@CO recently started a month-long challenge to make something creative each day that highlights one of our planet's many endangered species. This week, we took one of those animals - the African Forest Elephant - and turned it into a gift for our nephew.
Chinloo modeled the elephant in her free SOLIDWORKS Apps for Kids account, and then shared it to the public Apps for Kids community.
I then riffed her design and made some tweaks of my own.
Chinloo's Original Design
Sal's Modified Design
From there, I saved an STL of the elephant and brought it into SOLIDWORKS so I could add features and turn it into a 'keychain'.
Did you know that SOLIDWORKS has been steadily improving its ability to work with mesh data? It's really awesome and now you can basically work with mesh data just like you do other solid geometry. Large mesh files come in as graphics bodies, but you can easily elect to convert them into 'mesh solids' so you can add material to or remove material from them.
I split the elephant in half so I could more efficiently 3D print it, and added details to help me align the pieces during the glue up. Then I turned my attention to modeling a carabiner-style clasp that our nephew could use to hold the elephant to his backpack. (You can download a copy of the SLDPRT right from the down arrow in the upper right hand corner of this 3DPlay window)
To finish up, I sanded and painted the print.
Be sure to check out the full video to see how the design and build came together, and feel free to grab a copy of the design files below if you'd like to print one for yourself.
