Summary:
The objective of the project was to create a ghost figure that could be printed by a 3D printer and used as a paperclip, keychain, or small toy that could be used for multiple different functions. With the use of a 3D printer it is inexpensive to make and following the steps we created should result in the same product as the one we have made. The ghosts my partner and I created as a team are a 3 by 6.5 cm figure, and we created a sketch and list of step instructions together to create identical ghosts.
Lesson Plan and Activity:
Recreate a ghost clip on SolidWorks with a partner based off of a preexisting clip. The sketches on SolidWorks between my partner and I were to be completely identical by creating steps we were to follow together to insure the same results.
Assembly/Construction Instructions:
- Create a rectangular constraint box with construction lines with the center point at the origin.
- Set the rectangle to be 3 cm in the length horizontally and 6.5 cm in the width vertically.
- Create a construction line at the midpoint lengthwise and another one widthwise
- Starting from the bottom of the ghost create a construction line that is 0.45 cm up from the bottom of the constraint box across the ghost horizontally
- Then create the same type of construction line horizontally that is 0.3 cm away from the top of the ghost constraint box.
- Connect the horizontal construction lines on the top and bottom by creating real lines on both the left and right sides.
- Add a construction line that is 0.9 cm from the midpoint of the bottom of the constraint box upwards which will be the bottom of the mouth.
- Add a construction line to the corners of the mouth which is 1.2 cm
- Create a line that is going diagonal upwards towards the right side of the constraint box, but doesn't connect the line to the side of the box.
- Set the line to be 0.6 cm away from the right side of the constraint box with a smart dimension.
- Now create a construction line from that end of the newly created line to the bottom of the constraint box straight down.
- Set that construction line to be 1.8 cm with a smart dimension.
- Create another line going diagonal but towards the left side of the constraint box coming from the line marking the bottom of the mouth.
- Create the same dimensions and construction lines going from the bottom of the constraint box and the left side of the constraint box.
- On each side of the mouth create lines going upwards 2.3 cm to be the sides of the mouth.
- Use offset entities on the mouth shape created to make the same shape as the inside of the mouth. Set the entity to be 0.25 cm in width.
- Create a circle above the right side of the mouth and create smart dimensions that are 0.85 cm from the midpoint of the circle to the right side of the constraint box and another dimension that is from the midpoint of the circle to the top right corner of the constraint box and measure 1.2 cm. Set the circle to a diameter of 0.6 cm.
- Create the same circle going up from the left side of the mouth with the same two dimensions going from the midpoint. Set the circle to be equal to the one on the right side with a smart dimension.
- From the bottom of the line that is the left side of the ghost to create the triangles, create a line that goes diagonal downwards that connects to the bottom line of the constraint box.
- Set the distance from the bottom left corner of the constraint box to the point of the newly created line to be 0.5 cm.
- Create another line coming from the previous line that is going diagonal upwards now.
- Set the distance of the point of the upwards line to the left side of the box to be 1 cm as the bottom length of the triangle. Set the two diagonal lines to be equal in length,
- Repeat the same triangle steps twice to create three triangles in total ( The point of the second middle triangle should be at the midpoint of the constraint box). All the lines of the triangle should be equal to insure congruent triangles.
- Now to create the semi-circles at the top of the ghost, starting from the top right corner add a three-point arc that goes along the construction line that is 0.3 cm away from the top of the constraint box. Set the arc to have a diameter of 0.75 cm.
- Create the same arc three more times so there is a total of four arcs going along the top construction line(All arcs should be equal in size).
Design Choices:
When my partner and I were following the steps we created, we noticed a few issues when trying to copy our steps into the system and comparing our sketch with the one that was supposed to be replicated. Going into the sketch we mainly focused on getting measurements right rather than where those measurements would be coming from and connected to, so a lot of our problems stemmed from system errors with the dimensions. With both the triangles on the bottom and the semi-circles on top the measurements were just slightly off to fit equally as well as not becoming congruent and equal as easily as we planned, so we went back and measured the ghost we were making our creation from and changed the measurement of the height of the triangle to 0.5 instead of 0.6.

The arc diameter measurements were changed from 0.7 to 0.75 cm so the arcs connected evenly along the top of the ghost.
The mouth was also too wide so we changed the measurement of it from 0.4 to 0.25 cm, but before we could even change that measurement on the mouth there were other issues we had to fix. We used lines to create the shape and didn't take into account the use of offset entities making the job easier, so instead of trying to create the mouth with only lines around the entire shape, offset entities can be used around one side of the mouth, either inside or outside, and set it to one measurement to insure a constant width around the entire shape.

Comparing the sketch made on SolidWorks to the ghost we were trying to copy we noticed the eyes were too far apart and weren't connected to the right lines because too many errors and issues were popping up when we tried to add dimensions. Instead of trying to create dimensions from the mouth to the eye we instead added dimensions for the eye from the side of the corner of the ghost box instead. The eyes were also too far apart, so it was easier to fix the measurement by changing the number of the dimension coming from the side of the constraint box rather than changing the dimensions coming from the arcs of the mouth.
