Designing airplanes in 3d?

[adamik17]

First of all, I didn't know which part of the forum I should post this in, so I'm sorry if this is the wrong thread.
In the Edge 540 release video Andres said that he designed it in 3d and then exported it to 2d, because of the complex shapes that the plane had. I've never designed a plane in my life, but I want to design a Piper M600 that way. Does anyone know how to do it and what software to use?

Best regards,
Adam

 

[Matagami Designs]

So I believe Flite Test generally promote fusion 360 but it looks like Andres may have been using sketchup. I use solidworks for this kind of work but it's for the company I work and very expensive. You can use onshape as well which is similar to solidworks and fusion 360.

So what you need to learn to do is create a 3d object, no complex curves, just simple bends like the 540. Then you create a shell of the outer surface, and unfold using sheetmetal features. More complex shapes require that you pick where to rip and where to bend.

Here is a simple tutorial for onshape:

 

[SP0NZ]

Andres used Fusion 360 for the Edge design. You can get Fusion 360 startup licensing for free and there are really good free training resources all over the net that can teach you how to use it. YouTube is a good place to start.

 

[adamik17]

Andres used Fusion 360 for the Edge design. You can get Fusion 360 startup licensing for free and there are really good free training resources all over the net that can teach you how to use it. YouTube is a good place to start.

Thanks, I'll try that. Using online programs like onshape doesn't really interest me.

 

[marbenrc]

Andres used Fusion 360 for the Edge design. You can get Fusion 360 startup licensing for free and there are really good free training resources all over the net that can teach you how to use it. YouTube is a good place to start.

Hi sponz,
do you have by any chance any pointers for translating fusion 360 model to 2d unfolded? I've been using fusion 360 for a while now, have various designs but I haven't found any resources on how to convert to 2d.

I appreciate the help
Thanks

 

[SP0NZ]

Hi sponz,
do you have by any chance any pointers for translating fusion 360 model to 2d unfolded? I've been using fusion 360 for a while now, have various designs but I haven't found any resources on how to convert to 2d.

I appreciate the help
Thanks

That I do not. I don't use fusion much myself because I use Inventor for work. With Inventor I can export faces to 2D CAD. But to be honest, I do a lot of my own model airplane design work in 2D AutoCAD for this very reason.

 

[Matagami Designs]

@marbenrc learn to use sheet metal features in fusion. I have done a few planes this way in SW and it works fairly well. As Sponz noted there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

Hi sponz,
do you have by any chance any pointers for translating fusion 360 model to 2d unfolded? I've been using fusion 360 for a while now, have various designs but I haven't found any resources on how to convert to 2d.

I appreciate the help
Thanks

One resource you might want to try is slicer for Fussion 360. It has a folding algorithm as one of it's work flows.
Also, if trying to do everything in any 3d modeling program, understand the difference between top down and bottom up. To get the overall plane you need to work top down but work bottom up for parts.

 

[marbenrc]

Great feedback thanks guys