Quick concepts part 2: Iterate and modify

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When you're trying to put together ideas quickly, sometimes it can be helpful if you have several small ideas that you put together in different ways, like reusing parts of a design for a modular model, or copy the start of a model and vary from a common starting point. In Shapr3D, this can be done easily if you know how to use bodies. Let's say I've been asked to present a half dozen concepts on a combination

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kitchen workshop rotary tool. It should have a range of attachments than a stand. It's my job to just present as many ideas as I can, visually, in the least amount of time, without worrying too much about adding detail to the design. A great way to start is to first create a base for all of the attachments and pattern the resulting body.

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So use transform then pattern and make sure it's set to linear. Then select the body you want to pattern and enter or drag out the distances. I used a 3x4 pattern with a 4 inch spacing.

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Then add features to bodies to create various attachments. You aren't being called on to create the final engineering models, so these only need to convey visual information related to the number and purpose of each of these attachments. The goal here is to convey the most ideas in the least amount of time.

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Here are some of the techniques I used to make these parts. For the flathead screwdriver, I made a loft from the circle to a rectangle. You could also extrude an inverted V shape, and lofting is actually a lot simpler than it might seem. Just create two 2D shapes.

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Move one of the shapes to a different height.

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and use the Loft tool to create material between the 2D shapes. To make the flat head as an extrude, enclose a shape on one side with three straight lines and an arc, arranged as shown.

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Extrude this shape. Shapr3D will create this as a cut through half of the part.

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Edit the feature in the history list using the arrow next to the feature name, and make it symmetrical instead of one-sided. Also, instead of subtracting, make it a new body. Next, create a midplane through the part and mirror the new body.

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then create a subtract feature and subtract the two new bodies from the original.

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The Phillips head screwdriver is slightly more involved.

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Start with a chamfer on the round edge. Go into the properties of the chamfer and make it longer in one direction than the other.

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Next, draw a triangle on the end of the blank, and then create a midplane, and draw an angled line from that midplane. Then create a sweep of the triangle along the angled line. Shapr3D doesn't create swept cuts or patterned features, so you have to pattern the swept body and then use Subtract to remove material.

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If you find all the bodies to be distracting, you can isolate a single body to focus just on that body. This also isolates the history items for that body, so you see only the features related to the isolated body. To isolate multiple bodies, use the items filter in the upper left and select bodies.

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Then CTRL select multiple bodies or SHIFT select a range of bodies. Right mouse button click and pick isolate.

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In this method, we are creating a lot of bodies within a single project file. This is not always the most efficient way to work if you're going to use the data for engineering or reuse individual parts, but it's a very fast way to work to achieve a visual for an assembly. And that is the goal here. For other types of work, I would suggest making individual parts in individual files.

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Finding features in the history list for edits can be difficult when everything is all mixed up together. You can also duplicate projects by selecting a project from the private space, which can be found in the recents area. First, select from the right mouse button menu over a single project, and then use the small selection boxes if you want to.

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Select multiple projects. The duplicate option is in the upper right of the window or again on the right mouse button menu. Duplicating a project allows you to change anything in the model without altering the original saved version. This is another great way to make changes from an existing starting point or to separate multiple models

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that were created in the same project out to individual projects as separate parts, and then bring them back together into a single project as an assembly. This technique can help you work on individual parts as individual projects, instead of having multiple parts in a single project. Thanks for watching part two, and please come back for part three.

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where we will work on the main model for this series of three videos and create several iterations and variations of that.