Objectives :-

• Learn Surface modelling using Solidworks.
• To learn idea and methodology to generate complex surfaces .
• To learn Utilization of all surface modeling features and complex Solid modeling features of

Introduction :-

Solidworks is a multi-platform Computer-aided design (CAD) and Computer-aided engineering (CAM) software developed by a French Company Dassault Systemes. Solidworks CAD modeling software is used in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Consumer goods - distribution, FMCG - Distribution, Energy, and processes, Finance and Corporate Services, High Technology, Industrial Equipment, Life Sciences, Marine & Offshore, Natural Resources, and Transport & mobility. Solidworks enables the creation of 3D parts from 2D sketches, surfacing, sheet metal, weldments, molded tooling parts up to the definition of mechanical assemblies.

In solidworks Part modeling, Design engineer can made his design using different functions.

Nowadays industries are working for attractive, good looking, good ergonomically design aesthetical Product. To design such kind of attractive product designer should have knowledge of surface modeling. surface model has three dimensional geometric properties unlike solid model, surface modeling can help designer to design casting components, injection molding plastic components, mold designs and many others engineering products. Solidworks surface modeling feature have number of surface modeling tool to create complex three dimensional surface model.

Some of the popular features of 3D part modeling are discussed below:

Sketcher (Sketch): Sketcher workbench is the most commonly used workbench to draw various types of profiles for different purposes. It consists of line, circle, spline, rectangle, ellipse, hexagon, etc. tools. It also consists of extend, trim, convert entities, offset entities, mirror, patterns, and 3D sketch features.

Features: This workbench is mainly used for producing solid parts from existing sketches. Extruded boss/cut, revolved boss/cut, swept boss/cut, lofted boss/cut, chamfer, fillet, mirror, shell, draft, rib, etc. tools will be seen in this workbench.

Surfacing: Very complex surfaces can be modeled in Solidworks. Popularly its surfacing workbench is used to design surfaces. In this workbench, you can see extruded, revolved, swept, lofted, boundary, filled, offset, etc. surfaces tools.

In this project, we will learn how to model the amazing Aston Martin One-77 in SOLIDWORKS, from start to finish. With this step-by-step advanced surface modelling tools. In this project, we will be using the concepts and terminology used while modeling. It will familiarize us with the commonly used functions in Solidworks.
Our aim is to do the surface modeling of the car. Hence, we will be using surfacing workbench for creation of the surfaces most of the time. And for parts like rims, tires and brake calipers we will be using solid modeling workbench.

Why Surface Modeling?

Surface Modeling is the method of showing or presenting solid objects. The process requires you to convert between different 3D modeling types, such as converting the 3D object to show procedural surfaces, validate imperfections, and apply smoothness. While more complex than Wireframe Modeling, Surface Modeling is easier to achieve than Solid Modeling.
In a CAD environment, it is possible to fully produce a model using only surface modeling - but most real-world applications require a combination with solid modeling technique as well. How a designer is able to interact and manipulate an object in a CAD system is the difference between solid and surface modeling.

Flow of Project :-

The project goes through some interesting phases as mentioned below. These phases help us to achieve the best end results as per our target. They also helps us in breaking down the whole process of Design into some small benchmark which speeds up the rectification of mistake if anything goes wrong throughout the project work.

The whole process starts with concept ideation and ends with perfect realistic renders.

Design Approach :-

For the surface modeling of the car, it is a tedious task to create the perfect geometry of the car. Hence, to ease the things we decided to build basic profiles of the car first and then separate each part from the main body. After separating the individual part, we will be modifying and adding more functional details in them as per our requirement and at last we will assemble them in an assembly file.

The steps followed during the modeling are shown in the chart below.

Now we will see each and every step in detail.

Blueprint Setup -

Basic orthogonal drawings of the car in every direction (front, top, side, and rear) ,it is called as Blueprints are set on respective planes by using Sketch Picture tool of solidwork sketch, by using this Tool design engineer can trace a part from its image, it is most useful tool for reverse engineering of component having curvature profile. Blueprints are one of the most useful things for modeling a car using any 3D software.

Surface Modeling

The profiles of side, fenders, door, rear, front bumper, hood, windows are made with the help of various tools listed below. For creating different part of car body we have used following surface modeling & solid modeling tools further :

• Boundary Surface : The boundary surface feature lets you create surfaces that can be tangent or curvature continuous in both directions (all sides of the surface). When high-quality surfaces with curvature continuity are required Boundary Surface tool is used. A boundary surface uses curves that fully enclose a single shape: say a rectangle. You can either use a single sketch or a combination of multiple sketches to describe a closed boundary.
  
  
• Filled Surface : The Filled Surface feature constructs a surface patch with any number of sides, within a boundary defined by existing model edges, sketches, or curves, including composite curves.
  
  
• Extruded Surface : The Extruded Surface feature lets you to extrude the surface from the sketch profile of the surface.
  
  
• Offset Surface : The offset surface feature creates a surface from the existing surface. You can create an offset surface with a distance of zero.
  
  
• Ruled Surface : The Ruled Surface command creates surfaces that extend out in a specified direction from selected edges.
  Examples of how you can use ruled surfaces:
  i] Add tangent extensions to complex surfaces
  ii] Create drafted sidewalls
  iii] Replace non-drafted surfaces on imported models with drafted surfaces (using the Tapered or Sweep type)
  iv] Create parting and interlock
  
  
• Fillet : A fillet is a tool that enables you to smooth the edge between two adjacent faces in a surface body that meets at an angle. Fillet/Round creates a rounded internal or external face on the part. You can fillet all edges of a face, selected sets of faces, selected edges, or edge loops.There are four types of fillet i.e. constant type fillet, variable size fillet, face fillet, and full round fillet.
  
• Delete Face : With Delete Face tool, you can do the following:
  i] Delete a face from a surface body, or delete one or more faces from a solid body to create
  ii] Delete a face from a surface body or solid body and automatically patch and trim the
  iii] Delete face and generate a single face to close any
  
  
• Extend Surface : Extend a Surface is a tool using which you can extend a surface by selecting an edge, multiple edges, or a face.
  
  
• Trim Surface : The trim Surface tool is used to trim the intersecting surfaces. You can use a surface, plane, or sketch as a trim tool to trim intersecting surfaces. You can also use a surface in conjunction with additional surfaces, as mutual trim tools. In the PropertyManager, under Trim Type, there are two types available, Standard and Mutual.
  
  Standard - Trims surfaces using surfaces, sketch entities, curves, planes, and so on.
  Mutual - Trims multiples surfaces using the surfaces themselves.
  
  
• Knit Surface : The Knit Surface tool is used to combine two or more faces and surfaces into one. It works like sew command in CATIA.
  
  
• Revolved Boss/Base & Cut : Revolves add or remove material by revolving one or more profiles around a centerline. You can create revolved boss/bases, revolved cuts, or revolved surfaces. The revolve feature can be a solid, a thin feature, or a surface.
  
  
• Extruded Boss/Base & Cut : The Extrude Property Manager defines the characteristics of extruded features. You can create solid or thin extruded features. A cut is a feature that removes material from a part or an assembly. With multibody parts, you can use cuts to create disjoint parts. You can control which parts to keep and which parts are affected by the cut.
  
  
• Surface Loft : Loft creates a feature by making transitions between profiles. A loft can be a base, boss, cut, or surface. You create a loft using two or more profiles. Only the first, last, or first and last profiles can be points. All sketch entities, including guide curves and profiles, can be contained in a single 3D sketch.
  
  
• Cut with Surface : You can cut a solid model by removing material with a surface or plane. With multibody parts, you can select which bodies to keep.
  
  
• Combine : In a multibody part, you can combine multiple solid bodies to create a single-bodied part or another multibody part. You can add or subtract bodies, or keep material that is common to the selected bodies.
  
  
• Circular Pattern : The Circular Pattern Property Manager appears when you pattern one or more features around an axis.
  
  
• Chamfer : The chamfer tool creates a beveled feature on selected edges, faces, or a vertex.
  
  
• Draft : Draft tapers faces using a specified angle to selected faces in the model.
  
  
• Sweep : Sweep creates a base, boss, cut, or surface by moving a profile (section) along a path. A sweep can be simple or complex.

Now we will see one by one parts created in our modelling.

Basic Roof top -

Modeling of a car is a big task and is done by step by step surface modeling of different surfaces. The car has a symmetric shape, and hence we will be modeling half of the car only and then mirror the body. It will reduce our lot of time. As said earlier, first we have built basic profiles of the car and later on created separate parts for our ease. When modeling a car, the roof is often taken as a starting point, as its construction is quite easy and uses curves spanning the entire model. Hence, we started modeling of the roof first. For modeling roof, projected curves are used to create precise 3D profiles for further surface creation using Surface Boundary tool. For creation of projected curves we need to create sketches first. These sketches were made with the use of splines with their proper dimensioning.

Basic Car Model -

As per pur approach first we will create the basic model as shown. Then we will go for adding and spliting the parts for more details.

After the creation of basic profiles of the car, now it was time to separate the surfaces of the different parts from the main body and refine the design of each part.

We could have modeled the entire car and all its details within the same file. However, to ease the process, we divided the car into multiple parts defined in separate files. All the parts of the car were then assembled in a special file called an Assembly.

Different parts were exported to new files and their shapes were refined using surfacing tools to meet the final design expectations.

After finalizing the shapes, the other half portion of the car was created using the mirror tool as discussed earlier.

The different modeled parts Using Surface Modelling tools of Aston Martin one-77 are :

Main Body Isometric View

Solid Modeling

Up to now, we had created the bodies of the car using surface modeling techniques. Now, we needed to model the wheels of the car.

The wheel of the car consists of three parts i.e. rims, tires, and brake calipers. We modeled the rims (front and rear), tires (front and rear) and brake calipers using solid modeling techniques.

The various tools used for modeling wheels are

• Revolved Boss/Base & Cut
• Extruded Boss/Base & Cut
• Surface Loft
• Cut with surface
• Combine
• Swept Cut
• Circular pattern
• Chamfer
• Fillet
• Draft
• Sweep

Revolved Boss/Base & Cut : Revolves add or remove material by revolving one or more profiles around a centerline. You can create revolved boss/bases, revolved cuts, or revolved surfaces. The revolve feature can be a solid, a thin feature, or a surface.

Extruded Boss/Base & Cut : The Extrude Property Manager defines the characteristics of extruded features. You can create solid or thin extruded features. A cut is a feature that removes material from a part or an assembly. With multibody parts, you can use cuts to create disjoint parts. You can control which parts to keep and which parts are affected by the cut.

Surface Loft : Loft creates a feature by making transitions between profiles. A loft can be a base, boss, cut, or surface. You create a loft using two or more profiles. Only the first, last, or first and last profiles can be points. All sketch entities, including guide curves and profiles, can be contained in a single 3D sketch.

Cut with Surface : You can cut a solid model by removing material with a surface or plane. With multibody parts, you can select which bodies to keep.

Combine : In a multibody part, you can combine multiple solid bodies to create a single-bodied part or another multibody part. You can add or subtract bodies, or keep material that is common to the selected bodies.

Circular Pattern : The Circular Pattern Property Manager appears when you pattern one or more features around an axis.

Chamfer : The chamfer tool creates a beveled feature on selected edges, faces, or a vertex.

Fillet : Fillet/Round creates a rounded internal or external face on the part. You can fillet all edges of a face, selected sets of faces, selected edges, or edge loops. There are different types of fillets such as constant size fillet, multiple radius fillet, round corner fillet, setback fillet, variable size fillet, face fillet, full round fillet, asymmetric fillet.

Draft : Draft tapers faces using a specified angle to selected faces in the model.

Sweep : Sweep creates a base, boss, cut, or surface by moving a profile (section) along a path. A sweep can be simple or complex.

The different modeled parts Using Solid Modelling tools of Aston Martin one-77 are :

Fig : Caliper Fig : Disc Fig : Front Rim Fig : Rear Rim

Assembly

Assembly is a file consisting of two or more parts and other assemblies called sub-assemblies. Adding a component to an assembly creates a link between the assembly and the component. Changes in the component are automatically reflected in the assembly.

• Sub-Assembly - When an assembly is a component of another assembly, it is referred to as a subassembly. You can nest subassemblies in multiple levels, to reflect the hierarchy of your design. In this project’s assembly, we have different parts like doors, hood, windows, bumper, etc. and sub-assemblies of front and rear wheels. All the parts of the car are assembled together with the help of the mate feature.
  
  
• Add components -When you place a component (either an individual part or a subassembly) in an assembly, the component file is linked to the assembly file. The component appears in the assembly; the component data remains in the source component file. Any changes you make to the component file update the assembly.
  
  
• Edit Assembly components - From an assembly, you can open a component in a separate window to make changes. When you switch back to the assembly window, you rebuild the assembly to incorporate the changes.
  
  
• Mate - Mates create geometric relationships between assembly components. As you add mates, you define the allowable directions of linear or rotational motion of the components. You can move a component within its degrees of freedom, visualizing the assembly's behavior.

Following are the Sun-assemblies available in our Modelling :

Fig : Disc Sub-Assembly Fig: Front Wheel Sub-assembly Fig : Rear Wheel Sub-assembly

Final Assembly of Aston Martin One-77

Following are some of Standard views of Final Assembly of Aston Martin one-77

Fig : Assembly - Front View Fig : Assembly - Rear View

Fig : Assembly - Side view

Photorealistic renderings

Renderings is the process of creating a 3D model into a realistic image.

The photorealistic renderings can be done in two ways:

• Using PhotoView 360
• Using Solidworks Visualize

For the rendering of Aston Martin car, We have used these both.

Following are some of sample images of our renderings are attached.

Fig : Rendering Using Photoview 360

Fig : Rendering Using Solidworks Visulaize

Fig : Rendering Using Solidworks Visulaize

Fig : Rendering Using Solidworks Visulaize

Conclusion :-

We have learned from simple to complex surface modeling methods, creation of surfaces with different approaches to get the expected results.A new approach to solid modeling using different tools were learned during this project.