SolidSmack.com

Herman Miller’s Got Tops. PV360 and SolidWorks Could Have Helped.

Josh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:00:30 +0000

Don’t you just love tops. I’ve always liked them. They just make you feel like stripping out the carpet, painting yourself red and spinning as many as you can right before the in-laws walk into the room.

That, however, has nothing to do with the design and inspiration behind the Herman Miller Select series of Tops. These are totally designer grade. Created by KleinReid with inspiration from the good ol’ Eames duo. We got the story on how it was done. Then took the tops and did’em up in SolidWorks with a little rendering in PV360 and modo.

Here’s whatcha love…

Tops of Paper, Tops of Plaster

I picked the story up from the Herman Miller blog and contacted the design team, KleinReid, to find out how they tackled the idea.

What did KleinReid use to design the tops?
The tops were designed using paper, heavy scissors and a half a bag of plaster. We started by cutting dozens and dozens of paper silhouettes — which let us explore forms quickly and kept the curves very human. We then turned plaster models of our favorites, revising and fine-tuning as necessary. Once the final tops were chosen, their paper silhouettes were scanned and traced in Illustrator to maintain proportion and integrity of curve during lathe turning.

What gave them the idea for the profiles they chose?
The starting point for the tops was the collection of tops the Eames amassed from around the world. Our trio was inspired by traditional wood and metal styles — each taking a different skill level to master. Above all they had to be elegant objects that begged to be played with and held.

We designed these shapes first with scissors and paper.
We fold the paper in half and cut out the silhouette with scissors like cutting paper dolls. We like to use good quality office paper, a heavier gage paper insures that the silhouette is symmetric. The scissors must be of very good quality to produce the right curves. We like to heavy steel scissors, like the kind used to cut fabric. After we choose the silhouettes that we like we go directly to turning models in plaster. This really lets us see the form and make necessary changes, some are big changes, and some are minute. We will sometimes make dozens and dozens of paper silhouettes, and several turned plaster models to arrive at the finished shape.

Easier with SolidWorks and PhotoView360 Have Been Easier?

It’s incredibly interesting to see the different ways people conceptualize and idea. The paper/plaster approach seems messy and time-consuming, but those hands-on methods can add the character of angst, papercuts, and plaster burns to that special design. I hate papercuts, so I’m taking the solid modeling approach and doing it up in SolidWorks with a little rendering in PV360… and modo. Here’s the process.

Create the profile in SolidWorks

Revolve the profile in SolidWorks

The Renderings

I tried this three different ways, just to see how close each could come to the photograph of the tops up above. Here are the results. Click to Enlarge.

The default SolidWorks RealView Setting

Rendered in PhotoView 360

Rendered in modo

Now tell me if anyone of these could have saved some time during conceptualization for the tops. How many profiles could you revolve and render in the same time it takes to cut and turn one in plaster?

3DVia Hawks Big 3D Loogie Into Photo-Editing. 3DVia for Photoshop

Josh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:00:24 +0000

Look out Photoshop aficionados, the dev team over at 3DVia has been drinking their milk, running laps around the Dassault campus and has just launched the mother of all 3D plugins to ease your graphical design pains.

It’s 3DVia for Photoshop. The plugin that allows you to bring 3D models from 3DVia directly into Photoshop CS3 and up. If you use CS3, you know there are incredible 3D Layer tools that allow you to manipulate 3D objects and save a lot of time designing coolness. This plug-in… makes it even easier.

Of course Adobe Labs also has a Photoshop plugin for Google Sketchup, but how could that compare with being able to create and upload a SolidWorks model (or 30 other major formats) directly to 3DVia to bring into Photoshop? Yeah?

Here’s an overview video of the magic and yes, Mac support is coming soon.

PLMPlus Dawns the Red Gloves of Simplified, Internet-Based, On Demand PLM.

Josh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:00:51 +0000

I’m sorry if you bit off two of your fingers with delight while reading that headline, but believe it. PLM and simple in the same sentence, along with a completely obscure red glove metaphor? How can that be?

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is renowned for it’s complex implementation and lengthy training period. So, what if PLM were simple? Something that you didn’t have to implement. Something that you didn’t have to maintain. Something that could be accessed from (almost) anywhere. That is the aim of PLMPlus.

We had a heckuva phone conversation with Benny Shaviv yesterday and got the scoop on his fresh new venture, which by the way, recently received $4 Million in round A funding. Looks like someone thinks they’re stirring things up a little. We do too. So, we slammed Benny a very relevant case study type of question… that didn’t even phase him at all. He may be a robot, but most likely he really understands what his biz is about. Take a look.

Imagine this. A company has engineering in one location and production in another location. Engineering uses SolidWorks. Production uses an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to organize/track/order parts and material. They want to optimize how each location works together. How can PLM+ help this?

As for PLM+, two problems we aim to solve are the interface between R&D and Manufacturing and enabling multi-location design.

In a nutshell: For this scenario, PLM+ serves as the backbone that drives the processes between multi-geographical teams and between R&D and manufacturing. For example, the R&D team in Colorado puts in a change to a product and an Engineering Change Order (ECO) is created, which is also visible by the manufacturing leader in Detroit (or Barcelona, or Taipei). He gets the ECO delivered automatically, has all the associated data, signs off on it, and its subsequently approved for manufacturing. At any time – any member of any team (with proper role permissions assigned) can access any part of the data or its associated documents to get any information they need.

On the PLM+ backend, final manufacturing data is transferred to the ERP. The same would work for any type of process (ECO, MCO, etc) and all of this also applies to 2, 3, or more distributed design teams in different locations that run development processes between them. At any time – the system gives full visibility as to where things stand on each process, what are the actions remaining to completion, and what the bottlenecks are.

The main point to keep in mind here is that organizations that are distributed have a very hard time training remote employees, and this is something that always inhibits system deployment. If you have multiple locations each of them with 2-3 people, what are your chances of training and supporting the people on a traditional system? Take that, as opposed to a system that is meant to be intuitive and self-trainable.

With PLM+ being a web-based solution, how is data secured?

Great and common question. There are three perspectives this includes:

User access: PLM+ uses personal licenses & role based security – users are only allowed to access data that has been made available to them by their administrator via the role that was defined for them. They are only exposed to what they need to see and nothing else. Same of course goes for suppliers.

Application hardening perspective: PLM+ has multiple security mechanisms employed on the application & its network to ensure no loopholes or vulnerabilities to malicious attacks. We also hired a third party expert company to conduct penetration testing.

Hosting perspective: PLM+ hosts the application & data in a data center that is carrier grade (meaning that they exceed global telecom standards) and are SAS 70 Type II certified. They have very strict security & availability mechanisms & policies including: electronic security mechanisms & enforcement, redundant network connections, redundant backups, redundant power sources, enhanced sprinklers & HVAC systems, guarded physical access and lot more. Some of the world’s largest companies host their data there.

If we take a step back and look at the big picture – no small/medium company would be able to afford THIS type of security on its own locations.

Will ‘PLM in the Cloud’ Work?

For me, if it’s a web-based solution, with no implementation, minimal training and reasonable cost, it’s attractive. Many, however, still have the old (somewhat valid) security paradigm in their head. Meeting certifications and standards help, but it’s in our natures to store data in our own little box and think it’s safer there. If a solution is familiar to enough people though, the mental barriers that restrict it’s use tend to crumble. With everyone talking cloud apps these days and wi-fi spreading out to the far reaches of earth and sky, I’m thinking we’ll soon wake up with no barriers in sight.

PLM+ is currently in closed beta. You can sign up here. As more leaks out on the backend and how it actually functions, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, start to enjoy the idea that PLM may be becoming a bit more accessible for smaller companies.

Once again, Al Dean of Develop3D beat me to the punch on this story. For his perspective check out his Develop3D blog post. And like Al mentions, Twitter brings business discussion down to a more understandable, more enjoyable, personal conversation. I came about meeting Benny Shaviv on Twitter. You can too, as well as SolidSmack, Al Dean and many others.

Slap Me With CAD Drama. Alibre Slams Down Another Price Guantlet.

Josh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:20:41 +0000

She looked, drawn and dazed at the weary traveler. Nothing had been said once, at any point in all of time, that captured this one moment she felt him gazing back.

Hey! Hey!!! Noooooo, not that kind of drama people. CAD Drama. As in, our CAD is dang better than your CAD, or as we shall see today, our CAD price is better than your CAD price. And who’s up to these shenanigans this time? The same peeps that struck off hours of blog post comment debate on how a product could be profitable for $99. Alibre.

$5000 or $500

This time, they take aim direct at quote for CAD seats. It’s all in the press release, that comes out tomorrow. No 3D product development vendor dawning the breastplate of CAD is left out…

“Now we are also guaranteeing, that no matter what price the quote, no matter how low the other guys go, we will beat them by a factor of 10. It doesn’t matter if the quote is for SolidWorks, Inventor, Solid Edge, Pro Engineer, etc. – any quote for any software product that offers comparable functionality will be beaten by a factor of 10.”

So, what about this, if I get a price quote for 10 bunnies, does that mean, Alibre will only make me give them one bunny? Or would they say, “Set loose that bunny! We are not bound by animal husbandry or the proponents that say we’st are!”

Image via Peripherlarbor

The Ken Block Subaru TRAX STI Shreds Snow, Mountain, Your Face

Josh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:41 +0000

I know the number one thing you are wondering as you tumble down a rocky cliff on your snowboard is, how the heck am I going to get back up there to do this all over again.

Problem solved… at least for Ken Block it is. He, along with Rally America and a handful of sponsors have built the ultimate backcountry shreddin’ Subaru. It’s fast, really fast and chews snow like a mach 5 faceplant. If you’re familiar with other Ken Block Videos, you know this creation has gotta be good.

Just gazing upon it in action is tad amount to being pelted repeatedly with packed snowballs by a really cool person, although with more the intensity and not so much the pain. The tracks are made by Mattracks. You can read about the Mattrack engineering here. (Any idea what they use??) It’s a fairly standard conversion option for off-road snow vehicles. Where the real action happens is in the performance mods on Ken’s WRX STI.

The TRAX STI is an experimental automobile that starts with Block’s competition-ready Subaru WRX STI before ditching the tires, adding snow cat tracks, and upgrading to some next-level suspension to create the ultimate backcountry shred car. Prepared by Vermont SportsCar, performance modifications include 400-hp and features Group N competition rally dampers made by EXE-TC and a KAPS 5-speed close-ratio dog-engagement gearbox. Under the hood sits a 2.5 liter, 4-cylinder, turbocharged and intercooled STI engine tuned with a MOTEC M800 ECU – _DC

Ya got that amount of power and fun in your head now? If so, take a look at the video and pics and tell me you don’t want one.

via AutoBlog and CNET

Friday Smackdown: Mechtronic Melee

Josh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:23:23 +0000

It started with a buzz and a jitter, then five of them flopped like wet onions onto the launch deck. Then it got scary. They started singing and shooting liquid cheese and these links from their eyes.

BearFoot – Robots, ships and wicked cool 3D is just a small part of what Neil Maccormack does.
Papercraft Self-Portrait Mask – How cool would it be to make an oversize mask of your face? Very cool.
Using Textures in Photos – Forget composition, slap some texture on it and call it good.
Greatest Amatuer Rap Ever – AWWWW YEAH. Drop that beat. Even if you don’t like ‘the rap’ you gotta admit, this is OFF.
6 minutes of randm stuff – Much like this post… tarty… neck… shovel… noodle… loop-d-loop
Offline Trailer – Man’s struggle to regain his soul… or ninja robot and viking looking people ala MadMax futuristica
12 Places To Go If The World Goes To Hell – Which means you probably don’t want to go there now.

FreshFiber’s 3D Printed iPhone Case Puts the Fancy in Your Pants

Josh — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:05:08 +0000

Once again 3D is hitting the iPhone with a fearsome tenacity that makes you just plain ignore regular phone users. But this time the 3D goodness isn’t in the iPhone, it’s on it… and it’s on it in a not-over-the-top-at-all, ultra-fashionable way.

FreshFiber, with the styling skills of Janne Kyttanen, has launched a fresh line of iPhone cases created with the material layering intensity of a 3D printer. Yes, call your friends for a cute little iPhone party and prepare to get your hands on some of this stylish fab.

3D Printing custom products

Al from Develop3D got it right when he described this as ‘truly fascinating.’ 3D printing is beginning to spill into the wide expanse of consumer product design. These cases are a perfect example of how 3D printers are allowing people to extend the complexity and customization of designs.

“The base materials can range from wood to rubber to metal. Otherwise impossible 3D shapes arise: shock absorbing bumpers, airflow channels keeping your phone cool, witty moving parts and more.” – Shuffle Gazine

No word when the cases will be available or for how much exactly. In the meantime, if you’re interested in printing a case yourself, you may want to check out a chunkier style iPhone Case from Make-Parts. Download it and print away.

These case designs are one reason why you may need an incredible 3D iPhone model. Now you have the inspiration and the resources to make a iPhone product yourself. Go for it.

Freedom of Creation via big thanks to Develop3D

The Rockin’est LED PocketWatch Mod EVER, Designed With a lil’ SolidWorks

Josh — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:56:26 +0000

It’s been a while since your uncle that glues batteries and LED’s to his face has visited, so you may be getting a little anxious to view blinking lights and oddities that boggle the mind.

Lucky you. Today we have a light-emitting creation from the mind of Paul Pounds. It stuffs 133 surface-mounted LEDs into the body of a Elgin hunter-style pocket watch. Yeah, pocket watches. Remember those things? Not only should we all be carrying one around like the old days, they should look and work exactly like Paul’s design. Here’s the scoop.

Time is the Future

Does yanking the innards out of a time-piece and replacing it with electronic lights mean it’s futuristic? Absolutely. First watches, then you. So, just a little warning there. And one software to design the electronics going in all these modded bits? SolidWorks. It’s what Paul used to get everything sized up just right for the limited space.

I used Solidworks to model the case housing and plot out the position of the PCB surface relative to the stem (knob shaft). It showed me that there was no way to use the encoder I wanted to, without cutting a hole in the PCB – that would have been a costly mistake to figure out after having the boards made!

He goes on to tell about the inspiration behind the Pocket Watch with more details on what he used. We’ve got some images and video below, but you can see the entire LED Pocket Watch project here. Thanks to Mark Treadwell who sent this in and may very well be inspired by this project to create a custom LED jacket to impress the ladies.

Two Super Sizzlin’ Ways to Shape… Using SolidWorks Loft to Point

Josh — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:13:56 +0000

I’m judging by that look in your eye and the 50 lb sledge hammer in your hand that you’re aimin’ to beat something into shape. But before you pin me down, let me throw something sizzlin’ your way.

How does this sound? Two ways to shape the shapes you love to shape using SolidWorks to get those lovely, lovely shapes. Now, before this sinks too much further into a gurgling mire of Suessville shenanigans, lets take a look at some interesting methods to form and fit and fit and form points of lofts and lofts of points… rrrrrrrrrrgh.

Lofting to a Point

A couple weeks ago we took a quick look at lofting a profile to a point using a centerline. INSANE yes? You can take a look at that to get the idea of how it all works, but basically all you need is a profile, a path and a point. Using the point as one of the profiles, allows you to easily get a very fine point. Adding a path (and/or centerline) gives you even more power and allows you to make some very interesting shapes. Well take those concepts and show two methods to amaze your mind.

A Loft to Point through a Surface

This, my friends, is an incredibly fun way to add a little bit of shape to your surface. It’s a little difficult to see it from screen shots, so I’ve included a short video to help ya get the idea of what it is and how it’s created. Here’s the video along with the steps to make it happen.

Create a profile with endpoints below surface
Create a path for the profile with an endpoint below the surface
Loft the profile to the point, using the path as a Guide Curve in the Loft Properties
Trim excess lofted surface using Surface trim (Insert, Surface, Trim)
Knit surface (Insert, Surface, Knit)
Fillet surface with Face Fillet (Insert, Surface, Fillet/Round) setting Options to curvature continuous

Lofting Your Profile Trick
The method here is to start and end your loft below the surface so you’re able to use that surface as a trim tool. Of course, depending on what your profile needs to look like, you may start all or some of it behind another surface.

Download the Loft to Point through Surface (SolidWorks 2010)

A Loft to Point on a Surface

This is another fun way to shape a profile. Among other things, it could be used to emboss conical curves on a surface or to shape a part against a surface. It uses the Spline on Surface command. Here’s a video of how it works and the steps to make it happen.

Create a path on the surface using Spline on Surface command (Tools, Sketch Entities, Spline on Surface)
Create a plane on the path endpoint (select endpoint and centerline guide, the Insert, Reference Geometry, Plane)
Create a profile on the plane
Loft the profile to the point, using the path as a Centerline Parameter in the Loft Properties

Lofting Your Profile Trick
As I said, this uses the Spline on Surface command. This is a great tool to use if you need to ‘wrap’ something around a surface or rather, shape an object to a certain surface. When using solids, you could even cut into the surface.

To keep the loft separate from the surface you used to guide the loft, simply deselect Merge Results in the Loft properties (it’s near the bottom).

Download the Loft to Point on Surface (SolidWorks 2010)

These are just a couple ways to get some nice shapes in SolidWorks. I’d be interested to know if anyone uses these methods or has any tips they can throw in. If so, hit the comments!

Engineers and Designers… Prepare to Toss Your Idea In The Rubbish Heap

Josh — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:00:35 +0000

Well, gone are the days where you just go off willy, nilly and make a samurai costume out of hole-ridden, lead containers for nuclear waste.

That’s right, the dems in the US Senate and House are busy correcting your mis-use of material for electronic component design by drafting up legislation that will provide grants via the EPA. The grants are for research into electronic device design and recycling to help the environment (and environmentalists) not choke on the 1.8 million tons we toss each year. What does this mean for you?

House Bill 1580 and Senate Bill 1397 will no doubt be signed. All they do right now is allow the EPA to issue grants for R&D, so it’s not going to directly affect your ideas for a new CO2 emitting alarm clock design that uses plastics with a 1000 year half-life.

Consider your Product Lifecycle

The bills are wordy, but a couple of the more design/engineering related pieces to take away these. The grants will be used for:

[identifying] regulatory or statutory barriers that may prevent the adoption or implementation of best management practices or technological innovations that may arise from the research and training programs established in this Act.

[creating] activities that enhance the ability of an institution to broaden the engineering or professional continuing education curriculum to include environmental engineering design principles and consideration of product lifecycles related to electronic devices and increasing the recyclability of such devices.

Along with that, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be tasked to create an environmentally friendly material database for electronic components. What fun.

The concept of this is good; reduce waste going into landfills. It also cuts down on what alien robots can use for nourishment. However, the actuality of people caring that something is made from recyclable material or throwing it in a green bucket the city provides for $5/month is different. But don’t worry, the research is also going to study those factors that make you not care to create recycling programs you do care about. Environmentally-friendly high fives for everyone.

So, what I’m wondering, if it comes down to you having to use a a list of allowed materials from NIST, does product design need this level of regulation by the government or should people be able to use whatever materials are available?

Ars Technica via Core77

Image via Instructables

Get Into SolidWorks World 2010 for Free. No Beet Throwing Required.

Josh — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:19 +0000

I know what you’re thinking. Pretty much anything free these days has something to do with throwing beets. That, or eating them, and who wants to eat beets.

So, this is big news. You can get into SolidWorks World 2010 for free and all it requires is the use of your hands and your wit, not to throw beets at random attendees (although that’s one good idea), but to be the SolidWorks World 2010 Internet Correspondent. No doubt, this will get you and the camcorder in your hand special access to events and people.

Ya got the slightly creative skills to highlight the conference insanity? You have till November 13th. Find out more right here.

Small, Lovable, Jumping Robot Boy Runs Into Your Nightmares {Pics/Video}

Josh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:00:30 +0000

Of course a small, kid-like robot wouldn’t go berserk, run and jump onto your face while screaming “YOUR SOUL, YOUR SOUL” in a cold, electronic voice. That, is RIDICULOUS. Almost as ridiculous as robot cockroaches that survive impacts.

Even if it actually wouldn’t attack you, that hasn’t stopped, Tomotaka Takahashi, CEO of Robot Garage from making us think it could. He debuted Ropid, the 15″ (38cm) tall robo-boy with a precious 3″ vertical leap, that makes you want to say, Awwwww, then turn and run.

Design Details

We’ve attempted contacting Mr. Takahashi to find out more on the design with no replies so far. So, for now, I’ll use my skills in Google translation to give you the following from Robot Watch.

“The body is equipped with an internal accelerometer gyro sensor controlled independently of the left and right groin. Eliminating the drift of the sensor orientation for the foot swing, and rotation during walking with different left-right orientation of the legs, without having to calculate the displacement of the gyro was important to control lines of constant position. Because the stability of these legs have many degrees of freedom, it can also be heavy.

It’s also made of carbon and plastic, and most likely powered by fear in your voice, so just try to keep calm. Here are some more images and a video you can take home to your kids so they’re aware of what they may be replaced with soon.

See more running jumping robots at Takahashi’s Robot-Garage.com

via Robot Watch

Friday Smackdown: ChopFace McGaffin

Josh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:56 +0000

I’m tellin’ ya, it harnesses the power of… of every Dirt Pebble Sack Back this side of Yeti-land. What is it? It’s dark and fearsome… goes poik! poik! then throws these links at you.

Sketchsite mash mash – How does 474 super slick sketches of cars, mechs and other vehicles sound?
How to Make the Evil Dead Chainsaw Arm – Hey! and you don’t even have to decapitate your own possessed hand to do it! SWEET.
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy – Tim Burton’s brilliantly odd poems of oyster boy and the gang. Thanks Benny!
Best. Batman. Spoof. Ever. – “Max, what do you want for dinner?” JUSTICE! With a side order of spaghetti! (the end is the best)
30 jaw-dropping 3D character creations – INSANE and also INSANE. These make me want to be a Samurai Troll.
Winodws 7 Guide – If you haven’t gotten enough Windows 7, this should do it.
The Dubai Technosphere – It’s like a beautiful blister on the face of the earth, getting ready to just pop right open.

Bonus! Water…
5 really weird things about water – and you can also drink it!
Worlds Largest Water Fountain – Surprise. In the same place as that sphere.
Water Droplet. 2000 FPS – just… incredible.

The SolidSmack FaceBook Fan Page. BECOME A FAN… or Be Consumed With Guilt.

Josh — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:00:57 +0000

Shalacka Smacka! Guess what? The SolidSmack Facebook Fan Page is finally up and running. That’s HUGE news… considering it only takes a click and 5 minutes to set up.

So yes, we should have done this a long time ago to share in the excitement of all that important social interaction. The wait… is over. Now all your old college roommates and your old grandmas on Facebook will know you are now rockin’ along with SolidSmack. What else does this mean for you? Take a look…

Additional Content
Get notified of new posts
Receive special updates that no one else does
Post stuff you find interesting to the SolidSmack Wall
Discuss all sorts of craziness in the Discussions

Ya see that “SolidSmack on Facebook” block in the sidebar? That shows some of the content on the Fan Page and all the cool people who are already fans. Awesome.

Besides all that you can share SolidSmack goodness with your other Facebook friends. Oh, and there’s the whole argument that EVERYTHING will be Facebook one day.

So, go ahead… Become a Fan!

Kickboxer Motorcycle Wraps Awesome Around Turbocharged 2.5L Subaru WRX {Pics}

Josh — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:00:01 +0000

I’m positive. If you could wrap yourself around a Subaru Turbocharged Car Engine and tear down the road, you would, you so would, and so would I. But the difference between you and I, is that I would have six bike flags and a license plate that read WHEELIE.

No matter how you cruise, there’s nothing that beats a super killer motorcycle concept. Especially a concept strapped with TURBO. Ian McElroy wanted to create it. He didn’t know how to use SolidWorks, but he taught himself enough to crank out the sweetest lookin’ ride I’ve seen eeeeevah!

Ian McElroy taught himself Solidworks just so he could create the KickBoxer motorcycle concept, which marries the aforementioned liquid-cooled boxer engine from Subaru to a futuristic motorcycle chassis that features single-sided swingarms front and rear along with hub-center steering. – _autoblog

On his Flickr sight, Ian says,

“I set out to teach myself SolidWorks and use it to model the chassis. It is a testimate to the awesomeness of Solidworks that I was able to learn everything I needed as I built my model, with no prior CAD experience whatsoever.”

UPDATE!
We heard back from Ian and got some more info on the project

When I started with SW I was working on the motorcycles front hub. The tutorial I was using was very bad. Half the dimensions in their reference pictures were unreadable, but it turned out for the better, because I was forced to figure it out on my own. SW is very forgiving, I just played arround with the tools and settings, till I figured out how to do what I wanted. When I got stuck I’d surf the web for video tutorials.

Once I heard what tool was being used in the video I’d find the tool and start playing arround with it till I fugured out how to use it. I took measurements of the parts with my digital calipers and input them right into SW. Success with the first part encouraged me to model my next part, the engine, and then move on from there. When I was finished I went back and added all the details. The parts were very basic, and It took about a solid month. All those chamfers!

Renderings were done in Hypershot. It’s a very easy to get started with and doesn’t require very much time to make realistic textures and renderings. I didn’t think mine were very realistic looking, but they have fooled more than a few people.

Oooo, a big ol’ software company couldn’t ask for a better testimony of their testiment. He’s also got it spec’ed out…

Engine: stock Subaru WRX
Turbo: stock IHI
Wheels: 5Ziggen “ProRacer”
Wheelbase: 56.5″
Rake: 20 degrees
Right angle gearbox: from a Mitsubishi AWD car
Transmission: Baker Torquebox
Belt drive: BDL
Front hub: rear hub, 1980’s GM car
Rear axle: modified Datsun 280Z stub axle
Rear shock: aftermarket Buell type pull shock

Big thanks for sending this in goes to Dave Moore who could take this bike around a turn at Mach 2.5 with hardly any skin damage AT ALL. Now, on to some sweet ace renderings. Click to enlarge.

Kneeslider via Autoblog – Flickr Set