Car Design

[djohnson]

I'm designing a Volkswagen Beetle (the old one). I have blue prints that I'm using as a reference.

 

 

This is how I'm sketching the car.

 

 

 

I'm using spline+line tools to sketch it out. The curves are very annoying and the line keeps running astray. When I extrude the sketch, the edges+faces are uneven.

So my question was if there is another way to design the car. So the curves come out smoother. When I try to fillet/round, I get an error to make the measurement smaller.

 

Sorry about the large images.

[shift1313]

how detailed do you want to get with this?

 

If i were going to attack this problem and i didnt want to get too detailed i would start by drawing a block, then drawing your front view outline and using that as a surface/slice, do the same for the side view. from there you will need to do some strategic lofted surfaces to use as slices. ill try to draw something up to show you what i mean.

 

If you go to JDMathers site there is a tutorial on drawing a car(and making a mold for it). I cant remember if that tutorial was in solidworks or inventor but the approach is the same for both softwares.

[djohnson]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I don't want it to be too detailed because the project that I'm doing is to design a toy/ miniature car. So no, I don't want a high level of detail on this. I will take a look at the tutorial you're talking about.

 

I would appreciate if you could further explain the drawing block method you talked about above.

 

Edit: Is this the tutorial you were talking about?

If it is, then surface modeling seems too complicated to me. I'm still a beginner at Inventor.

[shift1313]

that is the tutorial i was talking about yes. its not as bad as you would think. if this is for a toy keeping it simple is the way to go. The method i was talking about involved creating surfaces.

[shift1313]

one thing thats noticable is on the roofline about where the rear window starts there is a Jog in your sketch. Make sure you use as few control points as possible on a spline and that your sketches are constrained when needed.

 

How is the end product being made? are you trying to make a plastic part? carved wood? metal?

[djohnson]

Sorry if I sound stupid, but the tutorial is very confusing. I have only been using Inventor for about 4 months now and have only been through the basics. I'm finding sculpting hard to do.

 

I was thinking of doing the body in plastic. I'm trying to make the car look as close as possible to the actual one. It's not all gonna be one piece. I need wheels, axle, etc. In the end, I'm going to have to animate it.

[shift1313]

you dont sound stupid at all. Inventor is a very powerful package and it sounds like you are trying to jump in the deep end with no swimming lessons:)

 

How do you plan to produce the actual part in the end? If you are trying to set the part up for injection molding you will need to consider a lot more than if you were going to have it 3d printed or machining a negative or positive and thermo forming it. Each manufacture method will require a little change in approach for your final product.

 

To get an accurate looking model of any car, i dont see a way to do it without some sort of surface modeling.

 

I would play around with some surface modeling. work on one part like the hood or a fender. You can draw a curve and sweep it along a path. You can draw a few curves and loft between them. You can draw a boundary and make a surface off that. you can use surfaces to split a target body(solid), you can use them to subtract from a solid. Its really going to be the most efficient way of modeling a complex shape.

[djohnson]

"I would play around with some surface modeling. work on one part like the hood or a fender. You can draw a curve and sweep it along a path. You can draw a few curves and loft between them. You can draw a boundary and make a surface off that. you can use surfaces to split a target body(solid), you can use them to subtract from a solid. Its really going to be the most efficient way of modeling a complex shape."

 

That makes a little more sense to me. I will try my best and post my results. Thanks.