Join our MCAD Central community forums, the largest resource for MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) professionals, including files, forums, jobs, articles, calendar, and more.
You can use the tried & true method of scanning both sides of a nickel, then use the JPEG images to create textures that you apply to the top & bottom surfaces of a cylinder modeled to the correct dimenions for a nickel.
just remember, this is, of course, ILLEGAL in the eyes of the U.S. Treasury. But who cares, right?
Don't think there's much danger there legally - think of all the magazines, newspapers etc that contain pictures of legal tender and they don't get busted.
Pro/E doesn't really strike me as the appropriate app for this kind of modeling but I am sure it could be done. How realistic does the model need to be? What will it be used for?
I would do something similar but slightly difrent. First off I would extrude a very small amount around the edge of each side of the cylindar. It is minute but if you look at a real nickle this ridge is present.
I am not very familiar with Pro/E's colors and apperances editor but if it works anything like other 3d apps I would scan the front and back of a nickle and take it in to a program such as photoshop (or a PS substitue) and either convert it to grey scale or trace over the parts you would like raised above the surface and create a black/white image, apply it to the image as bump map and set the value very high so that the bump is obviousley visable. Next I would take the orginal scans of the nickel and apply them as the color map making sure that they align up with the bump map. I don't know how UVWs are handled in Pro/E so I have no idea how well this would work or how hard it would be to align the diffrent images.
A bumpmap is a 1 channel texture. 2 colors will show up in a rendering, the 1 channel ontop of the texture and the color of the part.
In Pro/E you would take the jpeg or tiff image to a .tx1 file in the image editor in Photorender then create a color go to the detail tab, bump, map, select the image.tx1 file, use the slider for height (slide the slider one way brings one color up the other way brings the color down giving a different illusion) then map it ontop a surface.
Bump mapping is a way to simulate textures on rendered images. applying a bump map texture to a part does not change the physical shape of the part, but it 'interferes' with reflected light from the part to create the appearance of a surface texture.
It is commonly used to simulate things like textured plastic parts (leather, orange-peel, etc.)
Hmmm....Welll I don't know if it is possible but if Pro/E will let you bring in a background image in to sketcher for refernce you could trace a basic profile of the head w/ splines and then extrude, then go back and make small cuts for features such as eyes and details, then go back and do the text etc... then inthe end use rounds, chamfers,etc... to make it look smoth. but this seems like it would be a real pain in the @$$.
If you (or some one you know) has Adobe Illustrator you could create your section with illustrator an then when in sketcher use Data From File and import the .AI file as curves for your extrusion. I think this method would be more effeftive.
I was going to offer to throw model together for you in 3ds max and export it out for you but the whold thing would come into Pro/E as one feature so it would not be parametric at all.
I take that back. I guess as long as it is a 3 dimensional feature in Pro and you can build that feature into a mold from the file, then I guess it will be OK. So maybe it doesn't need to be parametric. Sorry!
I am a little busy right now but my time will free up some through out the day. I will see what I can throw together and post back once I have made some progress. I may send you something once I am only partially completed to see if you like how it is comming.
Max has what is called displacement maps, they are similar to bump maps but do actually displace the geomtry. If I can get a decent look with this method it may not take me long at all.
If you have AI I would be interested to see how that method turns out though. I don't have AI on this computer or I would try my self just for kicks.
i have found some good ref pics of the front and one of front and back but it is really low res. if any one has any good refs or has got around to (or can) scaning a nickel let me know.
I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have as much time as I would have liked. I have a rough version of the front done that I could send you. There is still room form a little improvement but before I got down on adding detail I wanted to get your opinion back. I don't have a scanner here and have not been able to find a good ref pic of the back so I haven't done anthing on the back at all.
If you like the general look of it then I will finish using the same basic techniques. Like I said before I can clean it up some.
the displacment map method worked but didn't really look very good at all. I ended up modeling the head and then using beveled text for the words. I haven't added the star between LIBERTY and 1997 but that can be done very easily.
I do not have any webspace so i cannot link it for you so if you provide me an email address I will email it to you. I will send it you in STL Ascii and VRML format (got best results with these two).
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
