Award winning stapler design helped by easy CAD

A Mac and PC-based CAD program that "works the way a designer thinks" provided StudioBrown with the creative flexibility needed to develop an award winning stapler

A Mac and PC-based CAD program that works the way a designer thinks provided Julian Brown, Managing Director of StudioBrown, Bath, United Kingdom, with the creative flexibility he needed to develop a stapler, called Isis, that was noted for its distinctive look in the "Objects Found" column of Time magazine and honored as Best Product of 1999 by the New York Stationery Fair.

Brown had used the same CAD program the previous year to create a tape dispenser called Hannibal that won ID magazine's Best of Category award in Consumer Product Design.

The program, Vellum, from Ashlar, Austin, Texas, allowed him to get his ideas into the computer quickly through an intuitive interface that completely frees the user from the complex commands that hinder creativity in other CAD packages.

Using this program, Brown documented every element of the stapler including injection molded components.

The CAD file that he created was indirectly used to drive the CNC machines, which milled a fully functioning working prototype from ABS plastic and was finally used as a basis for the injection mold tools.

StudioBrown addresses the high end of design spectrum with products that combine unique geometry with a distinctive, playful quality, for an appealing blend of function with charm.

The stapler and tape dispenser are part of a family of desk accessories being designed for the Italian company, Rexite SpA (Milan, Italy), a long-time client of StudioBrown.

These products use translucency to expose the functionality of the tools, requiring a design that does not focus only on the skin but also on the inner components that are visible through the translucent plastic.

The Isis stapler differs from traditional staplers in that it loads from the front and stands vertically on the desk, like a totemic piece.

In the design of this stapler, Brown's goal was to start with mechanical constraints of the stapling mechanism and create a new shape around it that would mix Bauhaus integrity and Disney playfulness.

The idea was to communicate a warmth and attraction that most desk accessories don't have.

He is a traditional designer and puts his first thoughts down on pen and paper, but he also realizes the value of having CAD data that can be used for prototyping and manufacturing.

It is important to Brown, however, that the CAD program he uses does not hinder his work.

Some programs that he has seen have such complicated menu structures and limited geometry-creation capabilities that they are not at all suited to the interactive, freeform nature of product design.

For example, if a user wants to define two points, some programs require that he specify the exact dimensions.

This slows the creative process, when it is important to quickly record ideas.

After searching for a program that would allow him to design easily and quickly on-screen, he found Vellum, a product that his studio has now used exclusively for over four years.

This program differs from other CAD programs in its simplicity.

It doesn't require all the menus and tablets of other CAD programs.

Much of that is due to the software's intuitive user interface, which includes a patented feature called Drafting Assistant that automatically identifies relationships such as endpoints, midpoints, center points, tangencies, and real and extended intersections.

The program does the work of maintaining alignments and ensuring that geometry is precise, freeing a designer to concentrate on the design.

Brown sometimes refers to the program as a 2D technical sketchbook because it is that easy to use.

When he uses Vellum, he switches between its different tools many times in a minute, going from circle to ellipse, to parallel line, to offset, to mirroring, and rotating.

The only limit on how fast he can draw is his hand and eye speed.

After making a few pencil sketches of the stapler, Brown went immediately into Vellum to map out the basic concept.

He started by drawing the stapler mechanism, which was purchased from a third party.

Once he had drawn the mechanism and verified its dimensions against the manufacturer's specifications, he began creating the external shape of the stapler around it.

As with many of his designs, this one relied to a great extent on the kinetics of various aspects of the geometry playing off one another.

Vellum made it possible for him to explore many different relationships between shapes by allowing him to create even complex interacting shapes quickly and accurately.

The software's arc tools offer a good example of this.

The basic shape of the stapler is an ellipse so he used arcs quite a bit.

In other CAD programs, working with arcs is difficult, especially modifying them once they have been created.

Often they need to be tangent to a line.

In other programs, tangency can be lost when arcs are moved, so it inhibits the designer from fine-tuning the arc.

With Vellum, this was never a problem because the program includes a tangent arc tool that establishes the tangency of the arc automatically.

Brown was free to drag the end point any way he wanted.

He could just drag endpoints and adjust shapes until the design looked just right.

The Drafting Assistant indicated locations such as the vertices of arcs automatically so he was not slowed down by having to find precise positions as he worked.

Brown created numerous itterations for the stapler geometry and form.

When he had one that he liked, he started over and redrew the complete design from scratch.

This took about an hour, and this version included tolerances down to tenths of millimeters.

He indicated tolerances by simply typing in the values and letting the software position the geometry precisely.

For example, he could select the tool for creating a parallel line, type in the distance that the line needed to be from another line, and Vellum placed the line in the correct location.

When this drawing was finished, he printed out sections and used them as a guide to craft a foam model by hand.

Once he had something he could hold in his hand, he saw things he wanted to change.

Editing an existing design is very easy to do in Vellum.

For the stapler, he knew that the interface between the metal and plastic components would be complex so he had used the software's layering capability to put each individual component on a separate layer.

This let him visualize individual pieces clearly and edit them without being confused by other lines in the vicinity.

Once he made changes to individual components, however, he went back to a view of the entire product to check for clashes.

After he had completed the final drawing with all the components, it was time to manufacture a full working prototype.

He translated the Vellum 2D file into the.dxf format so it could be imported into the Camax CAM program used by his prototyping house.

The prototyping house generated 3D models by rotating and sweeping his 2D profiles, then milled these shapes out of ABS plastic on a five-axis Bridgeport CNC machine.

Making a fully functioning prototype including all working metal components this way cost $12,000, but it served several purposes.

First, it gave the client and Brown an object that they could hold and evaluate for both aesthetics and structural integrity.

Second, it served as a test of the Vellum drawing.

If there had been problems with the drawing, such as two mating elements that weren't perfectly tangent, they would have shown up in the prototype.

There were no problems, however.

The file worked well the first time.

The final step was to provide the Vellum file of the final, approved design to the client for manufacturing.

Rexite uses Autocad LT so they were able to import a.dxf version of the file.

They used the Vellum data to make the tools for the injection molding process.

They did ask for a few minor changes to the design before they went to tooling.

Brown imported their Autocad LT file into Vellum, modified the design, and sent back another.dxf file.

The ability to send files back and forth easily speeded the final stages of the design process.

Brown said that in his work, it is important that the tools he uses keep pace with his ideas.

"I nearly always try out hundreds of ideas in my attempt to achieve the look and functionality I want in a product," Brown said.

"Most CAD programs, being so cumbersome to use, would hinder this work.

But Vellum's unique interface lets me get my ideas down as fast as I want to.

Then, once I have captured the concept, this program allows me to document it as precisely as necessary for production.".

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