GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

School of Aerospace Engineering

Spring 2004
AE4375-6380 CATIA Assembly Project

Description
This CATIA project is a direct application of your solid modeling knowledge and skill to a very practical
problem to develop an assembly model of a device. Traditional 2D drafting is highly developed in its
ability to convey the geometry of simple 3D parts and solid models represent a straightforward extension.
However, solid models can be highly effective when employed to develop complex assemblies of parts
into a mechanism or a machine of some kind. When 3D parts can be combined and constrained with a
variety of rotating, sliding, twisting, etc. joints, this allows a designer to quickly and accurately explore a
greater number of design concepts that can be done without CAD.

For this project, we will build on the basics introduced in the previous lessons. Since much of the
expected learning will occur as you try to work through the details of an assigned project, we are asking
you to break up into teams of 2 persons. This will not only allow you to divide up the workload, but we
hope that it will make it easier to figure out together how to carry out certain operations to create a
“working” assembly model. For this assignment, you should make use of the material we’ve covered in
the CATIA workbook, but you will also need to consult the online help information as well. In addition,
both the instructor and TA have copies of the advanced workbook that you may borrow for short periods
of time. For this project, your assembly model must demonstrate all normal motion of the assembly with
one exception: where a threaded lead screw is specified, you may replace this with a simple axial sliding
constraint (i.e., you do not need to model the individual threads).

We will have an informal project discussion during the normal class period after the break week, and at
this time we will explain more of the details and requirements and will answer questions.

Assignment and Submission:

Assembly project descriptions have been prepared and are provided on the pages that follow. During
class on March 18, we will try to define the teams (3 teams in AE4375 and 11 teams in AE6380) and
make the project assignments (by choice or lottery if there are multiple requests for a project). If you are
not present at this class, we will simply assign you to a team and a project. We are also making available
an alternative project definition of your choice. For this option, your team must submit by March 22 a
brief description of what kind of assembly you propose to create. For example, you may have an interest
in how a helicopter rotor functions, and in this case you might want to propose creating an articulated
rotor model that illustrates the basic functions. You would need to find basic details in the literature and
on the web but you would probably need to make lots of assumptions about dimensions because this
information is not usually available. Nonetheless, a functional assembly that illustrates the basics would
make a great project. Other possibilities are a landing gear (use an existing airplane as the model), or
maybe a simplified model of a turbofan engine. We welcome your inputs.

The project materials should be submitted in a single file using the zip file format. This file should
contain: (1) the CATIA assembly and associated model files ,and (2) a text document with figures to
describe and illustrate what you have done in the project. The zip file should be named uniquely using
the same format used for the individual assignments but in this case with both last names separated by a
hypen.

AE4375-6380 CATIA Assembly Project Spring 2004

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 AE4375-AE6380 CATIA Assembly Projects

Project #1:

AE4375-6380 CATIA Assembly Project Spring 2004

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Project: #2

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Project: #3

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Project: #4

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Project: #5

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AE4375-6380 CATIA Assembly Project Spring 2004
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Project: #6

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Project: #7

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AE4375-6380 CATIA Assembly Project Spring 2004
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Project: #8

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Project: #9 (Optional)
This particular project is going to be a bit more challenging but you may find it more interesting than the
other assemblies. In the following figures you will see a sketch of a 4-blade tail rotor for a CH-54
helicopter. Unfortunately, there are no dimensions shown, but the assembly is drawn to scale. For this
project, you are to create an assembly model of the rotor hub, and you are to include the blade pitch
control mechanism. You should model the main shaft and control shaft as simple cylinders and you do
not need to model more than the “cuff” portion of the blades. You are free to choose dimensions that are
roughly proportional to the sketch. You can assume that the overall hub is approximately 16 inches (or
40 mm) across from cuff to cuff. If you have questions, either the instructor or TA can explain the
functions of each part.

If you choose this project, you should disregard the project originally assigned to you and submit #9
instead. (You can switch back to the original project at any time.)

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