Annotated Contract Drawings of a Steampunk Lamp Liquor Dispenser

3D Lamp Model

Overview & Considerations

I wanted to model an aesthetically pleasing but also a functional lamp. I got inspired by industrial lamp designs and found steampunk lamps with exposed pipes and other mechanical parts interesting. I further decided to include a faucet in the design so that the lamp also serves as a liquor dispenser, allowing the liquid to flow through the pipes.

I wanted my lamp to be realistic so I considered factors like the positioning and orientation of the pipes, the placement of the bottle and the center of mass of the structure so that it would be supported and stay stable. I looked at the examples online to get an idea about potential dimensions and included details such as the wooden plank at the bottom that provides structural support. Once I settled on the dimensions, like the height of the lamp and width of the plank, as well as the diameter of the bottle to be inserted on the top, I started modeling. Realizing that the pipes revolve around and connect in all three axes (x,y,z) I decided to draw in SW Isometric view. I drew curved lines across different axes, mirrored them when necessary, and followed a bottom-up approach starting from the plank and legs and doing the head at the end. As I finalized my sweep path, I created circles with various diameters for pipe fittings and connection points. I used a loft between gaps between lines through an autogenerated path. Utilizing differently colored layers for specific pipes was extremely helpful when deciding which specific circle to sweep since they would have the line path with the same color.

Annotated Contract Drawings

Challenges

• Representing the sweep path of the pipes since I modeled in an isometric drafting view.

  • What would be the best approach to represent lines curving at an angle across multiple axes? I decided to divide the model into 4 different main parts: the bottom (with legs and the plank, the upper body with the head, the flow arm that allows the liquid to pass through, and then finally the faucet so that it would be easier to dimension and show. I then used different views to provide different angles and communicate how I modeled using a sweep path or lofts.

• Dimensioning of the legs was tricky to communicate in 2D view.

  • I used both the front and left side elevations to represent the sweep path. When modeling, I mirrored the left leg about the center and then flipped it (mirroring twice so that one leg stands on the front and one leg at the back to provide better balance, considering the force bottle exerts at the back). This was useful to define and show the axis of symmetry in 2D views although it is not exactly symmetrical in 3D.

• Creating and dimensioning viewports on different views in model space

  • I was unable to dimension the path of some lofts such as the one for the head because I created them between surfaces and there wasn't a defined loft path. That's why I used horizontal and vertical coordinates, not the arc radius because AutoCAD would not let me.

Below are drawings of the following, respectively: Steampunk lamp principal views, bottom part, upper body, liquid flow arm, and faucet.

Reflection

Overall, the process was a great learning curve which made me realize the importance of dimensioning in detail, and I got more comfortable with using 3D basics and got better at figuring out simpler and quicker ways to end up with the same result when modeling. One thing I could have done to simplify the dimensioning process was to define specific pipes and always keep them at set angles and lengths like lego pieces. I kept the diameters constant (typical), but not the lengths, except for the pipe fitting. I used layers to represent different pipes in different colors and I think that if the 2D views had colors it would have been extremely easier to communicate different pipe types. I guess this was the main challenge, communicating pipe types and paths through effective visual representation and dimensioning. As a Solidworks user, I realized I am used to parametric modeling and separating different components on different sketches. As I was modeling, I found myself searching for commands like extrude cut or trying to go back and edit lengths and shapes. For a design like this, Solidworks or Inventor could be easier to work with due to the degree of freedom they provide. After completing the project, I did a quick research online and actually found that there are specific piping softwares that generate isometric drawings based on 3D models. I found out that I could have also represented viewports from an isometric view, which would have been much easier.