SolidWorks® Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible

Chapter 18. Modeling a Plastic Bottle

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Laying out the task

• Building the model

• Creating a thread

• Checking the volume

In this chapter, I walk you through modeling a plastic blow–molded bottle, starting from artist sketches. Modeling containers involves some special techniques that can also be applied to other types of modeling, including the Shell Outward option, multi–thickness shell, finding the volume of liquid a container can hold, draft on complex shapes, molded non–standard threads, ruled surfaces for the application of paper labels, design for efficient packaging, locating the empty and filled center of gravity, and other considerations. While this chapter focuses on the modeling, I am not completely against mentioning tangential issues that have some relevance. You will get another chance at modeling a bottle in Chapter 21, which covers working with 3D digitized data.

Figure 18.1 shows the artist's drawing of the bottle. This chapter works from these views as Sketch Pictures, allowing us to trace over the hand–sketched data.

Figure 18.1. Artist's drawing of a bottle

Laying Out the Task

Most complex modeling tasks can benefit from some sort of plan, and this one is no exception. The data that I have to start from is a set of hand sketches, made from orthogonal views. Hand sketches are good at conveying sharp edges and silhouette profiles, but they aren't so good at conveying ...