly replicate your vision, you might need to edit the images in Photoshop or GIMP, or create your own entirely.  

3D Texture

On the topic of appearances: did you know you can use them to sculpt texture into your solid bodies?

I first saw 3D Texture demonstrated during a recent SOLIDWORKS World conference. I recall being wowed by the example—a pyramid texture on a shin guard—and felt excited to use it when available.

Fast forward a couple years and I had completely forgotten about the enhancement, blissfully modeling in complete ignorance of its power.

It wasn’t until this model—the art of this model—compelled me to search for ways to make it just slightly more impressive. I had an idea: could I mimic the texture of an actual sand dune?

Ultimately, I didn’t use 3D Texture in this model. I did go through the full process, including the conversion of my sand dune image to grayscale in Photoshop and experimenting with the settings in SOLIDWORKS. I accomplished the goal of giving texture to the island that matched the visual appearance I had applied earlier, but the end result wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped.

Asymmetric Scaling

Hands down my favorite element of this award is the S.O.S.-style “2020” on the island. This was intended as a homage to a difficult yet hopeful year and was critical to what I would consider the “success” of the piece.

It just happened to be the feature I was most uncertain about as well.

That uncertainty led me to leave it for last. I trusted that I would find a way to make it work, especially if I had already invested hours into the rest of the award beforehand. I use this strategy often!

Some of my apprehension was caused by idea that the rocks would all have to appear unique – the effect wouldn’t work if there were obvious patterns or repeated files.

I started with some low poly rocks downloaded from TurboSquid. There were three or four in the bundle, and they came in STL form. As I began opening and scaling them in SOLIDWORKS, I realized my solution: asymmetric scaling.

By scaling the parts asymmetrically (different values in X, Y and Z), I could create an infinite number of “unique” rocks. With the help of Configurations, I soon had enough rocks to proceed.

The letters were assembled by roughly arranging the rocks how I wanted, mating two points to a surface underneath the dark brown dirt, and then slowly rotating the rock into its final position. At this point it was locked into place by mating a third point to the surface. Voila!

Conclusion

Find a way of using SOLIDWORKS that inspires you. For me, it has been creating awards to honor the people around me. The art of it brings challenge, growth and fulfillment.

For you, it may be something else entirely. But if you haven’t tried art, give it a shot. It’s not easy—but that is why it will lead to growth and fulfillment.

To learn more about designing in SOLIDWORKS, check out the whitepaper Design Through Analysis: Today’s Designers Greatly Benefit From Simulation-Driven Product Development.

The following article is based on a presentation delivered by Paul at the 3DEXPERIENCE World 2020 event in Nashville, Tennessee.

Paul DeWys, founder of DeWys Engineering and Forerunner 3D Printing, operating in western Michigan. (Picture courtesy of DeWys Engineering)

Paul started the engineering portion of his business in 2009, operating out of his college dorm room. He was working for a tool and die company and saw an opportunity to get hired to work remotely while still in school.

After he was hired, Paul immediately went out and bought himself a seat of CATIA. He ran CATIA for the first year and then purchased a seat of SOLIDWORKS. He transitioned to SOLIDWORKS almost completely and now does 90 percent of his work with SOLIDWORKS. From 2009 to 2016, Paul working together with other engineers grew into the company DeWys Engineering. Their customers today include companies in automotive, aerospace, automated equipment, agriculture, foundry, furniture and some new product development. The business is pretty diversified, he says.

The Making of a 3D Printing Business

Between 2009 and 2016, DeWys did a lot of product development for one company—including, of all things, a cellphone case with a built-in Taser. This required a lot of 3D printing. Paul found a service bureau nearby and started sending them all their work.

“I’m a sales guy, I like to talk,” says Paul. “I would go over there and pick up parts from the guy who owned it. He was a sales guy, he liked to talk, so we’d just talk for an hour or two every time I’d pick up parts. I find out he didn’t have a succession plan for his business, and he was getting close to retirement. Offhand, one day I said ‘Ross, when you’re ready to sell this business, you should give me a call. I’ll buy it from you.’”

“Well, maybe I will,” Ross said.

Two years went by, and Paul almost forgot about that conversation—until one Tuesday morning in 2016, he gets a phone call.

“Hi, it’s Ross Gates,” the caller said. “I’m done. I’m selling it. Do you want it?”

“I’d love to buy your business.” Paul agreed on the spot, then hung up the phone and went straight to Google: How to buy a business.

By summer 2016, Paul had bought the assets of the 3D printing company, two SLA machines, and moved everything over to his own location, starting up Forerunner 3D printing.

Shortly after getting into the 3D printing business, it became clear that end-use parts, not just prototypes, were possible with these machines. However, you needed to design for them, just like you would for injection molding or stamping or sheet metal fabrication.  

3D printed credit card holder fits in a cellphone case. (Picture courtesy of DeWys Engineering).

Does 3D Printing Give Unlimited Design Freedom?

You do have unlimited design freedom, Paul begins his presentation, but as with any other process, if you optimize your design for 3D printing, there are lots of cool benefits to unlock.

One of these is isotropically stronger parts. Typically, 3D printer parts are strong in X and Y directions, but weak in the Z direction, i.e., weak between the layers. There are ways around that, however. For example, you can orient the parts to have strength in all the directions that you need, and sacrifice strength in a direction that doesn’t matter.

Another trick reduces post processing time. With anything from a $500 MakerBot FDM machine to a $500,000 3D Systems SLA, you should know that when you take that part off the build platform, only half the work is done. You still have to take all the supports off. You can spend a lot of time and be frustrated and have scrap parts from dealing with supports. But there are ways you can design around that, too. You can design parts to have no supports, or minimal, easy to handle supports.

There’s more. With additive, you can add functionality and unique features. 3D printing allows for things such as integrated springs, printing assemblies as a single part, trap components, non-machinable, non-injection moldable and non-stampable features. Because you have that design freedom that 3D printing affords, you can do some really wild stuff.

Lastly, there’s lower cost. Anyone who has dealt with 3D printing over the years, especially if you don’t own the equipment yourself and if you’re coming to a service bureau or an additive manufacturer, will realize very quickly that 3D printing can get eye-wateringly expensive. But if you design your part with 3D printing in mind, there are ways to get around that.

You can take a part that might cost $1,000 per piece and drop that down to $250 per piece by getting a little creative with how you design it. The following examples are going to be parts that were either specifically designed for 3D printing, or parts that we took in from customers and ran through our engineering department to redesign them to be 3D printed.

Designed in SOLIDWORKS, manufactured with NC and 3D printing at DeWys Engineering.

Technology Review

Let’s summarize the three machines in our shop. The first is an SLA (stereolithography) machine. SLA was the first 3D printing technology that was brought to market back in 1990. With SLA, you’re using a UV-curable resin in a vat, and a UV laser. Wherever the laser touches the top surface of the resin, it will cure a layer of that material between 1 to 10 thousandths of an inch thick, depending on the machine’s settings. Layer by layer, that laser hardens up each layer of material—then you recoat, and harden up the next layer. Recoat, harden up the next layer, and so on.

This technology has been around for a very, very long time in the world of 3D printing. There are still a lot of great applications for it, though it is a little bit limited due to the material science. Many people use SLA just for prototyping, especially prototypes of big plastic enclosures—but I have an example of an application where we actually used SLA for an end-use part.

The grippers shown above needed to have vacuum lines running through them—not a problem with 3D printing. (Picture courtesy of DeWys Engineering.)

We had a customer that came to us with a part for a machine that required this part. The challenge: design a block that could both route high pressure air for blow off and have a strong vacuum to remove blown off dust—all in one part. We used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) inside SOLIDWORKS, and that analysis guided the designer to angle the high-pressure air holes in a very awkward way for manufacturing.

The design included an area on the top where it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for traditional machining to put those holes. The block also had many internal air and vacuum channels that would have required multiple setups in the mill. We also would have had to gun drill this block and actually turn it into an assembly.  There would have been a lot of places with sharp corners where eddies could form, resulting in materials being trapped inside the block. It would also not be easy to clean.

So, we designed this part specifically to be 3D printed in an SLA 500. It had to stand up to a shop environment, and SLA parts are not known for their strength, so we encased it in stainless steel. The SLA never came in contact with the strip media that was rolling through it, which we were blowing dust off of and then vacuuming. The stainless steel took all the wear, and the block was for air and vacuum management.

To do that with traditional machining would have been extremely difficult. The four vacuum chambers had to have the ability to be tapered to a very specific mouth size to achieve the optimum draw based off the CFD analysis.

With 3D printing, we could get very, very exact about how the vacuum chambers were to be created. After placing all the HPA ports and vacuum chambers in the block, we plumbed it. All of our air and vacuum come in through the bottom, and once we had those chambers in place, we routed all of the supply lines through unused areas of the block. Wherever we wanted to put the supply lines, we could put them—which was really convenient.

Trapped Volume

You have to think ahead when designing for 3D printing. You will want to be sure not to end up with a trapped volume, because you cannot remove liquid or supports from an internal chamber after you print it.

Think ahead and use high angles from the horizontal plane in your part design. Anything over 45 degrees is self-supporting, and will not need additional supports. You won’t have to worry about anything being inside those chambers. SLA is a liquid process, which means whatever liquid resin is trapped in there can be blown right out with compressed air.

An arch is also self-supporting. When you have an arch, you don’t need supports—so don’t make it square, and don’t put a flat top on it, because you will have to support that. Instead, think ahead to that kind of stuff in your design phase, and determine what you will need for internal structure. If you do not have supports to deal with, then you can completely unlock a whole new design for 3D printing that you couldn’t create with any other process.

The bottom of a part is a different story. If a part has a flat bottom, it is easy to support off of the build platform. When you’re done printing and rip the part off the build platform, 30 seconds with a piece of sandpaper is all the postprocessing the part will need.

As someone with a 3D printing company, I can confirm the machines are expensive—but manpower is expensive, too. I bill $60 an hour for a modelmaker. If my modelmaker sands a part for four or five hours…well, you can do the math. Your part price increased by that much per part. Anything you can do to reduce sanding or reduce bench time is going to go right back into your pocket.

SOLIDWORKS Tip: Draft Analysis

Here’s a SOLIDWORKS tip for you: draft analysis. You may have used it for castings or injection molding. Draft analysis is used for parting line analysis. You can also use it for 3D printing, to answer questions such as, “What areas inside of my part are violating the 45 degree rule, or violating the arch rule?”

You can use draft analysis to very quickly select the bottom plane of your part, turn it on, and boom: everything is either green or red. You know exactly what your problem areas are. Draft analysis is a really handy SOLIDWORKS tool for evaluating this stuff.

HP’s Multi Jet Fusion

Unlike 3D Systems, DTM laser sintering machines, or EOS machines that use a laser to sinter powder, HP’s Multi Jet Fusion offers a new spin: there are no lasers involved.

Multi Jet Fusion is HP’s take on SLS. There is a print bed, and on the print bed we’re printing a part. When we finish a layer and get ready to start the next layer, the machine first spreads a 0.0003” thick layer of white nylon powder across the top of the part. Then it coats the entire bed in one pass with a fusing agent and detailing agent. The detailing agent gives you really crisp geometry, with crisp sharp edges. The black fusing agent, when exposed to high-energy IR light, absorbs all the IR light. This drives the temperature up in the black region of the print bed, and melts and sinters all those nylon particles to each other and to the layer below. However, the detailing agent prevents sintering to any of the white powder around it.

This of it like a black car and a white car sitting on a blacktop parking lot in summer. Black cars are always going to be hotter inside than white cars. With a white powder bed and a black part region, the black area gets much hotter. The white powder around it reflects all that IR energy and does not melt. The advantage to this method over SLS comes down to speed. You can run an MJF machine faster than you can run an SLS machine. This is why our MJF machine is one of our favorite machines for low volume manufacturing.

Original design made of machined Delrin (gray insert on left) was redesigned to work when 3D printed with Nylon PA-12. (Picture courtesy of DeWys Engineering.)

We had one part (a ratchet safety cover) and a challenge to take a machined Delrin plastic and design a part that is 3D printed out of Nylon PA-12. The decision to move from machining to 3D printing was driven by two factors: lead time and cost. The annual usage for this part was between three and 500 units, with a diameter that changes for every run. The customer could not justify an injection mold, so they were machining the parts. The lead times and machining costs had steadily increased for the CNC machines used to produce these over the years, to the point of frustration for the owner of the company. He was open to anything that would get him away from having to CNC machine plastic. We were working on another machine design project for the owner, and asked him for an opportunity to convert this to an HP MJF part printed out of nylon. And that’s what we did.

But Delrin has different properties. It can elongate a little bit more than the nylon, and nylon is a little stiffer. We had to make some changes in the geometry of the part to accommodate the difference in material property. When we originally printed the parts and tried to press them together in an arbor press, the nylon part would crack—whereas Delrin would stretch a little bit and work just fine.

When the initial design didn’t work, we had to come up with petals. Think of petals of a flower coming open. The petals had to momentarily stretch and then snap back over a detent. With 3D printing, you will hear it a thousand times: complexity is free, it’s size that will cost you. In this case, adding slots to make the petals was not a separate setup. It isn’t like we went from a three-axis part to a four-axis part on an NC machine. It didn’t matter with 3D printing.

The “petaling” solved the cracking problem.

“This is great,” said the customer. “But there is one more thing. We have to have a guy writing the size on every part with a Sharpie. Would it be possible for us to actually print the size on the outside of the part?”

No problem. Complexity is free. We put text showing the size on the outside of the part. It cost them nothing to print text on it. Anytime you can add text, logos, texture, anything like that to a 3D-printed part, do it. 3D printing is not like machining or injection molding where if you want to add a logo you have to add a slide to get that part out of the mold.

It literally does not cost you anything extra to add those features to your parts.

SOLIDWORKS Tip:

A little trick: If you get into a product where you will be iterating a whole bunch of different versions, and you’re going to be constantly changing the text on the outside of the part, you can link the text inside the SOLIDWORKS model in the sketch to a field in your property tab manager.

We use a start part, and have done hundreds of different sizes of these. We have a start part that we start with every single time and it has all of this already built into it. When we pop open our property tab manager, there is literally a field that says “Notes” and we type the size in there. When we hit rebuild on the part, it propagates it right on the side of the part.

Stay tuned for Part 2 with more tips on part design for 3D printing.

Custom Materials

There are many materials in the SOLIDWORKS Visualize library of materials, and more materials are available from the “cloud” library which can be toggled on at any point. But to add the final polish to a difficult rendering, it’s useful to understand how to define custom materials.

Visualize supports many different categories of material, from specialized gemstone materials to more commonplace metals, plastics and clearcoat paint. These appearances support varied texture channels such as bump, roughness and alpha, each of which have an impact on the resulting appearance.

An example of a customized brushed metal texture is visible in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1. Appearance texture channels.

Simply experimenting with modifying the textures and magnitudes for these channels can greatly improve the effect of the final rendering. Adding a mild bump map to almost any surface is a great way to prevent rendered surfaces from looking too smooth, which is a common giveaway of prerendered graphics. A bump map, for instance, can represent the grit of a textured plastic, or the spray pattern on a painted or powder coated part.

The fidelity of the texture becomes more important the closer the camera is to the model surface.

Multi-Layer Appearances

Complex materials and surface imperfections can be represented easily by taking advantage of multi-layer appearances. Like the name implies, these are stacks of up to four appearances that can be laid over each other in an adjustable order.

Straightforward applications include selectively adding scuff marks, texture or defects to an otherwise pristine surface to create a weathered or used look. See Figure 2 below, where multi-layer appearances were used to add fingerprint marks to the touchscreen.

Figure 2. Multi-layer appearances.

This appearance is combining the default Solid Glass material with a custom Fingerprints appearance created using free textures from poliigon.com.

To learn more about multi-layer appearances and textures setup in general, check out this video.

Custom Backplates & HDR Environments

Like materials, it’s easy to rely on built-in environments and backplates. Environments especially are crucial as they define the lighting in the scene—assuming you aren’t using custom defined lights in Visualize Professional.

If you ever want to convincingly fake overlaying your product onto an existing image, it’s a requirement to modify the environment. This is because in addition the lighting, the environment is the source of the reflections for the geometry. If you are using reflective or shiny appearances, simply swapping out the backplate without adjusting the environment will result in inaccurate reflections that will reveal your image is a rendering.

Figure 3 below shows the stock Camaro file with an 8k HDRI environment from HDRI Haven loaded. Note how the reflections of the sky and surrounding ground are reflected in the vehicle hood.

Enabling floor shadows and caustics can help improve the feeling that the object belongs in the environment.

Figure 3. Custom 8k HDRI environment.

High resolution HDR environments (8k and 16k) can replace the need for backplates all together for lower resolution outputs. For the best quality, though, it’s recommended to use an environment with matching backplate. If you are using your own backplate, try to find a matching HDR environment that will emulate the lightings and reflections.

It’s also quite easy to edit or create HDR environments yourself. Most newer Android smartphones have the capability of capturing a “photo sphere” or 360 degree photo, which can be brought into Visualize as an environment. iOS devices can use a similar function through the Google Maps app. HDR environments can be edited in a photo editor such as Photoshop or GIMP to make precise adjustments.

MDL Materials

Created by NVIDIA, MDL materials are a standard for physically-based materials that SOLIDWORKS Visualize now supports. These materials offer even more capability than the user defined materials in SOLIDWORKS Visualize, allowing them to accurately represent difficult materials such as textiles and liquids.

An extensive library of over 2,000 MDL materials, called the vMaterial library, can be downloaded directly from NVIDIA.

Since each MDL material is “physically based,” it will have unique adjustment properties for each class of material. In Figure 4 below, special properties for a metal weave material are displayed on the right. A sample rendering combining mahogany, hammered copper and floral carpet MDL materials is displayed on the left.

Figure 4. MDL materials in Visualize.

The materials in the AEC category are especially helpful. These include common building materials such as flooring, and commonly used interior/exterior materials as well as many different grades of metals.

To get the MDL materials into Visualize, you’ll have the best luck using the Windows File Explorer and clicking and dragging the relevant .mdl file from the vMaterial install location to the Visualize project.

Figure 5. Material library in File Explorer.

As visible in Figure 5 above, the .mdl files are accompanied by .png thumbnail previews of their different variants. This is useful to choose the .mdl to add to your project. Note that for many materials, adding one .mdl file will result in many appearance variants being imported.

For this reason, it is recommended that you do not batch import the .mdl materials, as this will inflate project size and reduce performance. It’s better to drag them in as needed per project.

Custom MDL materials can be created with 3^rd party tools such as the procedural texture generation program Substance Designer.

IES Light Profiles

Continuing the “physically based” theme, IES light profiles allow for definition of standardized custom light sources in Visualize Professional that represent real world lights. This can be very helpful for more accurately representing complex indoor lighting.

Figure 6. IES light profiles. (Image from SOLIDWORKS help files.)

You can learn more about IES light profiles in the What’s New section of the SOLIDWORKS Help Files.

Model Sets & Configuration Import

Model sets are a feature of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional that won’t make a rendering look better, but will make the process of batch rendering much easier.

Model sets themselves represent various states of the model inside a single .SVPJ file by increasing the polygon count active at any given time. This lets many different versions of the product be represented and stored efficiently.

As of SOLIDWORKS 2021, Visualize Professional can now batch import SOLIDWORKS configurations for parts and assemblies into corresponding model sets. All that is required is flagging the configurations you want to import with a Display Data Mark inside SOLIDWORKS beforehand, as seen in Figure 7below.

Figure 7. Adding display data mark.

Model sets are also useful to manually create an exploded view inside Visualize by translating and moving parts around, or to represent a product through different states of its range of motion.

Decals & Video Decals

Decals allow placement of externally sourced images such as labels, markings or in the case of LCD displays, the screen image. In additional to importing an image for the decal, Visualize allows applying an appearance to the decal.

This means that things like metallic labels and stickers can easily be represented by applying the appropriate material to the decal. For screen images, it makes it easy to apply an emissive appearance to the decal to create a more convincing render.

Visualize Professional also allows usage of video decals in animations. Rendering a screen image directly into the project adds realism that would be very difficult to accomplish in a video editor in post.

Figure 8. Video decal with emissive appearance.

To create the animation in Figure 8 above, a screen recording was performed on a smartphone, and this recording was inserted as a video decal beneath the glass of the virtual phone display in the Visualize project. Then an emissive appearance was applied.

This combination of layering of materials adds a significant amount of realism to the final rendering, which would be very difficult to achieve in a video editor—especially once camera motion is added.  To learn more about this process, consult this video.

Camera Properties

Adjusting the camera properties can add some artistic flair to any static rendering or animation.

Parameters such as depth of field focal distance and focus target can be adjusted between shots or keyframed in an animation to pull the viewers attention to a specific area. In cinematography, this is known as “rack focus” or “pulling focus” and the basic effect is illustrated in the animation in Figure 9 below.

Figure 9. Rack focus demonstration.

Another great parameter to explore is the perspective amount or focal length of the camera, which can also be animated. Combined with controlling the distance of the camera, this can recreate effects such as “dolly zoom.”

Denoiser

The Denoiser option can dramatically improve rendering performance, especially for accurate mode renders. With complex lighting, it can take multiple rendering passes to remove grain from the image due to the many light bounces that are required. Enabling the Denoiser option from the toolbar will remove noise from the rendering with an AI algorithm.

Figure 10. Denoiser toggle.

In many cases, this reduces the required number of rendering passes by a factor of 10x or more. Additional information on the denoiser is available here in SOLIDWORKS Help. In my experience, it works best whenever the camera is not very close to detailed rough surfaces, such as cast metal or frosted glass, as some of that detail may be artificially smoothed over.

Render Layers

While much of the focus of this article has been on physically correct or physically-based materials and settings, sometimes requiring the desired artistic effect involves faking things. When it comes to tweaking the final rendering, render layers are a valuable tool.

Figure 11. Render layers output imported to photo editor.

Figure 11 above shows the render layer output options available in Visualize Professional. For the 2021 version, this type of rendering output has dramatically improved performance.

It is recommended that you import the various render layers as layers into your photo editor of choice and experiment toggling the layers and trying various overlay modes such as multiply or lighten only. This is a great way to artificially increase or decrease the effect of shadows, or make the output appear more shiny/glossy than the original render.

You can learn more about the individual render layers here in SOLIDWORKS Help.

Conclusion

SOLIDWORKS Visualize makes it very easy to get convincing output out of the box with its built-in materials and environments, and it is a huge step up over the materials integrated with SOLIDWORKS and PhotoView 360.

This article outlined a number of methods to take your renders even further and create truly convincing product representations via custom material creation, custom HDR environments, physically based MDL materials, decals/video decals and artistic tricks such as overlaying render layers or modifying camera properties. Hopefully these tips give you some inspiration for your next photorealistic rendering project.

To learn more, check out the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2021 Enhancements.

Design firm Dimensional Innovations created the outdoor lettering for SoFi Stadium, home of the L.A. Rams football team. (Picture courtesy of TheRams.com)

Designing Experiences

Dimensional Innovations is a company that defines itself as an organization that builds experiences. While that immediately sounds like a nondescript, Silicon Valley buzzword, it is wholly accurate. Jason Cornett, who is the engineering manager at DI, said, “We're an experience design, build and technology firm, but I mean, really we design, build and innovate. We kind of do it all, and we do it all in-house.”

Unlike a machine tool building company or an organization that creates consumer products, DI has to approach engineering differently. They are responsible for building an experience for visitors to a variety of facilities. Whether that involves creating a more comfortable (and playable) environment for kids at a children’s hospital or developing the signage and entryway at a major stadium, their expertise is spread across an array, arguably all, disciplines of engineering.

“It is different than a typical engineering job,” Cornett said. “The fun thing about DI is that we get to talk to our design team, we get to talk to our fabrication team. Rather than just sitting in SOLIDWORKS designing, we see the whole design process from A to Z. We’re always building something unique. Even during an install, we get a talk and need to come up with solutions on the fly. It is always a collaboration, and figuring things out.”

While DI develops experiences at sports stadiums, corporate headquarters and museums, the idea of designing an experience can really be recognized through their work with children’s hospitals.

“We’ve designed experiences to help make those hospital environments more comfortable.” said Weston Owen, PR and Social Media Strategist at DI. “That space can be a scary and intimidating experience for an adult, let alone a child. So, we work to implement technology to make them feel at ease and in control. For example, at Connecticut Children's Medical Center a couple of years back, we created this incredible activation called ‘The Wilderverse.’”

Patients at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center can interact with an DI-designed experience that flows throughout the infusion room.

“You have kids that are going in and getting shots, probably pretty scared with what they're dealing with, and they are immersed in ‘The Wilderverse.’ There are all these beautifully curved LED screens that they can interact with. Basically, they create an avatar on their phone. They customize it and they have complete control over it. As they're sitting there getting their shots and all of these LEDs are out in the middle of the room, their avatar can navigate this vast world that we created with waterfalls and forest. To build community, other kids are creating those avatars as well, so they are interacting with each other, exploring and growing. At the end of the day, we have had so many kids that say, they did not want to go home from the infusion center because they were so engrossed,” said Owen.

Design Process for an Experience

Due to the nature of their work, every project that DI works on has a different timeline and process. Developing a moving architectural showpiece in a stadium is different from building an interactive software environment for children, but DI has the resources to do both.

In fact, most of DI’s works are extremely refined prototypes—they rarely have a project that requires mass production. Instead, they need to work in collaboration with their fabrication (manufacturing) team to not only create something that will work upon delivery, but which will also last over time.

According to Cornett, communication is key to keeping the many moving pieces of the large one-off projects on track. “Our teams are always collaborating, always communicating with each other. If something won't work, then we're always going back to the drawing board to make sure that it's going to fit that profile of what the clients look for.”

With an organization of around 270 people—from design and engineering teams to fabrication and install teams—this collaboration is apparent. Cornett admits that there are occasional “pixie dust moments” where a client or their design team asks for an engineering feat that just isn’t possible…at least within a given budget or time restraint. So, just like any other engineering firm, DI has to navigate the shifting trifecta of cost-time-quality.

Because of their combination of unique challenges designing large, one-off products and navigating the typical challenges of engineering, DI focuses on that collaborative environment.

“Really, it starts off with our design team and, you know, they're designers at heart so they have creative sessions with the client to talk about what they are imagining. Sometimes our engineering team will get brought in to discuss limitations like sheet size on materials for instance, or transportation size. After that process has wrapped up, engineering gets the image or concept, and we tear it apart. It’s just a shell at that point. Like, this is what the client wants, this is their overall goal, so we pretty much had the freedom to work inside of that to make it buildable. We also work closely with the fabrication team so we can actually get the thing built,” Cornett said.

DI’s fabrication team works to make the SoFi Stadium design come to life, before shipping it off to Los Angeles for installation. (Image courtesy of Dimensional Innovations.)

Even details around delivery or installation of their projects can be a challenge and require engineering consideration. For instance, DI was responsible for designing, developing, and installing the logo on the outside of the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Developing massive lettering was straightforward. The challenges came when we had to move the finished product from DI headquarters in Kansas City and mount the letters several stories in the air.

Beyond the logistics and installation challenges is that the products that DI is creating are refined (extremely refined) prototypes—ones that absolutely haveto work. While it’s an expensive challenge if an average engineering project has failures or premature wear, once a DI project is installed, there are no longer opportunities for further iterations. It has to work the first time.

“That's the beauty of SOLIDWORKS,” Cornett explained. “Doing everything in 3D space, and really fully engineering these things before they're released, we can see what's going to fit and what's not going to fit. We have our set standards and procedures that we built up over time to make sure that our materials go together, such as counting for things like acrylic always being undersized and whatnot. The 3D modeling is a lifesaver in that aspect.”

He explained that their modeling needs are incredibly complex, but the precision factors are essential. Because their delivered products are custom and unique every time, it’s vital to have sizing and fitment specifications be spot on.

“I think of our team as solvers,” Cornett continued. “We really are just modeling pieces and parts, building the thing inside of SOLIDWORKS, but the most useful feature we use is context modeling. So, we make sure all our parts and features are linked together so that if there is a change, everything changes with it. Like, say we find out a wall changed size during construction. We can go in there and click a couple numbers, change the wall and our whole model essentially fixes itself—and we know it’s correct. We can go straight into manufacturing at that point, you know, hit print, with confidence.”

SOLIDWORKS employees joined together on a worldwide, multi-disciplinary collaboration to design a digital space station, aptly named “The Grand Challenge.” Then, DI created a real-world scale model of the digital design. (Image courtesy of Dimensional Innovations.)

The resources needed to design experiences the way DI does are extremely broad-based with a lot of grey in cross-disciplinary engineering, but both Cornett and Owen emphasized their team’s ability to collaborate both internally and with clients as essential. While they aren’t exactly an engineering firm or a manufacturing business, their builds reflect both the imagination of design and the practicality of traditional engineering.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS in the whitepaper Gain Competitive Advantage with Product Data Management.

To make things, engineers use tools—and of course, those tools need to be engineered as well. Kreg Tool Company has been engineering tools for woodworkers since 1989, developing jigs, guides, templates and even workspaces. Kreg Tool is best known for their pocket-hole jig system, which was first patented in 1990, but that doesn’t mean that the company stopped inventing.

Kreg Tool’s pocket-hole jig system in action. (Picture courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

Same Job, New Tools

“In February, we launched a whole new series of pocket-hole joinery products, as well as three new cutting products,” explained Mark McClellan, Director of Product Engineering at Kreg Tool. “Our goal with the refreshing of products was to take a deep look at user needs and address pain points in the world of pocket-hole joinery. We really started from scratch, so the products that you’ll see out on the market now are pretty radically different than what we’ve had in the market for a decade or more.”

While engineers often find themselves actively avoiding over-engineering their projects and keeping a cautious eye on feature-creep, it is also important to recognize the need for an update. The team of engineers at Kreg was well aware of their potential to reinvent the wheel—a wheel that they invented in the first place. They saw pain points for their customers and sought to fix them.

“For these particular products, there was an immense amount of product market research that was done with some really good quantitative data to define what people struggled with and what people liked,” McClellan continued. “As we started to develop what the new products needed to do, we used data that we had pulled from real customers to identify the critical aspects and features to focus on.”

The traditional Kreg Jig is well known, so the team didn’t want to simply update their legacy product.

“Our pocket-hole jigs have been around for a long time, and we’re the innovators in that space,” said Derek Steelman, Product Development Engineering Manager at Kreg Tool.

“Pocket-holes have been around for a long while, but Kreg popularized the pocket-hole jig. We’re the benchmark that everyone is chasing down. When you’re the benchmark, after a while people start to catch up to you and you have to go out there and push those boundaries. So, we stepped back and asked, ‘How can we be innovative?’ Instead of just refreshing an old product, how do we go big and put ourselves ahead of the market? There was a lot of research into how people use these jigs.”

(Image courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

That market research and the commitment to developing a better version of a prominent product led to the new 520PRO and 720PRO Pocket-Hole Jig systems, but not without some serious product development.

Designing Tools from Napkin Sketch to Realized Product

The Kreg engineering team took the redesign of their classic product to heart. While a quick rebrand would have refreshed the tool and sold a few more units a year, the engineering team was looking to develop a truly updated version of an industry standard.

“Really, the beginning of our design process starts with, ‘What does the consumer need?’ From that, we develop multiple solutions for solving that problem out in the market,” McClellan said. Using research gathered from a broad-reaching number of sources—from message boards and social media to focus groups and influencers—the Kreg team works to discover challenges and develop solutions.

Then they enter the concept stage. This is where the engineers throw whatever ideas they can at the wall to see what sticks. “With the joinery products, as an example, we have boxes of Kreg jigs that did not and will not go to market,” McClellan continued. “We have 15 or 20 alternative pocket-hole jigs that we evaluated along the way… they’re all partially developed. We develop them in SOLIDWORKS and then we use 3D printers and other equipment to manufacture prototypes. Then we use them. Sometimes we actually put them in the hands of consumers and ask what they think.”

(Image courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

They use both FDM and SLR 3D printers to develop prototypes, as well as machining equipment such as a mill, lathe and small water jet. According to McClellan, their basic machine shop allows the team to produce 80-90 percent of their prototypes in-house. For the rest, they use prototyping services for things such as tooling up components that might eventually need to be molded. Their prototyping lab has a developed submission system that allows their engineers to submit designs and often have parts ready the next day. “It really allows for a rapid, iterative process to try and get the concepts out there and tested quickly,” McClellan said.

Steelman explained, “Some of the ways we develop our market research and are able to use feedback from customers is thanks to the rapid prototyping capabilities like 3D printing. We have much faster, much lower-cost prototyping options than we used to have in the past. Part of our innovative nature is that we want to solve problems for the customer, and so we are always looking for ways to get and use that information from users. Some of these rapid prototyping options really give us that ability to get it in front of users and learn a lot in these early stages before we go into further development. Both quantitative stuff like accuracy, but also more subtle qualitative stuff like ergonomics and usability.”

(Image courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

According to the team, those qualitative metrics are key to keeping Kreg on the cutting edge of their market. Considering industrial design early in the development process allows the engineers to design around these key elements of their products.

“The new jigs are a great example of applying industrial design for useability,” McClellan said. “If you look through Kreg’s history of our pocket-hole jigs, you can see where useability and ergonomic leaps have been made since our founder started the company. In the past three or four years, it’s been quite important to bring in that industrial design concept much sooner and really take those concepts into account. You can definitely see how we’ve placed handles and the sizes and shapes of touch points to make the product easier and more intuitive to use.”

McClellan continued, “At the beginning of this whole concept process, we diverge a bit, in terms of how we solve the problem. In doing that, we find different pros and cons of those concepts and we start to converge on a single concept that we want to finish the development on. That convergence then becomes a balancing act of meeting the consumer needs with cost and schedule needs.”

How to Not Reinvent the Wheel

The Kreg engineers see their team as innovators and are dedicated to simply making better tools for woodworkers. When it came to their legacy product, the pocket-hole jig, they saw competitors catching up with their previous innovation.

“We’re always looking ahead,” said Steelman. “To be honest, the conversation with the new pocket-hole jigs before we started was, ‘Do we really need to do this?’ There was definitely rising competition in the space, and there was a consensus that this wasn’t just a redesign for the sake of redesigning a product. We knew that we needed to do something meaningful here.”

Steelman explains how many employees in the Kreg organization use SOLIDWORKS to develop and move through the engineering process; but for obvious reasons, the heaviest users are the design engineers. “They’re doing solid and surface modeling, as well as FEA analysis where we feel it’s necessary. But we also use it in our quality and production areas to design fixtures for assembly and pack out on products. We also use the plastic simulation for mold flows, gate locations and ejectors. Obviously, we utilize some of our toolmakers for insight on those things, but the simulation gives us good opportunities to analyze and optimize our part designs before we go into production.”

(Image courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

While the engineers use SOLIDWORKS for obvious reasons, Kreg also sees the software as an effective communication tool. Shelby Strempke, Senior Product Development Engineer at Kreg, explained, “It’s a tool. Just like a mechanic uses a wrench and a carpenter uses a hammer, SOLIDWORKS is our main tool. We use it as a communication tool with many people in the company to help bring our ideas to life. It’s a visual tool. It’s easier to work cross-functionally with different individuals in the organization if you have a visual concept. Otherwise, you’re verbalizing ideas or sketching concepts by hand. When you can just share a model, it makes it much easier to navigate.”

Even when working on the new design of an old product, much of the team’s product development effort is spent trying to maintain a cost target that allows them to sell their product to consumers at a reasonable price. Leveraging a system like SOLIDWORKS throughout the organization allows them to keep track of designs and simulations, but also generating BOMs and rapidly developing cost-estimates for concept-stage products.

Steelman explained that one of the biggest challenges at Kreg is translating their early ideas into concepts that they can then quantify data from consumers. That’s why this part of the process was so vital to the new pocket-hole jigs. “It’s a very fluid time of the development process and that can be a challenge,” he said.

While the team wouldn’t divulge their timeline for developing the newest jig products, McClellan explained, “Timelines vary for going from concept to delivered product. When you talk about the concept phase, that could last anywhere from four weeks to 12 months. Depending on the complexity of the problem and the market need, we may allow ourselves more time so we can come up with a more innovative solution. We spend a good amount of time in that diverging phase before we converge on a more focused design.”

They wanted to be sure that there was reason to start redesigning their legacy product, and they found it. To any user of their previous jig systems, it’s obvious that they have really taken ergonomics and usability into consideration.

(Image courtesy of Kreg Tool Company.)

Innovating with Customers in Mind

Engineers that design consumer products understand the challenges that come with ever-changing public opinion. Kreg saw the needs of the customers boiling up and growing competition challenging their long-standing designs, so they took to innovating.

“Ultimately, we do everything possible to ensure that the product we’re producing is going to meet the customer expectations. It’s not until the day that it reaches the masses that we really know for sure that we’ve hit the mark, but that's why we gather all the consumer data and conduct the testing that we do,” McClellan said.

What an engineer develops, what a customer needs and what actually gets produced can often differ wildly, but Kreg has made an effort to cultivate an innovative culture that focuses on their users: woodworkers.

“As I’m working through designs I’m always thinking about the consumer,” Strempke said. “I’m thinking about ways to make the design more intuitive and not intimidating to the user. I’m also always thinking about cost. We want to make products that are affordable to the masses. As engineers, we can design almost any product given ample time, infinite cost and budget, but the cost can quickly skyrocket and become out of reach for the typical consumer.”

Of course, most of the employees are woodworkers themselves, so there is often little concern of getting myopic or finding new projects. The key that this organization has discovered is to listen to their users first, then do relentless research and develop products from there.

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS, check out the whitepaper Gain Competitive Advantage with Product Data Management.

Although anthropometric human models are commercially available, configuring them for fit on a bicycle is challenging. The work involved first parametrically defining the contact points and bicycle geometry, and then fitting the human model to this.

Parametrically Defined Contact Points and Bicycle Geometry

The contact points are represented by SOLIDWORKS parts, often containing only reference geometry such as points, planes and axes. Although sketches within the assembly could often more easily be used, this would mean that the position could not be animated or adjusted using the Mate Controller. Therefore, distance and angle mates were used to position these reference geometry-containing parts.

The following reference geometry was positioned in this way:

• Planes defining the width of each pedal from the centerline (Right plane).
• A crank length part which contains three axes representing the bottom bracket axle and the two pedal axles.
• Pedal thickness parts with an axis and a plane representing the top surface of the pedal.
• A Seat part with planes representing the seat tube angle and the top surface of the saddle.
• A Bar part with an axis to represent the handlebar.
• Orientating the handlebar grips requires two separate rotations for backwards and downwards sweep (Euler rotations). Grip_Sweep parts are first mated to define the position and backwards sweep. The actual grips are then mated relative to these, defining the downwards sweep.

NOTE: Angle mates have a defined direction. This can flip when an assembly is updating, leading to very unstable and unpredictable behavior, such as assemblies that fail rebuilds or suddenly jump into strange positions for no apparent reason. Defining a reference entity for each angle mate generally prevents this happening. Reference entities for angle mates are not created by default, although it’s usually as easy as clicking the Auto Fill Reference Entity button.

Kinematic Definition of Human Model

The human model may be considered as 19 rigid bodies and therefore has 114 degrees of freedom (DoF) before joints and other constraints are added. The bodies are the hands, lower arms, upper arms, clavicles, head, neck, thorax, abdomen, pelvis, upper legs, lower legs and feet.

These body parts are connected by one of two types of joint. Spherical joints remove three DoF, all three translations and no rotations. Revolute joints remove five DoF, all three translations and two rotations. These can be achieved most efficiently as follows:

• Spherical: Making two spherical surfaces concentric or two points coincident.
• Revolute: It is often achieved using solid geometry by mating two cylindrical faces and two planes which are perpendicular to the axis. However, this is over-constrained since both mates constrain the two rotational degrees of freedom. For a perfect kinematic arrangement, it is better to start with a spherical joint and then make two planes or faces parallel. Alternatively, two axes can be made coincident and then a point made coincident with a plane which is perpendicular to the axis.

The body parts are connected by the following joints, with the removed DoF given in parenthesis:

• Hand to lower arm (Wrist): Spherical (2x 3 DoF)
• Lower arm to upper arm (Elbow): Revolute (2x 5 DoF)
• Upper arm to clavicles (Shoulder): Spherical (2x 3 DoF)
• Clavicles to thorax (Clavicles): Universal (2x 4 DoF)
• Head to neck (Neck1): Revolute (5 DoF)
• Neck to thorax (Neck2): Revolute (5 DoF)
• Thorax to abdomen (Thoracic): Revolute (5 DoF)
• Abdomen to pelvis (Lumbar): Revolute (5 DoF)
• Pelvis to upper leg (Hip): Spherical (2x 3 DoF)
• Upper leg to lower leg (Knee): Revolute (2x 5 DoF)
• Lower leg to foot (Ankle): Spherical (2x 3 DoF)

These basic joints leave 43 DoFs unconstrained and additional constraints are therefore required to fix hands and feet to the pedals and handlebars, as well as further body positioning. Sections of the body will now be considered as independent kinematic chains to simplify understanding of this setup.

Kinematic Chain for Leg and Crank

The first kinematic chain we will consider is made up of four bodies: the crank, pedal/foot, lower leg and upper leg. This gives 24 DoF reduced by spherical joints at the hips and ankles and revolute joints at the knee, pedal axis and crank axle.

The three remaining DoF are:

• Crank position. This degree of freedom allows the pedaling motion.
• Foot angle with respect to the floor. Some cyclists keep the foot parallel with the floor, some extend the foot slightly at the bottom of the stroke, and some keep the toe pointed slightly downwards throughout the stroke.
• Rotation of leg around the line through the two spherical joints at the knee and the ankle. Assuming the leg is not completely straight, this can be considered as the width of the knee from the central plane.

Simplified model of leg-crank kinematic chain. Note that when the leg is fully straightened, the distance mate at the knee no longer prevents the remaining rotation of the leg.

Kinematic Chain for Body and Head

The pelvis is first fixed to the saddle, with an angle mate defining its forward lean. The chain then consists of the abdomen, thorax, clavicles, neck and head. It would be possible to set angle mates between each component, fixing them in series relative to the pelvis. However, this would make it difficult to control the overall lean angle.

It is therefore useful to introduce another component which contains only a plane to represent this lean angle, and an axis which is mated to the pelvis setting an axis of rotation. This lean angle plane can then be fixed with an angle mate, which is the only parameter needed for these body parts. The body parts can then be mated as follows:

• The dummy lean plane is set at an angle from the assembly top plane.
• A symmetry mate is set so that half of the forward lean comes from pelvis tilt. The front plane of the pelvis is the plane of symmetry. The seatpost angle and the forward lean planes are symmetric around it.
• The abdomen is set to be parallel with the dummy lean plane.

Kinematic Chain for Arms

The arm kinematic chain is considered to be just three ungrounded links, with 18 DoF through the upper arm, lower arm and hand. The clavicles and handlebar grips are considered to be grounded. The ungrounded bodies are constrained by spherical joints at the shoulder and wrist, and revolute joints at the elbow and where the hand grips the bars. This leaves two DoF, which may be considered as:

• Rotation of the hand around the handlebar.
• Rotation of the whole arm so that the elbow moves in a circular path about the axis between the shoulder and wrist joints.

One DoF can be removed by setting the wrist at neutral flexion with its top plane parallel with the forearm axis. The remaining DoF can be removed in various ways, but it is generally most stable to set a distance mate between a point on the elbow joint and the right plane of the assembly.

Bike Fit Positioning

Expert advice into to the model setup was provided by Mike Veal, author of the DIY Dynamic Bike Fitting guide. The following key points were applied:

• The pelvis was constrained so that the joint was on the plane of the seat post angle.
• Seat angles of 73° are generally ideal for bike fit, with steeper angles used simply to provide clearance for large wheels. However, time-trial aero positions require much steeper angles, which may effectively be up to 84°.
• The angle of the line between the hip and shoulder joints is typically between 45° and 55° from the horizontal. 45° to 50° is usual for a road bike, and 50° to 55° is typical for a more relaxed upright position. Dutch bikes can be from 65° to 90°.
• The angle of a person’s feet relative to the floor is quite personal, but a typical value is 15°.
• At the bottom of the pedal stroke the leg is never as straight as it seems. Typically, the angle between the upper and lower leg never exceeds 140°. A lot of literature suggests 150° is an ideal angle, but this is generally because a static measurement was taken with the foot parallel to the floor. When pedaling and the foot assumes a natural angle, the actual leg angle is lower.

The most challenging area is positioning the rider and handlebars to achieve neutral wrist angles. The wrist joint allows three rotations:

• Flexion/Extension: This can be assumed to be fixed at exactly the neutral position. Riders can readily adjust this, independent of their body position, by rotating the hands around the axis of the grip.
• Deviation: Sideways rotation towards the thumb is radial deviation and rotation towards the little finger is ulnar deviation. The neutral position does not mean that a gripped bar is perpendicular to the axis of the forearm, but rather that the third metacarpal bone is aligned with the forearm axis. One study found that a natural grip results in a mean angle of 65° between the grip axis and the third metacarpal, with the grip sweeping back as though the wrist was in 25° ulnar deviation. However, the standard deviation was 7°, due mostly to variation between individuals, suggesting significant adjustability may be desirable for this aspect of the grip position.
• Supination/Pronation: Rotation about the forearm axis is known as supination when the thumb is rotating towards the back of the hand and pronation when it is rotating towards the palm.

Conclusions

This parametric model allows anthropometric models representing different percentiles of the population to be fitted to bicycle designs to check for ergonomics. The setup means that only the key parameters need to be adjusted, such as the grip backsweep and down sweep, or how far out the rider places the elbows. This model will enable much more rapid development of innovative bicycles, suitable for a wide range of different people.

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS, check out the whitepaper Designers Greatly Benefit from Simulation-Driven Product Development.

Or, have you ever watched Star Wars and pondered the real technology that might be required to make an actual lightsaber?

James Hobson, also known as The Hacksmith, started his career as an engineer after graduating in 2012 with a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Systems Engineering from Conestoga College in Ontario, Canada.

“The day after my last exam I started working for a company called Athena Automation, where I helped design the base weldments for injection molding machines,” Hobson explains. “I learned a lot at that job in sheet metal design, hydraulics, pneumatics and preparing proper engineering drawings for manufacturing. Within a year, I felt I had learned all I could and moved back to my hometown to work for Christie Digital Systems, where I helped design movie theater projectors.”

Becoming a Non-Traditional Engineer (Is an Understatement)

While working for Christie Digital Systems, Hobson took advantage of his time in their large rapid prototyping lab and learned about manufacturing more complicated parts and components. He relished his experience with the company, but knew his passion was more than average engineering.

“I signed up for YouTube's partner program a few weeks before I graduated,” he explains. “At that point, it was just a kind of pipe dream: ‘Darn, it would be cool to make money off of the Internet….’ But I kept working on it, and when I saw an opportunity, I took it.”

(Image courtesy of The Hacksmith.)

Hobson was putting in a typical 40-hour workweek with his employer and then putting in another 40 hours during nights and weekends. “I knew something had to change.” After trying to arrange a part-time contract that didn’t pan out, he handed in his resignation and took to YouTube full-time. “I'm glad it worked out that way because if I didn't give YouTube my 110 percent, I might not have made it as far as I have,” Hobson says.

“I make this joke a lot... Most engineers design brackets full-time. Brackets to hold different parts. Brackets to hold assemblies together. Enclosures to hold those assemblies,” he continues. “Ultimately, unless you're the lead engineer responsible for a product, you're just making brackets! I didn't want to make brackets anymore. I wanted to make full-out working prototypes, week after week. Normally engineering is slow. R&D skunkworks is fast and exciting! I needed to be the one to come up with the ideas.”

Now, Hobson is the star of a YouTube channel with nearly 11 million subscribers, averaging millions of views on every video, as he designs, prototypes and destroys an array of fictional tools and devices by bringing them to life.

(Image courtesy of The Hacksmith.)

Designing Fictional Tech Isn’t Simple

There are justifiable apprehensions to creating a real-life Iron Man suit and a reason that a working lightsaber hasn’t been tackled by Lockheed Martin. Fantasy technology is often impractical, challenging and dangerous… and that’s if the tech is even remotely based in reality.

“I'd say the biggest challenge with any fictional technology is when the writer doesn't have a good understanding of real-world physics, Hobson explains. “To quote Spiderman referring to Captain America's shield, ‘That thing doesn't obey the laws of physics at all!’ I absolutely love science fiction titles where there's at least a basic understanding of science.”

Movie magic isn’t always feasible in the real world, even if we were centuries in the future—but sometimes it is. “I absolutely love the Expanse series, because a lot of their ideas of the future are grounded in science, and actually make sense!” Hobson says.

When building something that has a basis in real science, he says that “It's a real treat, in that case. For every other case, we just have to do our best—and usually, that means having a corded power supply, since, in comics, small power modules seem to be readily available!”

One of The Hacksmith’s earliest projects was developing metal Wolverine claws, based on the character from Marvel Comics. This exposed him to the possibilities of creating fictional ideas from comics, movies and video games and making real, working prototypes.

Hobson defines his team’s design process as often simpler than a traditional engineering process. “We start with the idea or the concept from the movie, game, comic, whatever. We break it down to its core ‘abilities’ and then we look for existing tech that is similar. When we find something similar, then it becomes a question of, well how would we go about modifying or ‘hacking’ this, to turn it into the piece of fictional technology?”

That’s when Hobson and his team really start their design phase. “We focus on how it's going to work in practicality, the aesthetic, and any other remaining unknowns that might require a bit of R&D testing to confirm. It's that simple,” he says with a smile.

More often than not, the first prototype they produce is what ends up being the project in their videos. Multiple iterations of the same prototype really are not a thing in the world of The Hacksmith. If they find themselves in a situation where their project requires a lot of design and less manufacturing, they will develop a prototype before filming. “This is probably the better way to do it but for some things, the first prototype is all we've got!”

Even The Hacksmith Has Typical Engineering Challenges

Hobson explains that one of their most challenging projects to date with building a half-scale Cybertruck—channeling Elon Musk to build a working replica of Tesla’s new truck.

“The Half Scale Cybertruck was a pretty good test of our abilities here at Hacksmith Industries. We initially wanted to build one the size of a GoKart -- and to do it in a week. That didn't happen,” Hobson shares.

The project ended up being the size of a golf cart, and then the Hacksmith team began to encounter feature-creep, “adding more features here and there. In the end it took us around five to six weeks to fully build it, but it was totally worth it. I think one of the hardest parts of making our projects is deciding where to stop. There are always more features to be added, but we always have to ask ourselves, what is the minimum viable product?”

Typical engineering challenges, even when making fantasy tech, require real-life engineering solutions. The Hacksmith crew uses an array of manufacturing equipment—everything from a plasma table to CNC machines to welders, and anything else you might stumble upon in an engineer’s shop.

And, because Hobson is a traditionally educated engineer, they use SOLIDWORKS to do all of their design. “We grew up with [SOLIDWORKS], we worked in the industry with it… going on 14 years of experience now. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks! It really does enable us to make some awesome stuff.”

Hobson says that they are excited to challenge themselves with more design and to do more big projects like the Cybertruck in the future.

(Image courtesy of The Hacksmith.)

Sci-Fi Ideas Actually Made Real

One of The Hacksmith’s most celebrated projects is creating a lightsaber. While it isn’t exactly what the Star Wars franchise depicts, it is pretty close—and in all actuality, it matches what franchise lore defines as a proto-saber. This is due to the powercell challenges mentioned previously.

Regardless, Hobson managed to make a retractable, 4,000° plasma lightsaber. It even surprised the Hacksmith Industries team with its capabilities. “Our lightsaber ended up being pretty damn functional, which made the test video super fun,” he shares.

“My goal is to get all our future projects to the point where they just work, where anyone could pick them up and make them do what they're supposed to do,” Hobson says. “But a lot of our stuff is just prototypes, so it's not always possible.”

Hobson and the Hacksmith Industries team has grown quite a bit since their early projects seven years ago. As they look forward, they are hoping to do bigger and bigger projects. In true comic book fashion, he explains, “We're in the process of looking for a multi-acre commercial property with room for dozens of buildings. My plan? To create Hacksmith Industries Research Campus. I have a whole Master Plan about how we're going to get there…”

For real-world product development with SOLIDWORKS, check out Developing Better Products in the Cloud.