F-18 Mold Line Surfacing
F-18 Mold Line Surfacing
(OP)
Hello Everyone!
I have a part that I'm working on that requires a surface to be created by using the mold line data points supplied in the Northrop Data book. This part is for the F-18 and the part will be on the exterior of the aircraft. Has anyone worked on or is familiar with creating a surface from this. The data book is from 1989 and most of the people that I worked with in the past that knew how to interpret this data is no longer in the industry.
If anyone could point me in the right direction of a person that may be able to help me on this would be great!
Scott
I have a part that I'm working on that requires a surface to be created by using the mold line data points supplied in the Northrop Data book. This part is for the F-18 and the part will be on the exterior of the aircraft. Has anyone worked on or is familiar with creating a surface from this. The data book is from 1989 and most of the people that I worked with in the past that knew how to interpret this data is no longer in the industry.
If anyone could point me in the right direction of a person that may be able to help me on this would be great!
Scott





RE: F-18 Mold Line Surfacing
Points (xyz) are usually for driving splines (or other types of smooth curves), and then the splines would be used to sweep a compound surface.
Point-vectors (xyz, ijk) are usually for driving lines, and then the lines would be used to sweep a ruled surface.
And of course, there are all kinds of variations on that, I.E.; hyperbola & parabola data, true arc data, actual hand drawn loft data, etc.
However, I wouldn't use a Data Book to hand key in surface data. Takes too much time, and is error prone. A lot of us have many horror stories about days of keying in data back in the old days.
Request from your buyer the digital dataset of the surface. Most all of the major aerospace manufacturers have converted their old Loft and Data Book information into digital datasets. I am surprised and happy about how many of the really old surfaces that have been converted.
Some buyers (who don't know) will say that the digital dataset doesn't exist, or, they can't get it.
Remind them of the time & error costs, and offer to procure the data yourself.
Harold G. Morgan
CATIA, QA, CNC & CMM Programmer
RE: F-18 Mold Line Surfacing
Scott
RE: F-18 Mold Line Surfacing