Posts: 3054
Joined: 1/20/2002 From: San Bernardino Calif Status: offline
Hey Mike.......
I think you are trying to embarass us older computer drafters by your graphics.
I am from the 3-view, plain white paper school. How do you fold up the color graphic drawing and insert it into a kit box? I am of the propeller era and know the designs fly, as they were stolen from someone else's works. I your designs look to fly quite sleek, unlike my dripping fuel and mud encrusted aircraft. The desk looks familiar as to it's size, but around here the room almost touches the edges of the desk.
Your images in white give such a clean effect to them. I have a friend in Kotzebue and one about 30 miles N.E. of Juneau. They tell me most everything gets painted black or a dark color. They can't find a white fuselage and wings when it crashes in the deep snow, until the next melt down. Most of the designs I see of yours are white colored. Does that mean they either fly perfect the first time, or do you only get one flight out of them? What method do you use to find your designs once they touch down in an unfamiliar area? The friends tell me relocate methods have something to do with circling flying insects and moose.
The question being, what methods do you use to put a Autocad.DWG onna web? Most of the standard systems and a couple secondary conversion programs I have used make the linework to look Chinese? Would be nice to be able to have a web viewer zoom into a black line of white and then read the text, and see the different weight and type of lines. I have a few of my projects now onna web at other person's sites, and to me they still look poorer than a printed out plan.
Am going to begin to try your method of making up a fuselage plug this weekend. Am using a section of EMT instead of the broomstick, as it is straighter. Will either cuss you out or kiss up afterwards.
Posts: 2476
Joined: 1/19/2002 From: Anchorage,
AK, USA Status: offline
Hi Wm,
Well, I grew up in Florida, and have only been here (Anchorage) since 1995. The Anchorage RC club has about 130 members, who are all the same as RCers everywhere. They are a bunch of great people, and build every variety of RC vehicle. Personally, I'm too much of a wimp to fly heavily in the winter, so the issue of the white color isn't too important. This is building season, to me! Mosquitos? HA! Alaska has some large mosquitos, but they are seriously underpowered, compared to what I grew up with in the south. ...all bark and no bite. Don't fly into a moose though. They are LARGE.
As far as the CAD stuff goes, I'd just say that it's not the tools you use, so much as it is your familiarity with them. I use, and am pretty happy with what I use, which is only around $400. It's called "Carrara Studio". ( http://www.eovia.com ) It's not nearly as powerful as AutoCad, but I can work relatively fast, and after all, this is for personal use, not a big corporation.
When it's time for plans, I just print some 8 1/2" X 11" images at 300 dpi, and take them to a local printer, who will enlarge them for $1 per square yard...typical cost for a great set of "plans" is $3 or $4. I then tape these down, and as you said, trace them onto vellum for the final details. I just use CAD to design the models, and to make sure all the components fit where they should. (So, to answer your question, I'm just posting standard Jpegs and GIFs, not DXF files. I can export to DXF, but rarely have a need to.) Once my plans are "final", I do all the plug and mold making by hand. Nothing would tickle me more than to be able to export my 3D stuff to a CNC machine and have "instant plugs" for molds, but it's out of my league, financially.
The image attached shows why I like "Carrara Studio". It lets me try almost everything, including even adding a crew and passengers to my "Avanti".
Good luck with your new plugs. What are you building?
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Mike James RC Design and Building - www.nextcraft.com
Posts: 321
Joined: 1/29/2002 From: Oregon sometimes, Washington Sometimes Status: offline
My Kwickee
Hey Uproar, is that what you want to form a canopy for? You should just try cutting down one of Sigs Bubble canopy's. They are cheap and will save you a lot of time.
--Paul
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[url=www.oldschoolrc.com]Old School R/C[/url]--Laser Cut Parkflyer kits and covering
Posts: 2476
Joined: 1/19/2002 From: Anchorage,
AK, USA Status: offline
Hi Uproar,
If you're making plugs of these parts for fiberglass moldings, the canopy plug will be fine to use in pulling a clear canopy, via vacuum forming. Just build a small "base" for it to sit on, so that it's elevated enough to pull the plastic down past the lower edge. This gives you a nice trim line. I assume it's coated with some sort of tooling resin or epoxy primer...?
I've done this myself in the past, although I don't currently own a vacuum forming machine.
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Mike James RC Design and Building - www.nextcraft.com
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