Ok. I'm back after another long while.
It has been almost six months since I got SolidWorks. Up until now, I have been trying to learn it from scratch by just looking at many of the tutorials mentioned on this forum. Now, I have finally created a 3x3 pentagonal prism to see if I have done everything correctly.

However, I do not know if I have designed it correctly. Is it possible for someone to check it and where do I upload it so that it can be easily accessible for everyone to view it?

Your comments will be very helpful. I don't have much money so if I wreck this one up...I'm broke!

Also, I should ask a few other questions.
As for screw length, I know that we usually use M3 screws, but of what length?
What are the normal edge lengths for each of the Platonic solids? (I know that the hexahedron usually have edge lengths of 57mm.) Sorry if this sounds very obvious!
How do you design those puzzles with more than one type of turning? (I guess what I mean is like for example: the Super X.)

Thank you so much!

If you upload it to SendSpace or something similar and then provide a download link, I and maybe others will be happy to take a look at the file.

Thanks for your help.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/o2jfyw

Looks fine to me. The only thing would be that you are missing a pentagonal centre cap in the final assembly, but that can be easily fixed.

Callum

A few suggestions:

1) A very messy sketch. You do not need to have lines and angles going all over the place. It's much easier to have construction circles and radial lines, as well as a few Smart Dimensions and the sketch itself.

2) Your shell thickness only needs to be around 2mm thick, not 3mm.

3) The curved cuts that you have make the fillets very awkward. I would suggest either using much smaller fillets or use left curvy cuts.

4) There are places on the middle layer edges that still need some fillets.

5) The core has been edited in a rather peculiar fashion. I would suggest just drawing a circle, with a radius of 1.375mm on the end of each arm, and then use the extruded cut to make the hole.

I'm not too sure, but the square centre piece may cause problems with trying to get a screw into it. The head of the screw might get blocked between the two edges. And the pieces should also be shelled down to 0.75mm, except for the core.

Also, the pentagonal centre piece looks very weird. Perhaps decreasing the size of the mechanism may help.

Isn't there a pentagonal cap?



1) Well yeah. I'm kind of messy. Sorry. I was just getting a bit annoyed when the corner kept getting cut off from the puzzle because of the cuts so it was just a bit of precaution. But I will keep that in mind next time. I'm still learning.

2) When you say shell thickness, I'm assuming you are referring to the shell mechanism and not the hollow pieces. 2mm? Okay will remember that because I was just looking at a video and it was using 3mm, so yeah.

3) Yeah, the curvy cuts did ruin it. Okay will keep that in mind too. How small should the fillet be then?

4)Is it possible to upload a screen capture, showing where these places are?

5)Ah! Now I always wanted to know how to do a spherical core. None of the videos showed me how to do this. I'm afraid that you will have to explain this a bit more. (Specifically, how do you get those random holes I always see on those cores and get it all hollow on the inside? Sorry if this is very obvious! )

Thanks for the suggestions!

I was talking about how to make the screw holes for the core, not for the core itself. You're design itself does have a spherical core, but you deleted it when you deleted all the other duplicate parts.

And here is where you need fillets: http://prntscr.com/96xi2.

Oh okay...I will add fillets there.

So do I delete the spherical core or not? I'm confused.

Whoops. Forgot to see past number 5.



The pentagonal cap...does look weird. Sorry if this is really basic, but how can this be fixed by decreasing the size of the mechanism?

Okay, will shell down to 0.75mm. That one I was not too sure about. Thanks.

Square centre piece...yeah I was scared about that one. Okay will fix that up. How much space should I leave for the head?

By decreasing the size of the mechanism the centre piece will be taller, meaning that the caps' "mechanism" won't go too deep into the piece. As for the screw head, I would try and leave around 6-7mm diameter, however if you can leave more there is no harm in doing so.

Ah ok thanks Luke. Getting late here in Sydney. Will improve on it and post it when I'm done.