Alston Cheung from Loughbrough University used NX to win the student design competition!

The team here at Siemens PLM Software who work on the academic program just love to find out what exactly it is that inspires students to create some of the fantastic entries we receive via our global Student Design Competition

This is a little overdue so watch this space for some updates of other winners over the last few months of the student design competition but first up is a short interview with student Alston Cheung from Loughborough University who explained how he went about desigining his winning image using NX, provided through the Siemens PLM Academic Program:

Alston, why did you choose this project/design – what gave you the idea?

I chose to render the Leatherman Wave multitool for my design because it has many intricate details which will test my modelling skills but will also produce a very realistic image. Despite the product not having a large variety of colours there are multiple surface finishes present that interacts with the light differently, producing an interesting image.

What challenges did you face during the design/build?

Whilst visualising the design I had difficulty getting the lights to highlight the very small and intricate features on the model such as the ruler graduation engravings. But after much trial and error I managed to position the light in a desirable position.

What features of NX did you use to develop your project?

I used the modelling and visualisation features within the design portions of NX.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

During the process of producing the designs I learnt that attention to detail is crucial to producing a good image, no matter in modelling or visualising. Also, a well organised file naming and sorting system contributes to a smooth workflow.

Would you recommend NX to another student?

I would recommend NX to another student because it is very intuitive to use and is easy to pickup. The feature properties menus are easy to read and understand. Features can be easily located with the find feature button. The only gripe I have with the system is that it doesn’t run the Mac system (it uses the X11/motif UI vs Aqua UI), but I understand that the majority of commercial customer use the Windows system.

We think you will all agree that Alston’s prize was well deserved, we think the design & rendering is awesome! Congratulations!