Pretty Slick! My other main PITA with airfoils is thickening the trailing edge. I’ve been doing it by driving style spline control points with equations in profile sketches. On smaller airfoils, the trailing edge can be really thin which is a problem for some manufacturing processes. If you just throw a fillet on it, you end up reducing the wing area.
Hi Zack, good point about the trailing edge. I have an idea that might work with what I have done here. Would you need the trailing edge consistent in thickness?
Typically 0.5mm minimum. Typically consistent thickness. I usually radius the trailing edge for 3d printed wings. It would be flat for a larger scale wing that has a sheet metal surface. Similar thickness. Seeing your process here I considered using some simple offset curves surfaces to rework the trailing edge after your 3d wing is lofted. May play with this technique next week. I like not fussing with a bunch of equations. The big plus to equations is that you can parametrically edit the airfoils. You could easily change from NACA 44xx to 44zz, etc
A nice little workaround for the perennial scaling problem. Did you consider using equation driven curves to generate the profiles? I've used them to create a couple of NACA aerofoils in the dim and distant past.
Hi, I downloaded the .dat point file from airfoiltools.com, renamed it .txt, imported as points into Rhino, then made a polyline through the points so I could make a surface to import into SW. I find importing a surface more reliable than importing a curve. I manually drew the splines used to generate the sections.
Great model Very useful in some cases, additionally, in case relevant for the project, you may consider >> project section on angled plane, retrieve angled surface for loft variations blending with initial surface >> blend surfaces with grooves down to slick surfaces, achieving nice surface gradients Thanks for sharing Andrew !
@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio Indeed, based on needs, you can even project on 2 planes, and get parametric scaling on 1D to x%/mm/etc and the other D to y%/mm/.. Plane project can be nice, if you need to translate a loft external profile (say front plane) to (say right plane), if sections are non square|cil, thus having better loft guides, end surface
Thanks Andrew...
welcome back andrew, thanks for your vedios.
No problem!
Pretty Slick! My other main PITA with airfoils is thickening the trailing edge. I’ve been doing it by driving style spline control points with equations in profile sketches.
On smaller airfoils, the trailing edge can be really thin which is a problem for some manufacturing processes.
If you just throw a fillet on it, you end up reducing the wing area.
Hi Zack, good point about the trailing edge. I have an idea that might work with what I have done here. Would you need the trailing edge consistent in thickness?
Typically 0.5mm minimum. Typically consistent thickness. I usually radius the trailing edge for 3d printed wings. It would be flat for a larger scale wing that has a sheet metal surface. Similar thickness.
Seeing your process here I considered using some simple offset curves surfaces to rework the trailing edge after your 3d wing is lofted. May play with this technique next week. I like not fussing with a bunch of equations.
The big plus to equations is that you can parametrically edit the airfoils. You could easily change from NACA 44xx to 44zz, etc
A nice little workaround for the perennial scaling problem.
Did you consider using equation driven curves to generate the profiles? I've used them to create a couple of NACA aerofoils in the dim and distant past.
Hi, I downloaded the .dat point file from airfoiltools.com, renamed it .txt, imported as points into Rhino, then made a polyline through the points so I could make a surface to import into SW. I find importing a surface more reliable than importing a curve. I manually drew the splines used to generate the sections.
Great model
Very useful in some cases, additionally, in case relevant for the project, you may consider
>> project section on angled plane, retrieve angled surface for loft variations blending with initial surface
>> blend surfaces with grooves down to slick surfaces, achieving nice surface gradients
Thanks for sharing Andrew !
I like projection onto a plane idea. 1D scale!
@@AndrewJacksonDesignStudio Indeed, based on needs, you can even project on 2 planes, and get parametric scaling on 1D to x%/mm/etc and the other D to y%/mm/..
Plane project can be nice, if you need to translate a loft external profile (say front plane) to (say right plane), if sections are non square|cil, thus having better loft guides, end surface