Solid Thinking Inspired Tutorials - Mac

solidThinking Inspired Tutorials© 2009 solidThinking, Inc.

for Mac

solidThinking Inspired Tutorials for Mac

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Table of Contents

Quick Start Tutorials 3

................................................................................................................................... 41Tutorial 1: Simple Bridge

................................................................................................................................... 122Tutorial 2: Desk

................................................................................................................................... 353Tutorial 3: Bookcase


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1 Quick Start Tutorials

The tutorials in this section provide a quick introduction to using solidThinking Inspired. They areintentionally kept brief so you can start using the program as quickly as possible. The objective is not toteach you every detail of the application but to familiarize you with basic principles and the way theprogram works.


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1.1 Tutorial 1: Simple Bridge

In this tutorial you use Inspired to generate a shape for a simple bridge. You open a model of a designspace for a bridge in solidThinking, then launch Inspired to generate a shape in response to anenvironment you define. You then save the results to solidThinking and also to an .stl file.

You will learn how to do the following tasks:· Launch solidThinking Inspired· Apply supports· Apply a pressure· Run morphogenesis to generate shapes· Explore the shapes· Save a shape to solidThinking· Save a shape to a file

Launch solidThinking Inspired

1. Start solidThinking 8.0

2. Select File > Open from the pull-down menus and open bridge.st from the tutorials directory

provided with this document.

3. Select the Run Morphogenesis modeling tool, under the Generate Shape tab on the tool bar.

4. You are prompted to Pick a closed volume object. Pick on the trapezoidal part. This is the only

part in the model and it is named bridge.

5. Click the Launch Inspired... button on the Run Morphogenesis modeling tool panel. Inspired

starts with the bridge model in the modeling window.


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Apply supports

1. In Inspired, click the Apply Supports tool in the environment icon in the main toolbar.

2. Rotate the view by dragging the mouse while pressing the right mouse button. Orient the view so

you can see all four corners of the bottom surface.

3. Move the mouse cursor over a corner until the cursor hint displays a point support. Zoom into

the corners by scrolling the mouse wheel toward you or by dragging the mouse up and down with

the right mouse button while holding down the Alt key.

4. Left-click to apply the support. A support is drawn as a cluster of red cones.

5. Pan the view by dragging the mouse with the right mouse button while pressing the Shift key, and

place point supports at the other 3 corners of the bottom. Your model should look like the picture

below:


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Apply a pressure

1. Select the Apply Pressures tool in the environment icon in the main toolbar.

2. Move the mouse cursor over the bottom face of the model and apply a pressure by left-clicking the

surface. A pressure is created and the mini toolbar for the pressure appears.

3. Click the +/- icon on the mini toolbar. This will reverse the direction of the pressure so it pulls

downward on the bottom face of the bridge. Your model should look like the picture below.


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4. Right-click on empty space or press the Esc key to exit the pressure tool.

Run morphogenesis to generate shapes

1. Select the Run Morphogenesis icon in the main toolbar.

2. The Run Morphogenesis window appears.


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3. Under Percent of design space to keep, enter 15,20,30. This will generate three shapes using

15%, 20% and 30% of the material in the design space.

4. Click the Run button at the bottom of the dialog to run morphogenesis.

5. The Morphogenesis Run Status window appears. You can monitor the progress of each run in

the window. A run name is a concatenation of the name under Name of run and the percent of

the design space being used for the shape in that run. The number in parentheses is a counter

that increments each time you make a new run.

6. The runs should be complete in a minute or two. When runs complete successfully, their progress

indicators are replaced by green circles as shown below.


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7. When all three runs have finished, double-click the run named bridge 15% (1). The generated

shape appears in the modeling window.

8. Double-click the shape and the mini toolbar for the shape appears in the top right corner of the

modeling window.

Explore the shapes

1. Click near the tic mark at the 20% position on the Percent of Design Space scale. The shape ischanged to show the result of the 20% run. Click each of the 3 tic marks to compare the shapesgenerated by the three runs.


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2. Click in the grid to modify the amount of material and detail in the current shape. You can change

the amount of material and detail independently of one another by clicking on the scales outside

the grid.

3. To see the original part, click the Show Design Space icon, , at the top of the mini toolbar.

The original part and environment are shown in the modeling window and the shape controls are

removed from the mini toolbar. The Show Design Space icon is replaced by the Show Previous

Shape icon, .

4. To see the shape you were previously viewing, click the Show Previous Shape icon, , at the

top of the mini toolbar. The generated shape is shown and the mini toolbar is extended to show the

shape controls again.

5. You can also click in the drop-down list to select between the original design and the generated

shape. As you make more runs on this part, each additional run will appear in the drop-down list.

Save a shape to solidThinking

1. Right-click on a shape and select Save to solidThinking. Your shape is saved to a locationwhere you can conveniently retrieve it using the Morphogenesis Shapes Browser insolidThinking.


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2. Return to the solidThinking application and click on the Retrieve shape button on the Run

Morphogenesis modeling tool. The Morphogenesis Shapes Browser appears.

3. Select your shape from the Morphogenesis Shapes Browser

Save a shape to a file

1. Return to Inspired.

2. Select a shape.

3. Select File > Save Selected... from the pull-down menus.

4. Change the file type to STL (*.stl) and click Save. Your shape has been saved in a standard

stereo lithography format suitable for rapid prototype machines.


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1.2 Tutorial 2: Desk

In this tutorial you use Inspired to generate a variety of shapes for a reception desk. You define anumber of environments and apply a variety of shape controls to generate these shapes. You then savethe results to solidThinking and also to an .stl file.

You will learn how to do the following tasks:· Launch solidThinking Inspired· Apply a support· Apply forces· Run morphogenesis to generate shapes· Explore the shapes· Create additional environments· Re-run morphogenesis using multiple environments· Generate discrete legs using point supports· Generate vertically extruded legs using a single parting

direction· Generate laterally extruded legs with a split parting

direction· Generate symmetric legs· Save a shape to solidThinking· Save a shape to a file


1. Start solidThinking Inspired 8.0

2. Select File > Open from the pull-down menus and open desk.st from the tutorials directory



4. You are prompted to Pick a closed volume object. Pick on the desk part. This is the only part in

the model and it is named desk.


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starts with the desk model in the modeling window.

Apply a support


2. Rotate the view by dragging the mouse with the right mouse button. Orient the view so you can

see the bottom surface of the desk.

3. Move the mouse cursor over the bottom surface until the cursor hint displays a face support,

Zoom into the bottom surface by scrolling the mouse wheel toward you or by dragging the mouse

up and down with the right mouse button while holding down the Alt key .

4. Left-click to apply the support. A support is drawn as a cluster of red cones and will appear at the

point you select, but will support the entire bottom surface.

5. Place a single face support on the bottom face. This will constrain the bottom of your desk so it

won't move. Your model should look like the picture below:


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Apply forces

1. Select the Apply Forces tool in the environment icon in the main toolbar.

2. Rotate the view to expose the top of the desk..

3. Move the mouse cursor over the top of the desk and apply a force by left-clicking on the surface.

A force is created and the mini toolbar for the force appears.

4. Press the +/- icon on the mini toolbar to reverse the direction of the force so it points downward.

5. Enter 500 lbf in the number field to apply a force of 500 pounds. The force will be converted to

2224.1 N when you press Enter. See Numbers and Units for more information regarding the entry

of values and unit conversion.


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3. Under Percent of design space to keep, enter 20. This will generate one shape using 20% of

the material in the design space.


5. The Morphogenesis Run Status window appears. You can monitor the progress of the run in the

window. A run name is a concatenation of the name under Name of run and the percent of the

design space being used for the shape in that run. The number in parentheses is a counter that

increments each time you make a new run.

6. The run should be complete in three or four minutes. When runs complete successfully, their

progress indicators are replaced by green circles as shown below and green flag appears above

the Run Morphogenesis icon.

7. When the run has finished, double-click the run named desk 20% (1) or click the green flag at the

top of the run Run Morphogenesis icon. The generated shape appears in the modeling window.



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modeling window.

9. Rotate the view with the mouse to study the generated shape.

Explore the shape

1. The single tic mark at the 20% position on the Percent of Design Space scale denotes the singlemorphogenesis run.



the grid. Explore a variety of shapes by clicking above and below the center of the grid. The

center of the grid represents the nominal solution proposed by morphogenesis.


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Shape icon, .






7. Return to the original design space by clicking the Switch to Design Space icon, , at the top ofthe mini toolbar. The design space and environment are displayed.

Create additional environments

In this section we add more forces to the desk and group them into different environments.


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Environments are used to organize forces into groups that act at different times on the model. Wewill then re-run morphogenesis using all of the new environments we've defined.

1. Double-click the force on the top of the desk. This activates the force-creation mode. Double-

clicking an object is a convenient short-cut for editing and creating more of the same type of

object.

2. Move the mouse cursor to the edge of the top of the desk and apply 4 more 500 lbf forces in the

directions shown below. By applying the forces to the top edge around the perimeter of the top,

the force is evenly distributed across the perimeter. The location of the force along the edge is

not important since the force is distributed across the entire edge anyway. In the picture below, the

forces have been spread around the perimeter for clarity.

3. Click the List Environments... tool in the environment icon. The Environments window appears.


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4. Click on Environment 1. Checks appear to the left of each force and support to indicate that

each one is currently included in the default environment, Environment 1.

5. If we ran morphogenesis again right now, the 4 side forces would cancel each other out since

there are two equal and opposing forces in the X direction and also in the Y direction. We can

specify that each force acts at a different point in time from the other forces by separating them

into different environments. Morphogenesis generates a shape that satisfies any number of

different environments by evaluating the shape against each one independently.

6. We will now create 4 more environments and then include one newly created side force into each

of these four environments along with the support in each environment.

7. Click the "+" icon above the Environments column 4 times to create 4 new empty environments.

8. Click on Environment 1 and then activate the checks next to Support 1 and Force 1. Disable all

the other checks. To help you remember which force is which, you can rename them in the table

as shown below. Don't worry if the order of your forces is different than what is shown here. The

forces are simply listed in the order you create them.

9. Click on Environment 2 and then activate the checks next to Support 1 and one of the side loads.

Disable all the other checks.

10.Repeat the step above, placing Support 1 and each of the remaining 3 side loads into

environments 3, 4 and 5. The environments should be configured as shown in the following table


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when you are done. It's ok if your environments are organized differently as long as the 5 forces

are distributed among the 5 environments and each environment contains the support.

Environment 1 Environment 2 Environment 3 Environment 4 Environment 5

Side load +x ü

Side load +y ü

Side load -x ü

Side load -y ü

Support 1 ü ü ü ü ü

Top load ü

Re-run morphogenesis using multiple environments


2. The Run Morphogenesis window appears. The 5 environments appear in the environment list in

the window. A check should appear next to each environment, indicating which environments will

be used in the next run.

3. Click the Run button.



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top of the Run Morphogenesis icon. The generated shape appears in the modeling window.

5. Double-click the shape. The mini toolbar for the shape appears in the top right corner of the

modeling window.


7. The result is quite different from the original run. The new shape is capable of withstanding the

variety of side loads and the legs have been merged into a continuous "skirt".

7. You can compare run (1) and run (2) by clicking the two run names in the mini toolbar on the

right.

8. Return to the original design space by clicking the Switch to Design Space icon, , at the top of

the mini toolbar. The design space and environment are displayed.

Generate discrete legs using point supports

You can create a shape that has four legs by modifying the supports on the bottom of the desk. Inthe run above, by using a surface support on the bottom of the desk, morphogenesis was free to usewhatever portions of the bottom surface it needed to create legs. You can generate a shape with fourdiscrete legs by using four individual point supports on the bottom placed at the locations where youwant feet to touch the ground.

1. Double-click the support on the bottom of the desk. This activates the support-creation mode.

Recall that double-clicking an object is a convenient short-cut for editing and creating more of the


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same type of object.

2. While holding down the Shift key on the keyboard, click four positions on the bottom surface of

the desk. Pressing the Shift key while creating supports creates point supports rather than

surface supports.

3. The four new supports you just created were all placed in the current environment. You need to

include each of the point supports in each environment and remove the old surface support from

each environment. You could do this using the Environments list in the same manner we used to

include the forces in the environments but we'll use another convenient method instead.

4. Select any one support.

5. Select all supports by pressing Command+a on the keyboard. Command+a is a shortcut for

selecting all objects that are similar to the currently selected object.

6. Right-click any of the selected supports to activate the context menu.

7. Choose Include in Environments > from the context menu and place a check next to each

environment as shown below.


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8. Dismiss the menu by clicking anywhere outside of the menu.

9. Right-click the original surface support and use the Include in Environments > menu to remove it

from each of the environments.

10.Run morphogenesis again by clicking the Run Morphogenesis icon, , and then

pressing the Run button.

11.When the run has finished, double-click the run named desk 20% (3) or click the green flag at

the top of the run Run Morphogenesis icon. The generated shape appears in the modeling

window.

12.Double-click the shape. The mini toolbar for the shape appears in the top right corner of the

modeling window.

13.Rotate the view with the mouse to study the generated shape.


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14. You can compare run (1) and run (2) and run (3) by clicking the three run names in the mini

toolbar on the right.

15. Return to the original design space by clicking the Switch to Design Space icon, , at the top

of the mini toolbar. The design space and environment are displayed.

Generate vertically extruded legs by applying a parting direction

You can create an "extruded" shape for the legs by applying a parting direction to the design space.If you intend for the desk to be manufactured by molding it in a two-part mold, it must have a shapewhich allows the two halves of the mold to separate after the part is formed.

1. Click the Parting Directions tool on the Shape Controls icon. The cursor appears as

2. Click the desk. A large gold arrow appears pointing toward the top of the desk. The parting arrow

indicates the direction a "mold" will be pulled away from the part.

3. Click the Z icon on the mini toolbar to reverse the direction of the arrow. The arrow points toward

the feet of the desk, indicating the legs should taper toward the bottom.


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4. There's no need to change any environments. A shape control is not included in an environment; it

specifies a requirement for the shape of the part regardless of what environments the part is

subjected to.

5. Run morphogenesis again by clicking the Run Morphogenesis icon, , and then



top of the run Run Morphogenesis icon. The generated shape appears in the modeling window.

7. Double-click the shape. The mini toolbar for the shape appears in the top right corner of the

modeling window.



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9. Observe that the leg structures are now extrusions that taper toward the bottom.

10.You can compare runs (1) - (4) by clicking the run names in the mini toolbar on the right.

11.Return to the original design space by clicking the Switch to Design Space icon, , at the top


Generate laterally extruded legs with a split parting direction

You can change the orientation of the parting direction and use a "split" part to form yet anotherdesign variation.

1. Double-click the parting direction arrow to activate its' mini toolbar.

2. Click the X icon on the mini toolbar to orient the parting direction arrow laterally across the desk.

3. Click the top left icon on the mini toolbar and choose Split Parting Direction. The parting arrow

is now a double arrow, indicating that the resulting shape will be formed as though two mold halves

were pulled apart from somewhere in the middle of the part.


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4. Observe that the parting arrow is oriented laterally across the desk. Let's rotate it slightly around

the Z axis to make it align better with the desk.

5. Orient the view with the middle mouse button so that you see the bottom of the desk straight on.

Alternatively, you can jump to the bottom view by clicking near the bottom of the View icon:

6. Click the Rotate Parting Direction icon, , on the mini toolbar. The Rotate tool appears at thecenter of the parting direction.

7. Move the mouse cursor over the rotational arrow on the rotate tool as shown below. Note that the

cursor changes to a as you pass over the arrow.


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8. Press the left mouse button and drag while over the rotation arrow. Position the parting direction

arrow as shown above or in a direction you think would create an interesting result.

9. Close the rotation tool by pressing Esc or right-clicking on empty space.





window.


modeling window.



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14.Observe that the leg structures are now extrusions that taper laterally across the width of the desk.


16.Return to the original design space by clicking the Switch to Design Space icon, , at the top


Create symmetric legs

You can enforce symmetry in your desk legs using Symmetry Planes. You can apply up to 3 planesof symmetry across your design space to produce more symmetric shapes even when theenvironments or design space are not symmetric.

1. Remove the parting direction shape control by right-clicking it and choosing Delete from the

context menu. (You don't actually have to delete the parting direction if you don't want to, but you

will get a more interesting shape in this stage of the exercise if you do.)

2. Right-click the desk design space and choose Shape Controls > Symmetry Planes from the

context menu. Three red planes appear through the desk. The planes are orthogonal to one

another.


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3. Left-click once on the plane which is parallel to the top and bottom surface of the desk to

deactivate it. A deactivated plane is drawn with dotted grey edges. Clicking repeatedly on an

individual symmetry plane activates and deactivates it.

4. Leave the other two planes active.

5. View the desk from the bottom by rotating the view with the middle mouse button or by clicking the

bottom view on the view icon.

6. Click the Rotate Symmetry Planes icon, , on the mini toolbar. The Translate/Rotate toolappears at the center of the symmetry planes.

7. Move the mouse cursor over the rotational arrow on the rotate tool as shown below. Note that the

cursor changes to a as you pass over the arrow.


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8. Press the left mouse button and drag while over the rotation arrow. Position the symmetry planes

as shown above or in a direction you think would create an interesting result.

9. Close the rotation tool by pressing Esc or by right-clicking on empty space.





window.


modeling window.



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14.Observe that the leg structures are nearly symmetric across the symmetry planes you

constructed. Slight asymmetries are present in most cases and the level of symmetry is influenced

by the symmetry of the design space itself.





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2. Select a shape.





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1.3 Tutorial 3: Bookcase

In this tutorial you use Inspired to generate a shape for a bookcase. You open a model of a designspace of the bookcase in solidThinking, then launch Inspired to generate a shape in response to anenvironment you define. You then save the results to solidThinking and also to an .stl file.

You will learn how to do thefollowing tasks:· Launch solidThinking Inspired· Apply a support· Apply forces· Run morphogenesis to

generate shapes· Explore the shapes· Apply symmetry to change

the resulting shape· Save a shape to solidThinking· Save a shape to a file


1. Start solidThinking 8.0

2. Select File > Open from the pull-down menus and open bookcase.st from the tutorials directory




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4. You are prompted to Pick a closed volume object. Pick on the bookcase part. This is the only

part in the model and it is named bookcase.


starts with the bookcase model in the modeling window.

Apply a support


2. Rotate the view by dragging the mouse with the right mouse button. Orient the view so you can

see the bottom surface of the bookcase.

3. Move the mouse cursor over the bottom surface until the cursor hint displays a face support,

Zoom into the bottom surface by scrolling the mouse wheel toward you or by dragging the mouse

up and down with the right mouse button while holding down the Alt key .

4. Left-click to apply the support. A support is drawn as a cluster of red cones and appears at the

point you select, but will support the entire bottom surface. This constrains the bottom of your

bookcase so it won't move. Your model should look like the picture below:


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Apply forces

1. Select the Apply Forces tool in the environment icon in the main toolbar.

2. Rotate the view to expose the shelves of the bookcase.

3. Move the mouse cursor over each shelf and apply a force of 100 Newtons, in the -Z direction, to

each shelf by left-clicking on the surface. A force is created and the mini toolbar for the force

appears. A force of 100 Newtons is approximately 20 lbs. See Numbers and Units for more

information regarding the entry of values and unit conversion.

4. While remaining in force creation mode, move the mouse cursor over the top of the bookshelf and

left-click the top surface. This will generate another force with the same magnitude and direction

at the top of the bookcase. After creating these forces, each shelf and the top of the bookcase

should have a force of 100N applied to it.


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3. Under Percent of design space to keep, enter 10. This will generate one shape using 10% of

the material in the design space.


5. The Morphogenesis Run Status window appears. You can monitor the progress of the run in the

window. A run name is a concatenation of the name under Name of run and the percent of the

design space being used for the shape in that run. The number in parentheses is a counter that

increments each time you make a new run.

6. The run should be complete in three or four minutes. When runs complete successfully, their

progress indicators are replaced by green circles as shown below.


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7. When the run has finished, double-click the run named Bookcase 10% (1). The generated shape

appears in the modeling window.


modeling window.

Explore the shape

1. The single tic mark at the 10% position on the Percent of Design Space scale denotes the singlemorphogenesis run.


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the grid.




Shape icon, .






Apply symmetry to change the resulting shape

1. The resulting shape of a morphogenesis can be altered by adding symmetry to a design space.

Let's add symmetry to see how it affects the resulting shape.

2. Select the symmetry icon from the environment tool in the main toolbar.

3. Move the mouse over the original design space of the bookcase until the mouse cursor shows the

symmetry icon

4. Left click the design space. Symmetry is applied to the bookcase.


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5. After symmetry is applied for the first time, all of the planes of symmetry are on. In this case, we

only want two planes to be active for the morphogenesis. After creating the symmetry, mouse over

the plane that appears to separate the bookcase into an upper and lower half until the cursor

shows the symmetry deactivate

6. Left click the middle symmetry plane. The middle symmetry plane is now off. The middle

symmetry plane will not be visible once you exit the symmetry tool. (Turn the symmetry on, double

click one of the remaining the symmetry planes. All of the planes will appear. The active planes

will appear with red edges, and the inactive planes will appear with black edges. Left click the

symmetry plane with the black edges and it will toggle on.)



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8. Click the run button at the bottom of the dialog to run morphogenesis.

9. The resulting shape reflects the use symmetry. Notice the shape is more symmetric than the

original.






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2. Select a shape.




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Solid Thinking Inspired Tutorials - Mac