Summary:
Its several printable parts result in an easy, fun assembly process. After completing your stand, you can place it anywhere, from a stand-up desk to on top of your piano. With overall dimensions of 13x19x7 cm, the logo fits inside a cube of 1746 cubic centimeters. I collaborated on this project with Clark Nau, and you can view his version of the logo here (https://www.printables.com/model/642380-cars-logo-with-stand).
Lesson Plan and Activity:
With a partner, you will design a “2D” placard using Solidworks. You and your partner will have the same design which meets the constraints below, and you will EACH use Solidworks to create your design.
Assembly Instructions:
2. Fit the Cars Text into the Red Background.
3. In the hole of the “a”, insert the small red “a” background.
4. Take the Silver Emblem portion and insert it around the logo
5. Insert the completed Logo into the dish. Make sure that when you fit it in, there is a popping sound to ensure it is fitted properly. Gluing may be required to ensure the piece stays in place.
6. Take the bottom tip and glue it into the Dish. Make sure to align it correctly so that both sides are symmetrical. Gluing may be required.
7. Take the left tip and glue it onto the top left of the dish. Make sure you use the correct tip, as they are both similar, and using the wrong one will result in a logo that doesn’t look correct.
8. Finally, take the right tip and glue it into the top right corner of the dish using the same process as the left tip. This is the final step, and here is what the completed logo should look like.
Design Choices:
To address this, we experimented with typing and offsetting each letter separately but encountered an "invalid solution" error that halted progress, marking the sketch in red. Despite numerous cleanup attempts, the sketch remained unsolvable, prompting us to abandon it. Dealing with individual letters proved cumbersome and time-consuming, necessitating precise alignment and sizing for each one.
Our final attempt involved working with all the letters simultaneously. Cleaning the sketch by simplifying the "r" before attempting the offset resolved the issue. The earlier sketches revealed a problematic spline that caused an abrupt inward cut in the contour. Recognizing this as the likely culprit, we trimmed the spline and drew a connecting line between the "r" and the bottom spline before proceeding with the offset.
2. We originally built the logo inside a rectangular constraint box. However, due to the logo’s irregular shape, using a rectangular logo would have used an excess amount of filament.
To combat this, we offset parts of the logo to better fit the shape of the Cars logo. While this was an improvement, my partner and I knew we could make the dish shape even better.
The most jarring part of the dish was the wasted material near the top, so we offset the entire logo to create our new and final dish. While the simplified version of the dish was good, the final dish provided a concentric element to the final product.
3. When creating the tips, our initial plan was to bring their center points up in 3D space. However, due to the way Solidworks functions, there is no good way to move just one point. Our original chamfers looked like this:
Clearly, the chamfering process didn't yield significant results on the upper points. To achieve the desired triangular shape, we individually extruded each piece and then applied chamfers to each side, maximizing their extent to create the intended peaks. While this was primarily an aesthetic adjustment, both my partner and I agreed that introducing visually appealing angular elements to the points was crucial.
4. Initially, our idea was to rotate the bottom tip section of the dish to form the stand. Regrettably, upon attempting this method, my partner and I found the outcome unsatisfactory. The design appeared disjointed, particularly due to the stark contrast between the robust stand and the slender top section. Furthermore, this approach would have been excessively wasteful in terms of filament usage, resulting in a substantial, solid part.
To save on material, we thought it would be better to create cuts in the piece and filet them to make a frame, rather than having a solid block of filament. The filets did not add any functionality to our stand, but they helped add flow to the dish as a whole.
The author marked this model as their own original creation.