Computer Aided Design & The 118 Elements
by Florin FODOR
Here we talk about the most common type of solids. Use them on daily basis. If you stop for a second and look around you, you will notice that most of the objects that you have are either made up of metals or contains a metal. For example, your watch has metal components, and your... Continue Reading →
During the wintertime in case you are blessed enough to be in a place where it's snowing, if you are like most school kids, you get pretty excited about snow days. On your day off, you might go outside and play in the snow as you watch the snowflakes fall. When a snowflake lands on... Continue Reading →
This category of solids have very much to do with our food. We literally eat Ionic Solids. But let's dive deeper a little bit. WHAT IS A IONIC SOLID? By definition of the word “ionic”, indicated that we are dealing with something that is obviously related to, or involves ions. A ION is a particle,... Continue Reading →
Solid is the 1st state of matter and also the most studied and used. Anyone entering into materials science engineering the 1st stage of study starts with learning and understanding solids. In my previous article I was briefly introducing the concept of SOLID, what is it, how does it occur and what are it main... Continue Reading →
The Periodic Table of Elements currently contains 118 elements we have knowledge about, yet the element 118 is definitelly not the last one. The same I can say about the states of matter. Before anything else let's recall the definition of matter. MATTER is referred to as anything that has mass and occupies space. So... Continue Reading →
Mercury is a planet without much of atmosphere and its surface full of craters tells us about the great cosmic bombardment a.k.a. the Late Heavy Bombardment which is a hypothesized event thought to have occured approximatelly 3.9 billion years ago. It's not easy to find information about the early life of this globe, because Mercury... Continue Reading →
All the technology we have so far is based on materials available on our planet. At least for now. However at one point in time as technology continues to advance we might be able one day to exploit natural resources available in our Solar Sistem. Except Earth there are 4 bodies outhere we can consider... Continue Reading →
Description Definition: Total Runout is how much one entire feature or surface varies with respect to a datum when the part is rotated 360° around the datum axis. Total runout controls both the amount of variation in the surface as the part is rotated, but the amount of variation in the axial dimension. Both radial... Continue Reading →
Runout is one of the oldest and simplest concepts used in GD & T. Maybe as a child you stood your bicycle upside down on the ground and spun a wheel. If you fixed your stare on the shiny rim where it passed a certain part of the frame, you could see the rim wobble... Continue Reading →
Recalling my trip to New York by plane back in 2019, as I gazed out the window into the whiteness, I found it hard to reconcile a cloud as being fundamentally liquid. The individual droplets that make up a cloud are of course too small to see, but they are also transparent. So why are... Continue Reading →
I use to travel by plane every year, sometimes for holiday; sometimes for business. Everytime when I am up there I take a look out of the window and I see the clouds just below the plane I am in. They appear to be objects, sometimes fluffy as if made of wool, and sometimes denser,... Continue Reading →
Chocolate is a key ingredient in many foods such as milk shakes, candy bars, cookies and cereals. It is ranked as one of the most favourite flavours in North America and Europe. Despite its popularity, most people do not know the unique origins of this popular treat. Chocolate is a product that requires complex procedures... Continue Reading →
Materials Science is not only about the ingredients from which objects are made but is also about what we eat. As I am from Belgium, I would like to tell you about our number one product we proudly spread around the world which is CHOCOLATE. It is our national product and let me also mention... Continue Reading →
Inventing something new doesn' necessarily means that you come out with a revolutionaly product which nobody ever seen or though about before. Nowadays with so much tech available the possiblilty to really do so it exceptionally low. Yet improving an existing product adding features on it like no-one did before and create a memorable user... Continue Reading →
In this post I'll show you how to design a Viking Helmet made of 2 main componets :The Helmet Body and the Horn Body, which will make the final assembly in a Viking Helmet Product. Let's start with The Helmet!! THE HELMET STEP 1 Create new part STEP 2 Create 2 reference planes, each at... Continue Reading →
It's wonderful to know that new products can be produced faster with less effort and fewer errors. However, innovations are most useful when they are available to everyone and practices at General Motors, Volkswagen and the other mass producers, lag far behind. I know because myself I was doing this for years and during the... Continue Reading →
Among the 14 used GD & T symbols in the category of Location Tolerances there are 3 types. 1. The Position Tolerance 2. The Concentricity Tolerance 3. The Symmetry Tolerance From these 3 tolerance types, only the Position Tolerance is often used as it is also easy to measure. The other 2 are in general... Continue Reading →
The functionality of a part in an assembly is usually well defined by the 4 form tolerances (straigthness, flatness, circularity and cylindricity) and among the orientation tolerances by the 3 most frequent ones: the position, the perpendicularity and the parallelism tolerance. Yet we have 14 different types of tolerances in total, which can be anytime... Continue Reading →
A wheel rim design can be done in different ways, depending on the wanted pattern and the used CAD software. In this example I show you a version of Wheel Rim used on AUDI cars and how to do it in CREO Parametric CAD software. A wheel rim can also be done in 1 piece... Continue Reading →
After Water and Tea, the 3rd one most consumed drink must be the coffee. At some point I am tempted to put coffee in the same position as tea as both being the 2nd most consumed drinks on the planet. Like Tea, coffee is also an art. You must know how to make a good... Continue Reading →
I start this article by saying an obvious fact: Water is the nr.1 refreshment, nutritous and necessary drink ever. Water is normally is just that: a transpartent liquid with nutritious minerals but it has no taste, no color, no smell, it must be is just clean and cool. Yet except water the nr. 2 drink... Continue Reading →
As we've already seen in the previous posts, The Bug Rover is made of various components. In this post we'll put everything together in the final product. But before to create the final assembly, let's create first the Sub-Assembly called Carterpilar which will be later used as multiple instances for the final assembly. Let's start:... Continue Reading →
In this Part of Bug Rover design work, I'll show you the 3 main components of the Carterpilar assembly. These are: The Star Gear, The Gear Cap, The Wheel and The Carterpillar. Let's start: THE STAR GEAR STEP 1 Create a new part STEP 2 On Front plane draw the following sketch and revolve it... Continue Reading →
In this 2nd part of design work for the Bug Rover, I'll show you the next 2 main components: The Lever and The Lever Cap. Let's start: THE LEVER STEP 1 Create new part STEP 2 Create the following 2 sketches: STEP 3 Use the previous 2 sketches to create a Project Curve STEP 4... Continue Reading →
A rover design work implies a lot of details and components. In this article I want to present you a simplified version of a reover concept I did, which is inspired from the insects world. It really looks like a bug, so I name it Bug Rover. I will only put here the main bodies... Continue Reading →
A Katana Sword is not just a regular object. It is a symbol of honor and respect, it's almost like a medal. Therefore it must have a specific way of storing. The most common is a wooden support which serves either for the sword inside the scabbard or both the sword and scabbard seperatelly. In... Continue Reading →
When a samurai doesn't use his sword he let it in scabbard. The work design for this element goes as follows: STEP 1. Create new part in Assembly workbench as shown: STEP 2. In Model workbench, click on Sweep icon and then create the trajectory in a sketch on DTM3. Just project the upper top... Continue Reading →
Let's continue with Katana Sword design. Handle design is done as follows: TSUKA - HANDLE STEP 1. The design work must continue in the same Top-down approach, like we did in Part 2. This means that the new parts are created directly in the Ansembly file using the original reference system form Blade part. Therefore... Continue Reading →
In this part I will show you how I've designed the fittings used for the product Katana Sword. The approach to be taken for this kind of product is a Top-Down design also called Relational Design Method. That's becasue all parts must fit exactly with the blade shape, therefore the Blade is used as reference... Continue Reading →
Katana Swords are one of the national symbols in Japan. Their story is trully fascinating and amazing. Having observed how this swords are made I've designed a Sword concept with CREO Parametric. My design process for such object goes as follows: KATANA BLADE STEP 1. Create New Part STEP 2. In Model Workbench click on... Continue Reading →
Air-conditioning systems are essentially refrigerators for air. In your car, for instance, the air-conditioning system passes the cabin air over copper tubes containing refrigerant, thus cooling the air. Cool air can't maintain a high concentration of water, which is why water droplets form on air conditioners (this is also why clouds form as air rises... Continue Reading →
There is no better example to start a topic about cooling liquids than aircrafts. We all have today the option to travel by plane anytime and anywhere in the world. When you do that, of course maybe the only inconvenient you might have is that you must sit and keep the seatbelt tighten during the... Continue Reading →
THE SKATEBOARD FINAL PRODUCT STEP 1. Create New Assembly and rename it Skateboard STEP 2. In Assembly Environment click on Assemble Icon and browse for the part called "Board" in project folder. Put the constraint on it as Default and click OK. Everything added afterwards will be refered to Board part. STEP 3. Continue to... Continue Reading →
To create a product you must first design the component which are later put together in the final product assembly. But when every component is ready also it makes very much sense to group some components in a sub-assembly which will be part of the final one. Therefore let's create the sub-assemblies necessary for the... Continue Reading →
An Assembly is a product made of single components joined to work together. Fixation elements are mandatory for every mechanical product to work as intended. So let's design the specific components and at the end we'll use the standard parts which are largelly available to download online. THE FIXATION PIN STEP 1. Create a New... Continue Reading →
THE WHEEL STEP 1. Create a New part and rename it Wheel. STEP 2. In Model Environment click on Revolve icon and on Front Plane sketch the profile as shown, then revolve it around vertical axis. STEP 3. Apply rounds: STEP 4. Add rubber appearance: The Part looks like this: THE RUBBER BUSH I STEP... Continue Reading →
Let's design a Pirate Ship Wheel STEP 1. Create a new CAD file STEP 2. On Right Plane, sketch the 2 profiles for outer and inner wheel at a distance from each other of 360mm as shown: STEP 3. In the Features toolbar, click on Revolved Boss/Base icon and revole everithing completelly. STEP 4. On... Continue Reading →
Let's Design the Thor Hammer with SOLIDWORKS PART 1 - Handle STEP 1. Create New Part STEP 2. On the Right Plane draw the sketch as shown: STEP 3. In Featrues toolbar, click on Revolved Boss/Base icon and revolve the sketch completely. STEP 4. On Top Plane create a sketch as shown: STEP 5. In... Continue Reading →
Let´s design a toothbrush with SOLIDWORKS STEP 1. Create a New Part. Save the part with a new name as: Toothbrush and while you advance with the design work from time to time, don´t forget to click the Save icon. STEP 2. In the drawing view or from the model tree select the Front Plane... Continue Reading →
In Part 1 of The Ink Story I was talking about how Ink occurred. During centuries there were many iterations about How to use Ink in the best way possible. So in this 2nd Part I will talk about pens. The 19th century saw a big surge in fountain pen patents. But while they all... Continue Reading →
History is full of ink. From Paleolithic cave paintings to parchment scrolls to printed books, ink has recorded human history for millennia. Even the Kindle makes use of e-ink (a reusable ink that sits just below the surface of the screen), reminding its readers that ink is hardly a thing of the past. All inks... Continue Reading →
Location tolerances determine the nominal location or ideal location of a feature relative to one or more references. This results in 3 types: Position: the nominal location is determined by theoretical dimensions Coaxiality/Concentricity :The nominal location is the axis or the center of the reference element Symmetry: The nominal location is the median plane or... Continue Reading →
Objects made as an assembly of more than 1 component, in order to be functional besides a clearly specified form each component, must have at least 1 clearly specified orientation (parallel, perpendicular or angular). For the parallelism and perpendicularity the orientation is quite simple to understand , it is either at 0° or at 90°,... Continue Reading →
Working with CAD software to create new products is a huge improvement in the modern design process versus the old times when the work had to be done simply by hand. The posibilities to do mechanical design today are way much better. A new product can be created with any of these CAD platforms available... Continue Reading →
There are many objects which are commercially succesful if their design make them look attractive. Such example of products are those made by Apple. They use a lot of Freestyle design and one example here is the already well known Wireless Earbud. In this post I am showing you how this product can be designed... Continue Reading →
In the Part 1 of the Soap Story I was talking about the importantce of solid soap and how does it work to remove dirt from our hands and clothes. Even if Soap exist for quite a very long time, it is more a commercial product of the 20th century. Today we use soap on... Continue Reading →
I hate dirt and the sticky things that remain on my hands whenever I work on something. Even if I eat a cake or I taste different sweets, after I eat and after i use the toilet, I cannot continue my day if I don't wash my hands. The same feeling I have about dirty... Continue Reading →
Generative Shape Design Workbench is an interactive environment and it works perfectly in combination with Part Design Workbench. Therefore to explore a bit more in details how does GDS works, let´s create a part which is only possible with GSD, such as a Bike Saddle. The most easier workbench to work with in any CAD... Continue Reading →
Whenever I want to relax myself or even when I travel and I want to use my free time in the most enjoyable way I either read a book, listen to music or watch a movie. Reading a book and listening music was always the most available way to entertain yourself, but recently watching a... Continue Reading →
In a mechanical design of an assembly made up of various parts it is often the case to make sure the functional elements are perpendicular to a reference. In GD & T this is called Perpendicularity Tolerance. Like parallelism, the perpendicularity tolerance is also an Orientation tolerance from the sub-group of Direction tolerances. Therefore for... Continue Reading →
Computer Aided Design & The 118 Elements 