I'm a mechanical engineering student in my senior year and I want to be a design engineer one day. These videos are so informative and I just wanted to thank you for posting these! I'm currently doing my senior design project and these videos have been helpful to me.
I've been a CAD guy for nearly 30 years and I couldn't agree more with organization being the #1 tool. I use Autodesk Inventor Pro. I've taught classes before and organization is always overlooked. Top down is very effective and I use it all the time. I use bottom up a lot too. Just depends on the project. When I learned how to use reference geometry and parameters it changed the way I design and made me a lot more efficient. Love the explanations and the mid engine project :) Can't wait to see more 🤘
Awesome work man! I appreciate the knowledge you've shared in unveiling the process behind a vehicle's development. I've worked with MEs in my humble experience as an industrial/automotive designer, and it's definitely a balancing act with all the moving pieces (pun intended) ;P
Very cool and great structure. Something else that might be of use is that you can colour your sketches... It doesn't all have to be grey. You can also change their thickness. I worked in the design of steel canopies for about 1y8m and using a solid body to derive your sheetmetal parts off of is also a handy method. Top down, each part gets its own file in the parent assembly and you do a Surface Offset = 0, Convert to Sheet Metal. If you don't like your sheet metal to then sit at weird angles in the drawing, you just have to float your part and mate the planes to a reference point on that body of your choosing and then do the surface offset etc. The only thing I noticed -that was an annoyance- is that SW's Task Scheduler didn't like this (but I think it had to do with me creating many variations for each vehicle through Pack and Go) and some original references would reference a much older parent part when trying to save the drawings this way, leading to error. I didn't have time to figure it out, but found a macro that would allow me to one-click save to PDF (the drawings)[ as long as you had saved the SW drawing first] in stead of going File>Save As, select PDF ... I also never found a great Macro that would help you sequentially save all your configurations of a sheetmetal part, which would have been great since I kept the both RH and LH parts as a configuration within the same part.
Thanks! No short answer to that question haha but here it goes: I think tube structures are a great way to build a chassis but I have a few reasons on why I've decided to take this in the sheet metal direction. From a structural standpoint, I like the design freedoms that using sheet metal provides. Profiles can be sized and shaped, then trimmed to remove excess material to precisely and efficiently meet metrics for torsional stiffness, impact zones, and more. From a manufacturing standpoint I can use tab and slot techniques to offload a lot of measuring time into the CNC cutting process, but I can also build in component-mounting-features, zip-tie locations, and more, that will greatly speed up the actual build/assembly time. It definitely takes a lot of front-end time to get the design to that place, but I think it might be wash when comparing it to the back-end time of dressing out a tube chassis. Sorry for the novel haha.
@DirtyElbowsGarage I appreciate the detailed answer! I asked because nearly all home brew chassis builds are tube-framed. It makes sense given that most of the builds aren't fully designed before fabrication. Excited to see future progress 😎
I'm an existing mechanical engineer that has ended up in the HVAC/industrial systems industry and would like to change to automotive design engineering. Should have paid attention more in school
Small pickup chassis. Remove engine. Replace solid rear axle with an independent rear end in factory cradle from donor car of choice.. Hook LS motor and gearbox directly to diff.
great content, thanks very much for sharing. i'm currently setting up a new laptop for Fusion 360 and will hopefully soon begin modeling my own mid engine car design. a top-down vs bottom-up question if i may, i think i know the answer but here goes: any bottom-up child component can be imported and/or referenced in the parent top-down design file, correct? ok, 2 questions: should the bottom-up component remain a separate file or shouls it be imported into the parent file, integrated into the parent's file structure and the child file archived? thanks. can't wait to see more on this.
Thanks. For the first question, yes, any child part should be able to be imported into parent and through references be designed or positioned through the parent file. The second question may be more software and application specific but for myself, I'd recommend keeping the child file as its own entity, but designed or positioned using references across the parent file. For one thing this allows better visibility on BOM structure. The other reason is that if you are using top down design and a root file, you can jump children from one top-level parent to another if you decide to group systems differently at a later date. So effectively not integrating it fully allows future freedoms, but again that can be pretty specific to software and application.
i know theres no body yet, but im getting rear engine truck vibes, like a 80s C10 on a C8 Corvette chassis, or maybe im seeing what i want to build.i have no CAD or engineering experience, im just a dreamer with a bunch of ideas.
Yep, it definitely can. It would start the same - blank assembly file with a root file, except in this case the root file would be structured to map out the 3d printer and its geometry can drive the components that would need to scale with the size.
Awesome work. im at the end of doing my know SOLIDWORKS design car and it is about to hit the Dyno. Its a big job build a car from scratch. really looking forward you seeing yours take shape
I've run files this large on a variety of PCs but i7 processor, 16gb of ram, SSD adequately sized to handle the PC, and a mid-level graphics car with 2-4gb of graphics ram, seems to work well. There are techniques in SW to maximize file efficiency and there are features like "speedpak" that can reduce the impact of imported files.
el Solidworks no te da la libertad que te da el AutoCAD en el dibujo libre, es mas facil hacer ese autito en AutoCAD, pero el SolidWorks hace simulaciones, analisis,...,
Hello Engineer, your video has inspired me a lot. I have a project that I would like to discuss with you in depth. Could u share ur e（@）mail for further discussion?
This is now OUR project as we are emotionally involved. Please don't stop posting
I'm a mechanical engineering student in my senior year and I want to be a design engineer one day. These videos are so informative and I just wanted to thank you for posting these! I'm currently doing my senior design project and these videos have been helpful to me.
Join a Formula student team or some other tech club/society/team at your uni if possible. will benefit hou a lot while job hunting
I've been a CAD guy for nearly 30 years and I couldn't agree more with organization being the #1 tool. I use Autodesk Inventor Pro. I've taught classes before and organization is always overlooked. Top down is very effective and I use it all the time. I use bottom up a lot too. Just depends on the project. When I learned how to use reference geometry and parameters it changed the way I design and made me a lot more efficient. Love the explanations and the mid engine project :) Can't wait to see more 🤘
Thanks! And I couldn't agree more, whether it's top down or bottom up or anything in cad, good organization helps.
Hi from 3D artist/ designer, appreciate it every minute of this video, very good approach to the design process and file management
Thank you!
Awesome work man! I appreciate the knowledge you've shared in unveiling the process behind a vehicle's development. I've worked with MEs in my humble experience as an industrial/automotive designer, and it's definitely a balancing act with all the moving pieces (pun intended) ;P
This is the exact kinda work I'd love to get into
Never knew you could use CAD like this but it makes sense as it's so necessary
Very cool and great structure. Something else that might be of use is that you can colour your sketches... It doesn't all have to be grey. You can also change their thickness. I worked in the design of steel canopies for about 1y8m and using a solid body to derive your sheetmetal parts off of is also a handy method. Top down, each part gets its own file in the parent assembly and you do a Surface Offset = 0, Convert to Sheet Metal. If you don't like your sheet metal to then sit at weird angles in the drawing, you just have to float your part and mate the planes to a reference point on that body of your choosing and then do the surface offset etc.
The only thing I noticed -that was an annoyance- is that SW's Task Scheduler didn't like this (but I think it had to do with me creating many variations for each vehicle through Pack and Go) and some original references would reference a much older parent part when trying to save the drawings this way, leading to error. I didn't have time to figure it out, but found a macro that would allow me to one-click save to PDF (the drawings)[ as long as you had saved the SW drawing first] in stead of going File>Save As, select PDF ... I also never found a great Macro that would help you sequentially save all your configurations of a sheetmetal part, which would have been great since I kept the both RH and LH parts as a configuration within the same part.
Good info! I've used surface offset = 0 to make imported surface models into SW parts that I could then edit. It's a good way to do a lot of things.
Do u have any channel?
@@srinivasanv6573 I do not.
@@schalkvandermerwe3838 if I have any doubt in surfacing how can I contact you
Glad to see an update on this project! What's been your motivation to use sheet metal VS tube to provide the primary structure of the chassis?
Thanks! No short answer to that question haha but here it goes: I think tube structures are a great way to build a chassis but I have a few reasons on why I've decided to take this in the sheet metal direction. From a structural standpoint, I like the design freedoms that using sheet metal provides. Profiles can be sized and shaped, then trimmed to remove excess material to precisely and efficiently meet metrics for torsional stiffness, impact zones, and more. From a manufacturing standpoint I can use tab and slot techniques to offload a lot of measuring time into the CNC cutting process, but I can also build in component-mounting-features, zip-tie locations, and more, that will greatly speed up the actual build/assembly time. It definitely takes a lot of front-end time to get the design to that place, but I think it might be wash when comparing it to the back-end time of dressing out a tube chassis. Sorry for the novel haha.
@DirtyElbowsGarage I appreciate the detailed answer! I asked because nearly all home brew chassis builds are tube-framed. It makes sense given that most of the builds aren't fully designed before fabrication.
Excited to see future progress 😎
love the chopped mug
Absolutely!
Awesome! Keep going and can't wait to see more.
Definitely more to come!
Blocking in Your Packaging is the way to go, form follows function..!
I'm an existing mechanical engineer that has ended up in the HVAC/industrial systems industry and would like to change to automotive design engineering. Should have paid attention more in school
HVAC is cool and school taught me none of this haha
Small pickup chassis. Remove engine. Replace solid rear axle with an independent rear end in factory cradle from donor car of choice.. Hook LS motor and gearbox directly to diff.
great content, thanks very much for sharing. i'm currently setting up a new laptop for Fusion 360 and will hopefully soon begin modeling my own mid engine car design. a top-down vs bottom-up question if i may, i think i know the answer but here goes: any bottom-up child component can be imported and/or referenced in the parent top-down design file, correct? ok, 2 questions: should the bottom-up component remain a separate file or shouls it be imported into the parent file, integrated into the parent's file structure and the child file archived? thanks. can't wait to see more on this.
Thanks.
For the first question, yes, any child part should be able to be imported into parent and through references be designed or positioned through the parent file.
The second question may be more software and application specific but for myself, I'd recommend keeping the child file as its own entity, but designed or positioned using references across the parent file. For one thing this allows better visibility on BOM structure. The other reason is that if you are using top down design and a root file, you can jump children from one top-level parent to another if you decide to group systems differently at a later date. So effectively not integrating it fully allows future freedoms, but again that can be pretty specific to software and application.
FSAE guys are soaking their parents while listening to how to implement top-down design in SoildWorks.
I am a new subscriber to your channel here. What type of mid engine car are you building here? What are you intending to do with this?
i know theres no body yet, but im getting rear engine truck vibes, like a 80s C10 on a C8 Corvette chassis, or maybe im seeing what i want to build.i have no CAD or engineering experience, im just a dreamer with a bunch of ideas.
Sounds like great ideas to me!
video starts at 10:34
Could this be implemented into the design of a 3D printer? Like top-down designing?
Yep, it definitely can. It would start the same - blank assembly file with a root file, except in this case the root file would be structured to map out the 3d printer and its geometry can drive the components that would need to scale with the size.
Awesome work. im at the end of doing my know SOLIDWORKS design car and it is about to hit the Dyno. Its a big job build a car from scratch. really looking forward you seeing yours take shape
Good work getting yours done! I'll check it out.
What computer are you running for these big solidworks files? Thanks
I've run files this large on a variety of PCs but i7 processor, 16gb of ram, SSD adequately sized to handle the PC, and a mid-level graphics car with 2-4gb of graphics ram, seems to work well.
There are techniques in SW to maximize file efficiency and there are features like "speedpak" that can reduce the impact of imported files.
el Solidworks no te da la libertad que te da el AutoCAD en el dibujo libre, es mas facil hacer ese autito en AutoCAD, pero el SolidWorks hace simulaciones, analisis,...,
I enjoy hearing what you have to say, but why the annoying background music? 3 minutes in, and I can't take it any more...
Hello Engineer, your video has inspired me a lot. I have a project that I would like to discuss with you in depth. Could u share ur e（@）mail for further discussion?
Sure, dirtyelbowsgarage@gmail.com