I will now set the sections for the fuselage to be lofted to make the solid model. This is pretty common between all the programs except AutoCAD and some of its spinoffs.

The first step is to place a rather small circle at the nose on the x/y plane(my particular case because I have the program set to default on sketch planes which is x/y and this places my original sideview sketch on the x/y plane. I will outline the steps for this on the first three sketchs to show how this will be done for all steps in this case being the fuselage.

Step 1 open a new part and on the x/y plane "Project Geometry" of the x and y axis to the sketch plane. This serves as the proper way to control sketched entities by dimensional constraint. Draw a circle attaching it to the intersection of the x and y axis.
Step2 is insert this part which I named the fuselage solid model into the top assembly and constrain so the new part is facing the proper direction.
Step3 is to pull a new work plane from the original x/y plane using the "Work Plane" command. Once the new plane is in place start a sketch on it and again project the x/y axis to provied dimensional constraint. I used an ellipse to make the fuselage shape.
Step4 is similar to the last down to the type of primitive shape used.
More later.

Eric B.

I'm in New Orleans visiting my g/f, I'm dying to get back to my computer. I never would have thought about that tiny circle for the nose. I use v7 and I looked EVERYWHERE for the "loft to point", but I think its only in new versions... now I know how to do this!

Originally Posted by krautfed

I'm in New Orleans visiting my g/f, I'm dying to get back to my computer. I never would have thought about that tiny circle for the nose. I use v7 and I looked EVERYWHERE for the "loft to point", but I think its only in new versions... now I know how to do this!

Cool, information trade in forums like this is how a lot of things are learned. Well take time to cultivate the things that will be a part of your life a lot longer than modeling..

Eric B.

Added some more sections and lofted the first solid from the primitive shapes. Made the solid blue clear to show how it cam out against the backdrop of the outline sketches.

Eric B

I have essentially finished the modeling of the fuselage. The process of the first solid section is repeated in as many times as needed to complete the model.

The subsequent parts are added into the first one to make a more complicated part as can be seen in the following pictures.

Eric B.

Nice Eric.

Thanks Kevin. I need to finish the F86D before working the foam on this one...

Eric B.

Wow great stuff Eric.
I am using this as a tutorial I hope you do not mind.
I have a small question for you
I am a bit confused on how you did the middle part of the airframe?
Can you please post a wireframe picture and the picture of the lofts outlines (shapes only)???

Thank you.

Originally Posted by totalywicked

Wow great stuff Eric.
I am using this as a tutorial I hope you do not mind.
I have a small question for you
I am a bit confused on how you did the middle part of the airframe?
Can you please post a wireframe picture and the picture of the lofts outlines (shapes only)???

Thank you.

No problems mate. The model I made is not completely acurate to the 3 view. This comes with trial and error at the moment as I cannot predict exactly how it will loft from the sketches I derive from the views. Essentially I use the closest primative shape I can to make what I think can fit the shapes from the 3 view, I use multiple lofts of shapes to make one solid which is the easiest way for me to do this, I tried more than once to make a complex shape to descibe the section but when lofted it either comes out twisted or odd because of the complexity so I keep things simple. I posted the lofts I used to make the model from the 3 view I used, it might be a little vague as to how I derived the shapes, all that I did there is to again pick the closest shape to use for modeling the part and match it to the eviews I put into the model as sketches(IPT). What version of Inventor are you using?

Eric B.

Thank for reply
I do not use inventor,
I am more into using poly modeling method. I was looking around and stumbled on this so I thought I would give it a go, always nice to see different way to do the same things. Nose and tail of the plane makes a perfect sense but the mid-section that’s were I am confused.

Personally I have never designed a “full body model” I blame it on lack of CNC machine, so it’s been a flat planes simple builds 3-4 parts easy to cut and fly.

Its kind off weird for me I love to design them love flying building not so much (well cutting part)

So I guess that’s my story.

Originally Posted by totalywicked

Thank for reply
I do not use inventor,
I am more into using poly modeling method. I was looking around and stumbled on this so I thought I would give it a go, always nice to see different way to do the same things. Nose and tail of the plane makes a perfect sense but the mid-section that’s were I am confused.

Personally I have never designed a “full body model” I blame it on lack of CNC machine, so it’s been a flat planes simple builds 3-4 parts easy to cut and fly.

Its kind off weird for me I love to design them love flying building not so much (well cutting part)

So I guess that’s my story.

Hi Totalywicked,

I will get you something that will help tonight. So you dont use Inventor, what program do you use if I missed it?

Eric B.

I do not think I ever mention it
I use blender (its free) + sketch-up

Totalywicked,

Ok I see. I use AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor. I think I can show the wire frame for the lofts in Inventor, I did show them in the picture set I posted to this thread earlier. The first solid section was a set of increasing size elipses. The strategy I use in solid modeling is to use several different lofts to add features of the model, I use simple shapes(primative shapes ie sqare, rectangle elipse circle etc.) to achieve this. Now I started in AutoCAD in the early nineties with solid modeling that was constrained to simple extrusions for structure(formers, stringers etc) and surface modeling to see the complete shape. I did a little surface model tutorial in the workshop that will help in this area.
The link is: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284851

Read this and if there is still some holes in what your are trying to achieve we can see if I can or anyone else can help.

Eric B.

cool thanks

Ill give it a shoot tonight

This is my approach to modeling

Thanks for all your help

Your welcome, Cinema4D looks like a cool program with some interesting features.

Cheers,
Eric B.