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Crystal Surface

Crystal Surface

Crystal Surface

(OP)
I was wondering if anyone had any bright ideas for rendering a crystalline surface on a part. My company is making some cradles for amethyst rocks, and I'd like the SW models in the cutsheets to have something more resembling the actual item than "an extruded spline loop with one purple face." Simple solutions (i.e. not a 3D sketch with fifty vertices) would be appreciated.

-Josh  

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." -Scott Adams

RE: Crystal Surface

Perhaps you could save it as a .stl file, then import it back into SolidWorks. The .stl file will be facetted instead of a smooth surface.

Joe
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RE: Crystal Surface

(OP)
Sorry, to clarify: I want to fake-model a complex, crystalline surface. I'm going to be using a front/side view in the cutsheet for the part, so a decal (while better than what I have now) isn't quite what I'm looking for.

-Josh

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." -Scott Adams

RE: Crystal Surface

I would try using a Polygon sketch (8-sided), extrude that with a draft to create a point, then Fill Pattern.  You could probably do various sizes and heights to get a quasi-irregular look.
 

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Crystal Surface

(OP)
Succinct summary of the situation. I've thought of faking a row of crystal-looking profiles, then screwing around with linear/circular patterns bounded by the wall of the piece, but that seems like a nightmare waiting to happen. I was hoping someone could think of something brilliant that I wasn't seeing.

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." -Scott Adams

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