Tutorial series: Design for manufacturing
What you'll learn
Utilize the box you built as a template around the arm base to define the curvature and slope as well as cut and extrude holes. You’ll project linework onto the bottom and side sketch planes, cutting the overall curvature and slope of the base, and extruding cavities to further define the shape to prepare for router use.
Transcript
00:00
So I'm going to start a new sketch on the bottom. And I'm going to project some more line work down.
00:15
And I'm just going to select these edges here.
00:24
And that gives us this oval shape, which we're going to use to cut through the body of the box.
00:34
And there's an open edge here. So what I can do here is I can just add an extra little circle that helps me finish out this shape. And that'll help me complete the extrude.
00:48
So with that, I can now select these two surfaces and I can extrude through our body. So now I can use that as a guide for using either a router bit or even a drill bit to get the majority of that shape bored out. The other thing that we're gonna use this box for is for defining how to cut.
01:15
the overall slope and curvature of this shape. So what I'm gonna do is start another sketch on the side, create a sketch, and I'm gonna do another project. I'm gonna project this edge here.
01:35
here. You select that.
01:40
I mentioned earlier to just kind of have this box extend over the top. What I'm going to do is to just make a small, straight horizontal line here to be able to cap off the rest of that sketch. Do the same thing on the other side.
01:59
And then I'm going to select this and just extrude through the shape.
02:05
And that way we have a full cutout. And again, we can run the router bit along the edge here so that we can cut the majority of the shape out. The other thing that we can do with this box is be able to cut the rest of this pocket out. This backside here doesn't have an opening. So we wanna be able to use a router bit again on this surface and mount this flat against the table so that we can do the final cuts. So I'm gonna start a new sketch.
02:34
And again, we're going to project this set of planes onto that surface. And that's going to help us draw out the cutout in the box that we need.
03:01
And I'm just going to extend this line down.
03:10
Same thing over here. And I'm going to just extrude this surface here through our template, and that's going to allow us to cut out the rest of the shape.
Try it yourself
Download ↓
About the instructor
Andrew Camardella is an Industrial Design Consultant and Faculty member at DePaul University, with a diverse background stemming from his passion for creation, tinkering, hacking, and experimentation. His expertise in the product development process and proficiency with various digital tools enable him to seamlessly translate concepts, 3D models, prototypes, and products between physical and digital realms, enabling clients to address user needs and tackle complex design and manufacturing challenges. His extensive design and fabrication experience spans multiple industries, including consumer and commercial products, large-scale art, digital imaging, packaging, environment design, green design, and instructional content development for a wide range of clients including tech startups, consumer goods companies, artists, and inventors.