Tutorial: How to create a (soccer) football like the never-before-seen Brazuca!
The Adidas Brazuca is the official match ball of the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be held in Brazil. Interesting design which seems to have been built up of six panels, so why not create a CAD model to puzzle-out how this works!
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Step 1:
1. Create a new part; revolve the following sketch around the vertical axis and create as surface model.
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Step 2:
2. Create a new assembly and place the ball as default. Create an axis between the right- and top plane (we will use this later).
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Step 3:
3. The outer surface of the ball consists of 6 “crosses”. I couldn’t find a template on the internet, so we’ll have to design them ourselves.
Create a new part, same as the first part, but with a slightly larger diameter (also surface model).
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Step 4:
4. Again create an axis between the right- and top plane (we will use this later). Also create an offset plane from the front plane tangent to the ball.
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Step 5:
5. When you look closely at the ball, you can figure the panels consist of six weird shaped crosses. Sketch one quarter of a Brazuca panel on this new plane. Use spline for the curved parts of the sketch. For now just make it kind of look like on the picture.
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Step 6:
Tip: By double clicking on an existing spline, you can add or delete points which you can use to drag a part of the curve.
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Step 7:
6. Project the new sketch on the ball by selecting the sketch and then select “Project” from the ribbon and select the ball to project the sketch.
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Step 8:
7. Use the projected sketch to trim the ball so you’ll only have a curved quilt left.
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Step 9:
8. Group all features except the earlier created horizontal axis.
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Step 10:
9. Now pattern this group around this axis 4 times at 90 degrees.
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Step 11:
10. Merge all quilts so you’ll have a single surface.
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Step 12:
11. Thicken the surface inwards. We now have a solid model.
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Step 13:
12. Add a small round on the largest outline. Hide the pattern- and merge feature.
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Step 14:
13. Assemble the new part: 1. Mate the horizontal axis of the part on the horizontal axis of the assembly, 2. mate both front planes coincident, 3. Mate both right-planes under and angle of 30 degrees.
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Step 15:
14. Repeat assemble on both sides of each asm plane (direction x, y, z, -x, -y, -z). Add axis to the assembly where needed and don’t forget to use the 30 degrees angle offset for each part. (the next image is an exploded view so you can see where the parts go).
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Step 16:
15. You probably won’t get the parts fitting together perfectly the first time. So you’ll have to tweak the curves of the sketch until you get it right. Find the sketch in the model tree and edit definition to bend the curves.
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Step 17:
16. Optional: When the sketch is good enough, you can design nice decals in eg. Adobe Illustrator by copying the sketch to memory and creating a surface extrude in a new part and pasting the sketch:
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Step 18:
17. Create an axis between top- and right plane. Pattern the new extrude around this axis 4 times at 90 degrees.
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Step 19:
18. Save as dxf and open in a vector image editor like Illustrator. From there-on you can export as jpeg to edit some more in a photo editor like Photoshop or you can export directly to a photo-editor from Creo when you save the front view as jpeg.
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Step 20:
19. When you have proper decals (unlike the following which I created quickly..) you can place these nicely back in Creo by placing a unique color on a part and edit this color; under the map tab, you’ll find decal placement. Don’t forget to use the eye dropper (right top) first, otherwise it won’t work.
Use planar mapping (just like the original sketch, the decal will be projected).
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Step 21:
20. You’re pretty much done. You can play around with exploded-view to see how the puzzle is put together or create an animation like I did.
