DBenz
8th Jan 2008, 02:30 pm
Hi,
I have need of drawing up e.g historical non flying aircraft and wonder if I should use Rhino, or Catia V5 or ProEngineer or Solidworks or Autocad etc.
SW unlike autocad has parametric update ability I gather, would this benefit me I wonder in how the program allows one to work versus my traditional techniques explained below that I have used in Macromedia Freehand 9 and perhaps I would imagine in non parametry progs like autocad ? It must be easy and intuitive to learn.
Can SW do the following or am I better off with even more advanced progs like ProEngineer or Catia, or all things considered and the complexity of such considering my short timescale for getting functional in the basics of the program , would autocad be a safer bet ?
...I am a beginner to CAD, only experienced in 2D macromedia Freehand 9 .
I am having to draw up an aircraft armed with some GA drawings giving datums, locations of fuselage frames, wing spar, rudder hinge line, thrust line, canopy location, wheel hub positions etc, real skeletal stuff. Its enough to draw side view and plan view outlines except for fillets. I also have site photos and measurements of stiffener locations (needing the ability to measure around curves and across skins in a program to plot these, seeing that they are measured across the real subjects skin) and some original drawings of specific items e.g. one cockpit frame, fuselage frame stiffeners cross section, some flanges, torsion rods etc, engine bulkhead to name a few.
Q1: Solidworks or Catia V5 or Autodesk Inventor seem to be about creating objects more so than laying out such basic shapes. Would it be able to start with the skeletal outline data mentioned above, enabling me to draw the outlines of the aircraft, over imported tiff images as I have done up till now in Freehand9 or as possible in autocad ? I have one tiff image per layer and usually end up with perhaps 20 or so plans/layers locked into place. I can make the image see through applying colour to the lines to distinguish different plans if original is a b/w bitmap. Can it handle many tiffs as such ?
Q2: Could one then draw up the fuselage frame I have a plan of, and locate it into this aircraft outline shape both in side view and front view, it then appearing in end views as a consequence of this ?...i.e. does it generate the end view from other views ?
Q3: How does it go about measuring across curved surfaces ? This is crucial as site measurements are over a skinned surface. Would I skin the structure I have drawn so as to allow it to measure over such ?
Q4: I have a certain amount of 'detective' work to do, items becoming clear as to their dimensions and location as further data comes to light. The automatic updating across the board of Parametric progs would appear useful in this but is choosing a prog with such going to deny me the functionality of being able to work over photos, draw perspective lines and other tricks I use to calculate the location and size of something in FH9. Would even autocad deny me such ? e.g. I can trace over features in a photo on a layer then group the lines and copy/paste to my master plan, scale the group down or up as appropriate to see where the features sit in my plan.
Q5: Can SW create skins of differing thickness where they are needed on the aircraft structure. Initially I would need to skin the structure to get the overall flow shape and check its ok, then break this down into the relevant skin thicknesses, wing leading edge for example thicker than rest of wing. How easy is this in SW versus the other progs ?
Q5: Can I skin the structure, measure and place internal ribs, or does skinning disallow further items placed underneath. I would need the skin so as to place the ribs, i.e. generate their curves and locations, is that possible to do ?
Hope this gives a decent insight into my needs.
DBenz
I have need of drawing up e.g historical non flying aircraft and wonder if I should use Rhino, or Catia V5 or ProEngineer or Solidworks or Autocad etc.
SW unlike autocad has parametric update ability I gather, would this benefit me I wonder in how the program allows one to work versus my traditional techniques explained below that I have used in Macromedia Freehand 9 and perhaps I would imagine in non parametry progs like autocad ? It must be easy and intuitive to learn.
Can SW do the following or am I better off with even more advanced progs like ProEngineer or Catia, or all things considered and the complexity of such considering my short timescale for getting functional in the basics of the program , would autocad be a safer bet ?
...I am a beginner to CAD, only experienced in 2D macromedia Freehand 9 .
I am having to draw up an aircraft armed with some GA drawings giving datums, locations of fuselage frames, wing spar, rudder hinge line, thrust line, canopy location, wheel hub positions etc, real skeletal stuff. Its enough to draw side view and plan view outlines except for fillets. I also have site photos and measurements of stiffener locations (needing the ability to measure around curves and across skins in a program to plot these, seeing that they are measured across the real subjects skin) and some original drawings of specific items e.g. one cockpit frame, fuselage frame stiffeners cross section, some flanges, torsion rods etc, engine bulkhead to name a few.
Q1: Solidworks or Catia V5 or Autodesk Inventor seem to be about creating objects more so than laying out such basic shapes. Would it be able to start with the skeletal outline data mentioned above, enabling me to draw the outlines of the aircraft, over imported tiff images as I have done up till now in Freehand9 or as possible in autocad ? I have one tiff image per layer and usually end up with perhaps 20 or so plans/layers locked into place. I can make the image see through applying colour to the lines to distinguish different plans if original is a b/w bitmap. Can it handle many tiffs as such ?
Q2: Could one then draw up the fuselage frame I have a plan of, and locate it into this aircraft outline shape both in side view and front view, it then appearing in end views as a consequence of this ?...i.e. does it generate the end view from other views ?
Q3: How does it go about measuring across curved surfaces ? This is crucial as site measurements are over a skinned surface. Would I skin the structure I have drawn so as to allow it to measure over such ?
Q4: I have a certain amount of 'detective' work to do, items becoming clear as to their dimensions and location as further data comes to light. The automatic updating across the board of Parametric progs would appear useful in this but is choosing a prog with such going to deny me the functionality of being able to work over photos, draw perspective lines and other tricks I use to calculate the location and size of something in FH9. Would even autocad deny me such ? e.g. I can trace over features in a photo on a layer then group the lines and copy/paste to my master plan, scale the group down or up as appropriate to see where the features sit in my plan.
Q5: Can SW create skins of differing thickness where they are needed on the aircraft structure. Initially I would need to skin the structure to get the overall flow shape and check its ok, then break this down into the relevant skin thicknesses, wing leading edge for example thicker than rest of wing. How easy is this in SW versus the other progs ?
Q5: Can I skin the structure, measure and place internal ribs, or does skinning disallow further items placed underneath. I would need the skin so as to place the ribs, i.e. generate their curves and locations, is that possible to do ?
Hope this gives a decent insight into my needs.
DBenz