The purpose of this skillbuilder was to demonstrate thorough understanding of Solidoworks software. Such was done by creating a chess board with a twist of creatiity based on theme chosen. The theme for my project was Alice in Wonderland, where each piece featured a character or object from the book.
Prior to making the unique chess board pieces, a base had to be first designed in Solidworks. Such was accomplished by first making a base sketch on the top plane, and through extruded boss base, Smart Dimensions. Once this was accomplished I along with a partner entered the ideation phase of the design process. Here we created characters to represent each piece of the chess board. Which a sketch of the original pieces can be seen to left. This was later scrapped for simpler designs that were more beginner friendly.
In this version of chess, the King, naturally, is shown as the King of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Similar to the 1951 cartoon version, the piece entails a sceptor and a small crown. Such was constructed by building off the base design in "Part." To start off the crown was sketched on the top plane and then extruded to be the tallest of the six pieces. Then using a reference plane a heart is constructed using tangent arc and lines feature in Sketch. The sketch is then extruded slightly to create the kings sceptor.
The Queen of Hearts is the Queen in chess, not only because she is most powerful in the game, but in the movie as well. She is represented by a rose painted red and a small crown at the back. The rose was constructed by sketching a circle and then extruding to make a cylinder to be the stem of the rose. Then via a centerline, revolve was used to make a sphere that sat upon the cylinder. Next, a cut tool was used in order to show the petals. Once the petals were finished, the chess piece was then 'colored' by assigning the piece different materials on Solidworks.
In our Alice in Wonderland theme, the bishop is a mushroom with a caterpillar on top to depict the Blue Caterpillar, one of the first characters that meets Alice in this upside down world. The mushroom was created by first sketching a circle followed by a lofted boss base for the stem of the mushroom. The rim of the top of the mushroom was created y creating a sketch on top of the lofted base and then slightly extruding it. As for the cap of the mushroom it was created via revolve tool after making a reference line. Finally the caterpillar was made through series of reference lines and revolve feature for the different parts of the Blue Caterpillar's body.
The knight is a stopwatch that reads LATE, which represents the White Rabbit that unconcsiously leads Alice down the rabbit hole. The stopwatch was created by making a circle on the top plane, and off centering it a tad to give it the visual appeals you can see in the image now. Then through extruded boss base, we make the circle 3D to make the base of the watch. Next, using extruded cut, give the stop watch a layer to show the hands of a watch. For the top part of the pocket watch, a reference layer had to be created, where a circle was sketched on and extruded like the bottom. Using text feature on Solidworks, the word "Late" is depicted, the famous words of the White Rabbit. For final touches, we then apply plastic as the material followed by a color to give it the visuals it has presently.
A top hat with a card 10/6 on the rim is shown to represent the Mad Hatter for the Rook.
The pawns are represented by a Drink Me bottle, the very first object that Alice encounters in her dream of Wonderland. The drink me bottle was the simplest of the pieces to create in Solidworks. To start off, a circle is sketched on the top plane so that the bottle sits on the top of the base piece and then extruded. Next, a second circle, with the same radius as the first is added on top, but instead of extruding it, it is lofted to give the bottle a little bit of curve at the top. Followed by the cap with the same steps as the first step, but with smaller radii to give the visual appeals it has at present. Finally, the words "Drink Me" is added and the extruded slightly via text feature under sketch tab. To finish it off, plastic material and color is assigned to the piece.
The full chess board can be seen to the right. Such was accomplished by mating the individual pieces to the board through "Assembly" after designing individual pieces in "Part." In addition, the black pieces colors are inverted so as to better distinguish the different sides when playing.