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-   -   CAD Discussions and Model Design Tools (https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/scratch-building-aircraft-design-3d-cad-174/9347211-cad-discussions-model-design-tools.html)

BMatthews 12-20-2009 09:36 PM

CAD Discussions and Model Design Tools
 
Please do not try to reply to this thread. It is locked to prevent the sort of unrelated ongoing discussion that has muddled up past sticky threads. Instead please think of this as a table of contents and informational appendix rolled up in one.

Included below but not limited to this you'll find links to online articles, downloads and calculators to aid you with your model designing. If you have any questions about how to use these tools by all means post a new thread to ask your question. If we get enough threads about one or two of these I'll pick one to make it a FAQ and post a link to it here so it can be easily found to allow it to serve as a resource for all and to be brought back easily.

CAD programs are another big topic. There were two sticky threads that were open discussions on CAD. These are linked below so those of you that want can access them easily. However they had gotten pretty sidetracked. I plan on copying some of the posts that were more informative and adding them to this thread for easy reference. This will still leave a hole in our CAD coverage but I've opened a thread to discuss how best we can produce a set of long living threads that will aid the new innocents as well as the jaded pros equally. So this sticky FAQ will be a work in progress for the next few weeks.

As you see the links being entered if you know of any that are especially helpful to your efforts but that were missed please PM the info to BMatthews or Da_Rock . We'll look them over and include them where they fit in the best. And if you find a link that does not work please PM us with it so the link can be checked and removed from the list if it is truly dead.


First the old sticky threads for anyone that wants to continue them or refer to them;
The old CAD tips and tricks thread- http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3651296/tm.htm

the old Scratch Building, Aircraft Design, 3D/CAD FAQ thread- http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_19...tm.htm#1945404

AIRCRAFT DESIGN LINKS-

Online calculators and simulators-

Foilsim 2-
a handy real time calculator that allows you to set up a wing then fly it at various speeds. Figure out what your stall speed is and the angle of attack for various speeds. Requires Java as a plugin app in your browser.
Online version- http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/foil2.html
Downloadable and installable version- http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/FoilSim/index.html

Servo torque calculators- For the maximum model speed put in what you think the full throttle terminal velocity vertical dive speed will be. Take the required torque answer, double it and then go servo shopping. You do NOT want to be running too close to the stall torque, hence the doubling it for safety.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/limeybob/Servotorque1.html
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/eflight/calcs_servo.htm

CG and Neutral Point calculators-
http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg_calc.htm
http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/cg_super_calc.htm
This one is especially tailored for Canards- http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg_canard.htm

Wing Loading Calculator-
http://adamone.rchomepage.com/design.htm#calculate

Mean Aerodynamic Chord - http://pagesperso-orange.fr/scherrer...glish/mce.html
Calculates the Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC) of swept and/or multi taper wings as well as simple wings.

Links to articles and downloadable material-

http://www.nextcraft.com/rcdesignandbuilding.html - A collection of helpful design and building articles by our own Mike James.

How Big The Tail- http://www.eaa62.org/technotes/tail.htm
An online article discussing some of the factors in sizing the horizontal and vertical tails. Geared towards real planes but just as applicable to us.

Michael Selig's airfoil site- http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/a..._database.html
If you can't find your airfoil of choice here then it's likely not worth using :D

Martin Hepperle's website with lots of good model aeronautical related material that is pertinent to designing our models-
http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/index.htm

Model Aircraft Design Step-by-Step- http://airfieldmodels.com/informatio...aft_design.htm

Link to a list of which aerofoils are used on full size aircraft- http://www.public.iastate.edu/~akmit...foil_usage.htm

Page of downloadable spreadsheets for calculating a lot of aspects. While these are said to be glider specific they should work fine for power models too. Included are two flying wing specific items. http://www.tailwindgliders.com/Files.html#Articles

Airfoil analysis and plotting software-

XFLR5 is an analysis tool for airfoils, wings and planes operating at low Reynolds Numbers. This package includes the original X-Foil. http://xflr5.sourceforge.net/xflr5.htm

Profili 2- airfoil plotter which includes X-foil. Accessing the X-foil plugin requires paying for the unlocking code. Basic plotting functions are free. http://www.profili2.com/eng/default.htm

Compufoil- One of the favourites and with excellent foam cutting template support; http://www.compufoil.com/index.shtml

Winfoil- http://www.winfoil.com/default.htm

Some NACA airfoil generators. Also Plotfoil. -
http://www.jrdaly.rchomepage.com/software.html


CAD RELATED LINKS-

Coming soon to a thread near you.......

Edited to remove dead link-


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