Conceptual Design Of American Chopper

AMERICAN CHOPPER

ABSTRACT

This ultimate solidworks course involves Design, Assembly and Rendering of American Chopper Model, a motorbike with long front fork which is very innovative with spiderweb deigned rim wheels and Chromium paint jobs . American Chopper is Designed and assembled in Solidworks and rendered using Solidworks Visualize and Photoview 360 to give realistic looks of its vivid red style.

MODELLING

The Chopper is built through feature based solid modeling and Surface Modeling features and consists of following components:

1. Transmission Belt
2. Kickstand
3. Front Fender
4. Rear Fender
5. Oil Tank
6. Chain
7. Pedal
8. Front wheel
9. Rear Wheel
10. Front Fork
11. Chassis
12. Engine
13. Gas tank

TRANSMISSION BELT

Transmission belt is used to transfer the power from engine to gearbox and designed through following features

• Sketch
• Offset
• Extrude
• Fillet

PROCEDURE

• Sketched in the front plane and gave Horizontal vertical and tangent relations to fully define the sketch.
• Using Smart dimensions the sketch is defined with given dimensions and gave offset entity to offset the sketch.
• The sketch is Boss/ Extruded and fillet is applied by selecting all the edges
• Matte rubber is used as material reference

KICKSTAND

Kickstand is used to support the Chopper and designed through follwing features

• Loft
• Dome
• Extrude Boss
• Extrude Cut
• Spilt
• Fillet

PROCEDURE

• Sketch Ellipse at Front plane. Gave relation to orient inside the 2d sketch
• Sketch spline at midplane( Right). Ensured the bottom spline handle is horizontal.
• Sketch a reference plane at the top end of the spline and ensured it is normal to it.
• Sketch ellipse at the reference plane. Pierce relation is applied to the ellipse and spline.
• Apply loft boss base and adjusted green dots to snap at vertex of the ellipse and guided to follow the centerline spline
• Apply domes at the respective faces of ellipse face.
• Cutout at the larger end of part by sketching rectangle at mid plane. Give extrude cut and apply through all both option.
• Create mid point line at smaller end of the part and split the bottom face to make the part flat face.
• Sketched circle at top plane to create pivot point. extrude the sketch to net surface .Apply fillet
• Change the appearance to chrome plate.

FRONT FENDER

Front fender is used to protect the front wheel from foreign particles and dust and monited above the wheel blow the fork.

Features Involved

• Sketch
• Offset Entities
• Trim Entities
• Revolve
• Split

PROCEDURE

Create a three point arc and apply relations. Offset the entity to 6mm inside and enclose the edges of the arc using extend entities and power trim.

Draw a reference sketch for axis of revolution and give revolve extrude. Using direction 1 and 2 option to make relevant sketch.

Apply appearance to sienna.

Sketch spline using dynamic mirror entities at the front edge of the fender and apply dimensions and ensure the spline handle is vertical to the part. Check the curvature is clean and hide the show curvature .apply split tool to cut parts and followed same procedure for bottom edge.

Apply fillet at the edges of fender.

REAR FENDER

The Rear Fender is mounted above the Rear Wheel and has customized painting based on the theme of the copper.

Features Involved

• Sketch
• Offset Entities
• Trim Entities
• Revolve Extrude
• Split

PROCEDURE

A three point arc was created as per the given geometry. The sketch was revolved using both the directions 10mm in one side and 140 mm on other.

Using three point arc the part is spilt and fillet is applied.

Shell feature is used on the inner side of the fender

Graphic rear fender file is imported and sketch is used to create a projected image using curve> split line and the face is changed to standard white color appearance.

OIL TANK

Oil Tank is Hollow Solid Model created using following features

• Boss Extrude
• Combine
• Fillet
• Shell

PROCEDURE

A 2D Sketch is created and then extruded on both directions

A new sketch is created and extruded through all both the directions

Combine feature is used to common the both extrudes

Fillets are applied at the edges and Shell feature is applied with thickness and previewed using cut section to ensure shell is applied

Appearance are changed to sienna, white at the edges and for the graphic oil tank.

CHAIN

This model is approached through creating Sketch blocks and Linear Pattern and mirrored along the Front plane

Features Used:

• Sketch Blocks
• Extrude
• Curve Driven Pattern
• Mirror

PROCEDURE

A runaway sketch is created at the midplane and the is used to save as separate blocks a chain 1 and 2.

The blocks are inserted on to the 2D sketch created on the midplane and applied certain relations to make coincident with the curve .

The blocks are then extruded and fillets are applied at the faces of the pin.

Linear pattern is applied along the curve (Curve driven pattern) and some extrudes are drawn manually to perfectly align with the chainpath.

Later the solidbodies are classified into chain. plates and pin in separate folders and the chain plates are mirrored using mirror entity.

Chrome Appearance is applied to the chain.

PEDAL

The Pedal model is mounted external to the chassis on both sides which provides as a footrest to the riders and designed through following features

• Extrude
• Fillet
• LinearPattern

PROCEDURE

2D sketch is extruded and a new sketch is created and Revolve Boss feature is applied.

Dome is applied at the end face of the revolved part and chamfer ( asymmetric in both directions) applied to the other two parts

Fillets are applied and new sketch is created using offset entity and extruded by offset from face

Fillets are applied to the newly created extrude feature and Linear pattern is applied to four instances

Ensure all the edges are applied with necessary fillet.

REAR WHEEL

Rear Wheel are broad and are one of the most custom made components in chopper and has various rim style but chopper is famous for its spider webbed designed with its chromium alloy

Features Used

• Revolve
• Extrude
• Cut Extrude
• Cut Revolve
• Combine
• Circular Pattern
• Fillet
• Chamfer

STEPS

1. Five Solid bodies are designed namely Rim, Rotor, Caliper, Sprocket, Tyre.
2. Rim is developed using Revolve and circular pattern is applied to make spider web shaped rim wheel.
3. Rotor is Designed and necessary pattern is sketched.
4. A Caliper is designed on the rotor by applying necessary Chamfer features.
5. Sprocket is sketched over the the rim for chain assembly.
6. Finally the Tyre is designed above the Rim by applying cut extrude pattern.
7. Appearances are changed and Part is saved.

FRONT WHEEL

Front Wheel are designed the same way as Rear Wheel and attached to the front fork with fixed rotation along the fork to allow the chopper to make turn. The Wheel rim also has a spider web shaped and has matte rubber tire with Profile cutout to provide friction between the tyre and the road

FRONT FORK

Features

• Revolve
• Boss Extrude
• Linear Pattern
• Cut Extrude
• Dome
• Cut Revolve
• Sweep
• Combine
• Mirror
• Fillet
• Projected Curve

STEPS

1. Front Axle frame, Dome, Handbar, Headlight are designed
2. This model is done by creating mirror features by sketching one half
3. Front Axle frame is designed by applying extrude revolve and cut solid bodies.
4. The handle bar frame is designed with projected curve feature to sketch. And sweep based on the circle and the projected curve
5. The headlight model is designed and dome, chamfer features applied.
6. Finally the model is mirrored and necessary appearance are given to different parts. Visual Propagation is checked to apply the appearances on both sides.
7. Luminous intensity is applied to the head light model for effective display when doing rendering. The Part is saved.

CHASSIS

This is the base model of the chopper and housed various components like Engine. This model is approached through creating multiple spline entities and combining it to a composite curve.

Features used

• Offset Entities
• Convert Entities
• Project Curve
• Trim
• Sweep Bose
• Split
• Revolve
• Extrude Cut
• Extrude Boss
• Fillet
• Combine

The Chassis has Four Parts

• Top Frame
• Axle Hosing
• Base Frame
• End Frame Shaft

ENGINE

Chopper Engine is designed using series of Projected Curves and Composite Curves. This complex Solidmodel has following parts

• Cooling Fins
• Exhaust Pipe
• Gear Box
• Sprocket for Chain Transmission
• Engine Case
• Spark Plugs

Features Used

• Extrude
• Extrude Cut
• Thin Extrude
• Chamfer
• Project Curve
• Linear Pattern
• Circular Pattern
• Revolve
• Mirror
• Dome
• Sweep

GAS TANK

The Gas Tank is approached using Surface Modeling Features and converted to rigid solid body after enclosing as a closed surface model. The Gas tank provides the Seating grip for the Rider and looks stunning with different themes and sketches with different choppers. The main purpose is to store the Fuel and hence the solid body is shelled to appropriate thickness

Features Used

• Surface Sweep
• Surface Trim
• Surface Loft
• Boundary Surface
• Surface Knit
• Sweep cut
• Fillet
• Mirror
• Shell

The Decals are added to the tank using Photoview 360 and appearances are given as sienna car pain for main body.

ASSEMBLY

Chassis is the first component inserted in to the assembly model and fixed with respect to the three planes.

Based on Chassis all other models are assembled using approx mates to fully define the assembly.

PROCEDURE

• Engine is placed on the bottom of the chassis.
• Pedal is attached to side of the chassis and the component is mirrored to the other side
• Kickstand is attached to the left bottom side of chassis
• Transmission belt is fixed between the two gear drives and the ensured that tooth are meshed properly
• Oil Tank is placed above the Engine Casing
• Rear Wheel is attached to the Endframe of the Chassis and Rear Fender is placed using appropriate concentric mates
• Chain is Inserted between the rear wheel sprocket and Engine Sprocket.
• The Gas Tank is placed over the Top Frame.
• The Front Axle is attached to the front shaft of the chassis.
• Finally the Front Wheel and Front fender are attached to the axle
• The Axle, Front Wheel and Fender are given a angular mate to move on both sides.

The Kickstand, Front Wheel and Rear Wheel are grounded to the Plane to create a realistic model view.

RENDERING

The Final Assembly Model is rendered using Visualize and using Photoview 360 suitable decals for Oil Tank Rear Fender and Gas Tank are added.

Different scenes were created by adding new camera views.

Visualize project is used to create realistic environment and the rendering is done by adjusting the brightness, gamma, depth of view and focus with clean and high definition rendering image backgrounds.

The rendered images are attached below with different environment and backgrounds.