| Price & Myers 3D Engineering team uses SolidWorks to create competition-winning designs that are not only beautiful, but also buildable. In a recent project, the team worked with architects and artists to design a 51-metre bridge over the Floating Harbour in Bristol. “There were three main thrusts for the design,” explains Tim Lucas, founding partner. “The bridge should be drawable using only three lines, it should have lights but not be illuminated and it should look like a single, organic form.”
Lucas and his team sat down with the architects and artists to discuss the possibilities for the form of the structure. “I set up the geometry in SolidWorks, which is good at rationalising designs so you know they can be built.” Says Lucas. “By ensuring that the design always had a single line of curvature, we could create an undulating, tilting form that could be manufactured from flat sheets. The result is very beautiful, and also straightforward to build.”
The competition-winning design has an elegant sweeping form featuring a stainless steel stressed skin. At night, the bridge is internally illuminated to reveal its stiffening ribs through laser cut perforations. “SolidWorks enabled us to meet the design and aesthetic challenges of the bridge, with the ability to rationalise the design at every stage and ensure it could actually be built.” |
