And Yet Again, All for Fun - The 8 Sided Die

"DIE, n. The singular of "dice." We seldom hear the word, because there is a prohibitory proverb, "Never say die.""
Ambrose Bierce

This seems to have become a Friday series.  The last few weeks I've placed a model of a gaming die on my blog, and talked about the process I went through making each one.

It stared out as a project for a website (they're the banner on the Dicehouse Games website).

Then I stated being asked if I would supply the models.  So I started making them available for download and describing the steps I used here.

So far, I've created posts for the 20 sided die, the 10 sided die, and the 12 sided die.  Now, I add the 8 sided die. 

The completed die

Here's the completed die as an embedded 3D dwf file.  Click and drag to give it a spin!





This one is a pretty simple model to create, at least when compared to the others!

• First, I sketched a square on an origin workplane.  In my case, I chose the XZ workplane. 

The first step that starts it all

Next, I bisected the square with a line, on a plane perpendicular to the sketch I first used.  It's worth noting that I later on realized that I only needed half the line, but I left the die as I started it.

Added the perpendicular line.  I later realized I didn't need the whole line

Now, it's time to create a loft from the square, to one of the line's endpoints.

Creating half of the die

With half the die completed, I used the Mirror command to create the other half of the die.

Using the Mirror command to create the other half of the die

That takes care of the heavy lifting!  Now, I just add a fillet to break the sharp edges.  Notice that I used the "All Round" option to select all the external edges at once.

Breaking the sharp edge

Finally, the long tedious task of adding the number.  This hasn't changed, its just a matter of creating a sketch with the number, and extruding it a shallow distance.  At least there are fewer now!

The process of adding the numbers

And because I can, here's the quick rendering in Autodesk Showcase.

And a rendering to make it look cool!

P.S. If you're wondering why I didn't loft from the line's endpoint, to the square, to the other endpoint, here's what happened when I tried.


Needless to say, this wouldn't have made a very good die.  So I changed my approach, and used the Mirror command instead.  But now you know why I created the line the way I did.  It's a vestige of an aborted work process!

Doh!  Not what I wanted!

And of course, here are the links to download the files.
Click here for the Autodesk 360 link

Click here for the GrabCAD link

Enjoy!  I hope to see some of you at Autodesk University 2012!