Introduction: Maple Leaf Docking Station

Originally designed to be a  phone holder, this very simple maple leaf docking station is both incredibly versatile and elegant. You can use it to hold and charge both phones and tablets of any size, watch movies or read from it using it as a stand, and it's tight inner corners can be used to hold and organize messy charging cables. It's only made of 4 shapes and takes 4 steps to make it!

Personally I have an actual wooden version of it and it is incredibly useful. It's very stable and doesn't move around too much, even on soft surfaces like a bed. Great if you like watching movies while in your bed and don't like holding your phone or tablet to do so.

We will be using Autodesk 123D Design to model this awesome docking station.

Step 1: The Boring 2D Part

First we have to draw out the 2-D shapes of the model. We need 2 right angled triangles, a small rectangle, and the leaf.

Go to Sketch>>Rectangle and draw a 4 cm by 2.5 cm rectangle.

For the triangles, go to Sketch>>Polyline, and using the polyline command draw out one isosceles right angle triangle with 10 cm side lengths. Using the copy command or CTRL-C duplicate the triangle to create another one. 

Using the polyline again, draw out the maple leaf very carefully using the diagram as a guide to all the side lengths and angles. As a shortcut, only draw half of the leaf. After drawing out one half, mirror it and create the second half of the leaf using the mirror command by going to Pattern>>Mirror. The result should be one complete and symmetrical leaf.

Step 2: The 3D Part Begins!

Go to Construct>>Extrude and extrude every one of the shapes by about 9 mm.

Step 3: Finalizing the Design

We're almost finished! Now we need to put all the parts together. Thank goodness for that snap tool! Click on the snap tool located on the menu bar, and rearrange and snap the shapes to create the final 3D shape.

Attach the triangles to the back by using the snap tool and first selecting the diagonal face, and then the back of leaf. The triangle should now be positioned properly at the back. Do the same to the second triangle, and use the move command to re-position them properly so they are of equal distance of each other and flush to the bottom of the leaf as shown. *WARNING* You may have to ungroup the shapes after using the snap tool*

Now for the little rectangle, using the snap tool and attach it's longest face  to the front of the leaf and move it to the near bottom as shown in the picture.

At the end when everything has been put together, just rotate the entire thing 45 degrees in the z-axis so that it tilts up.

Step 4: Voila! Time to Make It Pretty

And we're finished! Just add a texture or material of your choice you've got your very own maple leaf docking station.

Autodesk 123D Design Challenge

Participated in the
Autodesk 123D Design Challenge