# Edited w/ actual pics : My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's



## tino_ale (Jun 28, 2009)

Hi guys,

I recently decided I would give a try to CAD design in SolidWorks, and since I just purchased a titanium awesome key FOB from Mac, well his first Ti project would be my first CAD model.

Here is the original cap :





Also modeled the quad threading of Mac's cap :thumbsup:

While making the model in SW, something became obvious. That's the beauty of making models on a computer :thumbsup:
There is more than enough "meat" in the cap to machine tritium slots for 1.55x5mm tritium vials.

How about six of them...








:wave:


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## 65535 (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Schwanky. That came out quite nice, now I need to learn it.


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## greenlight (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Might as well add one to the bottom, too.


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## tino_ale (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



greenlight said:


> Might as well add one to the bottom, too.



Yes indeed


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## LukeA (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



65535 said:


> Schwanky. That came out quite nice, now I need to learn it.



If you're going to learn one PSM program, I recommend Autodesk Inventor over SolidWorks.


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## precisionworks (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



> I recommend Autodesk Inventor over SolidWorks.


It depends ... if you're looking for employment, most employers want SolidWorks experience more than any other program - about the same as AutoCAD was ten years ago.


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## KowShak (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



precisionworks said:


> It depends ... if you're looking for employment, most employers want SolidWorks experience more than any other program - about the same as AutoCAD was ten years ago.



Here in the UK its a little different to the US, its almost exclusively AutoCAD experience that is in demand, there is almost no demand whatsoever for Solidworks.


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## Illum (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



LukeA said:


> If you're going to learn one PSM program, I recommend Autodesk Inventor over SolidWorks.



Inventor won't build the thread like that, it'll just decal a picture there to represent the threading

Inventor is the easiest to use, but the least desired on resumes...now its Solidworks or ProEngineer that's commonly preferred


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## jhanko (Jun 28, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Very impressive first project! :twothumbs I've been learning AutoCAD, but haven't attempted any 3D yet...


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## bmstrong (Jul 2, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Were these ever made into production? These would be great to fit cash into them and be made from 6/4...


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## TranquillityBase (Jul 2, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



> bmstrong said:
> 
> 
> > Were these ever made into production? These would be great to fit cash into them and be made from 6/4...


 
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/229615

Awesome rendering tino :twothumbs


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## jch79 (Jul 2, 2009)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Awesome job Alex! oo:
Thanks for sharing.
For you Mac users out there, VectorWorks is a great CAD program.
:thumbsup: john


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## tino_ale (Jul 18, 2009)

Thanks to Jeff who provided me with a perfect machine job execution, here is a one of a kind Mac's Ti fob :thumbsup:

Three oranges + three yellow tritium vials














One day I might as well unmount them and use a single color in all six slots.


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## tino_ale (Apr 22, 2010)

Still playing around with Solidworks...

Ti beads with tritium vials


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## mototraxtech (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks good. I have used solidworks for a few years and I am now using Pro/Engineer as a lot of industries that I would want to work in use it alot more than solidworks as solidworks doesn't do so good on the surfacing or large assems. I like a lot about solid works though and miss it but I do think I like pro/E a bit more. Rendering in photo-view 360 is way better IMO than pro/e and I miss my weldments but other than that I like pro/E better for just about anything.


Its nice to see people using CAD programs to make things. Gives an exact rep of what you want so you don't have to explain much. Also try an make something with a few hundred or more parts not including hardware and then try to make a change.


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## mototraxtech (Apr 22, 2010)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*



Illum said:


> Inventor won't build the thread like that, it'll just decal a picture there to represent the threading
> 
> Inventor is the easiest to use, but the least desired on resumes...now its Solidworks or ProEngineer that's commonly preferred




Dont forget CATIA for the big boys.


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## LukeA (Apr 22, 2010)

*Re: My first CAD project, Mac's titanium fob's*

Inventor will most certainly build a thread like that. It's quite trivial to do.


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## mototraxtech (Apr 22, 2010)

Any idea a what industries use inventor. I haven't seen any but its probably because its a different industry. Mostly solid works for small cheaper products, pro engineer for bigger and more expensive things like some cars and power sports, and CATIA for the big stuff like vehicles, airliners, and large factory's although Ive seen a lot of bigger things made with pro/e not nearly as many as CATIA.


Seems like inventor is in the architect industry but I cant remember.


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## tino_ale (Apr 23, 2010)

mototraxtech said:


> Its nice to see people using CAD programs to make things. Gives an exact rep of what you want so you don't have to explain much. Also try an make something with a few hundred or more parts not including hardware and then try to make a change.


Even for the most newbie amateur like me, it's very valuable indeed. If I wanted this thing machined I would almost just have to hand the drawings to a shop. A few good views and very little explanation would be needed.

What I really like also is the ability to tweak your idea. These last pictures are 3-tritium beads but I can have a view of a 9-tritium bead without the groove in a matter of 10 seconds if I want to.

I don't have machines to play with, so, I feel playing with SW will provide me with maybe a tenth of the satisfaction to make actual parts, which is still good to take :green:


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## wquiles (Apr 23, 2010)

Man, every time I see a great thread like this one when somebody is using CAD I feel the definite urge to start doing my projects in CAD, instead of just in paper. Yes, that is right, I "still" do my projects the old fashion way - paper and pen - like I learned on my drafting class 25 years ago during my Engineering education. Here is one of my most recent "elaborate" designs that I came up with in my head, but that I had to write down to capture and refine:






here is the actual working module I built:






and for those interested in seeing how I went from paper to realization, here is the full thread:
link ...


The point being is that I could probably spend a little (or a lot) less time on the shop if I build it first, completely, in the computer, specially for me - I am extremely visual. You can spend a whole page explaining something to me in written form, but I will not "get it". Show me a drawing (hand written or in cool CAD form) and then it is like "all right!, I get it!".

Like I said, one of these days I will start to do things in CAD ...


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## gadget_lover (Apr 23, 2010)

There is value to thinking out the whole design process. Cad will happily create curves that you can not machine, or grooves you will not be able to reach with your tools. Having the experience of doing it from scratch helps spot those problems.

I design parts based on the tooling and fixtures that I will be able to use. 

From another thread: A machinist is a guy who will deliver a box of chips to the engineer who specified the OD to be smaller than the ID on a 3 inch diameter pipe.

Daniel


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## mototraxtech (Apr 23, 2010)

gadget_lover said:


> There is value to thinking out the whole design process. Cad will happily create curves that you can not machine, or grooves you will not be able to reach with your tools. Having the experience of doing it from scratch helps spot those problems.
> 
> I design parts based on the tooling and fixtures that I will be able to use.
> 
> ...




I agree completely and most of my projects are assems with many parts all working together and I actually draw them very roughly out on paper to make sure its all going to work the way I want before it goes to 3D. Also working in a shop I thing is the most important thing a engineer can do to better himself as people who don't will design things that are incredibly difficult and expensive to fab. They also have a bad habit of creating things that are terrible to work on.


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## dom (Apr 24, 2010)

Nice work Tino - it great fun learning CAD.

I think all engineers/designers should be made to make 
some of those lovely parts they design.

Coming from a machinist background into CAD helps them spend less time producing a job .

We use Inventor/EdgeCam combo at work (general engineering)

Cheers
Dom


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