FINAL INDEPENDENT PROJECT

AIM: To build the British Leyland mini 1000 (Mr. Bean’s car) on Solidworks.

Objective: To model and assembly the British Leyland mini and try completing it with minimum errors.

Procedure:

Contents:

1. Chassis
2. Steering wheel
3. Wheel
4. Front seat
5. Back seat
6. Superstructure
7. Door
8. Assembly
9. Render
10. Rendered Images
11. Command usage

CHASSIS:

Chassis is the base for a car in general as all the parts are somewhat connected to it starting from the engine to the muffler and the structure itself is guided by the chassis. This is where I started my journey of building my dream car as well. Chassis is a solid part made from bosses such as the base, axels, and muffler. Looking through the internet the car used to have a chassis that is based on manufacturing preferences and I took the inference from it by sketching a similar geometric shape on the top plane and then extruding it of a certain thickness. To fix the wheels later during assembly I have sketched the axels on a referenced plane. This was an extrude of circular geometry which is commonly seen on most cars. For a much closer look to a car I have also sketched a Muffler of the front plane which was an elliptical shape with a circle extrude on its face. Finally, this was mirrored about the midplane to make this into a live size chassis.

STEERING WHEEL:

I wanted the model to feel like an actual car so, I thought of having functioning doors and when they open the door it should feel familiar so the addition of steering wheel brings the life out of it. The steering was also a simple part, it started with having a spherical sweep of a half of the handle wheel and the mirroring about its face. This gave the perfect look instead of having a circular extrude and then a cut inside it. While doing my research I have come across many interior pictures of the car and there has been and I noticed an evolution in steering wheels. Now with all the tech involved it may look complicated but back then it was just a simple functioning wheel. I have extruded a circular geometry (Horn) into the middle of the sweep and then 3 quadrilateral extrudes connected the wheel to the horn. Finally, to fix this to a car it needed a circular extrude cut to fix to a shaft.

WHEEL:

The wheel consists of 2 parts: Rim and a tire. Using the principles of the previous learning of the wheel construction of the ‘American chopper’ I started by sketching a shape for a revolve on the right plane to resemble the rim. To design the Tire the sketch was similar to that of a rim, but the plane now is on the rim itself. The sketch consists of a line and arcs at top of it and when revolved around it replicates a tire. Treads also play a major role to a tire; this is what gives the grip to the vehicle and shows a more aesthetic appeal to a basic wheel. The treads were a sketch on the top plane to make an extrude cut, the geometry was from the actual car. These rectangular treads were then circular patterned around the tire. Finally, to fix the tires to the chassis axels an extrude cut of a circle of the same radius of the axels was made.

FRONT AND BACK SEAT:

The front and back seat despite being two different parts were of same principles and similar sketches. For an easier assembly, the chassis was brought into the new part file. The seats like the steering wheel are changed for good, back then they have no lumbar support or recline they were basically park benches inside a car so to make the interior look authentic I started with rectangular boss extrude on the chassis which was the base of the seat. Another rectangular boss was extruded on the top face of the base but extending the boundaries to the required geometry. To achieve the shape of the seat from this solid block, a sketch on the face of the right plane resembling the shape of the seats was done and then the excess was cut. Fillets were applied to  resemble a designed leather on the seats. This seat was then linear pattered across the chassis which placed like a passenger’s chair.

The back seat is also like the front seat, it has the same principle of two rectangular bosses on top of each other, but the dimensions were changed as the back seat is often larger compared to the front. Instead of linear pattern to extend the seat the back seat was mirrored across the chassis to make it look as a larger.

SUPERSTRUCRE:

This is not an important part when it comes to the functioning of a car but without this no one would call the working piece as a car. The structure is what people look for when they want to buy a car and is the most appealing part of it and few changes to the structure results in thousands of new cars. While working on the superstructure is where I found a new respect for the manufacturing industry. To achieve the curves and bends that we see in a car it requires a lot of surface modelling. I started by bringing the chassis to the part file and then adding sketch pictures to all the planes, these sketch pictures helps with the projected curves as it gives you the 3D view of the car. To get the side wall of the car it involved a lot of projected curves and surface lofts. I would basically draw a spline of one edges of the wall on the side view and then sketch the same edge on the top view, with proper relations this would allow for a projected curve of both the sketches similar to an actual curve on a car. These series of the projected curves helped as a guided curve for surface lofting. Later a sketch of the car top was done on the top plane and was surface filled. Like the side wall the projected curves coinciding from the wall to the top were done for the surface loft which acted as the windows between the top and the wall.

To achieve the shape of the bonnet and the bumper for the front projected curves were used on front and side and sometimes front and top. These were also surface lofted. The back of the structure was also done in a similar manner. Throughout the surface modelling it was instinctive, if there were gaps then I would fill them using surface fills or lofts and if needed I would extend the surfaces. There were also lot of trims and surface knitting took place throughout the surface modelling as this ensures for a cleaner look when created as a solid. Once there were no gaps in the surface the other side and bottom of the model was closed. Then it was turned into a solid. A shell was applied to the solid and then mirrored across the face of the shell. This finally led to the solid shaped superstructure. The solid part allows for simple details such as adding lights, bumpers and extrude cuts of make belief bonnets and boot space. The door however was made separately to make it functioning by using the split feature. Appearance were added to make it look like the actual MR. BEAN car with the classic green and black colours.

DOOR:

The split feature allowed to remove the door space out of the structure. The door to be functioning needed a circular hinge that has a concentric relation to the superstructure so, a circular extrude on the side of the door was applied which has a gap for a shaft to go in. This was then linear patterned to the length of the side. The shaft is a circular extrude inside the structure. The door also got a handle on its front, this was an extrude of the sketch shaped like a handle. Appearance were added to make the top part look like a glass and the bottom like the structure.

ASSEMBLY:

Given there were only few parts the assembly was simple done. The chassis was brought in first and later the super structure. As the super structure was built on the chassis no mates were required. The seats were also not required of any mates as they were built on the chassis. The wheels right view is coincident with the right view of the chassis and a concentric relation between the axel and the wheels extrude cut was applied. This allows for the wheels to rotate. The same mates were used to fix the steering wheel with the shaft inside structure and extrude cut of the steering wheel. Finally, the door was fixed by having a concentric relation between the shaft and the hinge on the door and a coincident relation to the structures base and the bottom hinge.

RENDERING:

Rendering was a simple process I brought in the assembly to the Solidworks visualise and added 4 camera views that were appropriate. Then I used a salt track as my environment as it gives an advertising vibe to the car instead of plane old roads. To have a much proper detailing I used accurate and 2000 passes to render the car. As the lights and appearance were given before hand not much was required apart from few things like depth of view of the camera, fixing it the floor, scaling etc.

RENDERED IMAGES:

COMMAND USAGE:

Boss/base:

1. Extrude: Extrudes a sketch or selected sketch contours in one or two directions to create a solid feature. E.g. To achieve the solid shape of the chassis. 

2. Revolved: Extrudes a sketch or selected sketch contours around an axis to create a solid feature. E.g.: The rim of the wheel. 

3. Swept: Sweeps a closed profile along an open or closed path to create a solid feature. E.g.: The steering wheel. 

Cut:

1. Extruded cut: Cuts a solid model by extruding a sketched profile in one or two directions. E.g.: The hole for the wheel. 

Features:

1. Fillet: Creates a rounded internal or external face along one or more edges in solid or surface feature. E.g.: The edges of the front seat. 

3. Shell: Removes material from a solid body to create a thin-walled feature: E.g.: Inside the superstructure. 

4. Dome: Adds one or more domes to selected planar or non-planar faces: E.g.: To the rims of the wheel.

Pattern/mirror:

1. Linear pattern: Patterns features, faces, and bodies in one or more linear direction. e.g.: Front seat across the chassis. 

2. Circular pattern: Patterns features, faces, and bodies around an axis. E.g.: Treads on the tire. 

3. Mirror: Mirrors features, faces, and bodies about a face or a plane. e.g.: The half of the superstructure. 

Surface:

1. Extrude: Creates an extrude surface: e.g.: The side guided fender for the structure. 

2. Lofted: Create a lofted surface between two or more profiles. e.g.: The side wall of the structure. 

4. Extend: Extends the edge, multiple edges, or the face on a surface, based on end conditions and extension type. e.g.: To extend the sidewall of the structure. 

5. Trim: Trims a surface where one surface intersects with another surface, a plane, or a sketch. e.g.: Intersection between the bonnet and the wall. 

6. Knit: Combines two or more adjacent non-intersecting surfaces together. e.g.: The top with the windows. 

Curve:

1.. Projected: Projects a sketched curve onto a face or sketch. e.g.: The curves for the loft of the side wall of structure. 

Reference: 

1. Plane: Adds a reference plane. e.g.: For the sketch pictures. 

Sketch: Creates a new sketch or edits an existing sketch. e.g.: Everything that has been created so far. 

3D sketch: Adds a new 3D sketch or edits an existing 3D sketch. e.g.: The wipers on the superstructure.