Opening the tutorial file (optional)

If you successfully completed Part 2, proceed to the next step: Creating the Front Surface, below.

If you were not successful in part 2, open the file called MP3Player_Part3.wire, located in the wire directory of the CourseWare project. This file contains the completed model from Part 2.

Watch Part 3 of the tutorial.

Creating the Front Surface

First you will create the front face of the casing, and position it at the correct height for the MP3 Player dimensions.

1. Maximize the Top window.

   

2. Choose Surfaces > Primitives > Plane . You are prompted to enter the new plane position. Use the (Windows) or (Mac) key and grid snap the plane to the origin.

   

   The Plane surface is created 1mm square in size. It is already selected, so you will now scale and move the plane to form the front face of the casing.

3. Choose Transform > Scale and click and drag the left mouse button to make the plane large enough to see clearly.

   

   Now you will set the pivot point for the Plane to the lower right-hand corner.

4. Choose Transform > Local > Set Pivot . Use the curve snap ( + (Windows) or + (Mac)) to snap the pivot accurately to the bottom right corner of the plane.

   

5. Now choose Transform > Move . Use grid snap ( (Windows) or (Mac) key) to position the plane exactly at the origin.

   

6. Use Transform > Non-p Scale to size the plane to approximately fit the design. Make sure that the plane overlaps the chamfered edges.

   

   Next, you will move the plane up in the z-axis.

7. Maximize the Left window

   

8. Choose Transform > Move and type 0,0,5.5 in the prompt window to move the plane up 5.5 mm in the z-axis.

   

Filleting the Plane Surface

Now you will use the Surface Fillet tool to trim the front face and create an edge with a radius in one operation.

1. Maximize the Perspective window.

   

2. Choose Surfaces > Surface Fillet and double-click the icon to open the option window.
3. Change the Radius to 2.

   

4. You are prompted to select the first set of surfaces. Select the plane.

   

5. Click Accept.
6. Next you are prompted to select the second set of surfaces. Click the three chamfered surfaces.

   

7. Click Accept.

   Arrows appear on both surfaces indicating on which side the fillet will be built. In this case, we want the pink arrow to point down, and the yellow arrow to point inwards.

   

8. If necessary, click an arrow to reverse its direction.
9. Click Build.

   The edge with the specified radius is created and all the surfaces are trimmed.

   

10. Choose Pick > Nothing to complete the fillet.

    

Using Round for the Remaining Edges

Next you will create a radius on the remaining edges using the Round tool.

You could use either the Round or the Surface Fillet to create the softened edge. As the surfaces already meet at a sharp edge, the Round tool will be quicker to use.

1. Choose Surfaces > Round . You are prompted to select a pair of edges. Click one of the edges between the chamfer and the side surfaces.

   

   A radius indicator appears and is highlighted in white.

2. Type in 2 at the prompt line to adjust the radius value to 2 mm.

   

   

3. Click the other edges to complete the round.

   

4. Click Build to create the round surfaces and trim back the draft surfaces.

   

5. Choose Pick > Nothing to complete the round.

   

Completing the Front Casing

The MP3 Player casing is made from two similar components, the front and the back casing. You will complete the front and rear casings using the mirror tool and Layer symmetry.

First you will create the lower quarter of the front casing.

1. Choose Pick > Object and drag a selection box over all the surfaces to select them.

   

2. Choose Edit > Duplicate > Mirror ❒ to open the mirror option window.

   

3. Choose the XZ plane and click Go.

   

4. Choose Pick > Nothing to deselect the surfaces.

Layer Symmetry

You used mirror to create the lower surfaces, so that the top surfaces can be modified, by adding a screen, and the lower surfaces can be modified by adding buttons.

For the left and right sides of the design however, you want the geometry to be the same on both sides. So for the left and right sides, you will use Layer Symmetry to view a mirror image of the geometry, which will update as you continue to build surfaces.

1. Choose Layers > New to create a layer for the front casing.

   

2. Double-click in the layer tab and rename the layer Front Casing.

   

3. Choose Pick > Object and drag a pick box over all the surfaces to select them.
4. Choose Assign from the Front Casing layer tab sub-menu.

   

   The symmetry on layers is typically used in one of the three axis directions. Now you will set the Symmetry Plane so that your geometry is mirrored left to right.

   The new layer is selected and shown in yellow. (If the layer isn’t selected, you need to click the layer tab to select it).

5. Choose Layers > Symmetry > Set Plane .

   The current symmetry plane is highlighted in yellow. You need to change this so that the geometry will be mirrored left and right.

   

6. Click the small brown square that represents the YZ plane.

   

   The large yellow plane changes to the right axis for your model.

   

7. Click Set as Default to set this axis for all future layers.

   

8. Click Set Plane to set the plane for this layer.

   

   On the Front Casing layer, choose the symmetry option from the layer sub-menu.

   

   The geometry on the layer is mirrored and shown as dotted lines to indicate that it is only a visualization of the mirrored geometry, not real geometry.

   

Creating the Rear Casing

Now is a good time to copy the surfaces for the rear casing, before you start to detail the front.

First you will create a layer for the rear.

1. Choose Layers > New and rename the layer Rear Casing.

   

2. Choose Pick > Object and drag a pick box over all the geometry to select it.

   

3. Choose Edit > Duplicate > Mirror ❒ to open the option window.

   Choose the XY plane and click Go.

   

   The surfaces are mirrored.

   

4. With the surfaces still selected, Assign them to the Rear Casing layer.

   

5. Turn on Symmetry on the Rear Casing layer.
6. Turn off Visible on the Rear Casing layer to make it invisible.

Saving your work

Save your work in the wire directory of the Lessons project. Name your file myMP3Player3.wire.