GabiJack.com

Archive for January, 2010

After an incredibly long flight… Oh, wait; it only took about an hour to get to Anaheim from San Jose.Err, never mind… The important thing is that I’m here in Anaheim right now, already registered and ready for SolidWorks 2010.

Today is a slow day for me. Unlike some of my bloggers friends, I haven’t got any meetings or special sessions going on, so I’m killing some time, writing this post, while waiting for the welcoming reception at the Partner’s Pavilion this evening.

I wandered around, taking some pictures, spying on people, and trying to learn the location of the different rooms where the sessions will take place tomorrow. The convention center is huge and the whole setting for the event  is really nice.  They really did a great job putting it together this year! I’m certainly glad that this time I won’t have to run from one building to another in order to make it in time for a session. It seems like everything is pretty much under one roof this year, which is good.

Here’s a picture from the registration area. Just look at all those friendly folks, ready to lend a hand with the registration to the event!

 

The folks were friendly, but I actually registered upstairs, since I was invited as member of the press.  Here, right next to the press room, Nancy Buchino had everything already taken care for me.

Insid the press room, I ran into a couple of journalists I had met at a previous event in Barcelona, Al Dean and Kenneth Wong. I had also previously ran into three of my bloggers friends: Jeff Mirisola, Matt Lorono and Alex Ruiz (a.k.a. SolidWorks Geek). Alex was very kind to drive us all to the RainForest Cafe, were we had lunch together. Well, they had lunch and I joined them with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake because I had already eaten lunch when I ran into them. It’s always nice to find some familiar faces.

As I mentioned before, today was a busy day for some. There were quite a few sessions going on, a boot camp for CAD administrators and, I think, testing for CSWP and CSWA.  I guess some folks had already had enough for one day?

This is probably old news for those of you that keep up with the forums and the rest of the blogs, but there are others that may be reading this information for the first time (I just found out myself).  An important and potentially destructive issue has been identified that affects SolidWorks users running PhotoWorks in 64 bit systems with SolidWorks 2009 SP 5, SolidWorks 2010 SP 1 or SolidWorks 2010 SP2.  Apparently, due to this issue, the SolidWorks installation, the operating system, program files and data files may become damaged or unrecoverable. This issue only affects 64 bit versions; 32 bit versions should be OK.  A hot fix has been issued to solve this problem and all customers using any of the 64 bit service packs mentioned above is strongly encouraged to download it and apply it. For more information, visit the SolidWorks website, check out the forums and/or keep an eye on the blogs.

Time sure flies! I’ve been so sad about the recent death of my dog, Jumper that I almost forgot:  once again, it’s almost time for SolidWorks World. I’ll be there this year, courtesy of DS SolidWorks, who gracefully covers the cost of my admission to the event, accommodations at a nearby hotel, and a few meals.  I already bought my airplane tickets and will be landing in Anaheim on the 31^st, ready for a great time of learning, networking, and fun.  I almost (almost!) feel sorry for my husband, who will have to take care of our two boys all by himself while I’m gone. You can do it, honey!

This is my second time at SolidWorks World, so I think this time around I know better what to expect. Of course, I keep hearing that no SolidWorks World is the same and they are all full of surprises.  One thing is different this year for sure. Instead of running around like a maniac and trying to eat the whole world in one bite, I’m trying a more relaxed approach this year. I’ve already come to terms with the fact that, no matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to attend every single one of the sessions that caught my fancy, so I’m choosing a few good ones and leaving some time open to visit the Partners Pavilion.  Last year, I had the whole day every day packed with sessions and meetings. I forgot to leave time for just looking, so I tried to do it quickly after lunch (a girl has to eat) but I almost didn’t have time to see anything in there and later, when other guys showed me some of the pictures they took, I kept wondering where in the Partner Pavilion all that stuff was, because I never found it.  This year I’m taking my time to look around and explore.

I’m also looking forward to seeing again some of the people I met last year, and to finally meeting some of those I’ve been “talking” to online for a while.

The CSWP event promises to be lots of fun this year and I think I heard somewhere that the keepsake t-shirt has a new and improved design. Last year the CSWP t-shirts were kind of plain, don’t you think? I liked the black t-shirts that were given to all SWW attendants. Those were really cute. Or perhaps it’s only that I like to dress in black? I wish I had entered the design contest that was open for all CSWPs, but it’s been hectic here.  Just the same, I’m dying to see what designs others came up with and which one wins.

The general sessions are also always lots of fun.  Interesting people usually show up during those sessions, as well as things you can’t see anywhere else. Last year, we had Richard Branson, president of Virgin group, the guys from the “Prototype This” TV show, a flying car and a visit from a sumo wrestler that came to challenge Mr. Jeff Ray and his pink scooter.  This year we’ll be graced with a visit from famous film maker James Cameron, the director of “Avatar”.  I’m really looking forward to that! I guess for that particular general session you’ll see me doing the mad dash when they open the doors, running like a deranged maniac, and pushing people out of my way, just to secure a place at the very front. Just kidding! I don’t think I could manage to push anybody, even if I tried.  There’s just not enough of me, I guess.

If you are going to SolidWorks World this year, I hope to meet you there. Please, do say “hello” if you see me! If you can’t attend SolidWorks World, don’t worry, there will be plenty of information, photos and perhaps even video of the event. Just make sure to check the blogs every day… several times a day!

See you in Anaheim!

Part of the freedom I’m longing to experience this year is simply putting the fun back in what I do. Not everything needs to be solemn and extremely important, at least not all the time. So, with that in mind, I was working on this model of a hairbrush, just for the sake of practicing and having fun. I must admit, given the kind of item it is, I also thought it could provide a few examples on using patterns. I have a few patterns in there, as you will see in just a few moments. Some of them are feature patterns and there are also a couple of  component patterns, as well. I had a particular brush in mind, so I tried to make it look exactly like the real one.

First, I started with a simple extrusion. I sketched an ellipse on the Front plane, centered on the origin to take advantage of symmetry, and extruded it to create the part of the brush where the bristles will be. I made a couple of extruded cuts on both ends, using arcs that were sketched on the Top plane. In this image you can see the sketches in pink.

 

After that, I sketched a circle on a plane parallel to the Front plane and used it to create a loft between it and one of the edges of the elliptical extrusion, as you can see in the following image. I used the start constraint normal to profile (start profile is the circle) to shape the loft a bit and make it look more like the brush I own.

 

After the loft, I shelled the whole thing to a thickness of 0.18 in, because my real hairbrush is hollow.  Notice that I didn’t remove the circular face on the other side, but only the one highlighted in blue in the image.

Next step was to create the zigzag cuts on the hairbrush. For that purpose, I sketched a zigzag line on the Top plane, symmetrical with respect to the Right plane, and used Offset (look for it in the Sketch tab) to transform it into a slot with circular capped ends, as you can see in the following image.

I used the sketch of the slot to extrude a cut through all in both directions (up and down) and then, after filleting the edges a bit, I used Linear Pattern to reproduce the cut and the fillet features nine times along the body of the hairbrush, as you can see in the image. I used the line of symmetry in the sketch to specify the direction of the pattern.

Trying to make holes for the bristles was the fun part. In the real hairbrush, there are nine holes per row (except at the top where there’s only seven) and they are all located along a zigzag line that follows the same shape of the slots used for the cuts. At first, I thought about simply sketching a zigzag line or offsetting the previous one on the Top plane, drawing some circles along that line (still on the Top plane), and using them to extrude cuts for the bristles. However, this approach would not work fine, because I overlooked the fact that these holes would be created with projections of the circular sketches and would therefore deform and/or show in a position different to the one I expected.  So, what I ended up doing was to offset the first zigzag line (the one for the slot) and then project it on the face of the hairbrush, to have as my guide for the holes.

I also created a couple of reference points on the face of the hairbrush and right in the middle of two of the line segments, such as the one you see in this image.

Using those two points and the points at the end of each line segment, I created a series of planes that were tangent to the face of the hairbrush and that passed through each those points.  One plane per point.  On each plane, I sketched a circle and used it to make a hole for the bristle on that location, as you can see in this image.  These holes are not deformed like previously.  I only had to cut half of the holes in the row and then mirrored with respect to the Right plane to create the other half.

Once I had all the holes in place in that first row, I used a Linear Pattern again to recreate the holes nine times along the body of the hairbrush in one direction. Again, the direction for the pattern is specified by the same line in the slot sketch that I used before.

I used Linear Pattern one more time to recreate a row of holes in the opposite direction, only this time, as you can see in the image, I left out the hole on the edge, because that one doesn’t fit on this row. This step only created half the row, so I had to mirror the other half with respect to the Right plane.

After adding a few fillets to the brush, just to make it look a little nicer, I continued with the handle by creating a second loft, this time between the circular edge of the brush and an ellipse sketched on a plane parallel to the Front plane, as you see in this image. I used start and end constraints to shape the loft a bit. By the way, the start constraint “Normal to Profile” simply means that, on that side of the loft, if your surface was a mesh of parallel lines going from one profile to the other, the lines would try to remain normal to the elliptical profile, at least for a while, depending on the start tangent length.  On the other side of the loft, the end constraint “Curvature to Face” means that the surface of the loft is trying to follow the same curvature of the face of the brush that is highlighted in blue, at least for a while, also, depending on the end tangent length.

OK, so, let’s continue with the handle. Next, I offset the elliptical edge a bit and created an extruded boss for the handle. I also added a Dome feature at the end. On another plane parallel to the Front plane, I created to ellipses by using Convert Entities on the edges of the handle and the second loft. I used this sketch to extrude a cut on the handle, as you can see on the image.

Once again, I used a linear pattern to recreate this cut thirty times along the handle, in order to create the ridges I saw on the handle of the real brush.  Next, I cut a circular hole on the part of the handle without any ridges on it. I guess some people may use this hole to hang the brush from a hook. Personally, I keep mines inside a drawer. Anyway…  I sketched a couple of circles on the Top plane and used them to extrude a little edge around the hole, as you see in the following image. Notice the end condition on both side is “Offset to Surface”, where the surface is the one in pink, this way the extrusion follows the shape of the handle.  I had to select the options “translate surface” and “reverse offset” in order to make it work.

The last step was to create a bit of a “ridge empty” surface on the handle, for the brand or tag. I did this by sketching a slot on the Top plane and extruding it, just as before, using Offset to Surface as the end condition. Only this time I didn’t select translate surface, however, as that would’ve resulted in my new surface having ridges just like the rest of the handle. 

The bristles were created separately. Well, I must actually say “bristle”, singular, because I only created one and inserted nine instances of it to an assembly I created from the hairbrush body part. I mated all nine bristles on their correct holes in one of the rows and then used a Feature Driven Component Pattern to reproduce bristles in their correct holes in all other rows, as you can see in the image. This is only in one direction, because my driving feature is the Linear Pattern I used previously to create holes in these rows, remember? I guess I could’ve done something similar by simply using a Linear Component Pattern instead, but by doing that I would’ve had to enter the correct distance to the holes, etc. This way, this pattern will be linked to the other one and if that one changes, this one will update with the right information.

I did the same on the other direction, to create the last row of bristles, only I didn’t pattern the bristles on the edge, since there’s no room for them on that row. And that’s it! I hope you found this useful, or at least fun.

 

 

This is how the brush looks like finished, without appearances.