Hello,

I am fairly proficient with using TC (TC Deluxe 2017) for 2D drawing and have ventured off into the mind-boggling world of 3D. I have gone through most of the 3D tutorials and have become familiar with most of the 3D tools and work area.

I use TC for designing model airplane and can see drawing the fuselage parts in 3D would aid in lining up parts and be able to flatten curves for laser cutting sheet goods for real model assembly. However, I am perplexed as to a decent work flow and the tutorials really didn't help with specifically how to break it down for such a project.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Joe

Joe
If you are asking how to prepare the files for flat material to be cut using laser, plasma or water jet cutting, the company's that we use want the files in DXF format. the majority of them, want the file to contain only one part per file and they want the file to only have lines and arcs (polylines exploded once) I did have one company that preferred polylines? I send all the part files as individual DXFs and a PDF that shows how it is assembled and calls out anything that is critical to the design. We never want them to make any changes and asked them to contact us if any changes are needed.
Paul

I understand all that and can draw and export files in 2D with no problems. I am wanting to do the designs in 3D, so i can ensure parts fit and be able to layout any sheet material.

I'm wondering how to flatten curves in Deluxe.

Henry H

What sort of RC plane are you designing?  Traditional tissue or film on frame or composite?  I assume that they're covering on frame if you want to cut bulkheads and profiles, and that you've modelled them and now want to lay them flat and nest them onto material sheets?
Have you modelled your plane to extract part layouts from, or are you asking how to model the plane?   

I asking how to draw the plane in 3D, primarily the fuselage. If the fuse has curved parts or facets that are not perpendicular, it can take a bit of time to draw flat in 2D. Example, I want to unfold the curved part between the cowl and canopy so it can be cut out and fitted without trial and error.

The other plan has sides that are not flat or perpendicular to the top or bottom. I can draw this in 2D, by measuring each former. It would seem easier to draw it in 3D and then convert the parts to their flat sheet size.

Another thing that 3D would make easier is flattening windscreens. Some of them are curved and it would seem easier to draw in 3D then flatten.

Hey Joe, seems to me that your task will be much easier with Turbocad Pro Platinum 2017 or 2018 than deluxe. Don Cheke from Textualcreations has many tutorials and since you want to learn 3D for airplane desiogn I suggest that you take a look at http://www.textualcreations.ca/Textual%20Creations%20Shopping%20Page.html#Executive_Jet_Tutorial_v21 tutorial.

Heres a sample of a corsair that I designed over a year ago in the process of learning how to draw surfaces with splines etc.

As much as I like Turbocad and SketchUp it wouldn't be my first choice for drawing airplanes in 3d.. something like Rhino 3d would be better suited for that

Most planes are mostly single curvature surfaces except for fairings, noses, tails and blisters and those are all reasonably accessable with consumer CAD.  But if you want to flatten curved surfaces, that's a subject on its own and so-called "sheet metal tools" are only part of it.   TC Pro develops some specific developable surfaces but not all.  There is a PowerPack plugin for TCMac that develops general ruled surfaces, but, well, Mac, TC for it and plugin all cost.  A low-cost tool for single curvature and some expansion into compound curvature is an old-school marine design program called Pilot3D, quite easy to learn and competent, but an antiquated UI and limited compatibility with TC delux.  For faceted surfaces that TC delux produces, there's an excellent low cost  program called UltimateUnwrap3D.  it lays out triangulated surfaces fast, you can see overlaps immediately and change the tear paths through the faces to clear them.  If the faceting is fine enough, it does as good a job as most "precise" development programs, and because you can specify tear paths, you can expand even compound curvature surfaces with it to lay them flat.  It works something like the methodology that old-school TCers developed before unbend and unfold, explode-to-polylines-and-place-on-workplane-then-align-edges to develop surfaces fifteen or twenty years ago, but *fast*, because the triangle edge alignment's maintained automatically.  There are also blender add-ons that flatten meshes, but you've gotta learn some Blender to use them, which was slow going and intimidating to me....There's a Python script for FreeCAD that develops ruled surfaces, but it can be hit'n'miss, especially if you aren't familiar with the conditions that govern surface development.   OTOH, FreeCAD also imports .dat airfoil profiles straight up - and as the name implies, it's as cheap as it can be.    When you consider that most light aircraft were designed on paper until into this century, we're pretty spoiled for choice - but nothing's automatic.  I think it was our resident expert Henry Hubich who observed years ago on the old TC forums that many of the inquiries posted followed the form "where's the draw-my-boat tool?". 

You can actually scratch SketchUp off that list as I'm seeing it becoming more subscription based.. forget that idea

That wasn't me, Murray. That is, I don't think it was. If my whatchamacallit serves correctly, it was actually one of IMSI's own -- Dave or George, probably -- who created the "Draw my House" spoof. And a couple of years later the tool became a reality.

Henry H

That wasn't me, Murray. That is, I don't think it was. If my whatchamacallit serves correctly, it was actually one of IMSI's own -- Dave or George, probably -- who created the "Draw my House" spoof. And a couple of years later the tool became a reality.

Henry H

Do you mean this one from February 2008? 

No, my memory distinctly says "boat" and it distinctly associates you, Henry.  And it was before I started using Marcus Bole's PolyCAD, which is also fairly prehistoric.  Predates that, too, because it was in the old Cold Fusion forum.  When was that abandoned? 

re: …it was in the old Cold Fusion forum.  When was that abandoned?

Most of us registered in this Forum in the spring of 2009. Cold Fusion had so many boards to visit prior to that.

I think we re-registered to this Simple Machines forum in 2009 after a crash that lost a year or two prior.