Ghost Clip

Made in collaboration with @lyan718_1885648

Lesson Plan and Activity:

Recreate the ghost clip exactly using Solidworks with your partner.  It's necessary to have identical files with your partner that are created collaboratively, one step at a time. 

Design Instructions Section

Initial steps: 

1. Make a constraint box designated for construction using the center point rectangle tool on the origin that measures 6 cm wide by 13 cm tall (the entire sketch should be inside of this box) (make sure your center rectangle is set to have midpoint guidelines in the menu before you create it. This will give you 2 lines, one that intersects the midpoint vertically and one that intersects the midpoint horizontally) 

SMaking the top spikes:

1. Create 6 equal 1cm horizontal construction line segments (Line 1) 0.8 cm down from the top of the constraint box
2. Create 6 triangles from the points on Line 1, connected to the top of the constraint box (these should NOT be construction lines) 
3. Set the diagonal lines of the triangles as equal 

Making the bottom arcs 

1. Create 3 equal 2cm construction line segments 0.75cm up from the bottom of the constraint box (this set of line segments should stretch from the left to right side of the constraint box and each line should be connected) 
2. Create a construction line starting at each point of the line segments from step one of this section down to the base of the constraint box using a vertical line (this should create 3 equal 2cm by 0.75 cm boxes at the bottom of the constraint box. These boxes will be referred to as  “Box 1” “Box 2” and “Box 3” labeled going from left to right.) 

3. Use the 3-point arc tool to create a bottom arc by selecting the top left corner of Box 1 and the top right corner of Box 1 and then selecting the approximate center point of the selected points. (this figure should NOT be for construction)

4. Make sure the top of the arc is tangent to the center point of the bottom of Box 1

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for Box 2 and Box 3 

6. Set the arcs created within Box 1, Box 2, and Box 3 to be equal to each other 

Creating the body of the figure:

1. Using the line tool create a line from the leftmost point of the bottom of the head spikes connecting to the top left corner of the arc created within Box 1 

2. Using the line tool creates a line from the rightmost point of the bottom of the head spikes connecting to the top right corner of the arc created within Box 3

Creating the eyes of the figure:

1. Create a center point circle in the top left corner of the figure (this circle should be to the left of the center vertical construction line and above the center horizontal construction line and should not intersect any line of the figure, but the exact placement of the circle in this step is not important) 

2. Set the diameter of the circle to 1.2 cm using the smart dimension tool

3. Set the distance between the top of the constraint box and the center point of the circle to be 2.8 cm using the smart dimension tool

4. Set the distance between the left side of the constraint box and the center point of the circle to be 1.7 cm 

5. To create the second eye select the mirror tool and then select the circle and mirror it over the center vertical construction line. 

Making the mouth of the figure:

1. 1.2 cm in from the left side of the construction box, create a vertical line 4 cm tall. Use the smart dimension tool to place it 2.3 cm down from the center point of the left eye. (Make sure the dimension is vertical and not diagonal.)

2. Select the mirror tool, then select the line created in the previous step (only the line itself should turn blue) and set the inflection point to be across the center vertical construction line.

3. Using the 3-point arc tool, select the two bottom ends of the mirrored lines, then place the bottom of the arc on the center vertical construction line. Smart dimension the bottom point of the arc to be 2.3 cm up from the bottom of the constraint box. 

4. Select the offset tool. SHIFT+CLICK both vertical lines and the arc created in this section. A yellow preview of the offset should be shown. You may need to select the invert option to make sure the offset faces inwards toward the center and select the ‘cap ends’ option in the menu. 

Design Choices: (This is the most important part)

Throughout the design process, my partner and I stuck to the original design we had planned before we started. Although the design is fully functional and looks adorable when comparing it to the original that it is modeled off of, its mouth is slightly lower and the center point of the bottom arc is slightly higher. 

The distance between the eyes and mouth should be extended by 0.1cm and the bottom arc of the mouth should be 0.1 cm lower than it currently is.