1. Home
  2. Solidworks CAD Design software
  3. chess set

chess set

G'day there,

I'm modelling a chess set as a little side project. I'm reasonably new to solidworks, so I'm looking for a couple of pointers to ensure I'm using my time in the most efficient manner.

Firstly... all of the pieces will have an almost identical profile near the base... what's the best method of 'linking' these pieces such that if I wanted to make a slight change to this profile, I'd only need to make it in one piece and the rest will update accordingly (use a design table? use different configurations on the same part? another solution?)

Next, I'd obviously like to place multiple instances of each piece in the final assembly, and even just mirror the white set over the center of the board for the black set. At the moment I'm placing the white pieces individually (except for the pawns which were component patterned), and then mirroring. The thing is, after I model each piece, I'd like to put it on the board to see how it looks with the rest... and I find I'm doing multiple 'mirrors' for each time I make a new piece. What I'd like to do, is put all of the white pieces in a folder, and just mirror that folder, such that if I were to put *another* piece in that folder, it would automatically be mirrored.

Finally... with the design tree in my assembly... I'd like to clean it up and organise into folders such as: White pieces > pawns White pieces > bishops ... Black pieces > pawns ... etc. But solidworks is telling me I can't place a folder inside a folder... what would you suggest is the best way to clean this up?

I know these are pretty finicky little issues especially for a project this small... but I'm learning and I'd like to learn well, as I'm sure it will save me time in later projects.

Thanks, Sven.

Reply to
Sven
Loading thread data ...

Use configurations of the parts. Example of configurations White Bishop, Black Bishop

Since you used configs in the parts you can use multiple configs of the parts in your final assembly.

Instead of useing mirrors and component patterns. I would put each piece in individually so the that you could move each piece to the square you want. If you use a mirror or component pattern. That will will be the parent and each piece will moved independently of each other. I just spend the extra time to place each piece in, piece by piece.

Its not possible to put a folder in a folder. Why don't you just make 2 folders, one White, and one Black and all white and black pieces in each folder.

Reply to
Scott

Sven, There are several ways to approach this, here is my 2 cents worth. I would start with your part "base". Then use "configurations" to model up the "bodies" to the different parts. insert "one" part into the Chess board assembly at a corner. Do a component pattern for half the board. Change the "component properties" for each piece configuration. Do a circular component pattern for the other half. Change the colors of the parts If you want to move the parts use Scott's method.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Eckstein

Oops Mistake! Should read

That will be the parent and each piece will *not* move independently of each other.

Reply to
Scott

How about modeling and saving your piece 'base' first.

Then it's a simple manner to create the rest of the pieces via the "INSERT - BASE PART" command and build on top of that. No need for assemblies for the individual pieces.

Updating your base part will keep the final assembly updated automatically.

And as said before, create a white and black configuration of the finished pieces.

Reply to
David

Hey thanks for the tips everyone... all very helpful!

I've gone down the path of a base part, with a different configuration for each type of piece [1]. Most things are going nicely, but I've got a couple more questions:

When I create a new configuration and then add a feature, this feature also appears in all other configurations (suppressed). Is there some way to specify "feature only present in this configuration", or should I just ignore and leave it suppressed in all the other configs?

When making configurations for each colour of piece, can I organise it such that these colours are all dependant? At the moment, if I make a new base config with a configuration specific colour, any derived configurations from this config will still revert to the base grey (or their own config specific colour). Is there a way to make a configuration "inherit" the colour of its parent?

And finally (and way beyond the scope of what I'm actually doing here, but it sounds interesting), for placing the pieces on the board... I can see the pros/cons of both placing pieces individually and also linear/circular patterning (thanks for the tips there guys). What I'd like to know is if there's a way to define "valid points" for mates. For example, all pieces will obviously be mated to the top of the board, but I was curious if you could, say, draw a construction line along all the diagonals, and "mate" the bishop with these diagonal lines (you know, to mimic the "valid" positions a bishop can have). This might even be extendable to a grid of points, to ensure the pieces are only ever place in the middle of a square...

Thanks again, Sven.

[1] I chose not to import a base part for each piece because these pieces have slightly different diameters, and the import/part method didn't give me access to this dimension.

Reply to
Sven

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.