We recently caught up with customer Seven Towns to see what they'd been up to with SolidWorks.

Description of Project: Rubiks Cube Game Re-design

"Tasked to re-design for a re-launch of a classic Rubik game from the 1980’s, Rubik’s Race. The objective was to re-launch the game into the market and to do so we needed to update the styling and make the design viable for today’s manufacturing and cost parameters."

How did SolidWorks Help?

"We used SolidWorks for the outset to quickly visualise how the game could look. We use Photo Works to render Jpegs and 3D PDF files to share with the team for approvals. Once approved we share the files with our China based vendors for consultation on cost and engineering. Our vendors also have solid works and we find it very useful share files which they can give us an accurate cost quickly. We can also share back and forth the files to discuss manufacturing issues which we resolve together issues of tooling and assembly. Once agreed with the vendor we output STL files from which we have our own in house Rapid Prototyping Objet printer from which we can quickly build useable prototypes to play test. Finally on approval from the team the files and the prototype are sent to the vendor for production."

What was the outcome of the project?

"SolidWorks has allowed us to fast track the entire design process to production as well as better manage the project, better communicate the design to all involved, fast and accurate costing with out vendore, output direct to STL to creat rapid prototypes, create HI-res photo real images used for packaging and instructions and generally improve our professionalism and quality of the final product."

To see more from Seven Towns click the picture above or click here

or to visit the Rubiks Website www.rubiks.com

& find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rubiksonline

We recently caught up with customer Michael Sanders to see what he had been up to with SolidWorks. Michael Sanders Design work with highly respected instrument makers and craftsmen developing and manufacturing instrument components and developing new instruments, Over the next few weeks will look at three different projects Micheal worked on and how SolidWorks was a valuable asset to these projects. Today we take a look at...

Project 1: Simple Flute system for Paul Windridge

"The traditional way of developing a wooden flute is to use measurements from existing instruments and make reamers to shape the bore of the instrument. The bore of a flute has several different tapers to it, the mouthpiece end for example is parallel for the first 120mm then the tapers begin. It is in these tapers that the quality of sound can be greatly manipulated, raising or lowering the pitch of the note under the fingers or even making the sound of a particular note louder or softer. So designing the bore to give the right sound is a tedious process when you have to make reamers by hand and then once tested make a new set to improve on the sound."

How did SolidWorks Help?

"Using SolidWorks to model the bore was a great leap forward. Once the fundamental shape was established all we had to do was alter the control sketches and test the results. Our method of testing was to cut out the whole flute as two halves, split down the centreline, on a CNC router. The two halves were glued together and fitted to an existing head joint (mouthpiece) Any changes could then be made very easily within SolidWorks and through Bob Cam parametrically, which is integrated into SolidWorks."

What was the outcome of the project?

"Using SolidWorks probably saved three weeks of time and we could see/hear how slight changes to the bore affected the instrument on the same day that changes were made."

Vist the Michael Sanders website here: www.sandersdesign.co.uk

or check out www.windrigdgeflute.co.uk

SolidWorks World 2012 is in full effect!

but for those of you not lucky enough to be there in San Diego check out the following videos to see whats been happening over there...

Day 1: SWW12 General Session

SWW12 General Session

Day 3: SWW12 General Session

We recently caught up with customer Alphason Design to see what they'd been up to with SolidWorks.

Description of Project: Contour AV Cabinet

Brief: Redesign/refresh the current AV cabinet offering with thoughts on replacing an existing model
Target achievements: Introduce an on trend, reature rich AV cabiner with minimum SKU's in five colour finishes
Timescale: Project inception August 2010, Product Launch June 2011

How did SolidWorks Help?

"SolidWorks was used throughout the entire development process:

• Creating initial sketch models and renderings for concept selection.
  
• Detailed 3D modelling of selected concept.
  
• 3D assembly of all parts for performance analysis, utilising the drag and drop function from the standard parts library.
• Technical drawing of individual parts and assemblies.
• Creation of exploded drawings with BOM tables.
  
• High resolution presentation renderings using the much improved inbuilt Photoview 360 application. The rendering quality has been much improved from previous versions. Now convincing photrealistic renders can be produced due to the vast array of material and lighting settings.
• Line drawing of individual parts and exploded views were used for consumer assembly instructions and packaging artwork. The ability to save drawings in Adobe illustrator and PDF formats is a great advantage."

What was the outcome of the project?

"The project was delivered on time, the efficiency of SolidWorks aided the productivity of the entire design process. SolidWorks eliminated the guess work of whether the design would work in relaity. First initial prototype from the Far East came almost error free, any errors that had been made were due to the manufacturer using incorrect fixings or manufacturing parts not to be supplied drawings."

Chris Melia, Alphason Design

Above: pictures of the Alphason Design, Design First Contour cabinet designed by Chris Melia.

To visit the Alphason Design website please click any of the images above or the following link www.alphasondesigns.com

"We're always looking for new and challenging projects, so when we were asked to design and manufacture heat shields for an icon from the classic car world, we jumped at the chance. Our client wanted to fit custom made heat shield to protect the bodywork (and passengers!) from the heat generated by the monster five litre V8 engine"

How did SolidWorks Help?

"We used SolidWorks extensively throughout the project. We started by creating handmade templates which we then scanned using a large sheet scanner then imported into SolidWorks. We used the SolidWorks autotrace function to sketch the outline of the templates. Using the sheet metal function we were able to quickly create sheet metal parts which could be folded and assembled. From this we created the engineering drawings for the laser cutters to work from to produce the finished heatshield profiles."

What was the outcome of the project?

"By using SolidWorks we were able to make changes to the handmade templates and print in at 1:1 scale to trial fit prior to cutting any metal. This reduced the development time and eliminated any cut part errors by creating the parts right first time resulting in Great looking, accurately made panels that fit right and came in on budget."

Above are pictures of the handmade templates which were then scanned and imported into SolidWorks.

Above is the Laser cut panel for the bulkhead of an AC Cobra LeMans 289

Click any of the images above to visit the Slipstream Design website and to read about this on the slipstream blog please click here

or you can read more about the building of the AC Cobra 289 LeMans here

if you are interested in ordering the AC Cobra LeMans 289 heatshields drop them an email at sales@slipstream-design.co.uk