Engineering - Z Behl

Z came to me with an amazing project on a short deadline. She was making two large sculptures and five smaller ones. She needed to design and engineer armatures for the sculptures that could be built in Saudi Arabia and be ready would be ready for her when she arrived. The designs needed to be usable to structural engineers, safety engineers, production managers, and fabricators.

I created 3d models that could be reviewed by structural engineers and then sent to CNC tube-cutting machines to make easily erectable armatures on a tight timeline and budget.

I translated Z’s drawings into 3d Solidworks files that could be presented to fabricators engineers and welders on site. I spent time with the Saudi team balancing Z’s artistic needs with the construction team’s budget and safety requirements.

I was able to take advantage of Solidworks weldments. By drawing a 3d sketch describing the location of the structural steel beams and relating them to specific parts of the mesh I could then assign specific tubing to the armature. As the project evolved and the scale of the sculpture changed I was able to easily adapt the design as the weldment was parametrically linked to the mesh and the internal structure would scale with the mesh saving hours of rework time. We were also able to substitute different steel profiles according to availability and cost.

Detailed PDF’s and Solidworks files were provided.

High-quality 3d renderings were made allowing all team members to quickly understand the project.

The tube sections were cut from the Solidworks files on a CNC tube cutter ensuring accuracy and easy assembly.

Single-plane layouts of all weldments were created allowing for quick and accurate fabrication.

I designed the armature in flat sections so that it could be easily welded on a flat floor in sections and fit together. The fabricator was able to use the Solidworks files to cut the scalped tube cuts on a precision CNC tube cutter. This allowed for quick and simple fabrication.

The components of the armature were broken down into single plane weldments that could be laid out on a shop floor welded together and brought to site to be erected and joined.

All the weldments were assembled and joined on site.

Z Behl and her team were able to add found local objects to the armature on site to create the finished sculpture.