For our final challenge in our Rugby Lions series Solid Solutions and MECAD are competing to create the best renders of the
brand new Rugby Lions Trophy. Check out our trophy showcase animation below that we created with
SOLIDWORKS Visualize along with our modelling walkthrough and tips.
Trophy Modelling Steps
Creating the Base
When beginning a model it's often best to start by creating the largest parts of the design to create the general shape and give you a platform to build from. Here that means starting off with base of the trophy which can be created with two simple revolves.
Modelling the Cup
To form the cup, we used a sweep feature with a rectangular profile to create one of the strands and then a circular pattern to complete it.
Creating the Embossed Logo
The embossed logo requires a slightly more advanced approach to create as the pieces are somewhat complicated and curved. To create them we started by reusing the sketch from the path for the sweep to create a surface revolve.
Next we sketched the outline of the logo pieces in a 2D sketch and used the wrap feature to take transfer their outlines onto the complex surface.
To finish we trimmed away the excess faces using the Delete Face command and then use thicken to turn the resulting surfaces into solid bodies.
Creating the Outer Support
If you consider the outer support by itself it is essentially an upside-down tripod with curved edges and faces. If we break it down, we will create one third of the shape with a new surface revolve and then cut this to shape with a 2D sketch.
Then a thicken and a circular pattern will complete the structure (we can also include the above logo in the same circular pattern command as we need three instances of both around 360deg). The final step here is to combine the patterned geometry of the outer support into a single body.
Extra Modelling Tips
Break it Down
Like most complicated shapes this model can be broken down into a combination of relatively simple shapes. With the right modelling strategy SOLIDWORKS will do all the hard work for you, in this case the complex parts were all created using simple revolved surfaces and using 2D sketches to add or remove details before thickening to create solid geometry.
Blocks can Save Rework
Saving your 2D sketch (of your logo) as a sketch block will mean that you do not need to redraw it every time you want to create a feature from it. For this model, I used the wrap feature again and debossed into the outer face of the outer structure to create the etched logo.
More Rugby Lions
To wrap up our Rugby Lions challenge series we will be hosting a tips and tricks webcast on August 6th with MECAD using all the models we've created. We will share more modelling advice as well as showing how we created the renders and animations using SOLIDWORKS Visualize and more. We hope this will be useful to any SOLIDWORKS user so if you're interested
please sign up here!