Airfoil DAT to Spline

[scorpio9999]

Hi everyone!

I decided to create dedicated thread for my Airfoil DAT to Spline  script.

Here you can share your ideas, ask questions and get support as from me as from other members of community who already using it.

On time of writing script has been downloaded over 800 times.

Most number of issues which I have got by e-mail with script was due to wrong DAT file structure.

For example, all values in one line, wrong delimiters, etc.

Proper DAT file should look like this

CLARK Y AIRFOIL
1.00000  0.00060
0.99000  0.00297
0.98000  0.00533
0.97000  0.00769
0.96000  0.01002
0.94000  0.01462
0.92000  0.01912
0.90000  0.02350
0.88000  0.02779
0.86000  0.03197
0.84000  0.03605
0.82000  0.04002
0.80000  0.04388
0.78000  0.04763
0.76000  0.05126
0.74000  0.05477
0.72000  0.05816
0.70000  0.06143
0.68000  0.06458
0.66000  0.06760
0.64000  0.07048
0.62000  0.07321
0.60000  0.07576
0.58000  0.07815
0.56000  0.08035
0.54000  0.08237
0.52000  0.08421
0.50000  0.08588
0.48000  0.08736
0.46000  0.08864
0.44000  0.08972
0.42000  0.09057
0.40000  0.09117
0.38000  0.09152
0.36000  0.09163
0.34000  0.09151
0.32000  0.09119
0.30000  0.09068
0.28000  0.09000
0.26000  0.08908
0.24000  0.08783
0.22000  0.08614
0.20000  0.08392
0.18000  0.08107
0.16000  0.07757
0.14000  0.07344
0.12000  0.06862
0.10000  0.06300
0.08000  0.05643
0.06000  0.04876
0.05000  0.04428
0.04000  0.03913
0.03000  0.03302
0.02000  0.02537
0.01200  0.01786
0.00800  0.01374
0.00400  0.00892
0.00200  0.00580
0.00100  0.00373
0.00050  0.00234
0.00000  0.00000
0.00050 -0.00467
0.00100 -0.00594
0.00200 -0.00781
0.00400 -0.01051
0.00800 -0.01429
0.01200 -0.01697
0.02000 -0.02027
0.03000 -0.02261
0.04000 -0.02452
0.05000 -0.02605
0.06000 -0.02713
0.08000 -0.02846
0.10000 -0.02938
0.12000 -0.02996
0.14000 -0.03024
0.16000 -0.03025
0.18000 -0.03005
0.20000 -0.02967
0.22000 -0.02914
0.24000 -0.02852
0.26000 -0.02782
0.28000 -0.02707
0.30000 -0.02631
0.32000 -0.02556
0.34000 -0.02482
0.36000 -0.02409
0.38000 -0.02336
0.40000 -0.02263
0.42000 -0.02190
0.44000 -0.02117
0.46000 -0.02044
0.48000 -0.01970
0.50000 -0.01896
0.52000 -0.01823
0.54000 -0.01749
0.56000 -0.01676
0.58000 -0.01602
0.60000 -0.01529
0.62000 -0.01456
0.64000 -0.01382
0.66000 -0.01309
0.68000 -0.01235
0.70000 -0.01162
0.72000 -0.01088
0.74000 -0.01015
0.76000 -0.00941
0.78000 -0.00868
0.80000 -0.00794
0.82000 -0.00721
0.84000 -0.00648
0.86000 -0.00574
0.88000 -0.00501
0.90000 -0.00427
0.92000 -0.00354
0.94000 -0.00280
0.96000 -0.00207
0.97000 -0.00170
0.98000 -0.00133
0.99000 -0.00097
1.00000 -0.00060

or like this

EPPLER 557 (w commas)
1.00000, 0.00000
0.99668, 0.00144
0.98772, 0.00542
0.97412, 0.01075
0.95547, 0.01657
0.93163, 0.02306
0.90304, 0.03026
0.87014, 0.03806
0.83341, 0.04631
0.79337, 0.05484
0.75055, 0.06343
0.70549, 0.07184
0.65873, 0.07984
0.61076, 0.08718
0.56211, 0.09364
0.51325, 0.09899
0.46460, 0.10306
0.41664, 0.10570
0.36975, 0.10679
0.32431, 0.10625
0.28069, 0.10407
0.23921, 0.10022
0.20011, 0.09480
0.16368, 0.08799
0.13028, 0.07998
0.10021, 0.07093
0.07373, 0.06101
0.05106, 0.05044
0.03238, 0.03945
0.01782, 0.02833
0.00748, 0.01743
0.00151, 0.00726
0.00045, 0.00385
0.00013, 0.00207
0.00001, 0.00038
0.00003, -0.00042
0.00011, -0.00119
0.00027, -0.00192
0.00052, -0.00263
0.00087, -0.00334
0.00129, -0.00406
0.00233, -0.00553
0.00361, -0.00701
0.00596, -0.00926
0.01636, -0.01627
0.03236, -0.02355
0.05314, -0.03040
0.07846, -0.03669
0.10798, -0.04235
0.14125, -0.04729
0.17779, -0.05132
0.21709, -0.05422
0.25862, -0.05560
0.30216, -0.05491
0.34786, -0.05189
0.39581, -0.04661
0.44615, -0.03942
0.49872, -0.03111
0.55291, -0.02243
0.60797, -0.01395
0.66303, -0.00619
0.71717, 0.00039
0.76936, 0.00548
0.81857, 0.00886
0.86373, 0.01046
0.90383, 0.01039
0.93794, 0.00884
0.96512, 0.00621
0.98462, 0.00324
0.99619, 0.00090
1.00000, 0.00000

The first line should be name of airfoil and new sketch will be renamed with use of it.

All following lines are X and Y coordinates (relatively to selected construction plane).

If the first and last coordinates are the same spline will be closed. If different, spline will be open.

As bonus I attached the latest (unpublished) version of "Airfoil DAT to Spline" script. Hopefully you know what to do with it.

[louis_dionne]

Check that the imported Dat file ends where it started.
The airfoil must form a closed loop.
The attached Clark-Y should be good and closed.

Cheers
L3D

[scorpio9999]

Looks like you didn't select construction plane.

Please watch a video carefully.

[Anonymous]

although i did as you sayed in the first comments of yours about the dat file format 

[macvidlerZGMTH]

For Mac OS users who can't use .DAT 

not sure how to make a dat file on a mac and unfortunately the tutorials always seem to be PC focused.

found the best way is to go to you search bar and type in "Text Edit" then in the bottom left corner click "new document" copy and past in your coordinates from airfoiltools.com then go to the bold "TextEdit" in top bar of screen and choose "Preferences" then under the New Document tab choose Plain text and then under the Open and Save -- Plain text file encoding change both files to Unicode (UTF-8). then save the document and should open fine in Fusion360 using the Airfoil DAT to Spline... but I have no idea what I'm doing but hopefully this helps???

[scorpio9999]

DAT extension is just for user to distinguish purpose of the file. You can save as TXT or even without any extension, It's not important. Script itself propose DAT as default value for extension but you can change it to any. Use drop down list for this. What is really important is format of file. It should be plain text, no any fonts or whatever.

I never had a MacOS computer. Pay $1450 for Mac mini just to support users is not affordable for me.

[scorpio9999]

Dears,

Just to inform you that I uploaded version 2.0 to Autodesk. It will take some time for verification.

What's new in 2.0?

In addendum to Selig DAT format now it can process Lednicer DAT format.

Also now it has user friendly error messages if file has wrong structure.

P.S. Also I uploaded version 2.0 of Airfoil DAT Optimizer as for Windows as for MacOS. I'll need one test user to check installer when it will be made by Autodesk.

[ICanSpinIt]

@Anonymous Have you gotten a successful install on Mac? I cannot instal the .pkg either.

[ICanSpinIt]

For some reason I cannot install the .pkg file from the App Store. I can however install it manually but I need the zip file. Can you send me or post up the zip file for the the 1.8 and the 2.0? 

Thank you and much appreciated

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am not the developer of the script. You have to address your issues
with the developer. Cheers Klaus

[scorpio9999]

For some reason Autodesk do not respond to published applications.

So, I attached archives of folders for manual installation on your computers.

Hopefully you know how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I could test the script once its available by autodesk.

Best Regards, Klaus

[scorpio9999]

Klaus, check your e-mail. 😉

[scorpio9999]

Just to inform that latest version (2.0) of both scripts for Win64 platform has been released.

Who installed manually from previous archive please update. There is one small update in code.

I'm waiting feedback from two users to confirm release on MacOS platform.

Thank you!

[scorpio9999]

Both scripts for MacOS have been released.

Who installed manualky please delete it, download official version and install.

[scorpio9999]

This is the map of countries where users of this script are located (marked in blue).

[scorpio9999]

After October 2020 update of Fusion 360 a bug was revealed.

If construction plane is parallel to YZ origin plane than airfoil is shifted.

I do not plan to publish the fix as next version because it's bug of Fusion 360 and can be fixed any time.

For now I made a fix for manual installation.

You should find where Airfoil DAT to Spline is located.

Script details

Then create a folder for version 2.0.1 next to it and unzip attached file.

Please note that structure of folders and files should be the same as with previous version.

[Anonymous]

I've a well formatted dat file, named wing.dat, but loading it Fusion show the following message:

Unknown DAT format

Here the content:

NACA 63-415 AIRFOIL
0.003000 0.012870
0.005250 0.015850
0.009910 0.020740
0.021980 0.029640
0.046600 0.042640
0.071470 0.052610
0.096470 0.060770
0.146690 0.073480
0.197050 0.082790
0.247500 0.089410
0.298000 0.093620
0.348520 0.095590
0.399050 0.095270
0.449550 0.092890
0.500000 0.088710
0.550390 0.082980
0.600700 0.075950
0.650930 0.067800
0.701060 0.058770
0.751090 0.049070
0.801020 0.039000
0.850850 0.028850
0.900590 0.018840
0.950280 0.009310
1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000
0.007000 -0.010870
0.009750 -0.013050
0.015090 -0.016460
0.028020 -0.022200
0.053400 -0.030000
0.078530 -0.035650
0.103530 -0.040090
0.153310 -0.046560
0.202950 -0.050950
0.252500 -0.053610
0.302000 -0.054740
0.351480 -0.054390
0.400950 -0.052430
0.450450 -0.049090
0.500000 -0.044590
0.549610 -0.039180
0.599300 -0.033110
0.649070 -0.026600
0.698940 -0.019890
0.748910 -0.013270
0.799890 -0.007160
0.849150 -0.001930
0.899410 0.001840
0.949720 0.003330
1.000000 0.000000

For information also using the Optimezer script it show the same message.

[Anonymous]

Hi, try the file mentioned by scorpio9999, please. It’s a known good one. I have no idea what’s wrong with your file, but it doesn’t work on my installation either. Cheers, Klaus

[scorpio9999]

Hi!

Gents, you shoud celebrate a New Year. 🙂

The problem is in order of X coordinates.

Expected start from 1.0 decreasing to 0.0 and increasing back to 1.0.

Happy New Year!

[louis_dionne]

Your points form 2 splines.
Try re-arranging the points order into a single continuous spline.