SolidWorks Tesla Roadster Ebook 03

Welcome back!
In the previous lesson we learned how to draw and dimension splines, project them to create 3D profiles and use them to build the roof’s surface.
Open your car model from the previous eBook in SOLIDWORKS or click here to download the SOLIDWORKS starting file for today’s lesson.
The illustration below highlights the two arch-like surfaces we will deal with in this eBook.
We will mostly use Extruded Surface and Trim Surface tools.
www.LearnSOLIDWORKS.com Page 2 of 30
Add two extra planes
Let’s add two planes parallel to the front plane passing through the wheel’s axis. These planes will be useful on many occasions to draw the car’s fenders.
In the Features ribbon, go to Reference Geometry > Plane.
Select the front plane as First Reference.
Enter a distance of 920mm and check the Flip offset checkbox.
Click OK to validate.
Rename this new plane to F920.
Follow the same steps to add a plane 3950mm away from the front plane.
Build the front arch
Click on the front plane and add a new sketch.
Insert a simple Spline roughly covering the wheel on the side of the
car.
Make its lower endpoint coincident with the top plane.
Insert a horizontal construction line from the spline’s upper endpoint

to the right plane. This line will help us dimension the sketch.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to define the two endpoints’ horizontal
distances with respect to the right plane. Then, set the height of the
upper endpoint to 830mm.
Make the spline’s upper handle vertical.
Use the Smart Dimension tool again to set the handle’s weights and the
75° angle between the top plane and the spline’s lower handle.
Exit the sketch.
Select the last sketch in your Features Manager, and go to Insert > Surface > Extrude…
Extrude the sketch 1500mm towards the car’s back (click on the arrows next to the Blind parameter to reverse the extrusion direction).
This extruded surface is obviously too large to do the job.
We will now cut this surface according to the arch shape around the car’s front wheels.
For convenience, set the Display Style of your viewport to Wireframe, by selecting this option in the drop-down menu at the top of your viewport.
In the Wireframe style, only the surfaces’ edges are displayed, which means you will be able to see the right blueprint through the previously extruded
surface.
Click on the right plane and add a new sketch.
In the Sketch ribbon, locate and click on the Circle tool.
Position the centre of the circle on plane F920 and draw the actual circle approximately the size of the wheel’s arch.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set the circle’s diameter and its centre’s height.
Add a horizontal Construction Line inside the circle, 430mm above the top plane as shown in the picture on the right.
Locate and click on the Trim Entities tool in the Sketch ribbon.
This tool makes it easy to remove part of our sketch entities. Press the left mouse-button and move the mouse around. It will remove any segment you’ve come
across.
Drag your mouse on top of the lower part of the circle to remove it.
Insert a simple Spline from both sides of the arc down to the top plane.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set their lower point distance to plane
F920.
We want the sketch to be “smooth”, that is to say have the splines’ curvature continuous with the arc’s curvature.
Select one of the two splines and the arc while holding Shift.
Add an Equal Curvature relation between both from the pop-up window.
Repeat for the other spline.
Notice the lightning bolt that is the materialization of an equal curvature relation.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set the weight of both spline’s handles, and the angle between the two lower handles and the top plane.
Select the two splines and the arc.
Locate and click on the Offset Entities tool in the Sketch ribbon.
As its name suggests, this tool takes the selected geometry and offsets it from a given distance.
Enter a distance of 38mm in the input box in the left-hand side panel.
On the inner and outer side of the wheel’s arch, both profiles are built with three entities (two splines and one arc).
If we were to extrude one of those profiles right away, here would be the result:
The resulting body would be composed of three distinct surfaces, with their shared edges shown as dashed lines on the picture above.
Such a result is not optimal, because having three distinct objects to handle makes the selection of profiles for future surfaces more complex.
To remedy this, we will use Fit Splines. These pieces of geometry join together several curves, lines and arcs into one single curve.
Go to Tools > Spline Tools > Fit Spline…
Select both splines and the arc of the inner arch profile.
Uncheck the Closed spline checkbox.
The Fit Spline turned the three parts of the profile into one single curve.
Convert the outer arch profile into a Fit Spline as well, following the same steps.
It was quite a long sketch. You can leave it.
Go to Insert > Surface > Trim…
Select the sketch we just created as Trim tool.
Make sure the Remove selections option is ticked, and click on the parts of the extruded surface to remove, highlighted in purple below.
Build the rear arch
Click on plane F3950 and add a new sketch.
This sketch is very similar to the first sketch we created at the beginning
of this eBook.
Insert a simple Spline roughly covering the rear wheel.
Position this spline according to the screenshot on the right using the
Smart Dimension tool.
Make the spline’s upper handle vertical.
Use the Smart Dimension tool again to set the handle’s weights and
the 69° angle between the top plane and the spline’s lower handle.
Exit the sketch.
Go to Insert > Surface > Extrude…
Extrude the last sketch 700mm towards the car’s front.
Let’s draw a sketch to trim the surface we just extruded following the car’s rear wheel arch.
Click on the right plane and add a new sketch.
In the Sketch ribbon, locate and click on the Circle tool.
Position the center of the circle near (but not coincident to)
F3950 and draw the actual circle approximately the size of the
wheel’s arch.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set the circle’s diameter and its
center’s height, as well as it’s 7mm distance to plane F3950.
Use a horizontal construction line to trim the bottom part of the
circle using the Trim Entities tool.
Insert a simple Spline from both sides of the arc down to the top
plane.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set their lower point distance to
plane F3950.
Add an Equal Curvature relation between each spline and the arc above.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to set the handles’ weights and the angles between the splines’ lower handles and the top plane.
Offset the profile by 38mm outwards using the Offset Entities tool.
Use an open Fit Spline on both inner and outer profiles.
Exit the sketch.
Select the sketch we just created as Trim tool.
Remove the highlighted parts of the previously extruded surface.
As you can see, contrary to how we built the front arch, we only have one half of the job done here. The reason why the job remains unfinished is due to the
shape of the rear part of the arch’s surface, which is more bent towards the inside. We need another sketch to define this particular profile. However, we need
to make sure that both parts of the arch’s surface we are building are tangent.
Click on plane F3950 and add a new sketch.
Rotate the view so that you can see plane F3950 and the right plane at the same time.
Select the small vertical edge of the previous trimmed surface.

Use the Convert Entities tool to convert this edge into sketch
geometry.
You should now see a small black curve in your sketch where the
edge is located.
Insert a simple Spline from the lower endpoint of the converted edge down to the top plane.
Position this spline’s lower endpoint according to the screenshot below using the Smart Dimension tool.
Add an Equal Curvature relation between the converted geometry and the spline.
Use the Smart Dimension tool to constrain the sketch fully.
Use a Fit Spline to join the spline and the converted edge into one single curve.
Exit the sketch.
Go to Insert > Surface > Extrude…
Extrude the last sketch 700mm towards the car’s back.
We will now trim this new surface with the same sketch we used to trim the other half of the rear arch.
Look at the bottom of your Features Manager, on the left-hand side of your screen.
Click on the tiny arrow next to the last Surface Trim feature to expand it and see what sketch we used for this feature.
Select the sketch.
Remove the highlighted parts of the previously extruded surface.
The two halves of the rear arch are currently two distinct surface bodies.
To turn them into one single surface body, we will use the Knit Surface tool.
Go to Insert > Surface > Knit…
Select the two halves.
Here is the result!
Don’t forget to group our progress into a Side I folder in the Features Manager.
The surfaces are still a bit longer than expected; they touch the ground under the car. We needed the top plane to dimension the various sketches used to build
the arches with ease. We will trim these surfaces later when we model the fender’s surfaces!
Did you like this free eBook and are you eager to learn more? Then we have two options for you:
Option #1: Enroll in the full SOLIDWORKS Tesla Roadster tutorial right here.
Option #2: Attend our free SOLIDWORKS workshop right here.
In this workshop, you are going to discover how to become a SOLIDWORKS Pro in days instead of years without boring practice,
expensive training classes, or any pointless theory:
In this free SOLIDWORKS workshop you will discover:
✓ The 4 ways to learn SOLIDWORKS and why you actually need to know what they are and which is best for you to be successful.
✓ The simple tricks that get people with no SOLIDWORKS experience, no design or engineering experience, think they’re too old,
and procrastinate too much to actually learn SOLIDWORKS.
✓ The career hacks to become highly successful as a designer or engineer to climb the career ladder much faster.
✓ How Jan modeled a REAL $37.000.000 SuperYacht in SOLIDWORKS for a famous American entrepreneur and how you can get
similar design projects as well.
✓ Free access to the first eBooks and videos of the SOLIDWORKS Chopper, Aston Martin & Boeing 747 course!
Click here to attend our free SOLIDWORKS workshop.
Best wishes,
Romain Ginestou & Jan Zuyderduyn

SolidWorks Tesla Roadster Ebook 03

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SolidWorks Tesla Roadster Ebook 03

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Welcome back!

We will mostly use Extruded Surface and Trim Surface tools.

In the Features ribbon, go to Reference Geometry > Plane.

Select the front plane as First Reference.

Enter a distance of 920mm and check the Flip offset checkbox.

Rename this new plane to F920.

Click on the front plane and add a new sketch.

Make its lower endpoint coincident with the top plane.

Insert a horizontal construction line from the spline’s upper endpoint

upper endpoint to 830mm.

Make the spline’s upper handle vertical.

Exit the sketch.

In the Sketch ribbon, locate and click on the Circle tool.

Repeat for the other spline.

Uncheck the Closed spline checkbox.

It was quite a long sketch. You can leave it.

Select the sketch we just created as Trim tool.

Click on plane F3950 and add a new sketch.

Insert a simple Spline roughly covering the rear wheel.

Smart Dimension tool.

Make the spline’s upper handle vertical.

Exit the sketch.

Extrude the last sketch 700mm towards the car’s front.

Click on the right plane and add a new sketch.

In the Sketch ribbon, locate and click on the Circle tool.

center’s height, as well as it’s 7mm distance to plane F3950.

circle using the Trim Entities tool.

Exit the sketch.

Select the sketch we just created as Trim tool.

Remove the highlighted parts of the previously extruded surface.

Click on plane F3950 and add a new sketch.

Select the small vertical edge of the previous trimmed surface.

Use the Smart Dimension tool to constrain the sketch fully.

Exit the sketch.

Extrude the last sketch 700mm towards the car’s back.

Select the sketch.

Remove the highlighted parts of the previously extruded surface.

Go to Insert > Surface > Knit…

Select the two halves.

Option #2: Attend our free SOLIDWORKS workshop right here.

expensive training classes, or any pointless theory:

In this free SOLIDWORKS workshop you will discover:

Click here to attend our free SOLIDWORKS workshop.

Romain Ginestou & Jan Zuyderduyn

You might also like