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:

Pump Action Bottle

Modeling the pump action bottle was quite interesting, as I got to learn how this mechanism works. Unfortunately i couldn’t pull it all apart as it had been stuck together. Using a torch with Dan, and Phil we figured out how it works.

Modeling the bottle was fairly simple as it was a basic shape; however modeling the pump action part was a different story. The revolves weren’t working; I quickly figured the problems out using the check sketch tool which directed me to the problem (the sketches were unclosed, and there were a few overhanging lines) after fixing all these problems the revolve worked perfectly. I also had another problem, I forgot to half the dimensions as I was doing a revolve; this cause the pump action part not to fit in the hole of the bottle. After using the vernier calipers and getting all the dimensions I managed to fix the part

The Part:

Another part which I had major problems with was the cap of the bottle. The lofts weren’t working with the lines. I could get half the cap to loft but after I selected the third guide curve the loft would disappear. After many attempts on trying to fix the part I gave up. After youtubing many videos I found out that the boundary boss/bass tool has a lot less constraints and has the same features of the loft tool. IT WORKED! After getting the lid to loft properly the next step was to do the engineering drawings.

Final Product

The engineering drawings were a simple task, however I wasn’t sure on what the deliverables were, so I did 5 drawings

1)      The pump action part

2)      The bottle (by itself)

3)      Exploded View of the pump action part

a.       With a BOM and assembly instructions

4)      An Exploded view of the pump action bottle

a.       With a BOM and assembly instructions

5)      The bottle with all the parts (no exploded view)

Customised Non-Cylindrical Bottle

The customised version of the non-cylindrical bottle was fun to model, however I came across some problems while modeling; I changed the splines so that the bottle would have a new interesting look. While adding these new splines in, I didn’t realise that the splines changed the diameter of the lid. This was a problem as I had to start remodeling the bottle. Once I had fixed this problem, the bottle was quite quick to put into the assembly and render.

The finished product:

Non-Cylindrical Bottle

The non-cylindrical bottle was a tougher exercise as I haven’t use the spline before. Getting the shape of the bottle was difficult, I came across many issues as I had placed too many points in the spline and the loft wasn’t working; I had to edit both of the sketches and re-draw the splines which fixed the problem. After I had modeled the bottle, I had used the cut tool to get the lid separate from the body. Modeling the lid was difficult as there were many parts; overall the lid was the hardest and the longest part to model.

Once I had inserted the part into an assembly and started modeling the pop out lid. Solidworks decided to work against me and it had rolled back the part due to some coincident joins. However with the help of Dan, I managed to get the document back to the original save. I’m still yet to model the lid of the bottle with the top open, and closed.

Mating the bottle was a difficult exercise as I couldn’t mate any of the parts together. With Dan’s help he taught me that planes from the part could be mated, which worked out perfectly and the part was mated in no time. Once I had all the parts of the bottle in the assembly (the main bottle, open lid, and closed lid) I added the configurations into the assembly which I hadn’t done before, however once I learned how to do it. They are quite easy.

The final result:

Cylindrical bottle

The Cylindrical bottle was a great re-introduction into Solid works after the break. the time i was modelling the bottle i couldnt get the lines to snap into the right position. it was due to the fact that I hand set enough centerlines and that I didn't notice the small 1mm kinks in the bottle neck. After creating a new sketch with all the right guidelines in i managed to get the neck of the bottle in the right position. however During this modelling process I came across some difficulties such as; getting the radius’s right on the neck of the bottle, and offset entities, when making the thickness of the bottle. I also found some problems when I was doing the revolve. I used the check sketch tool to resolve the problems which stopped me creating the revolve on the bottle.

the finished product: