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Here are some images of a project I recently finished, including the inital concept sketch. It is a tympanometer. They stick the probe thing in kids ears to test their hearing at the pediatricians office. It tells if they have an ear infection or not. All modelling was done in SW using surface lofts and boundry fills. I added the button decals in photoshop. They were slapped on rather quickly to hit the deadline. Textures seems like too much of a pain right now, even in Studio. Each one was rendered in about 2 hrs with RC5. I created a custom diealetric for the 3 small leds at the top, but they did not render very clear for some reason. I had my attenuation set to 2cm. The led were only .5cm in length. I must be doing something wrong.

FANTASTIC modeling Eric, I love it

Very nice

Perfect!

Very nice Eric. I've began playing with SW and RC5 over the last couple of days and I'm not getting results anywhere near yours. I also have a problem with the RC5 plug-in crashing my SW session. I'll keep trying.

very, very, nice super clean model and good render

Thanks for all the kind words. I will try to post more projects as time and NDA's allow.

nice work.. here is a design question or two..

did you do ur sketches using marker or is it photoshop / painter..

well done!!!

also is the top and bottom blue materials supposed to be different material ..
ie one hard plastic and one soft tactile (santoprene) if so it looks right on!!

martgreg wrote:nice work.. here is a design question or two..

did you do ur sketches using marker or is it photoshop / painter..

well done!!!

also is the top and bottom blue materials supposed to be different material ..
ie one hard plastic and one soft tactile (santoprene) if so it looks right on!!

All of my sketching is done using Alias Sketchbook Pro on a Wacom Cintiq 21ux which I highly recommend. The upper shell is a white plastic consisting of a heavier textured region where the hand rests, and the lower shell is a blue plastic with the upper region having a slightly heavier texture where fingers would rest. Originally I had planned on specing a second shot elastomer (soft grip) for the upper blue hand area, while everything else would be white. This would have given the design more contrast, and more comfortable feel but it got shot down due to cost issues. There is a soft spray on paint that a lot of products have which feels nice to the hand that I was also considering specing for then blue portion of the shell, but since painting is a secondary operation also I am sure they won't go for it. Its hard to convince some clients that the details that cost a bit more can really make their product much more attractive and user friendly. Oh well got to choose your battles I guess.

Eric Lagman wrote:

martgreg wrote:nice work.. here is a design question or two..

did you do ur sketches using marker or is it photoshop / painter..

well done!!!

also is the top and bottom blue materials supposed to be different material ..
ie one hard plastic and one soft tactile (santoprene) if so it looks right on!!

All of my sketching is done using Alias Sketchbook Pro on a Wacom Cintiq 21ux which I highly recommend. The upper shell is a white plastic consisting of a heavier textured region where the hand rests, and the lower shell is a blue plastic with the upper region having a slightly heavier texture where fingers would rest. Originally I had planned on specing a second shot elastomer (soft grip) for the upper blue hand area, while everything else would be white. This would have given the design more contrast, and more comfortable feel but it got shot down due to cost issues. There is a soft spray on paint that a lot of products have which feels nice to the hand that I was also considering specing for then blue portion of the shell, but since painting is a secondary operation also I am sure they won't go for it. Its hard to convince some clients that the details that cost a bit more can really make their product much more attractive and user friendly. Oh well got to choose your battles I guess.

wow thanks nice work..

btw if you have any of those cintiq21 's lying around the office that you dont need.. i will have it ..lol.. i have a intuos 3 6x9 or something havent had time to crank it up!!

about the cost.. this manufacturing run wont be in the millions and I am sure price points are going to be pretty high so the paint idea deosn't sound like a bad idea...and alittle side note.. i have noticed on some products with texturing especially in a hand held device they get grubby..is this a concern for this device in the medical field...??

btw what is that soft paint called..i would love to know. i am a student and getting some more knowledge of this kinda stuff will do me some good!!

all in all its real tight design..good job.. thanks for all the info!!

Martgreg,

I tried using an intous at first, but it felt akward compared to looking directly at what you are drawing. The Cintiq's are very expensive. Definately not something I could have afforded as a student. Its good to hone your skills on real paper though first I think. Sketching on paper will always be required in this area of work.

Yes soft touch textures on surfaces can get quite dirty. Especially Soft Elastomers. You want to avoid textures on elastomers that are too deep as this will trap dirt and get nasty. Darker colors tend to hide more of the dirt than lighter colors. The Durometer of the elastomer will also have some play in this. The softer the duramoter the more dirty it will tend to get.

As far as the soft-touch paint here is one company that does it http://www.berlac.com/berlac/englisch/anwendung.html Im sure there are many more out there. I highly recommend http://www.materialconnexion.com/intro.htm for any designer who has to spec materials. It is a great resource. It does cost a few hundred bucks a year to be a member though. I am not sure if they have a student discount. If they dont they should.

thanks buddy!!!

lots of great info.. good luck with your up coming projects !!

i will get some stuff up here soon .. when I get some time..

take care..!!

Hi Eric,
I've been wondering about that nice curvature-continuouse shaping near the Probe on the blue shell.
- did you manage with SW or did you help with Rhino ?
- love your work !

Leo

That's real dude!

Perfect!

eezydo wrote:Hi Eric,
I've been wondering about that nice curvature-continuouse shaping near the Probe on the blue shell.
- did you manage with SW or did you help with Rhino ?
- love your work !

Leo

Nope all done with Solidworks. That area consisted of a loft up at the top where the probe is, and a boundry fill right below it. I was tempted to import my model to rhino to get the correct surfaces. I spent 16 hrs getting the surfaces right in SW. There is something to be said though about keeping all your features inside one application when it comes time to design for manufacture. One change in size can be easily changed in Solidworks, but having to go back into rhino could be more time consuming in the long run. Thanks again for all the compliments. I have another project I will be showing shortly.