Layout sketch technique

00:00

In this series of videos, we're going to go through the steps that it will take to create this motorcycle frame. We'll talk about general techniques as well as specific tools. In particular, we'll talk about layout sketch technique, where you can create a sketch that lays out the general parameters of your project. We'll also talk about sweeps and Shapr3D's SBI, which is the selection-based interface.

00:30

pre-select items before you select your tool. We'll also talk about the very important topic of how to deal with errors when they crop up. Errors aren't always the fault of the software. Sometimes it's a geometrical fault and these become the user's responsibility to know how to fix and work around. So let's get started with a new project. Want to get started with just a few lines? The most important line,

00:58

for me is going to be a set of intersecting lines at a right angle like this. I'll drop this onto the origin and lock it in place. In Shapr3D you can't make dimensions or relations to the origin or to the axes. So I always sketch these two lines in to give me something to refer to. I'll grab both of these with a left to right box.

01:27

and turn them into construction. Now from here I'll add the head tube which I think is the most important part of the design and then I'll draw another line that will go back under the seat in this direction. Another line to help enclose the engine, transition to an arc and draw this line. Notice I got an automatic tangent relationship.

01:58

I'll transition to a line again and this time I know I'm not going to get an automatic relationship and another line. Again I'll make a box and create a tangent, add a dimension from the head tube to the vertical and this will be 20 degrees.

02:26

I'm also going to dimension the overall length of the head tube. And first I will give myself a little bit of overhang between the tubes and the end of the head tube. So I'll dimension these both at 1.5.

02:48

and then make a 10 inch overall head tube length. Now you'll notice how the rest of the sketch will change when I change this dimension. And this is why we add relationships and dimensions to sketches to make sure that things change in a predictable way. Here I'll add again another tangent relationship and the dimension goes from here to...

03:18

here.

03:20

which is 36 inches. Now sometimes you'll create a situation where, especially when you have arcs, things start to crowd one another. And you can see that's what I've got going on here. So one thing that I'll do to help alleviate that is to make a smaller radius value on this arc, call this five inches, and we'll start to define some other dimensions.

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such as this one which will be 10 inches.

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12 inches.

03:59

I'll make sure this bottom tube is collinear with the axis. And to do that, you can use a tangent relationship. There is no collinear relationship in Shapr3D, so we use the tangent. We also want to add a distance to define how far out the head tube is. And we'll call this 20 inches.

04:28

Before we define more dimensions here, let's get some of these radii tied down. This one in particular is going to misbehave if we don't do something with it. So let's call this six inches.

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add dimension here.

04:54

This is 110. Okay. Now this is my layout sketch, which I will use for reference. And I may have to change this at some point also to get items to fit into my design.