Hi Guys,
Hope someone here can help. I would like to use Solidworks to model a fuselage for an RC thermal sailplane. I'm an electrical engineer and not a mechanical engineer so some of the concept and terminology in Solidworks are foreign to me. I have been through the tutorials and am quite comfortable the package layout, other than that I am clueless on where how start creating the design and what is the best method. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Regards
Adrian

I'd love to help but it is pretty tough to provide a complete tutorial on airplane design using SolidWorks through discussion forms. Even relatively simple questions can take lengthy answers. What specifically do you want to know?

I will attempt to help you out with this. A fuse is basically made up of several cross sections (or bulkheads) a few inches apart each varying in shape getting more narrow from front to back. If you have built any planes from a kit you will know what I mean. So to set up Solid Works to draw a fusealge you first have to set up your planes which wil represent each of the bulkheads. Starting with the front plane (I mean a reference plane, not an airplane), add parallel planes (insert, referece goemetry, planes) at a distance you choose. If your fuse is 50 inches long and you want bulkheads every 4 inches, you need to add 12 planes. Once you have got that done. Draw a sketch on each plane that represents the cross section of the fuse at that plane. When you all done, use the loft tool and pick each sketch consecutively. Solid works will loft the sketches together to form one solid body.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that, That was basically what I had in mind to do. I will start by creating the planes and see how far I get. May need to ask for some more advice along the way.

Thanks
again

Cheers
A