How to Make a Personalized Race Car 1. Open the excel document entitled Parametric Flexitop Car Parameters.xlsx. 2. The excel document should be on the Sliders tab as seen in Figure 1. If not, click on the Sliders tab to open that page. The Sliders tab is the only one that you will use. On this page there are 5 sliders that allow you to adjust the values of 5 different parameters. Just click on the arrows or in the middle of the sliders to change their values. For example, increasing the Distance from axle front parameter will move the wheels closer together. The pictures show what each of the parameters are on the race car. Some of the pictures show how the final race car will look after it is 3D printed and has the wheels and axles installed. Make sure you save the excel document so that your work is not lost. Figure 1: The excel document used to personalize a race car by changing the values of 5 parameters 3. Now open the SolidWorks part Parametric Flexitop Car.SLDPRT. Once the part is open you will need to click on the Configuration Manager tab. Figure 2 shows where this is located.
Figure 2: Click on the Configuration Manager tab 4. Now double click on the word Tables in the configuration manager tab and then right click on the words Design Table. Select Edit Table as seen in Figure 3. Figure 3: Select "Edit Table" to update the values of the parameters
5. A box called Add Rows and Columns might appear. If it does, just click OK as seen in Figure 4. Figure 4: Just click "OK" to get into the design table 6. Then, click the green check mark in the upper, right corner as seen in Figure 5. Do not change any values in the design table. Just by opening the design table, the values update from the excel document that you already changed as long as the Parametric Flexitop Car Parameters excel document is still open. Figure 5: Click the green check mark
7. If the car looks as desired, then go to step 8. If not, change the values of the parameters in the excel file and update the design table as detailed in steps 2-6 until the car looks like you want it to. 8. Now go to the Curve Cut sketch to adjust the profile of the car. To do this, click on the Feature Manager tab as can be seen in Figure 6. Figure 6: Click on the "FeatureManager Design Tree" tab 9. Next, double click on the words Curve Cut and then right click on Sketch3 and select the Edit Sketch button. These steps can be seen in Figure 7. Figure 7: Select the Edit Sketch button to enter the sketch
10. Now right click on Sketch3 again and select the Normal To tool as can be seen in Figure 8. Figure 8: Click the "Normal To" tool to make the sketch easier to see 11. This is the sketch that you will modify to create the profile that you want for your car. All the area covered by red lines, as seen in Figure 9, will be deleted from the blue box to create your final profile. The area underneath the curve will be your final car. Figure 9: All area marked by red lines will be deleted to create final car profile
12. To change the profile, left click on the 5 star-shaped points and drag them until they create the profile that you want. You can also change the lengths of the arrows attached to the points to change the shape, but this is not very intuitive and not recommended. If the points create a shape that you do not like, you can press CTRL + Z to undo your previous actions. Moving a point to a new position and the arrows attached to the point when the point is selected can be seen in Figure 10. Figure 10: Example of moving a point to a new location to adjust the profile Note: The light blue curve created by the 5 points can go outside the bounds of the blue car body without causing any problems. Just recognize that this will create some flat locations when the curve is used to cut the profile of the car. An example of one of these flat zones created by moving the points outside the bounds of the blue car body can be seen in Figure 11.
Figure 11: By moving points outside of the car body flat portions can be created WARNING: Do NOT let the light blue curve created by the 5 points cross the axle slots on the bottom of the car body. Your car will not work if this happens because there will be no way to attach the front wheels as can be seen in Figure 12. Figure 12: Do NOT cross the axle slot with your curved line or you will not be able to mount the front wheels to the car
WARNING: Do NOT let the light blue curve created by the 5 points cross the bottom of the car body. Your car will not work if this happens because the car will be divided in half as can be seen in Figure 13. Figure 13: Car cut in half by curve
13. Once you like the profile, click the Exit Sketch button in the upper, right corner of the sketch. This can be seen in Figure 14. Do NOT click on the red X button because it will cancel the changes you made to the sketch and you will lose your work. Figure 14: Press the "Exit Sketch" button to finish the sketch Note: If you see the warning sign shown in Figure 15, you will need to do one of the 2 things recommended in the warning box entitled What s Wrong. The easiest fix is to reenter the Sketch3 and move some of the points around so that the curves are not as tightly curved. If you Figure 15: Error due to geometry that is too tight for the selected fillet/round feature
like the profile as it is, you will need to redo steps 2-6 making sure that you select a smaller Round value or turn Round off. 14. If you like how your car looks, go to step 15. If you still want to adjust the profile of your car, redo steps 9-13 until you are satisfied with your car. 15. Save the car as a.stl file so that it can be 3D printed. It is recommended that you save it as a.sldprt file as well. Viewing Parts in SolidWorks To change how you see parts in SolidWorks the easiest way is to click on the View Orientation button in the middle of the screen and selecting one of the preset views. While useful, this is also very limiting. A more convenient way of changing views is by using the scroll button on the mouse. By scrolling in and out, you zoom in and out based on where your mouse pointer is located on the screen. This method of zooming takes a little while to get used to. By clicking the scroll button and dragging you can rotate the view to whatever orientation you would like.