June SW Legion Contest analysis (Part 3) – No July Contest

There will be no July SW Legion contest.  I’m planning on something a bit bigger for August and September, so for now, I’ll take a month’s break from contests.  June SW Legion Contest was very successful. As promised, I’m going to discuss some of the variety of entries. There are many ways to approach modelling in SolidWorks.  This the June SW Legion Contest is proof of that.

One of the more interesting scalene ellipsoid model entries was technically not a solid model.  Rather, it was a Surface-Loft, with three sketches (each with an ellipse in the proper proportions), by Ian Vivero.  This was the most functional of all scalene entries because it effectively used equations to drive the shape with one dimension value.

Of the scalene submissions, Matt Lombard’s was the simplest, with one Loft and one cleaver 3D sketch.  The problem is that I was not able to confirm its scaleneness.  The shape did not fall exactly along ellipses in all three directions.  This entry relied on the default SolidWorks choices for a lofted shape.  It was very close, however.

Two entries used exactly the same methodology: a simple revolve of a half circle that was then scaled in the appropriate proportions in X, Y and Z directions.  Very simple and cleaver.  These submittees were Cam Shute and Gary Liptrot.

Another cleaver entry that also had only three elements was by Arash Erfanian (unofficial winner who earned a CSWSP-FEA test).  This entry was one Sweep feature with one 2D sketch and one 3D sketch.

Other entries that were equally cleaver, but with more elements.  This included one entry that used another method with Surface-Loft and mirror features.

Two entries relied of the fact that I did not word my contest properly.  True to my word the one legitimate entry does represent the official winner of the contest, Sandeep Pawar (who chose a CSWP test as the prize).

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas. View all posts by fcsuper