Originally Posted by
flywilly
Hi Alex,
The construction is proceeding beautifully. Adding the sheeting really helps give perspective on the size of the fuselage. You should post a photo of the Radiance sitting in front of the Vortex to provide some size reference.
I have a few questions. The Vortex was designed entirely using some form of Auto CAD? The sheeting was applied using very 'old school' methodology. Is there a topographic feature in CAD that would allow you to map the surface of the Vortex? The 'map' could then be used to either laser-cut the fuselage sheeting or at least produce laser-cut templates which would facilitate construction repeatability. Just a thought.
-Will
Hi Will,
At the moment Vortex is missing the composite nose and canopy, so you would have to use your imagination to compare it with Radiance
Maybe i'll post a picture of both models when Vortex is more complete.
I used Solidworks to design my models and the latest versions have an option to flatten or unwrap a curved surface. I think it may work for simple curves like the turtle deck area but i wouldn't trust it too much for compound curves because you don't want to leave any gaps between the balsa panels. I used this option when i created the templates for film covering the Audax fuselage and some of the templates were pretty good, while others had to be slightly re-worked to fit properly.
Also the properties of the balsa sheets can change a lot from sheet to sheet; some of them are easier to bend than others, density and fibers direction can be different, so i think it's difficult to predict its behavior consistently.