Case Study
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Summary:
RJ Studios discovers that FreeForm modeling lets them save time and
add sculpted detail work to CAD models.
Subhead:
The FreeForm system has helped RJ Studios decrease lead time to
market by 20%.
Body copy:
RJ Studios is a product development service company of about 30
artists, mechanical engineers and manufacturers, noted for its ability to
take an animated license property, sculpt it in 3D, insert an engineered
mechanism into it, and then mass produce it. Among its customers are
Mattel and Fisher-Price Brands.
“That may nicely summarize what we do,” says Muggs Ferguson,
Director of New Technology at RJ Studios, “but we’re really in the
time business. Saving time for our customers is always our biggest
concern.”
That passion for saving time is one of the reasons the FreeForm™
modeling system is an ideal solution for RJ Studios. Consider how
they used to do things:
The Seven-Percent Problem…
It takes an RJ Studios sculptor 60-80 hours to sculpt an organically-
shaped model, for example, a licensed cartoon character, in wax. If all
goes well, the Licensor who commissioned RJ Studios likes the model
and approves it for production. Of course, to accommodate for
shrinkage and the other vagaries of production, the production model
needs to be slightly larger than the original wax model. Seven percent
larger is a typical figure for rotomolding production.
It used to be that RJ Studios had only one option as to what to do
next: They would have their sculptor sculpt the model again, making
sure that each feature, each detail, each nuance of the new model was
precisely and uniformly 7% larger than the original. The re-sculpt took
about the same amount of time as the original, 60 - 80 hours. Then, of
course, the Licensor had to examine the enlarged sculpt and approve it
again.
…and the Seven-Percent Solution
Things changed for RJ Studios when they added the FreeForm system
to their workflow. The FreeForm system is a digital modeling system
on the computer. And while it gives you all the advantages of modeling
with clay—including the ability to actually feel the model you’re
working on— it also gives you all the advantages of being digital.
So now, when their Licensor approves the original model, RJ Studios
just scans it, brings it into the FreeForm system and, just a few
keystrokes later (which takes considerably less than 60 - 80 hours, by
the way), they have a digital model that is exactly 7% larger than the
original. And because the new model is a digital clone of the original,
the Licensor doesn’t have to approve it again. As Tony Rogers,
President of RJ Studios, puts it: “FreeForm takes the costly and time-
consuming need to re-sculpt out of the picture.”
Going with the Flow— Integrating with CAD
With the FreeForm modeling system, RJ Studios can now place a
model into the digital downstream workflow in three ways: by
scanning a wax model, by creating a model in a CAD package, and by
sculpting a model from scratch in FreeForm modeling itself.
Regardless of how the model becomes digital, though, RJ Studios uses
the FreeForm modeling system for what Ferguson calls a “compelling
capability”: adding sculptural detail to CAD models. Here’s how they
do it:
1) Export Interior and Exterior Surfaces
RJ Studios surfaces the model in FreeForm modeling. One trick
Ferguson has learned is to prepare the makings of a shell: He surfaces
the outside of the model and saves that as an IGES file, which can be
read by CAD packages. Then he offsets all but a small spot of the
model, surfaces that smaller model and saves that file as an IGES file
as well. That results in two files that will represent the outside and
inside surfaces of the model.
2) Use the Cavity Feature in SolidWorks® to Create a Shell
Ferguson opens these files in SolidWorks and uses its Cavity feature
to combine the two surfaces and create the shell.
3) Engineer the Inside of the Shell
He designs engineering elements and mechanical parts inside the shell.
The model is now ready for prototyping or production. Before they
added FreeForm modeling to the workflow, RJ Studios found it
impossible to create complex, detailed shells using only CAD
packages. “Being able to export from FreeForm into SolidWorks,”
says Tony Rogers, “is huge.”
And it’s not just the FreeForm success with downstream workflow
that’s got these model makers excited. “I want to have my sculptors
use the FreeForm system from scratch, from the very beginning of
the design process,” says Ferguson.
Greg Joyce
Writer in the House
email joyce at writerinthehouse dot com