Planet Themed Fridge/Whiteboard Magnets

Summary Continued:

These 8 planets and one sun magnet are a pretty way to hold up papers, artwork, or important memos on any magnetic surface! In a set with a satellite key hanger, UFO utility dish, and Rocket Pencil Sharpener. They were created in collaboration with @charlieb_2915664, @divyakh2028_2915664, and @mmr_2915694. 

Problem Statement:

We were asked to create a set of four office organizational tools that all meet the standards of the Staples Finance Department, who wants to enhance their profits by adding aesthetically pleasing products to their shelves. Each item should follow a cohesive theme that ties the products together in a visually appealing fashion so that a customer will want to buy the whole set instead of just one.

Constraints:

• You will be constructing an actual-size model of your product in SolidWorks
• Your items must be interesting to look at and unique - a conversation starter.  An individual walking by would do a double-take to more closely examine the amazingly artistic item you’ve created.
• Your items must contain examples of ALL FOUR main Features:  Extrusion, Revolve, Sweep, Loft 
• All Features DO NOT need to be present in each piece, just amongst the set
• Your items must take advantage of at least one of: Circular Pattern, Linear Pattern, Sketch-Driven Pattern, Mirror 
• All Features DO NOT  need to be present in each piece, just amongst the set
• ALL of your items must take advantage of Filleting and maybe Chamfering
• Each piece you design should fit within a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm cube, or 1000 cm3 volume equivalent.
• Each item can be multiple pieces to be assembled for easier printing
• Maximum length in any direction is limited to 20cm (slightly negotiable, MAYBE 27cm max)
• Should be 3D printable with limited/no supports, (each item can be multiple assemblable pieces to help with this)

Construction:

We started off making our set of planets by creating revolves that scale proportionally in size for each planet. I did this by using the heights that we had decided originally and making a proportion after creating a satisfactory shape for the first planet, Mercury. I used the predetermined heights we had:

Mercury: 1.5cm

Mars: 1.75cm

Venus: 2cm

Earth: 2.25cm

Neptune: 2.5cm

Uranus: 2.75cm

Saturn: 3cm

Jupiter: 3.25cm

Sun: 3.5cm

and did the proportion h/1.5=w/0.85 to find the widths for each one. 

Then we singled out Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter as ones that we would make look special, making continents for Earth, rings for Saturn, and a big red spot for Jupiter’s storm. Starting with Earth, we used a series of extrudes on different planes to make them ‘stick out’ of the planet. 

Then we made a revolve cut around the shape of the planet to make them almost flush the the surface. 
 

Moving on to saturn, we made a shape that we thought was similar to what the rings would have looked like and revolved it around the planet.

Then we made a cut so it didn’t extend past the top plane.

Then we made a small attachment from the top of saturn to the rings so it would look like it was floating from the side.

Finally, for jupiter, we resolved to make a small revolve cut in an ovular shape to mimic the planet’s storm.

To wrap up all the planets, we added a small extruded cut into the bottom where we could fit a small magnet. This is a picture of it on Earth.

Design Choices:
 

When it comes to things that we had to tweak while making the planets, there were a lot. The six ‘plain’ planets were all relatively easy, but Saturn, Jupiter, and Earth had several things that needed to be changed along the way. 

Saturn:

Originally, when we were constructing saturn, we thought that we would make it touch the planet so that it could be more solidly connected to the dome, but later thought it would look better if separated. 

Another thing we had to change for Saturn was the shape that we were sweeping. Although we started with a triangle, we ended up with a shape slightly resembling a stalactite on its side because it looked more realistic, considering the uneven nature of the planet’s rings.

 When we decided to separate the rings and the body of the planet, we had to come up with a solution that would both look clean and be stable enough to hold the rings in place. Initially, I thought to make two bars on the side that would connect the rings to the planet where it would be touching the top plane. However, it was difficult to make it both look nice and be strong, so I switched its position to be at the middle top of the planet. 
 

This was better, but for some reason it wasn’t centered on the rings, even though it was centered, so I had to alter the sketch of the rings and realign them.

Jupiter:

While I never directly worked on Jupiter’s red spot, there were several debates on what shape it would be. At first, we thought that it should just be a revolved half circle, but when we looked at pictures of the actual Jupiter, we decided that we should switch it to be more oval.
 

Earth:

Our original plan for making the continents of earth was to just trace it on the top plane, extrude it, and revolve cut it. However, this made it look pretty weird, so we instead ended up making several planes to sketch the continents on separately, angled from the front plane. Then we did a revolve cut to trim everything off.