As golf’s AT&T National Hosted by Tiger Woods event gets underway in Bethesda, Maryland this week, SensAble Technologies, Inc® announced that the tournament trophy was created by its customer, noted golf sculptor Malcolm DeMille, using the SensAble FreeForm® 3D modeling system. Presented to the tournament’s champion each year, the trophy is an intricate, scale version of the US Capitol building that will be presented to the winner by Tiger Woods on Sunday. In addition, SensAble’s system helped Malcolm DeMille to successfully and cost-effectively create new high-quality award items for the event’s sponsors this year, including replica trophies, belt buckles and more – items that artistically reuse the Capitol design in a variety of formats.
At a time when event budgets are tight, SensAble’s FreeForm sculptural CAD system has helped Malcolm DeMille build a better business serving the PGA as well as other professional golfing associations, by parlaying his monumental trophy designs into quality award items that retain the detail and artfulness of his original works – while keeping costs down for his clients.
A cousin to legendary Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille, Malcolm DeMille does 70 percent of his business with PGA, USGA, Champions and LPGA tours, where his trophies are a familiar sight at the 18th hole. He’s created 25 tournament trophies for golf events, including 15 trophies in FreeForm, for events such as the Buick Open, starting July 30. A sculptor and jeweler by background, Malcolm began his sculpting career working in clay and wax, and now designs over 75 percent of the firm’s work digitally in FreeForm — achieving efficiencies that drive repeat business and customer savings.
SensAble’s FreeForm system allows Malcolm to more swiftly design 3D digital models of highly detailed elegant trophies, then reuse original design elements in award items, scaled suitably to their new form without any loss of artistic detail. For example, Malcolm was able to quickly reduce and rearrange the Capitol building design to create a 3-inch replica trophy, as well as a Champions belt buckle.
Today, Malcolm’s team is completing complex designs like the AT&T National trophy in at least 50 percent less time than in the days of working in clay. As a result of FreeForm’s time- and cost-savings, Malcolm offers a popular, yet highly profitable “Custom Club” program, which is purchased by the AT&T National and many event sponsors. This program allows sponsors to buy a trophy, then pay one flat “custom” fee and obtain all the add-on award-item products they’d like at specific package levels. Popular gifts given to Pro-Am participants and friends of the event include money clips, lapel pins, pendants, cufflinks, and unique desk accessories.
Since FreeForm is a “Sculptural CAD” solution based on voxels (think of 3D pixels), it is uniquely suited for creating complex, organic-shaped products such as trophies and collectibles, while also providing tremendous speed and flexibility. For example on the AT&T National trophy, FreeForm helped Malcolm detail the open spaces between the columns of the Capitol, and the symbols on the state flags swiftly — a design so involved that it required nine individual parts of the building be produced separately, and then assembled, as well as 50 separate state flags and one American flag. Using FreeForm speeds the design process and provides essential production economies — by allowing the team to efficiently create working models from the FreeForm files, and to quickly detect and modify design issues before committing to a manufacturing mold.
The FreeForm system uniquely incorporates haptics (touch-enabling technology) so that Malcolm and his product designers literally “feel” the item they’re sculpting on screen, as if sculpting with physical clay. Users hold a force-feedback haptic stylus instead of a computer mouse, allowing them to feel the resistance as they push, pull, carve and smooth the digital clay model shown on screen. When designs are finalized, FreeForm outputs standard files for use in rapid prototyping, mold-making and engraving. Many of the golf award items are cast, and one-of-a-kind trophies are then hand assembled.
“I’m first and foremost a sculptor, so working naturally and directly is important to me so that I can deliver artistry in any form, including gifts and award items,” Malcolm DeMille said. “SensAble’s FreeForm makes it feasible and affordable to carry through my designs in any format and preserve the integrity of my work. With FreeForm, I have the creative freedom to develop designs that just wouldn’t be possible or would be too time- or labor-intensive if done in traditional CAD programs. It’s a tremendous sculptural CAD tool that allows me to maintain my high artistic and quality standards, while getting more work out efficiently and accurately.”
SensAble Technologies
www.sensable.com
Filed Under: 3D CAD, Software
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