Splitting bodies to make aicraft windows
It is just a guess but I think you are forgetting that once you do the outside sketch Split Body, it creates a new body which you have to select to do the inside sketch Split Body. I did three windows using a sketch called "Door", I hope that is right. You have to do them individually due to the fact that the inside body is created by the outside Split Body. The red arrow is pointing to the inside created body from the outside sketch Split Body. Model is attached.
John Hackney, Retired
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Timeline order is illegal. I will try to explain.
When you split the fuselage for a window frame, works as expected
The second Split body (for a window pane) is not splitting the fuselage anymore, it is splitting the window frame and this also works as expected.
Rectangular Pattern has to fail because the second split is not splitting future in time window panes.
Easy fix. Change order of cutting tool. Split the fuselage to cut window panes. Rectangular pattern those.
Second split is cutting the frame outline out of the fuselage (and not the window panes) Rectangular pattern those.
Works as expected, visibility changed on some items.
Might help...
Hi,
I have reviewed your model, not bad. Not the way I would have done it but still very well done.
As I understand it you are having issues creating the windows using rectangular pattern. After
stepping through the model from start to finish, the first thing I tried was a simple rectangular
pattern using your first window cutout and creating a single line of 13 windows. It worked the
first time.
I am not sure what you are doing wrong but the software is working fine.
I do have a few pointers that may help you for next time you try to model
something with this much detail.
The first thing I saw when I looked at your file was a Yellow Flag in the timeline.
In this case it is only a lost reference to a Canvas and does not affect the rest of
the model but in general terms - Red and Yellow Flags should keep you awake at
night, ALWAYS fix them as soon as they occur.
I like the way you have used the three view canvases and you seem to have correctly
calibrated them.
You have used Forms to create some of your components. I would not have done it this
way. With forms you don't have a timeline about how they were created, just a form. I
think the whole point of using parametric software for this type of modelling is to use it
for ALL of the model. Then you can see precisely how the model is put together and can
easily make changes later.
I do not like the way that you are creating most of your components within the main
component and then turning them into Components and Assemblies. This method makes
it very difficult to track how these components were created and leaves a very messy
timeline. You are much better to create the Fuselage Component and activate it and build
it within that active component. When you are ready to move to the next component, create
a new active component and start with that. It keeps things all together. If you need to go
back and add or modify a Component, activate it and go back in the timeline. You seem to
jump around quite a bit and some of the component you are working on is on the Top component
timeline and some is in the component timeline.
I don't see why you created the Wings in three separate sections. You could simply have lofted
them as a single wing and still go back and create the hardware (slots, slats, flaps and ailerons)
later. While we are on the wings and hardware, you Mirrored the model and then AFTER that you
created more hardware on the wings? This means you will need to model it again on the other wing.
Using Mirror as you have is the right way to do this but it is the LAST thing you do on your model.
Finally, what is your intention with this model? Are you going to 3d print it? Just take a screenshot
and say "look what I did"? Do something else with it. The reason I ask is that in it's present form
there are no joints to join all the components together and there are a number of bodies associated
with various components that are simply floating in space and not connected to anything. The model
it self looks great but it is just a bunch of stuff floating in space right now and you could not fabricate
this model in it's present form.
Overall a really good model. Not sure what your linear pattern issue is as it worked first time for me.
Cheers
Andrew
This is what happens when I try to add colour to your pattern. I get this weird overlap of the fuselage colour and the window colour. Any ideas on what's going on?
@davebYYPCU wrote:
Why are you using Split Body, if you only want to paint different colours.
Use split Face, again inside profile first, outside profile second.
You will end up with no new bodies, just a fuselage with independent faces.
Might help….
Because then you'll have to apply an appearance to each individual face.
But you could group them into selection sets rather than bodies or subcomponents within a component group. Though applying materials to a selection set is a clunky PITA.
I had no problems using a pattern for the last two split features in your model.
If you can create a screen recording of your workflow, that should help us identify where this fails. I use OBS Studio for such things.
Hi,
I think that the problem here with the discolouration is that there are two bodies on
top of each other. It is probably the fuselage and the window trying to be displayed
at the same time.
Another method that you may be able to use here might be a Combine Intersect to get
rid of this.
My cutout of the windows does not overlap like yours does so I am not sure
exactly what you have done. If you do have two bodies overlapping then what
you want to do is use the Combine Tool but use the Intersect switch so that the
body that remains afterwards is the one that intersected BOTH bodies which is
where your problem is.
In this case you will probably want a new component and keep tools.
I don't see any issues with achieving what you want, it is just a matter
of setting it up right. In this case, I would probably cut the window and
the frame as separate bodies and depending on what you want to do with
the model maybe set them up as components. I would modify the
appearances and either use Group or joints to join them together. Then you
should be able to use the linear Pattern to make your row of windows.
If you get a bunch of fuselage patterns copied then you are selecting the
incorrect bodies for your pattern. Also don't forget that fusion has a few
issues with choosing what to call new bodies after they have been split off
another body. Sometimes the parent body remain and the new body is Body X,
and sometimes the new body is the Parent and the old one becomes Body X.
It is very frustrating not being able to choose sometimes. This may be simply
a naming issue not a component issue.
How would I model instead of the forms? Probably with Lofts and the other tools.
For example, one of my first aircraft models was a Lockheed 1011. You modeled
the Wing Box with a Form, I achieved the same end result with an extrusion for the
main box and lofts to get the curves right on each end and blend with the fuselage.
Looked exactly like my 3-view canvases. That is not to say you did it wrong. There
are many ways to achieve the same end result in fusion, you just did it different.
One of the things that I have learned along the way is to try to keep my designs as
logical and well set out as possible. To do this I work as if I was part of an engineering
team and my work has to fit in with the rest of the team and also has to be readable
and reproducible if I left the team. I am a student engineer and I don't know it all but
this seems to work. I will find out when I join a real team of engineers.
To help me I will also try to create as much of the framework of my design before I start
designing. I am currently working on several projects at the moment but one of them
is a simple one cylinder diesel engine (I have a book on engine design and I am not afraid
to use it 😎). I have not started to draw anything yet but there are several Assemblies and
sub-Assemblies that I know will be part of my design. What I have done is simply create
these assemblies and sub-assemblies ahead of time so that everything is logical.
Now this is not nearly a complete design but it is a good framework and has much of what
I will have to do later already created. I know that I will need to add Components, Assemblies
and sub-assemblies later but it sets the framework so it is easy to do this. By manipulating the
timeline, when I am ready to create a new part I can simply come back to the beginning and
create the Component as if I did it at the start and nobody will be the wiser and everything
will remain nice and clean.
In terms of the wing. Three different lofts were not necessary. You have the profiles to use as
Loft Gates and the Rails so just do it all at once. The whole point of the loft is that it will modify
itself to the different sizes and shapes as it generates from one gate to the next. The L-1011 model
that I did also had different airfoils. The two inboard were identical just different sizes but the
outboard one was a different airfoil AND had a 4 degree twist. Loft coped exactly as expected
after it was set up correctly.
In terms of what the model will be used for this is a great first attempt. If you want to learn more
about Fusion then see RULE #0 that is usually Pinned to the top of the forum. I regularly model
stuff I am interested in just for fun and to learn new techniques. I am also currently doing a job
for someone where I am designing a Ducted Fan. I have learned a great deal about practical
aerodynamics (I already know the theory) and also a great deal about modelling with this design.
Practice makes Perfect. Keep modelling stuff that interests you to get better.
Cheers
Andrew
The split-off bodies will always appear in the component that contains the original body.
The overall structure of your design could be improved.
Fr example all the sketches that split/cut etc. around on the fuselage, should be located in that component.
You made one sketch called "doors" that contains the geometry for the doors but also for the windows.
That sketch should be located in the Fuselage component.
You could copy the geometry of the Fuselage into the windows component using the boundary fill feature.
Then, if you use the body-split features and pattern the features, the split bodies would all be collected in the bodies folder of that component.
Of course, in that case you might still have to cut the appropriate holes into the fuselage using the same sketch but the original Fuselage body.
The workflow in the attached model is much more memory efficient than the patterned split-body approach.
It works with component instances, which also makes applying appearances much easier.
