Case Study Gallery: Delcam PowerSHAPE
This game pad was part of a product developed at Immersion Corporation
Courtesy of Immersion Corporation
A new product design
The game pad to the upper right was hand sculpted out of Renshape, a polyester-based plastic. This enabled the designer to insure the pad would have an ergonomic shape that fit in the users' hands comfortably. To create dimensional files the physical version needed to be digitized.
Workspace set-up
The first step to creating this game pad was to start PowerSHAPE, then launch the CMM Curve interface. This interface allows users to digitize in polylines or bezier curves. The Auto Plot feature can be used to capture data at defined intervals of distance. An audio cue indicates when a point has been input.
 
Digitize profile curves
Next, profiles were digitized across the body of the game pad. Information for other features, such as the buttons and the thumb control, was also captured.
Surface creation
Surfaces were created from the profile curves to create the main body of the game pad. The surfaces were then edited with the other feature data that had been digitized in.
Final renders
For visualization purposes the file was exported to a rendering program. Shaders were created and applied to the surfaces so a final render could be produced.
Prototype output
The game pad model was output on an FDM machine, pictured to the right. Once output, the game pad was assembled into a functioning prototype. A total of five such prototypes are created.
 
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