This week the aim was to draw my potential final project in 3D. Having already used Catia and Solidworks, I wanted to try a new one : so I downloaded SketchUp. I did some tutorials and read the part from chapter 8 of the book "Getting Started with MakerBot" for SketchUp. It was very interesting to discover this tool. However, I still prefer Solidworks, maybe because I used it for the past 5 years and I feel pretty comfortable working with it.

So I used SolidWorks to design the separate parts of my alarm clock and then to make an assembly. I started directly working on the 3D but 5 minutes after I realized that it was too complicated without knowing the exact dimensions. Previously I had a tutorial or at least a plan of the dimensions of the parts but here I only had my sketch. So I started by defining the size and shapes of the pieces using a notebook (photo below - click on it to zoom).

I realized that as I had used my imagination as a generator for my ideas, I would probably had to make lots of changes. So I tried to do the quotations as simply as possible in order to make future alterations easier. I also used functions to change the dimensions in all parts simultaneously.

I finally managed to reproduce what I had in mind and you can see the result below. The double bottom aims to hide the electronics below so that it could have a storage above. The flashlight will charge from a socket located on the support. Finally, I decided to put the speaker below in order to have more room in the width of the box and eventually to decorate the sides if I wanted.

Here is the ZIP file with all the parts.

I then decided to make a little video that would show the clock in more detail. I also used Solidworks. For this I made a motion study which I then recorded. It was a bit new to me having in mind that I had never actually used this tool for that. After that I uploaded my video on Youtube in order to save up space on the server.

Software and website used