Hey all.

There is a problem that I keep running into. Often times we need to emboss artwork on to the shoulder of a bottle. The shoulder area of a bottle is usually somewhat spherical in shape. Sometimes the curves are large enough, and the artwork is small enough that it is not an issue. Other times, it is a nightmare.

Depending on the situation, I have used several different methods to varying degrees of effectiveness (some steps may be left out):

1. Create a plane that is tangent to the curve. Extrude artwork curves. Offset shoulder surface the desired thickness. Trim surfaces (or use split lines). Thicken artwork surfaces.

2.  Using a line tangent to the curve, revolve it to make a cylinder surface. Wrap artwork sketch onto surface. Thicken artwork surfaces, Trim with offset shoulder surface.

3.  Create lofted surfaces from the artwork sketch to a focus point. Trim surfaces and thicken.

All the above methods work somewhat in most situations. However none of the methods are completely accurate as far as deformation goes. Does anyone have a better way or ways of approaching this? Anyone with experience in the matter? I have searched high and low, both here and on the interwebs and have found only a handful of cases. I suppose I could modify the original artwork in order to simulate this, but that defeats the purpose of using a program like Solidworks.

I have been told that we need to be able to geo-map and that Solidworks is not capable of doing so. Your thoughts on this? We have used Alias in the past, which I am told is a high end surfacing program. It seems to have no issues doing this sort of thing.

Thanks!