CCM Behind the Scenes: Designing the 3D Model

Once we’ve collected all the research materials that we'll use to develop our next model of a construction machine—including diagrams, photos, manufacturer’s CAD files, and our model survey measurements—our product designers begin work on the 3D model. This is a computer-rendered, three dimensional file that will be used by our manufacturers to produce the tooling necessary for casting the production models.

Depending on the complexity of the machine, the design of the 3D model can take a month or more. A company such as Caterpillar will usually have CAD plans of their current equipment that we can use as a base. These are often incredibly complex, containing plans for wiring, hydraulics and every last bolt. We carefully strip away everything until we have just the amount of detail that will survive the transition to a 1:24, 1:48 or 1:87 scale model.

If it’s a vintage machine, such as our Cat 992C, the 3D model is painstakingly developed from scratch. This is where our survey comes in really handy. What does the bottom of that transfer case look like? Good thing we like to get under the real equipment to find out!

During this process we also determine important things like how the doors will hinge, tracks and booms will function, and even where we’ll hide the screws. We design in a program called SolidWorks, which helps our product developers to simulate materials, fasteners, and moving parts—all before we send the plans out for tooling to be made.

When our 3D model is finished we’ll all review it along with the equipment engineers for inconsistencies with the real machine. We’ll also have historians expert in construction equipment take a look to see if there might be something we overlooked. It's all in the details, after all.

A physical mockup of the scale model might be done at this point on our rapid-prototyping 3D printer in resin. This allows for function testing and more fine adjustments to be made to the parts before we send the plans to the manufacturer.

Next, we await the tooling sample.