Technote

Technote: Scaling Ordinates

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Technote: Scaling Ordinates:

The primary objective of my work is to record an accurate database of ordinate dimensional data for various aircraft fuselage frames, cowls, wings, cockpit, and stabilizers. This database is derived from manufacturers original documents and drawings.

Often the original source documents are poor quality, occasionally almost illegible, but if we have 95% of the ordinates for a frame then it is relatively straightforward using today’s technologies to determining the missing 5%. Where possible I will cross-reference with part drawings or alternative information to verify.

Cowl nose ring3

However, most archive records are incomplete, as was my frustration with the F6F Hellcat. Having completed the wings, fuselage, and cowl I was stumped by the apparent lack of ordinate data for the tail and horizontal stabilizers (even from part drawings).

There are 2 approaches to determining the missing information. The first is to model the information you do know; from part files, supporting documentation and 3rd part resources. This may provide enough information to determine the missing geometry in order to extrapolate a dimensional data set.

The second; and I would never do this myself; is to trace or convert the outlines of the components from the scanned drawings. There are several products available that will convert raster images to vector files but first, we must achieve a properly scaled image to work with. Most raster image from these archives are scans from 35mm microfilm and due to the nature of the process, the resulting image will not be equally scalable in both X and Y directions.

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Assuming you wish to work with CAD and use this image as a background I would recommend the following process to achieve the best result. This particular drawing is created from actual loft templates and includes the locating pins set to a specified distance in each of the corners plus a drawing scale rule.

Some drawings may only have scale rules, either way, the process is the same.

If we insert this image directly into a drawing in Autocad or similar the only option is a user-defined global scale parameter which will scale the image equally in both X and Y directions, which is not what we want. Even once the image is inserted the option is the same.

The best way to circumvent this is to insert the image into a drawing, without any scale parameters applied. Then save this drawing including the image as a DWG file.

Xref this drawing into another drawing and you will be presented with the following dialogue box ( I am using Draftsight but Autocad will be similar).

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As you can see you now have the option to apply different scales to the X and Y directions. This works very well and will provide a very good reference for your work. I should clarify that some CAD products have the option to insert an image as an Xref but the scaling options are not the same as for a DWG file, instead reverts to a global scale option only.

As a workaround for missing information, this is a very accurate way of achieving a good result and will satisfy the majority of applications.

As my projects are records of known dimensional information this process would not be applicable.

HiRise data and WRL Conversion.

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HiRise data and WRL Conversion:

It has been a while since I last posted an article due to being busy with other projects. During some research activites, I came across a number of subjects that may be of interest, two of which I would like to share.

The first one is the HiRISE Digital Terrain data models on the University of Arizona website. The website contains datasets that are digital extractions of surface terrain scans of the planet Mars. The DTM datasets are publicly available for research and modeling of geological processes.

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Naturally curious I decided to investigate the possibilities of modeling and rendering of these datasets from which I produced a few preliminary 3d terrain models using Blender and rendered in Keyshot…Gorgonum Chaos:

mars10The technique I used is described in this video on Youtube, clearly explaining the process. To me, this is incredible stuff and thanks to the University of Arizona for all their dedicated work in developing these datasets. So have a look and check it out for yourselves.

The next subject is WRL. WRL is a file extension for a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) file format often used by browser plug-ins to display virtual reality environments. VRML files are known as “worlds,” which is what WRL stands for.

One of my many interests is Tensegrity, a structural form of tension and compression members first developed by a chap called Kenneth Snelson. The internet is full of examples of this structure concept inspiring many variations from fairly simple to very complex designs. I have developed a few of my own.

delta

Many of the practitioners in this field make datasets available for personal use and one particular format they use is the VRML (WRL) so you can view the design in 3d.

For the simple structures similar to this image the design and construction are not that difficult, however when it comes to developing your own version of the more complex examples it can be a real headache. Although some datasets include actual point cloud data the process of matching pairs of points to reconstruct the design can be a nightmare.

The obvious solution would be to convert the WRL model into something usable that could be used as a guide for developing a 3d cad model. I tend to favor Meshlab for doing this as it is one of the few programs that will accurately convert the imported data.

meshlab

The WRL model is converted into a series of mesh objects that we can export as an OBJ or STL file and then import into Inventor.

Once in Inventor, it is simply a case of selecting each of the compression struts and “Fit Mesh Face”. Select the “Auto Fit” option for each member and it will create a surface from each mesh representing the struts.

The tension wires are then created as a 3d sketch using the background mesh model as a guide. At this stage, the model is a workable composite but may require micro adjustment for the tension wires to ensure the finished item is properly constrained. I would reverse engineer this model and reconstruct as an assembly and apply the microdimensional adjustment to the groups of tension wires to ensure the absolute accuracy of the final design.

It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the detail of every step, but if you require information on any of the topics please feel free to drop me a line.

Tensegrity Conv

I hope you find this article interesting and have fun.

Technote: Inventor LT BOM!

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Technote: Inventor LT Bill of Material.

I normally use Inventor Professional but recently I decided to have a look at a common issue with Autodesk Inventor LT which is a part only product. Essentially the “lite” version of Inventor with limited functionality that excludes sheet metal, vba, ilogic, assembly mode and Bill of Material!. Technically the BOM capability is not a function of Inventor LT which I suspect is due to the fact it has no assembly environment but there is a workaround.

I should note that Inventor LT is a very capable modeling product which is ideal if you are mainly developing parts and if you do require an assembly environment to check the alignment of mating parts then you can use the derived function as explored in a previous post to assess this.

Whilst the product may be limited it does have a lot of functionality that can be exploited to overcome some of the limitations and the BOM is just one example of a situation that the forums, in general, described as something that cannot be done!

For this example we will continue with one of the parts from the previous article: the Bell P-39 Airacobra Centre Bulkhead fixing bracket.

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What I wish to do is have this part fully dimensioned on a drawing that also contains a basic table of properties that may be useful to the chap responsible for buying the raw material. Okay, I accept that the following image is not fully dimensioned but my primary interest is the generation of the BOM.

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Inventor LT like its bigger brother contains a lot of part data which is accessible via the iProperties and Parameters, which we will utilize by using the iPart feature.

Normally iParts are used where a single part may come in varying sizes or configurations that share the same basic features; for example bolts! In this case we are creating only one version of the part. By adopting the capabilities of iParts we will create a table of selected data within the part file that we will later use as a data source for our BOM.

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I won’t go into the technicalities of creating an iPart, there are many online resources that go into this in detail. Generally speaking, when creating an iPart you have access to all available data including parameters, model hierarchy data, and iProperties as shown above and it is simply a case of selecting the data you want.

2017-07-31_15-52-34This creates a Table which appears in the model browser. It is usually a good idea to give parameters meaningful names as I have done here for the Length, Width and Height.

The Description values are from the iProperties whereas the Length value is from the parameters.

This table can be further edited within Inventor LT or externally as an excel spreadsheet.

In the drawing environment, you select the General table option, Select View and then Column Chooser, add required columns, select OK and insert the table into your drawing.

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…and there we have it…a BOM in an Inventor LT part drawing.

Part Quantities:

I have not mentioned part quantities which of course would be a prerequisite for any purchasing decision. You can, of course, create a parameter in the model file for quantity and include that in the table, but if this part serves a number of different assemblies then the quantity will vary accordingly.

Given a typical scenario where you are the manufacturer of components working collaboratively with other companies on a project how do you track quantities when you are using LT and the other guys are using Inventor and building assemblies.? You could, of course, just phone them or email them but as production schedules are critical you need a way of immediate notification of quantity changes.

I faced a similar dilemma when I developed a modular solution for a power distribution company for design of sub stations. This resulted in vastly reducing the design time by over 60% which meant the procurement chaps had to up their game to keep on top of things.

Modular Approach to Sub-Station Design

The solution gave access to all project material BOMs without needing to bother engineers to create structured BOM extractions.

Briefly what we had was a top level assembly BOM which was interrogated by a custom database application to read the Part Name column and then search a folder of extracted cad model BOMs with the matching name and multiplying the quantity column in the part BOM with that of the assembly.

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For example, the database would open the top level database above, read the columns Name & Descr (to be sure we were only looking for modules) and then import the corresponding data files with those names into the database. In this case, we only have 1 quantity per part, but that could be anything and the associated part file would be multiplied accordingly.

This is a very basic overview of what was done and beyond the scope of this blog to describe in detail. We have already demonstrated how to create and extract tables in LT and the main point here is though you may only have Inventor LT there are many options for creating data-sets in tables that can be shared and used productively in a collaborative environment.

Incidentally, the database I created was another of those instances where something could not be done!

Technote: Inventor Sketch Datum

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Technote: Inventor Sketch Datum Point.

This is one of those instances where you do something on a regular basis and don’t really appreciate the significance of the process. What I am referring to is when you create a sketch Plane using the option “Parallel to Plane Through Point”.

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It transpires that this selected point becomes the datum for the particular sketch created on this plane. For this example, for a P-39 wing rib, we have selected a point for the Plane location along the wing leading edge as shown.

P39 wing1

The Bell P-39 and similarly for the P-51 Mustang the wing ordinates are set out from the leading edge of the wing so it makes sense that the rib sketch is setup with a suitable datum point. You can tell the location of the temporary datum in the sketch applied to this plane by the position of the main axis.

This is the really interesting part, when you now import a set of points from the Ordinate spreadsheets it will recognize this sketch datum and import the points relative to this point irrespective of the model origin.

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This is very useful particularly for these aircraft projects as we tend to use a lot of ordinate data for the outline geometry.

Another Quick Tip:

To automatically apply a tangent constraint to a sketch line just select and drag the line from an existing line and the tangent constraint will be applied.

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Technote: P-39 Inventor Facedraft

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Technote: Bell P-39, Inventor FaceDraft

Draft angles is actually a common requirement when working with aircraft components, particularly forgings, and it is surprising that I haven’t written an article on this before now.

Facedraft in Inventor is a feature that allows adjusting the face or faces of an object to a specified angle. A more detailed overview is described in this Autodesk article Face Draft feature

Occasionally the implementation is not quite so straightforward as noted therein and some outside the box thinking is necessary. Thus was the case when I was building the forging component for the P-39 Landing Gear Nosewheel Scissor.

To build this component I created 2 separate solid bodies, one for the cylinder item and one for the fork. The fork is split about the X,Y plane with only the outline of the top half being modeled to facilitate the initial face draft.

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For the first option, I selected the X,Y plane and then for the Faces I selected the automatic face chain option and placed the cursor close to the top edge as shown. If you required the face angle to originate from the bottom edge then you would select the faces close to this edge.

I then trimmed out the inside profile of the fork and applied a face draft as above.

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Now it was only a matter of mirroring the fork solid to complete this portion. Notice the solids are still separate items which will be combined as one after inclusion of the central web component.

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There is an option for the Facedraft feature to Draft using a parting line, either a 2d or 3d sketch. The draft is normally applied above and below this parting line. In most circumstances, the Parting Line option works well but occasionally the model may be too complex to achieve the desired result thus the solution described here provides an alternative approach.

Forgings or castings commonly have a draft angle on all faces which is normally 7 degrees and occasionally 5 degrees. The Face Draft feature is ideal for applying the drafts with an extensive range of options. The model of the forging would then be derived into a separate part file and then machined according to the finishing requirements similar to the process described here Derived Parts.

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For more information on the Bell P-39 Airacobra project: Bell P-39: Project

Technote: Inventor Export Sketches

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Technote: Export Sketches

The Inventor product has an option to export part Sketches to either an Autocad DWG or DXF format directly from the model environment. This is very useful if you are needing to share development information with someone else who is working with a different CAD product.

It is simply a case of highlighting the sketch as shown in the example below and selecting the “Export Sketch as…” option.

Inventor export sketch

A dialogue box pops up asking for the file format DWG or DXF and location for saving. I would recommend the DWG for the format as this replicates the Splines more accurately.

 

In this example the left image is for the Mustang P-51 rear fuselage, showing the outer profile for the P-51 B/C and the inner profile is for the P-51D. The image on the right is the fuselage tail-end.

I plan on extracting all the fuselage curves that include P-51D data to DWG format as a reference until such time as I can add the point data to the already comprehensive set of ordinates available here.

Mustang P-51 B/C Ordinates

 

Technote: Inventor Quick Tip

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Technote: Inventor Quick Tip

Inventor taskbar

When working in Inventor you can access a list of Recent files by clicking the right mouse button on the Taskbar icon.

This also works for most programs with an icon on the Taskbar like Microsoft Excel, Notepad etc.

Technote: Complex Surface Hole Location

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Technote: Positioning Holes in Complex Surfaces

When detailing the skin panels for aircraft it can be quite daunting trying to locate a series of holes accurately at a specified distance from the edge of the panel. Typically fillets to wings and horizontal stabilizers and transition pieces to vertical stabilizers are all complex surfaces.

In this example, we need a series of holes located 17.5 mm from the top and bottom edges. As you can see the surface at the top and the flange angle at the base varies.

The location of the first hole, top and bottom, is aligned vertically so we first create a workplane to determine the horizontal position of the first hole. Ultimately we will use a 3d intersection curve for the centre line of the holes which must first be determined by sweeping a circle profile sketch along the edge as a surface with the radius set to the required edge distance. Using a circular profile for the sweep ensures that any intersection point on the surface will be at the specified edge distance.

This swept surface is then trimmed to the first work plane to define the start point of the 3d surface intersection curve as shown.

The resulting 3d spline represents the line of the hole centres at 17.5mm from any point along the edge of the fillet.

We then apply a point and an axis (perpendicular to the surface) at this point to determine the hole direction. I suspect because it is not a regular surface the hole feature will not allow me to select the surface for direction. Use “Extend Start” when creating hole.

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To pattern the hole along the spline and be perpendicular to the surface create the array as shown below. Be sure to select the extended options for “Direction 1” and “Adjust”.

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Do the same for the top array of holes, resulting in 2 sets of holes aligned with the surface at 17.5 mm from the edge.

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This works for the vast majority of riveted panel connections where locally there is a degreee of flatness between the matching parts. In instances, where there is extreme curvature of the connecting faces the radius of the extruded circle would have to be adjusted accordingly.

Technote: Icosahedron Edge Calc

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Technote: Icosahedron Edge Calculation:

Geodesic geometry is rather interesting and occasionally quite challenging. I have recently been involved in a project to explore construction options for a structure based on an Icosahedron form. Although the basic geometry was created using Inventor I was curious about the underlying mathematical formulae pertaining to this type of geometry. I also like to be able to verify key dimensions in the 3d model by separate calculation.

One site I would recommend for calculating this stuff is Rechneronline which provides various options for calculating based on known criteria, an example of which I have shown below.

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The formula provided are comprehensive but lacking specifically the formula I was looking for to calculate the edge length for a given radius. The fourth formula in the list does include the value (a) which is the Edge Length and therefore can be transposed to determine the value we need.

Here I have rewritten the fourth formula with the value (a) shown as (L) for clarity.

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To determine the value (L) the transposed formula would be thus:

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This is a small snippet of information that I hope may be of some use for anyone interested in Geodesic geometry.  I should note that the 4 is a multiplication of the sum of the parenthesis and not a power to 4 superscript.

To use this in Inventor the formula can be entered as follows in the parameter dialogue box as a user parameter called “EdgeL”:

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The resulting Model value verifies the “d112” dimension from the 3d model.

Excel Spreadsheet Technote:

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1. Use names in lieu of cell addresses

Consider the ideal gas law (Wikipedia) calculation in the Excel spreadsheet in Figure 1.

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▲Figure 1. For easy readability, this ideal gas law calculation has labels in the left column, values in the center column, and units in the right column.

Contrast the following formulas for calculating the value in cell C6:

ufig_01

Although this is a simple example, the advantage of the formula on the right is evident. In order to reverse-­engineer formulas that use cell addresses, such as the one on the left, you would have to trace back the source of each quantity. The formula on the right uses cell names that relate to the variable names from the familiar algebraic ideal gas equation. The style of the spreadsheet layout also improves read­ability. In Figure 1, the labels in column B are the same as the names for the cells in column C.

There are three common ways to create names for cells. A convenient method is to select the cell, and type the name into the Name Box field above the column A label:

ufig_02

You can also transfer the label from an adjacent cell onto the cell of interest using Create from Selection in the Defined Names group on the Formula tab of the Ribbon (Figure 2). In fact, more than one label can be transferred with a single command.

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▲Figure 2. Create names for cells using the Create from Selection command.

 Use the Name Manager in the same Defined Names group to create, edit, and delete names. Cell names generally have global scope in the workbook, but it is possible, using the Name Manager, to create names that have scope only in the worksheet where they are created.

Note that certain names are not allowed. First, you cannot create a name that is the same as a cell address. Given the size of the modern worksheet (the Excel spreadsheet has 214= 16,384 columns and 220 = 1,048,576 rows — a total of 234 cells), with columns out to XFD, it is easy to confuse a name with a cell address. Second, you cannot use the letters R or C as names or those letters followed by any digits. This restriction harkens back to the R-C method of cell addressing (i.e., row-column), which is rarely used today.

The following shows an example of practical formulae using named cells.

2. Set up calculations in their natural sequence and targeting methods.

It has been said before many times to start at the beginning and finish at the end. For most engineering problems, there is a natural sequence that starts with basic data and proceeds step-by-step to a final result. However, in many calculations, you may need to find one or more starting values that yield a desired final result, or a target value (Figure 3). The target may be a specific value, or it could be the minimum or maximum of a function, such as cost or profitability. The calculation may have more than one input cell, and there may be constraints on various elements of the calculation.

Figure Template Standard

▲Figure 3. Targeting methods, such as Goal Seek or Solver, can help you determine the input value that yields a desired output or target value.

For one-time solutions of these targeting problems, you can often simply adjust the input value by trial-and-error and meet the target after only a few tries. Excel offers two tools that automate this procedure: Goal Seek and Solver. (The Solver is an add-in provided by Frontline Systems. For information and guidance on using the Solver, see www.solver.com.)

Excel’s Goal Seek is only able to solve target value problems. It is a black-box tool that does not give the user options or control over its numerical procedure. For example, we want to determine the liquid depth in a 4m-diameter spherical tank that corresponds to a volume of 10 m3. The formula is:

08-B2B_Spreadsheets_Eq_1

where V is the volume, h is the liquid depth in the tank, and Rd is the radius of the tank. We set up a calculation on the spreadsheet based on a test value of 2 m for the depth (Figure 4a-b).

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▲Figure 4. The total volume of a liquid in a tank is calculated for an arbitrary liquid height of 2 m (a) by the formulas shown in (b). Use Goal Seek to set the volume equal to 10 m3 by changing cell h (c) to find the depth corresponding to a 10-m3 volume (d).

Invoke Goal Seek from the What-If Analysis drop-down list in the Data Tools group of the Data tab of the Ribbon. Complete its fields, as shown in Figure 4c, by setting cell V equal to 10 m3 by changing cell h. Upon clicking the OK button and accepting the result, we have the solution that h = 1.45 m (Figure 4d).