bilko

Does anyone know of any software that is designed to help with designing fuselages. I have found loftsman from Aerologics, but its expensive, and the site has not been updated for a couple of years.

What do others use?

Thanks

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

I asked this question back about three months ago. Got no straight answer then.

There was someone who explained how to do this with Compufoil prior to my asking, but that responce cannot be found now. I wish they would repeat it, as there are two of us now wanting the methods.


Wm.

BykrDan

You know, the first time I heard about "lofting" it was in reference to boat hulls - perhaps you might wander over to woodenboat.com and look around there? Probably no in-depth information online, but I do distinctly remember a book about lofting in their online store. I would hope much of the practice would transfer over to aircraft fuses.

e=mc2

I have two AutoCAD programs I downloaded long time ago.

One uses conics to draw fuselage stations and the other lofts the sections

I have used only the conic program and have had success. But I have never used the lofting program before. I tried to search for the original source/author of the programs and was not able to find them.

If any one is interested send me a private message on RCU and I will email it whoever is interested in those programs.

Don't forget that the programs work only in AutoCAD, but it won't be too difficult to rewrite them in something more standalone that outputs DXF so that it can be imported in most every other CAD product.

I also have (this one, I wrote) an AutoCAD program that draws a normalized (x belongs to [0, 1])airfoil section in AutoCAD if the co-ordinates are given in the UIUC airfoil data format. If anyone is interested send me a PM

e=mc2

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

Are these LISP files?

What version of Autocad do they work in, or should I say what "lowest Release Number" do they work in?


Also there was a plug-in by Winsoft that enabled a form of lofting called Aerodraw 2D.


Wm.

e=mc2

CoosBayLumber,

Yes they are AutoLISP (not exactly pure LISP).

I am not sure, but AutoLISP might have been introduced in Release 11. (or maybe 10)

It should work in anything after that point.

e=mc2

KenLitko

Solidworks does it nicely.

There is a chapter in Raymer's aircraft design book that will tell you how to do it the hard way. [:@]

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

e=mc2

LISP or more correctly as you mentioned AutoLISP has been around back to R-8, but sometimes the commands cannot be recognised, as the Release versions do not have tha basic commands within them. Can you send me a text file to my PM? I will load it up, an give it a try next morning.


Wm.

Kev

My Feedback: (6)

bilko

I had the same question. I have turbocad 6 and recently bought a lofting add on. It seems OK but I have not made any fuses yet. However, I have done a few simple shapes that worked out well. I think version 7 or 8 may have the lofting tool built in. check out ebay for ver 6 or 7 you might get a good deal.


Kev

dr_wogz

My Feedback: (3)

Mechanical desktop has a loft feature.. But you might was well get Inventor now a days...

I beleive teh ACad version is the AME (Advanced modeling extension) extention, and that came with r-11. That was their 'intro to 3d modeling' application

oldcabmkr

My Feedback: (127)

AutoCAD R8? I think this was release 1.8 as they didn't drop the 1. untill release 10 came out. I have been using AutoCad since release 1.4. That was when you did something right you saved your work after each step, no undo. I draw everything in 2d and don't worry about 3d as it takes to long. I then use the side profile to generate the top and bottom views. These are then used to generate all the fuse formers, elementry.
Doug

nav-air

High, I am interested in obtaining the lofting and conical program if you don't mind.
I have autocad 2000 running on a dell 450, windows 98.
thanks Billy Lester

[email protected]

DICKEYBIRD

William, here's the thread where I posted a little blurb about using CompuFoil to loft half ellipses for a fuselage turtledeck. It's been a while and if you need details on how I did it, I'll need some time to dredge up those thoughts. As you know, C/Foil needs the coordinate files in it's own .cor format and it seems I had to use that pesky "Convert" utility to convert a CAD drawn half-ellipse .dxf into a .cor file. If I can find the basic half-ellipse .cor, do you want it?

Edit: Oops, here it is: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11...tm.htm#1186079

toy264

Rhino 3D has a comprehensive set of lofting commands and can export in DXF or DWG. The downside is there aren't any good books yet on Rhino so you pretty much have to use the included tutorials to learn the program. I've lofted wings using airfoils (you can loft along a curve to get elipsoid planforms) and fuselage sections, and the results have been quite good. Once the shape is lofted you can do boolian adds and subtracts with other solids to, say, cut out wheel wells and spars. Then when you section the solid to get the rib templates, the cut outs are already placed. On fuselages, you can drop out the shapes of the cockpit, fuel tank, wing saddle, etc. and the formers will reflect it. Much more elegant than AutoCAD, IMHO. There are trial and student versions available; the full version is expensive.
John