Final Project - Modeling
Version 1: Modeling the cat shelter in cause of 3mm wood board.
According the design sketch which is shown above, I need to separate the cat shelter to pieces of parts.
Here's the 3D model of the cat shelter model.
This design by designed fixing by simple mortise & tenon, which thickness of material is 3mm.
In my planning, the shelter will be divided to plate parts. I need to confirm the size of a cat and then some size can be confirmed.
So I setup the sizes as variables and draw a design sketch as below. I choose laser cutter to layout the parts of shleter. The layout process can refer by here.
By the way, this structure can be made by laser cutter which allows manufacturing with thin plates, but it's not robustness.
In order to ensure the robustness of designed cat shelter, a thick material is needed. 18mm thickness of wood board is considered in the next design.
Version2: Modeling cat shelter in cause of 18mm HDF board.
The design step can refer to Week7 Assignment
Design
I have designed a type of cat shelter during designing the final project with the 3mm wood plate.
It can not afford a 8kg cat. Then I find the other material and type of cat shelter.
Considering the designed cat shelter is used for stray cats, it means the cat shelter which will be placed outdoor environment. So I also consider about the cat shelter can also as a artwork.
I found a type of cat shelter in etsy.com and looking for the shelter as below. And I found the vector files sample of this cat shelter.
Then, I start designing this cat shelter by 3D software - Solidworks.
As it is a assembled project, I will design the 3D model by top-down designing.
Base Part
The base design is started from a diameter 400mm circle.
Then, draw a 100mm*18mm rectangle as below.
Use Circular sketch pattern tool to copy 16 rectangles in circle 270 degrees.
Use Trim tool to remove the sketch lines and extrude the sketch as 18mm, which is the thickness of our cutting material.
Top Part
Use Plane tool in Reference Geometry to create a plane base on 400mm above the surface of base part.
Then, repeat the step as drawing the sketch of base part with 300mm diameter circle and 50mm * 18mm rectangle. Extrude the sketch with 18mm thickness.
Side Part
Choose Front view and draw a new sketch as below.
It is the supporting parts between base part and top part, a thick design is necessary or it will be broken because of heavy weight.
Made up
The assembling parts is shown as above, there's only one side part to support. It's not enough to maintain the structure of the shelter.
Finally, I use 16 side parts to maintain the base part and top part.
An artwork-designed cat shelter, finished!! This shelter will be used for my final project.