Designed a car body that went into manufacture today.
Discussion
Good luck and keep us all posted.
Stu_1.0 said:
So is this set to become an Aston Martin racer?
The car will be racing in an Aston Martin Owners Club series. That is as much as I know regarding its intended purpose. Oh and that the client wanted a car that was completely unique. Only one will ever be made, hence the reason I said it is being manufactured as opposed to being produced (pedantic I know).Thanks for everyones interest and comments.
That's a superb job! Thanks for sharing the renders and live pics. Can't wait to see more progress :-) BTW, what CAD package did you use for the job? I'd love to know how you did the eggbox style of profiles with them all slotting together after being cut on the router. I'm sure it would be far from an easy explanation, did you model it in one piece or did each profile have to be done separately? Or did you create a one piece model and then slice it into the individual profiles?
In no particular order:
1) I have my own suite of Solidworks Premium - the best version - as I am a self-employed contractor. If you need or know someone that needs a 3D expert or someone that can convert old 2D info (paper plans, AutoCAD etc) to 3D, then please give them my name! You can see my work is of a high standard.
2) The car was not scanned, but is an original shape. Andy showed me a whole load of pictures of cars he liked and a set of ones he didn't and told me to go and create something that did not look like any of them!
The next few weeks were a textbook case of client and designer co-operation where frequent visits to Mitchell Motors, resulted in numerous design tweaks. Some examples of how it changed and what was done are shown below.
We both learnt a lot from each other. Andy had definite ideas built over years of experience building and restoring classics cars, so I would get hit with phrases like "more haunch, more haunch" when talking about the rear arches. "On the rock Stu, it has got to be on the rock". Bemused look from me. He then gets out a straight edge and proceeds to (gently) offer it up to a DB5, AC Ace and a few other cars in his workshop to show that classic car side profiles should not have concave sides - "it looks c*** and is difficult to make". Looking down from the top the shape should look curvatious like a women.....we both agreed this was a bit Swiss Toni, but it perfectly expressed what was required and that was all that mattered.
Having the PC to sort everything out before work started, saved him a load of cash and frustration.
3) CAD techniques? Too numerous to mention really. I do remember thinking that every trick in the book had been wheeled out to get the design done.
4) Dimensions/tolerences etc. The car has only a tiny number of straight lines. Even lines that look straight in the pictures are subtly curved. This was achieved by using splines and not traditional geometric shapes. This makes the car look more organic, but splines can be a bit of a pain to work with as they have a massive amount of adjustment built in. In other words, you can muck around for hours minutely adjusting just one spline, seeking the perfect shape.
The chosen shape is constrained by hundreds if not thousands of dimensions. I dimensioned to the nearest mm, but when the buck was made it was created within a tolerence of 0.05mm! The design allowed for expansion and contraction of the wood.
Five incarnations of design below. In total, 21 versions were created!
First version and close to final version together. 1st version rejected as being too TVR and Jaguar in looks. Not a bad thing - they make great designs - but not what the client wanted.
And again
Agonising over the front wing shape. Changed loads of times WITHIN the 21 versions. In other words, before I presented Andy with a change, I had changed it loads of times myself.
I have been given permission to develop the 1st version as a separate project if I want to, as it is so different from the end product. So if anyone is interested.........
1) I have my own suite of Solidworks Premium - the best version - as I am a self-employed contractor. If you need or know someone that needs a 3D expert or someone that can convert old 2D info (paper plans, AutoCAD etc) to 3D, then please give them my name! You can see my work is of a high standard.
2) The car was not scanned, but is an original shape. Andy showed me a whole load of pictures of cars he liked and a set of ones he didn't and told me to go and create something that did not look like any of them!
The next few weeks were a textbook case of client and designer co-operation where frequent visits to Mitchell Motors, resulted in numerous design tweaks. Some examples of how it changed and what was done are shown below.
We both learnt a lot from each other. Andy had definite ideas built over years of experience building and restoring classics cars, so I would get hit with phrases like "more haunch, more haunch" when talking about the rear arches. "On the rock Stu, it has got to be on the rock". Bemused look from me. He then gets out a straight edge and proceeds to (gently) offer it up to a DB5, AC Ace and a few other cars in his workshop to show that classic car side profiles should not have concave sides - "it looks c*** and is difficult to make". Looking down from the top the shape should look curvatious like a women.....we both agreed this was a bit Swiss Toni, but it perfectly expressed what was required and that was all that mattered.
Having the PC to sort everything out before work started, saved him a load of cash and frustration.
3) CAD techniques? Too numerous to mention really. I do remember thinking that every trick in the book had been wheeled out to get the design done.
4) Dimensions/tolerences etc. The car has only a tiny number of straight lines. Even lines that look straight in the pictures are subtly curved. This was achieved by using splines and not traditional geometric shapes. This makes the car look more organic, but splines can be a bit of a pain to work with as they have a massive amount of adjustment built in. In other words, you can muck around for hours minutely adjusting just one spline, seeking the perfect shape.
The chosen shape is constrained by hundreds if not thousands of dimensions. I dimensioned to the nearest mm, but when the buck was made it was created within a tolerence of 0.05mm! The design allowed for expansion and contraction of the wood.
Five incarnations of design below. In total, 21 versions were created!
First version and close to final version together. 1st version rejected as being too TVR and Jaguar in looks. Not a bad thing - they make great designs - but not what the client wanted.
And again
Agonising over the front wing shape. Changed loads of times WITHIN the 21 versions. In other words, before I presented Andy with a change, I had changed it loads of times myself.
I have been given permission to develop the 1st version as a separate project if I want to, as it is so different from the end product. So if anyone is interested.........
Edited by Whitney-Paine on Tuesday 20th January 09:22
Edited by Whitney-Paine on Tuesday 20th January 09:24
Fees: It varies according to the client. However, I tend to charge per job. A contract price is fairer to the client and focuses my mind better. We both know where we are. Having said that, my bank balance would be a lot greater if I charged per hour! Passion costs.........me normally!
Re fees, my work normally results in a net saving for the client as everything is worked out before work commences. This obviously saves time, money and reduces frustrating snagging problems.
Racing programme? Will find out. Can't remember exact details.
Re fees, my work normally results in a net saving for the client as everything is worked out before work commences. This obviously saves time, money and reduces frustrating snagging problems.
Racing programme? Will find out. Can't remember exact details.
Edited by Whitney-Paine on Tuesday 20th January 10:25
Fantastic work there, puts my weedy efforts to shame! I would love to get to this level with my own project some day, but at present I have nowhere near enough experience to control splines to that level. My current project is based mainly around geometric shapes, but I can almost get away with it being a LMP type racer.
I must get started on a more curvaceous roadster type vehicle. Maybe in 10 or so years I may have got to a level where it could be manufactured!
I must get started on a more curvaceous roadster type vehicle. Maybe in 10 or so years I may have got to a level where it could be manufactured!
Whitney-Paine said:
Estimated time saving for Andy will be 35%.
That would be around 1,000 hours then, based on the last special he built? I've see the chassis for this new car a few times as it's been being built, and it looks great - light but very strong. This body will really set it off beautifully. Andrew is a true craftsman, it was his team that rebuilt my crashed Bristol from a twisted wreck last year.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff