So the past few days have been very eventful in the world of CADD. With all the errors that were happening with the split part, Dan managed to save my model and I didn’t have to start again which was a huge relief. After I managed to split all the parts I inserted the model into an assembly, which snapped together due to the master part; and i inserted all the bits into the model (the Scroll wheel, Reflector and the circuit board (and they all fit nicely).



Getting all the extrudes on the bottom housing and the mouse button cover were simple thanks to the assembly, however they were very tedious to get them to all fit nicely. However i did have a problem; the shell feature wasn’t working on the middle housing due to a minimal radius, or something. I tried every way I know how to solve it, and most of them didn’t look that pretty so I ended up having to shell it at 0.010mm and thicken it to 1mm which worked after playing around with the part for two hours or so. The process of doing all the bits in the middle housing part took quite a long time to get right but once I finished it, it seemed to fit together pretty well.



The last thing i modelled was the USB cable, which was quite easy just a few splines, with a surface sweep and extrudes and just sat it on the exterior of the mouse. I couldn’t find the toolbox on my computer i don’t think solid works installed completely on here; which was annoying as i would have liked to get the right screw in the back seeing it lined up pretty much perfectly.



Finally was the rendering and the advert they took some time to get right. I chose pretty simple colours and camera angles. I changed the lights in solid works to just one major spot light just to see how the renderings will turn out with it; and my advert was pretty simple, i didn’t want to do anything to wild seeing that’s how Microsoft does its advertisements.

Edit: I Changed the Setting as the one light didnt seem to work, insted I just used a studio room with fill lights.




Final Rendering / Product:

Advert:

So today i started splitting the mouse i drew a spline that matches the profile of the mouse button cover, i then extruded the surface profile.

I then offset the surface of the mouse button surface inward by 2mm and trimmed the offset surface, using a sketch which is roughly about 1.5mm inward from the cover.

Thirdly I filled the extruded surface and the offset mouse button cover which created the surface that ill split the mouse with.

I went to fill the middle housing with the fill surface tool, however due to the surfaces being knitted incorrectly it wouldn’t work. Thanks to Dan, we managed to get that fixed. And by we i meant him!

I then went to split the middle housing from the mouse button cover, however when i try to split the part it creates some massive crater in the middle housing part. or if i change the settings on the split part the edges will become all messed up. So i’m deciding if i don’t managed to get this problem fixed on Friday at the last tute session i will have to restart the mouse body again. Which will be a pain, but it might just be easier.

The top button mouse cover was an easy surface to create; I used a constraint curve to make sure the shape was equal and not flat. I used the surface fill tool and the blue line shown before as the boundary, and the constraint curve to ensure that it was equal throughout the entire surface. I then cut the curve in half using the plane i sketched the constraint curve on.

I then had to model the finger troughs, I made an inverted curve which i mirrored to make the troughs even and then surface filled the surface again. The last step for modelling was the trough where the mouse roller goes. I made a plane on top of the mouse, and while looking at the top view of the picture i traced one half of the trough where the mouse wheel goes and mirrored it, for equal curvature, i then trimmed the surface creating a hole in the mouse. Finally made another inverted constraint curve for the convex surface; which i then surface filled with the constraint curve which finished the surface of the mouse.

finished mouse:

The middle part of the mouse was fairly simple to model, firstly I made a sketch of the side profile of the mouse shown here in blue (sorry about the wonky line, i did it with my trackpad).

This profile was then mirrored around so that it made the shape of the top part. I then use a projected curve using the profile from the bottom part and the profile which was shown in blue. I then had to use guide curves to create the proper shape. And  finally i used the surface loft tool to create the middle part of the mouse (highlighted).

I started modelling the mouse today, the bottom of the mouse was fine to get. I made the bottom of the mouse using the spline tool, then mirroring it to ensure the shape of my mouse was symmetrical. I then used the side view picture supplied by Dan to create guide curves, to create the surface loft; (but we will get to that later) which i then mirrored again so the shape would be the same on each side. I created 12 guide curves for the bottom half of the mouse ( 1 on the front and the back and 5 on each side).  I used the surface loft tool to create the bottom half of my mouse; then used the planar surface tool to fill in the bottom. I then use the face fillet tool (with continuous curvature) to create the fillet between the side and the bottom at a radius of 2mm.

The complete bottom of the mouse:

Today I modelled the mouse wheel, there weren’t any problems getting the shape; I just used an extrude with fillets. However I can’t find the right tool to get the proper indents on the mouse. I may just have to use an extrude cut, with a circular pattern. i havent managed to get the right indents in the wheel. ill post a picture when ive finished.

The start to the mouse assignment was very irritating; firstly I bought the non-compact version of the mouse, which I hadn’t realised until I had modelled the circuit board and the mouse wheel. Secondly when I did start modelling the right mouse, I forgot my computer mouse so after I had pulled apart the mouse I had to use it while modelling it this made the modelling process very long and tedious. However I did manage to get the circuit board done without any problems, and the laser reflector took some time to get right, but they both look good.

the finished products: