Modeling an American Chopper

Modeling of American chopper

Objective

To create a model of an American Chopper using Solidworks and render it with photoview 360 and SolidWorks visualize

Introduction

The modeling of American Chopper involves 3 stages

• Modeling of individual parts
• Assembling of the parts
• Rendering the components

The American chopper consists of the following parts

1. Transmission belt
2. Kickstand
3. Front and rear fender
4. Oil tank
5. Pedal
6. Chain
7. Front and rear wheel
8. Chassis
9. Engine

Modelling of individual parts

Modelling is done in Solidworks 2018, during modelling of each part Reference planes are created wherever necessary. Since it is a cosmetic model tolerance is not considered deliberately.

1. Transmission belt

It plays the role of transmitting power from crankshaft to sprocket. A flat belt is chosen and modeled. Commonly used materials are leather, fabric, rubber, etc. we rubber
Figure 1: Transmission belt

Commands used: Extrude, Fillet

2. Oil tank

It is used as a storage for the oil and is placed between the engine and gas tank. Here boolean

operation is used for the formation of the solid and shell command is used

Figure 2: Oil Tank

Commands used: Extrude, Combine (Add), fillet and Shell

3. Front and rear fender

Fender otherwise called a mudguard prevents the dirt, mud, and water thrown away by the rotating wheel when the vehicle is in motion. The part could be modelled both in solid and surface modelling. If modelled using surface modelling then thicken command should be used to convert it into a solid

Figure 3: Front and Rear fender

Commands used: Spline (Adjusted the curvature in sketch), Revolve, Split (Consume cut bodies) and fillet

4. Kickstand

The kickstand is also called a side stand. It is a structure that is used to balance the vehicle when the vehicle is parked. It made of materials like steel, iron, etc.

Figure 4: Kickstand

Commands used: Reference plane, Sweep, Dome, Fillet, and Split

5. Pedal

Torque is applied on pedal to apply brake and shift gears as they are placed near the pedal. It is also used a leg rest.

Figure 5: Pedal

Commands used: Spline (Adjusted the curvature), Extrude, Revolve, Dome, Pattern and Fillet

6. Chain

Chain is to transmit power from the gearbox to the rear wheel sprocket which makes the vehicle move forward. Two blocks are created and saved. Two blocks are imported and in the modelling area and are converted to solid by selecting the sketch contours and extruded. Then patten (sketch dirven) is used to pattern the along the path of the curve and the last Solid block is manually modelled to close the loop.

Figure: 6 Chain

Commands used: Block, Extrude, Fillet, Pattern (Sketch driven)

7. Wheel

Wheel is the part that has direct contact with the ground when the vehicle is in motion. Wheel receives the necessary torque from the gearbox to move the vehicle through chain and sprocket.

Front-wheel is the driven wheel it has rim, tyre, disc brake rotor and brake caliper.

Rear-wheel is same as the front wheel but it is the drive wheel and in addition to rim, tire, disc brake rotor, and brake caliper it has sprocket which gets the power (torque) from the chain.

Figure 7: Front-wheel and Rear-wheel

Commands used: Revolve, Extrude, Cut Extrude, Cut Revolve, Reference Plane, Circular Pattern, Chamfer, and Fillet.

8. Front fork

Front fork consists of the handlebar, headlight and a structure for placing front wheel and fender. Front fork is connected with chassis. Project curve is used as a path for the handlebar and brake wire which are created using sweep command.

Figure 8: Front Fork

Commands used: Sweep, Reference plane, revolve, cut revolve, project curve, chamfer, dome, fillet, and mirror.

9. Chassis

Chassis plays the most important role in the construction of any automobile. All the parts and components are assembled and fitted to the chassis to make a vehicle. Split command is used to remove the excess

Figure 9: Chassis

Commands used: Project Curve, Mirror, Extrude, Sweep, Dome, Chamfer, Cut Extrude, Split, Fillet.

10. Engine

It is the power factory of any automobile. It generated and delivers the required power to drive the vehicle at drivers will. Composite curves are used as a path for exhaust pipes which are created using sweep command

Figure 10: Engine

Commands used: Extrude, Revolve, Reference Plane, Cut Extrude, Pattern, Projected Curve, Composite Curve, Sweep (Twist Along Path), Dome, Fillet and Chamfer.

11. Gas tank

It is used to store the fuel for the chopper

Figure 11: Gas tank

Commands used: Spline (Curve Adjusted), Extrude Surface, Surface Sweep, Surface Loft, Boundary Surface, Surface Knit, Cut Sweep, Split, Surface Trim, Shell, Fillet and Mirror

Assembly of Chopper

After modelling the individual parts the files are imported into the assembly area in one by one and mated with required constraints.

The commonly used constrains are coincident, offset, perpendicularity, parallelism, angle constrain, concentricity.

Some of the advanced constrains that could be applied are limit angle, width mate etc.

As chassis is the main structure that holds all the parts and components of the chopper is imported first and by default, it is fixed.

Figure 12: Chassis imported and fixed

Chassis is the first component imported and is fixed.

Figure 13: Engine mated with chassis

Engine is imported and mated with coincident of planes to set the orientation, surfaces with chassis and offset distance between face of chassis and engine to set the position with respect to the chassis.

Figure 14: Pedal mated with chassis

Pedal is imported and mated with concentric and coincident mates with chassis. The pedal is mirrored instead of importing it for the second time and the part is mirrored and saved as a new part with a prefix.

Figure 15: mirrored pedal

Figure 16: Kick stand mated with chassis

Kickstand is imported and mated with concentric and coincident relations with chassis and limit angle relation is applied to kickstand for controlling the motion such that it rotates about 90 degree.

Figure 17: Transmission belt mated with the engine

Transmission belt is imported and mated with width mate with faces in engine, concentricity and angle mate between surfaces.

Figure 18: oil tank mated on engine

Oil tank is imported and mated with coincident of planes with chassis, surfaces, and edges with engine.

Figure 19: Rear-wheel mated with chassis

Rear-wheel is imported and mated with coincident of planes, concentricity of surfaces with chassis and also making planes parallel with face to set the orientation.

Figure 20: Rear fender mated with rear-wheel

Rear fender is imported and mated by using concentricity and also coincident of planes with chassis to set the orientation.

Figure 21: Chain

Chain is imported and mated by width mate and concentricity with sprocket and making planes parallel to each other

Figure 22: Front fork mated with chassis

Front fork is imported and a new plane is created and front fork is mated with concentricity and coincident with chassis, limit angle is used so that it can be turned in both LHS and RHS.

Figure 23: Front-wheel mated with front fork

Front-wheel is imported and is mated with concentricity, coincident of planes with front fork

Figure 24: Front fender is mated with wheel

Front fender is imported and mated with coincident of planes with front wheel

Figure 25: Gas tank mated with chassis

Gas tank is imported and is mated with coincident of planes and distance mate with chassis

The model is saved

Rendering

Rendering is done to get a realistic view of the modelled part/product. Here rendering is done with photoview 360 and Solidworks visualize

Photoview 360

Before proceeding with rendering the model should be adjusted in such that it looks realistic. Therefore the top plane in assembly is made to coincide with the kickstand, front and rear tyres so that it appears that the chopper is leaning towards the side where the kickstand is located. Now it looks like the vehicle is parked. The orientation of the handlebar is also changed such that it is turned towards the side where the kickstand is provided. To do this some existing mates must be suppressed and new mates are added as per requirement.

A camera is added and is adjusted to get the desired view. Edit scene command is used to get required environment and options tab is used to give the additional effects

The appearance of each part is changed for example front fork, engine, etc. are given with chromium. tyres, handlebar grips, transmission belt are given rubber

Then rendering is done. Some of the images rendered using photoview 360 are provided below

The above images are rendered using photo view 360

Solidwoks visualize:

It is a package specially made for rendering. It gives more realistic view of the chopper. It has more options for controlling the appearance of the chopper. The chopper model is imported in the visualize work area and the appearance, environment and the colours are adjusted to the desired and rendering is done

Some of the rendered image are presented below

The model and the images are saved

Conclusion

Thus the 3d model of the American Chopper was created using solid works and rendered using photoview 360 and Solidworks visualize.

Learnings from the Project "American Chopper":

When we are a beginner in using the Solidworks we learn a lot of its features but when we model a product, we use the very basic features, but if we try to explore a way to utilize many of features we could model a product with complicated design effortlessly in a short time. For example, if we want to cut a solid body to get the desired cross-section we use to sketch the profile that is to be cut and use cut extrude feature but if applicable we could use split (with consume cut bodies) and finish the task with an ease

American Chopper was one such experience. When using features like extrude we mainly use options like dimensions, upto next, upto surface, but here I had an opportunity to explore options like offset from surface, changing the origin of the sketch from plane to surface.

Adjusting the curvature of the spline with direction control is used to create a spline curve with a curvature we desire the curve should possess. Project curve, composite curve, etc. are few features that I explored during this project. I learned a few different ways to create a reference plane

Very handy features like dome, fillet selection assist, pattern (sketch pattern), sweep (twist along path), create block, mirroring solid, Combine (Boolean operation-ADD), split etc. were explored in this project. These features help in reducing the time to create the required model and in completion of the designing phase.

Working in this project “American chopper” was a very good experience. I had the opportunity to learn the way of creating sketches in a better way and to explore features so that the model could be done a better way, in less time and effort.