What software are you guy's using?

[rcpilot82]

Hey dave, Im' not dead, just have been pushing to get things ready for the baby. had a bunch of family stuff this weekend also. All that is done so hopefully I can get back on track here. I really want to get this plane in the air to see how it flies! Should see progress this week. My current build list looks like this, 1.your plane, 2. 50cc yak (almost done), 3. First production models of 2 foamies, and an airfoilz extra 260 full fuse. Time to Get-r-Dun!

[flynz4me]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rcpilot82
	Good looking engine Dave!! Sorry on the lack of progress, I ran into a slew of car troubles with my wifes car and had to get them taken care of. I am hopefull that I can get back to work on it Thursday evening. Since we are slow at work I found some (buisy work) to do. here is one of my designs I have been refining for almost a year. I am going to be producing these on my cnc and selling them. All that's left is to write the Manual and find boxes to ship them (any Ideas, sources??). This is the second kit I will be manufacturing with more to come. The pic dosen't hace any of the CF and wood in it yet but you get the idea. AUW comes in at 3.6-4.4 oz depending on eqip.

Nice Juka!!

[rcpilot82]

Thanks, I will be selling them starting in the fall probally.

[esc]

Hi Rob,

Good to hear everything is OK.

You seem to have quite a list of work to do on your hands. A 50cc Yak - that's a big beast - have you any pictures?

Dave

[rcpilot82]

Dave,
Here is a link to the 50cc yak. KnoxHobbies 88" yak-54

[esc]

Now that is one cool ARF - but 50cc and rubber bands for wing retainers???

It would have been nice if you had been offered a set of replacement modified wings FOC. It's alright saying "we have fixed the problem" - that is to prevent sales dropping and does nothing for people that have already bought the kit. I am unimpressed by this reaction to an obvious defiency.

Unlike the rubber bands, your engine is an impressive beast and looks brand new?

Dave

[rcpilot82]

Dave, The yak they sold me was NOS from buying out another company. I knew it was not perfict and the most up to date when I bought it but, the price was right and it's easy enough to fix. yep the engine is a new never run yet DL-55. I am very impressed with the quality of the wood and construction so far. I have to give knox hobbies a plug on this one though cause they took the time to talk to me and help me out even after the sale.

[esc]

OK Rob, fair enough I retract my earlier statement, I obviously jumped to an erroneous conclusion by assuming they were responsible for the kit. It's very good to have kit retailers that listen to and talk to their customers, thumbs up to Knox Hobbies then.

Dave

[Woodie]

OK, guys, 3D CAD newbie question. I am currently using CamBam as my CAD/CAM tool. It is great for 2.5D but I need to make plugs for things like canopies and wheel pants. What would you recommend as a initial tool for me to use or experiment with the generate the 3D CAD drawings to import into CamBam. CamBam will handle 3d objects for gcode generation, but is limited in 3D CAD functionality.

I finished my small CNC router about 8 months ago and have been having a ball cutting 2.5D stuff, just need to step up the tool set to start working with 3D.

Thanks
Woodie
aka Don Atwood

[rcpilot82]

Ball mills are great for 3d. if you can get your hands on solidworks, inventor, wildfire, any of those are great 3d drawing software titles. Don't know if your in school or not but autodesk gives full copies (i think for a 10 month period) if you are a student.

[Woodie]

Thanks for the reply and I will check out those 3D CAD software options. Unfortunately, school was so long ago I can't even remember it...... ;-)

Woodie

[esc]

Hi Woodie, Hi Rob,

There are other pieces of software that can be added to Rob's list that are just as good when it comes to solid modelling. What you need to do is find a piece of software that you like using and one that feels intuitive to you.

To Rob's list I would add: Rhino (I have heard good things about this, but never used it myself), SolidEdge, Dassault's Catia (expensive and modular) and Siemens NX.

To get the best out of any of these you really need training, that said there are all sorts of books and videos are available on line to help you train yourself.

As an Inventor user I am bound to recommend it, but I am aware of it's limitations and some of the obscure places where essential information is stored that a user needs to be aware of - this is where the training comes in. I didn't like the new Windows style ribbon strip when it was introduced in V.2010, but now I would not go back to earlier versions. As far as the "help" command goes I find it a pain to get to what I want to know. All these suites of software have their own foibles and idiosyncrasies.

OK down to the nitty gritty, my two recommendations are SolidWorks and Inventor - it's a toss up between the two. I hope this helps rather than confuses.

Dave