The spookiest ghost clip

Summary:

With this 13x6x0.1cm Ghost Clip, you will be able to clip papers together in a cool and spooky way, it requires no support to print and can be printed in many interesting colors! I worked on this Project with @asterzinno_3775778 (Link) and @Oarin_3775795 (Link)

Problem statement: 

With your partners, you will recreate a ghost clip using Solidworks that will be created by collaborating on each step one at a time. The final goal was for each member of the group to have identical files, and for each clip to have identical dimensions to the original file.

Assembly:

BOUNDING BOX

a. Use the center rectangle tool () with construction lines from the midpoints centered on the origin to create the bounding box.

b. Mark the rectangle for construction.

c. Use smart dimensions () to set the dimensions to 6 cm horizontal by 13 cm vertical.

SMILE

a. Use the circle tool () to make a circle centered on the vertical construction line in the bottom half of the bounding box but not touching the bottom.

b. Use the smart dimension tool () to set the diameter of the circle to 3 cm.

c. Use the line tool () to draw a vertical () line tangent () to the circle going about a third of the way up the bounding box, then do the same for the other side.

d. Select the top endpoints of the lines created in step c and give them the horizontal relation to align the endpoints at the same height.

e. Use a smart dimension () to set a distance of 5 cm from the top of one of the vertical lines from step c to the top edge of the bounding box.

f. Use the power trim entities tool () to remove the top half of the circle in between the vertical () lines, leaving the vertical construction line intact.

g. Mark these two lines and arc for construction.

h. Use the offset entities tool () on the arc and vertical lines to create a bi-directional 0.3 cm offset with arc cap ends. 

i. Use the smart dimension tool () to set the distance from the center of the arc to the bottom of the bounding box to 4 cm.

BOTTOM SEMI-CIRCLES

a. Use the perimeter circle tool () to create a circle starting 1 cm above the bottom left corner of the bounding box with a second point 2 cm to the right and a radius of 1 cm and with the 3rd point touching the bottom edge of the bounding box.

b. Repeat step a twice but with the first point of each circle being the right edge of the previous circle, and with the final circle being tangent to the right edge of the bounding box.

c. Use the horizontal relation to set the center points of each circle from steps a and b to horizontal to line them up at the same height.

d. Use the power trim entities tool () to remove the top half of each circle in between the horizontal lines, leaving the vertical construction line intact.

TOP SPIKES

a. Use the center line tool () set to construction to create a 1 cm long horizontal line starting 1 cm below the top of the bounding box.

b. Repeat step a five more times, creating horizontal lines that start from the end of the previous line, until you reach the end of the box.

c. Use equal relations () to make the construction lines made in steps a and b equal.

d. Use the line tool (), create a diagonal line from the start point of the first construction line to the top of the bounding box, ending directly above the midpoint of the construction line.

e. Use the line tool (), create a diagonal line from the end of the previous diagonal line to the end of the current construction line.

f. Repeat steps d and e until you reach the end of the bounding box.

g. Use the equal relation () to make the diagonal lines made in steps d-f equal.

h. Use the smart dimension () tool to set the length of the diagonal line from step e to 1 cm.

EYES

a. Use the center point circle tool () to create a circle in the top right quadrant of the bounding box.

b. Use the smart dimension tool () set the radius of the circle in step a to 0.6 cm.

c. Use the smart dimension tool () to set the distance between the center of the circle and the top edge of the bounding box to 2.8 cm.

d. Use the smart dimension tool () to set the distance between the center of the circle and the right edge of the bounding box to 1.7 cm.

e. Use the mirror tool () to mirror the circle along the vertical construction line going through the middle of the bounding box.

CLOSING THE SHAPE

a. Use the line tool () to create a vertical () line starting from the left most point of the spikes, to the left most point of the bottom semi circles.

b. Repeat step a for the right side.

Extruding the clip:

a. Exit the sketch by clicking the exit sketch button on the top left of the screen.

b. Select the sketch in the feature tree.

c. Then go to the Feature tab and select the Extrude boss tool.

d. Set the dimension to 0.10 cm and click the green tick.

If you don’t want to place your initials on your ghost, then I am proud to say that you have successfully made your own clip! 

But if you want to add a more personal touch then continue on.

Engraving your name:

1. Select ONLY the top face of the ghost
2. Then go to the sketch tab and start a new sketch
3. Create a horizontal construction line from the left side to the right side of the inner section of the mouth approximately ¼ the way down
4. Then use the text engrave tool (the Capital A)
5. Enter your first initial and set the font to Impact by selecting use document font
6. Chose the center text option
7. Change the font size until the letter generally fills the mouth, or until it is at a size you feel comfortable with.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for your last initial
9. When you feel comfortable with your initials, exit the sketch and save your model
10. Select the initials sketch
11. Go to the feature ribbon and select the Extruded cut tool
12. Make an extrusion of 0.0495cm and click the green tick.

Congratulations! You have now created your very own ghost clip!!! (thanks for reading this!) :0

 

Design process:
 

We started with a paper sketch of an example clip with selected dimensions to speed up resting in solid works. However we made several changes for the final model to make the creation easier to understand.

old:

Final sketch:

Change 1:

During the sketch process, the method of designing the clip changed heavily, as we started by using the 3 point arc tool as the tool of choice for any semicircles, but we ended by using a combination of the circle tool and the power trim tool.

Change 2:

The smile previously had several horizontal construction lines that were used to set certain relations, this was made during the sketch process as we were unsure to make all parts defined. However during the modeling process, we discovered that none of these lines were needed and were then removed as it made the the instructions easier to understand.

Change 3:

We originally measured the diameter of the smiles arc as one of our smart dimensions, later on in the process this was altered to become the amount we applied when using offset entities. This is due to how we decided to create the smile’s shape, we ended up using two lines connected to a power trimmed circle as the starting point for a bi directional offset, as such the important measurement to determine the diameter of the bottom arc became the amount of offset.

Change 4: 

While working in SolidWorks, we realized some instructions needed better wording to line up with the software. We changed the order of creation the bounding box to show that the rectangle could only be made for construction after making it, We remained center point circle to just say circle.

Change 5: The main circle in the smile step needed to have its center point of the vertical center line which was not mentioned in the instructions so we changed that.
 

Change 6: For any steps with the power trim, we needed to mention that to trim for each side of the vertical center line while not crossing it so we would not delete part of the center line.

Change 7: Perimeter circles needed to have center points have the horizontal relation and mention that the final circle must end by touching the right side of the box. We previously said that the horizontal relation should be put on the left and right sides of the circle, but these did not appear so we changed it.

Change 8:

We originally had the length of the diagonal sides of our spikes at 0.95 cm, however during the design process we changed it to 1cm as our original measurement was done with a ruler, which resulted in less accuracy overall. 

Before: 

After:

Change 9:

The distance of the eye from the right side of the box started at 1cm from the bottom edge of the circle to the right side due to issues finding the center of the eye. The final model had this distance at 1.70cm starting at the center. This same change occurred with the smart dimension from the eye to the top edge of the box, its original value was at 2.1 cm with the final measurement being 2.8cm.

Initial sketch:

Final:

Change 10:

During the sketch process we measured the diamenter of the eye to determine its size, however due to confusion on my part with how solidworks fucntions, this measurement was changed to radius in the final model.

Initial sketch:

Final:

Change 11:

Due to inaccurate measurements of the distance of the top of the vertical line to the top of the box, we had to change the measurement from 4.6 cm to 4.8 cm and finally to 5cm. This is due to the point of measurement being changed from the top edge of the smiles top arc, to the center point of these arcs, along with some estimations due to a change in measure point.

Sketch:

Final: