How to Design Coffee Cups in Solidworks

With Solidworks, you can make personalized coffee cups with modern designs.

You can design coffee mugs for pleasure or even for business using Solidworks, a graphic design program. Solidworks uses 3D software to design products so that you can preview the look before it goes to production. You can easily turn a sketch into a 3D object rotating and designing each side, and adding on special features. By taking coffee cup design to this new level, you can end up with beautiful coffee mugs that you can share with family and friends, or even sell to others.

Instructions

Sketching

1. Brainstorm ideas on paper. This is the basis for any graphic design project. Look through magazines, books and websites for inspiration.

2. Find a coffee cup if you have access to one. Using the coffee cup as a base model, consider the design of coffee cup by asking yourself several questions, such as: Will it be round or angled? Will it be small for espresso coffee, big enough for a large coffee or regular sized? Will it have a handle?

3. Sketch ideas on paper, including size and shape of the cup. Sketch more than one potential design and keep these sketches simple.

Designing

1. Open a new document in Solidworks. Select either novice or advanced, depending on your familiarity with Solidworks, and then select the document type necessary to create a cup.

2. Sketch your design digitally with a computer mouse on a sketch grid using your sketch on paper as a basis. You can choose to make either a simple or complex sketch. The simple sketch can be made up of straight lines and angles (such as a rectangle), which will then be rounded and formed into shape by adding on "fillets." The complex sketch starts with already rounded shapes or "fillets" (a cylinder cup shape) and is more difficult; yet, it helps complete the design more quickly. Use either side of the cup as a starting point, or use the side across from the mug handle as a "front" side to add sketch layers and rotate it around to see the full sketched cup.

3. Create the features of the coffee cup both by clicking on options in "Edit>Appearance> Appearances and Tools>Options>Document Properties." You can change the shading, colors, sizes and shapes of all features. These individual shapes result in the whole once you finish the project. By using "Appearances or Edit>Feature Properties," you can choose the way you want your cup to look. For example, you can choose the size and shape of the coffee cup handle. You can also alter the surface and thickness of the coffee cup and rotate it to see how it looks from each side through Dynamic Feature Editing, found under "Instant3D" on your features toolbar. Using a ruler, you can alter the thickness and sizes of the features of your cup. This features also allows you to alter shapes by moving and resizing them using simple dotted lines and a mouse.

4. Edit your design by adding or removing certain features and then finalizing the design once you are satisfied. Use the options under "Edit" and "Tools" as well as accompanying toolbars to complete this task. Use a revolve feature for the mug and a swept feature for the handle by incorporating guide curves found on the feature toolbar. Make note of the cup measurements, how much coffee it will hold and remember to leave some space on top since it won't be filled to the brim with coffee. A ruler here comes in handy, also available in "Options."

5. Create a drawing and/or generate it into the design--for example, a drawing of what you want on the cup. You can import a drawing completed in another program such as Adobe Photoshop, or even a saved jpeg photograph or image. This is done by clicking "File>Import" to import the drawing. Or, if you are creating a new drawing, click "File>Make drawing from part/assembly," which will open a new document allowing you to set the size. You will then have a drawing window, with tools, rulers, options and document settings. You can upload a sketch using Options into the drawing, or you can start from scratch using a grid. Drawings are more precise than sketches, with exact colors, smooth edges and clear lines and are completed using tools in the "Drawings" toolbar. Save your drawing. It will save with the extension ".slddrw." You can add this new drawing to the design model by clicking Tools>Add/Edit Models and selecting the drawing models available.

6. Save your entire design as a ".sldasd" file. The program will auto-save as you work on your project and will remind you to save your work periodically, as well. You can also choose the "Pack and Go" option, which will save all of your files, including sketches, drawings and the model design, into one folder or zip file. The sketches and drawings can be separate files, which you can then import to create the final model design.

Tips & Warnings

• Solidworks is a complex program offering many options and features. Familiarize yourself with the guidelines and online tutorials beforehand to make sure you are taking advantage of everything being offered.

• Don't solely rely on auto-recover while working on a design. Save your project along the way to avoid losing it in the event of computer crashes or freezes.

References

• Solidworks: Sketch
• Solidworks: Basic Concepts
• Solidworks: Student Guide PDF Page 113
• Solidworks: Sketch Complexity

Resources

• Solidworks: Tutorials