Mini Cooper s Model

[michael3130]

Well Guys and Girls, I have decided to bite the bullet with a bit of persuasion from Tobbo and start modelling the Mini Cooper s in ProE after not having a huge amount of luck finding a suitable model on the web.


I've laid up the views shown in the pic below:





I don't have ISDX.


I'm going to make a start so if anyone has any suggestions, criticisms or other input it would be appreciated.

 

[tobbo]

Sweet!!! nice to see.


Is the scale like the measurement of the blueprints? (iow , are you modelling it in actuall 1:1 scale)


//Tobias

 

[michael3130]

I've just pulled it inat a random scale and will draw it up according to the blueprints. When I finally finish I'll scale it up if necessary but for what I need it for it probably won't be necessary.


All I need now is lots of encouragement and even more motivation.

 

[tobbo]

ahh... so , if i got it right. The wheelbase in your model will NOT be 2467 mm?


Now you just have to start modelling. A tip could be to first make som kind of skeleton or at least place some references (datum planes, axis, points and so on) And..ihope that your are only going to modell one half of the car, and then mirror it

And as i said, if your into trouble. Just upload the model and you will get help.


//Tobias

 

[[-Skint-]]

Brave man! Good luck buddy

 

[Bugzuki]

Could you upload the model with the pictures in it so others can give a try at it?

 

[michael3130]

2009-10-30_101546_Mini_Cooper_s.zip


Here's the file. I think the appearance file along with the images is required as the images are put in as a decal through the appearance editor. Let me know if you have problems with it.


Tobias, yes, I had planned to do points, axis, datum planes, etc to help model it. I also have a very faceted model of the Mini Cooper which although faceted is pretty good and should help. As well as this I'm heading to the local toy shop to buy a model of the Mini which will help with all the curvature. And yes, I would model half and mirror it.


I'm probably well out of my depth on this one as far as surfaces goes but hey, I'm always up for a challenge and no challenge in my life has been as big as dealing with my mother-in-law so this should be simple compared to that

 

[design-engine]

make the wheels larger ... so you can make it like a hotwheels car where some parts are oversized.

 

[Bugzuki]

I added the last few colors you created with the image to my appearance.dmt file and added the pictures to my startin directory and it loaded perfectly. After I restarted Pro/E of course.

 

[mcgowanp]

I hear ya Michael!! Your not out of your depth at all... ... yet!!! if you've been modelling the mini for 6 months and still cant get it rightthen yeah maybe a wee tiny bit out of your depth. other than that your just like the rest of us. Get stuck in and give it a go, if you get stuck we'll try and get you going again.


Paddy

 

[michael3130]

Bart, most of the Minis here run on a max of 18inch rims though I reckon the bigger the better....fill those arches!!!!

Cool Bugzuki, glad it worked ok.

 

[michael3130]

OK, I have made a start, beginning with the glass. See pic below:





I'd like a bit of advice on how to go about modelling the roof. It's the sort of area I've always had problems with. I'm going to go ahead and try it but a few tips on the attack method would be good.

 

[tobbo]

since i was one of the ones that suggested you to model the mini yourself, i feel i got to give you some advice about the roof

you could try something like this (just a simple 4 sided BB , then a projected curve onto it, trimback, then another surf that creates the "radious". And if you like, set the "radioussurf " to be tangent or curvature to the green sweptsurf..just to add some more controll :





Please post pics of your progress!!


//Tobias

 

[zpaolo]

Tobias in my experience there are a lot of things to consider to get this particular shape to work "right", and I'm really not sure if the way I do it is the best.

How do you build the trimming curve, and the "round" surface? I usually build the trimming curve offsetting the "green" surface sides, then add fillets in sketcher (or CC splines). The swept "green" surface... I'd build it as a VSS with controlled angle, or drafting a simple extrude. For the "round" surface I usually start with boundary blends on the "long" segments, two tangency constraints, then add 4 sided boundary blends for the corners.

I used a similar technique for the hull of my cellphone: [url]http://zpaolo.deviantart.com/art/Custom-Mobile-Phone-2-13809 7062[/url]

Paolo

Edited by: zpaolo

 

[tobbo]

The pics i uploaded was just to show an ex of how the roofcould be done, or to give Michael some ideas of how to proceed with the mini.


Anyway, the green surf in my modell is a VSS soI can control the angle of the "round surf" when it hits the datumplane..... just like you do when you are designingsurfacemodells for casting (in other words, to control the draftangle at the draftplane)


To start with i created a sketched box, just so i can control the size if the "roof" in this case (and to get something to connect my curves to , i dont think "sketching in the air without referenses" is that good) .


Then i created the "2 cross curves" that you can see in the pic, and made a Vss with constant section to get the grey surf. (so far a square surf, i will get back to that)


After that i created the outerlinecurve as a sketch(where the "round surf" meets the green surf) actually i did this in 2 steps, first I created 4 splines that i control with draghandles, attached to the Bounding box. Then another sketch, using the splines in sketch1with "use edge command" and created new splines in the corners to achive nice and smooth "rounds"/"radious"


Next step was to create the vss (a simple sketch that is controlled with lenght and angle).


Then, i created the curve used for the trimback as a sketch by offsetting the "outline sketch" (sketch 1) and added splines in the corners as rounds, projected it on to the "grey surf" and trimed it as you can see in the pics....


And yes , the lighter grey surf is a BB whit cc conditions (to he green / grey surf) and some controllpoints in the corners , because yes, the surf could act pretty strange there....


This was just something that i made very quick to give an ex of how it could be done. If i would have made it more seriosly, i would defenatly control the "round surf" whit some curves and not just whit "tangency" or "curvature" of the edges! I probably wouldnt have done the grey surf with VSS either , and if i would, i would probably controll it with a graph the get more controll of it. And...maybe Iwould only do one half of the roof and then mirror it...


Please post some more ex of how it could be done!! I think the most interesting part of the car will be the area around the headlights, and the hood!


//Tobias

 

[michael3130]

Hi Tobbo,


Thanks for the advice so far.


I had pm'd tobbo but have had to put on hold the mini modelling as we are current;y going through redundancies though I found out yesterday my job is safe so I will proceed shortly. I have the windows and roof pretty much complete so will post a pic later today, have to head to Dublin now.

 

[zpaolo]

Please post some more ex of how it could be done!! I
think the most interesting part of the car will be the area around the
headlights, and the hood!

Well I basically do it like you do, and yes I usually add some curves
to control the shape of the boundary blends. One thing I usually do,
for the "square" trimming curve, I use as you said a simple box as a
guide and add arcs for the curved sides (are splines better?). I then
fillet the arcs with simple rounds, but then I substitute rounds with
splines for curvature continuity, this allows me to change the radius
of the long runs and also of the fillet in an easy way.



Paolo