CAD & technical documentation
PTC Creo Parametric · 3ds Max · SOLIDWORKS · Siemens NX · Autodesk Fusion · GD&T · tolerance stack-up · robust design · engineering drawings · mechanical design · rendering and visualisation
- Skill
- CAD & technical documentation
- Packages
- PTC Creo Parametric · 3ds Max · SOLIDWORKS · Siemens NX · Autodesk Fusion
- Learned
- Mechanical CAD, DTU · Robust Design of Products and Mechanisms, DTU · Industrial Design, DTU · six months at the LEGO Group
- Applied at
- Design Intern, The LEGO Group
CAD is the tool I have spent the most hours in, and the way I have learned each package has been fairly consistent, since I model something that already exists in order to understand the software, and then use it on something that has to work. This is due to reverse-engineering being unforgiving, as a vernier caliper does not care whether my datum scheme is tidy, and the model either matches the measurements taken off the physical object or it does not.
Furthermore the part I care most about is what happens after the model looks right, meaning the drawings, the tolerances, and whether the assembly still fits once it has actually been printed. Here the PultMaster mechanism is the clearest case, since a pin-in-slot joint that ran perfectly in CAD needed a clearance fit it had not been given in order to run at all.
PTC Creo Parametric and 3ds Max
Creo is the package I know best, and most of that came from the Mechanical CAD course at DTU, where the work ran from parametric solids through surfacing and on into full documentation. The Nintendo 64 was the most demanding of these, since the console mixes hard geometry with organic surfaces and therefore forces solid and surface modelling into the same model. Furthermore the same course carried the models on into 3ds Max, where the minifigure was animated at the joints and rendered with Arnold, and I treat this as part of the CAD output rather than as a separate discipline, since a model that cannot be shown to someone outside the project is only half delivered.
Creo & 3ds Max tools
Creo Parametric 11 · parametric modelling · datum planes · tangent planes · surface modelling · quilts · surface connect · drop curve · trim body · revolve · symmetric extrude · taper · round and transition · shell · mirror · projection · direction and axis patterns · text in sketch · assembly constraints · motion axes · model regeneration · engineering drawings · sections and detail views · tolerancing · bill of materials · 3ds Max · Arnold renderer · assembly animation
/images/nintendo-64-cad/hero.webp
Rendered CAD reconstruction of a Nintendo 64 console on a plain grey backdrop
Nintendo 64
Team of 2, main responsible for the modelling
A full CAD reconstruction in Creo, from reference images to a rendered scene
/images/lego-minifigure-creo/hero.webp
Rendered LEGO minifigure in plain white plastic, posed with hands out, on a grey backdrop
LEGO minifigure in Creo
Sole author, modelled, assembled, documented and rendered
Parts, assembly, motion, engineering drawings and a rendered animation
/images/parametric-caliper/hero.webp
Rendered CAD view of the reconstructed vernier caliper
Reverse-engineering a caliper in Creo
Team of 2, we each modelled the complete caliper independently
Parametric reconstruction from the disassembled tool
SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS is where I started, on the Industrial Design course during my BEng, and it is also the package I return to on my own time. Here the model ship is the honest example, since nobody set it, it runs to eight components, and the keel was sized and placed off the centre of mass so that it sits below the waterline and on the centreline, which means the hull floats upright rather than listing. Furthermore PultMaster was modelled in SOLIDWORKS too, where the work was less about the surfaces and more about whether the assembly still went together once it had the clearances it was actually given.
SOLIDWORKS tools
SOLIDWORKS · lofted surfaces · multi-body assembly · mass properties · centre of mass analysis · sketch-to-CAD workflow · marker rendering · clay mock-ups · export for FDM printing
/images/model-ship-solidworks/hero.webp
The finished model ship, painted orange and blue with rigged masts, floating on dark water at night with architectural lighting in the background
A model ship, modelled from scratch and printed
Sole author, modelled, printed and painted in my own time
Eight components, a lofted hull, and a keel designed around the centre of mass
/images/camper-van-key/hero.webp
Pencil drawing of a hand holding the folding key concept, showing four button icons across the body and a blade-style key shaft extending from one end
Camper van key
Team of 5, hand sketching and CAD modelling
Industrial design from clay mock-up to printed model
/images/robust-mechanism/hero.webp
Two-player catapult game assembly with the slotted crank mechanism visible
PultMaster 3000
Team of 6, joint CAD, 3D prints, tolerance stack-up, testing
Tolerance-driven mechanism design
Siemens NX
NX I used daily for six months at the LEGO Group's Creative Play Lab, which is the only professional environment I have modelled in. It is important to note that the work itself is covered by confidentiality, so what I can state is the shape of it rather than the content, meaning part and assembly modelling to an established system and an established set of internal conventions, iterated against designers' feedback rather than my own judgement, and at the pace of a team that had to produce testable physical prototypes.
Siemens NX tools
Siemens NX · part modelling · assembly modelling · modelling to a fixed system · six months daily use
Autodesk Fusion
Fusion is the package I have used most recently and most heavily, since the thesis alone ran to more than 40 models in it, and Alfred was built almost entirely in Fusion as well, where the slider-crank platform and the 3D-printed housings had to carry servo motors without flexing. Furthermore the mine clearance vehicle is the older example of the same habit, in that the modelling sat alongside three custom PCBs laid out in PCB123, which is where I first started designing an enclosure around the electronics rather than the other way round.
Autodesk Fusion tools
Autodesk Fusion · parametric timeline · sketch and extrude · revolve · fillet · chamfer · mirror · rectangular pattern · construction planes · construction axes and points · move and copy · multi-body and component management · enclosure design · fixtures and mounts · design around PCBs
/images/drone-immobilisation/hero.webp
Rendered concept visual: an interceptor drone approaching a target drone entangled in cord under a parachute
Biologically inspired drone immobilisation
Sole author, designed, built and ran all 109 experiments
Finding the most effective way to stop a drone, through 109 experiments
/images/alfred-office-companion/hero.webp
Studio photo of the assembled Alfred prototype emerging from its enclosure, with a sensor-data laptop behind it
Alfred, an office companion for indoor climate
Team of 3, all CAD drawings and the mechanics
A mechatronic mouse that reacts to noise and air quality
/images/mine-clearance-vehicle/hero.webp
The mine clearance vehicle prototype on a workbench, showing the red chassis, drive wheels and gears, a small motor, an AA battery pack and the yellow PCB carrying the counter and driver ICs
A remote-controlled mine clearance vehicle
Team of 2, PCB design for the remote and receiver boards
Taking a dangerous job away from the person doing it
Tolerancing and robust design
This sits above the individual packages and comes largely from the Robust Design course. PultMaster 3000 is the project that carries it, where I worked on the CAD and the stack-up in a team of six and ran an RD&T stability analysis which flagged the gear centre pin at RSS 21.45, and since this pin is small and heavily located, that number seems to have indicated overconstraint with conflicting constraint directions rather than the underconstraint a high value usually means.
Keywords
GD&T · GPS tolerances · tolerance stack-up · sensitivity analysis · RD&T stability analysis · clearance and interference fits · measured parts vs. assumed variation
/images/robust-mechanism/hero.webp
Two-player catapult game assembly with the slotted crank mechanism visible
PultMaster 3000
Team of 6, joint CAD, 3D prints, tolerance stack-up, testing
Tolerance-driven mechanism design
/images/alfred-office-companion/hero.webp
Studio photo of the assembled Alfred prototype emerging from its enclosure, with a sensor-data laptop behind it
Alfred, an office companion for indoor climate
Team of 3, all CAD drawings and the mechanics
A mechatronic mouse that reacts to noise and air quality
Prototyping and manufacturing — FDM printing, laser cutting, milling and turning — sit under Prototyping & manufacturing.