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Racing Car Design using Solid Edge – A Short Tutorial
In the next few minutes, students and/or teachers will model a simple racecar using Solid EdgeTM. With a little more practice, far more complicated race winning designs can be achieved. Here we will use Solid Edge Part to create a 3D Solid that is then ready to be manufactured! This document assumes knowledge of Microsoft Windows ® and have gone through the online tutorials found under the help menu, even better if you have received training from Denford. Copy the template file F1 In Schools to <Drive letter>:\program files\solid edge V11\templates Step 1. Start Solid Edge, Start>programs>Solid Edge>Part. Start a new file
Choose F1 In Schools.par. In The new file, there is a surface block representing the boundaries of the balsa wood block and a series of profiles which we are going to use to model a racing car.
Step 2. Choose the Lofted Protrusion command from the left hand application tool bar and select the ‘from sketch option on the smart step ribbon bar.
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Select the profile Main Body Profile 1 highlighted ensure the dot is in the bottom left shown by the arrow.
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Next select Main Body Profile 2 again ensuring that the dot is at the bottom left of the profile.
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Next select Main Body Profile 3
This completes the cross section stage so now move on by selecting the guide curve step on the ribbon bar
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We will now select the guide curves and after selecting each one either select green tick on ribbon bar or select enter from keyboard select all the Main Body Guide Curves as shown in dark blue.
Now select preview.
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Your model should look like this.
Next we will model the front nose cone using a lofted protrusion in the same way using Profiles Main Body Profile 3 Nose Cone Profile 1 and Nose Cone Profile 2 (Point) and guide curves Nose Cone Guide Curve 1 and Main Body Guide Curve 3.
Select Lofted Protrusion command then on the smartstep ribbon bar ensure the select option is on sketch/chain and select the two profiles as shown
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Next change the select options on the ribbon bar to point and select the point
Nose Cone Profile 2 as shown.
We have selected all the profiles so on the smartstep ribbon bar change move along to the guide curve step and change to the from sketch option as shown
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Now select the two guide curves shown selecting each one by enter or the green tick on the ribbonbar
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Select Preview from the ribbon bar the model should now look like this
That’s the main body complete we will now use the protrusion command to model the airfoils, as before the profiles have been created for you so on the ribbon
bar select the from sketch option . Now select the two profiles for the airfoil, front and rear this will then move you on
to the extent step ensure the symmetric extent button is selected and key in a value of 76
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Now lets see how much you have remembered using the loft command create the front wheel support using the profiles as shown remember to select the same corner on each profile in this case there are no guide curves. If in doubt have a look at what you did to create the body.
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Now do the same thing for the rear axle as shown
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If you have the same result as above well done, we now need to do the same thing on the other side so we are going to mirror the feature about the centre using the mirror feature command .
Ensure reference planes are turned on either using the construction display icon or RMB and select show all reference planes.
Now select the mirror feature icon note it may not be shown remember any icon with an arrow in bottom left corner has a pullout, once you have done it a few times you will soon get to know where the relevant tools are.
On the ribbon bar change the option from fast to smart pattern then select the lofted protrusion you have just created either from the edgebar or the screen and holding the cntrl key down select the rear wheel protrusion as well then select the green tick or enter to move to the next step, now select the x-z reference plane see below and finish
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Your car is now taking shape, lets have a look at creating the cockpit, for this you
need to select the cutout icon from the feature toolbar. As before select the from sketch icon now select the cockpit profile followed by the green check mark that will move you along the ribbon bar to the next step and be prompted for extent, select
the through next option , and move the cursor so that the red arrow points towards the top of the car the result should be as shown.
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We now need to put the regulation slot and hole for the gas canister into the rear of the model. By now you should be getting used to the process profile step/side step then the extent step.
So to model the slot select the cutout icon then select from sketch next select the rectangular cutout slot profile, as this is an open profile you will need to identify which side the material will be cut away, so point the arrow inside then for
the extent select through next from the ribbon bar. To model the cutout for the cylinder the process is exactly the same, select the cylinder profile as it is a closed profile it will not ask for a side, it will move straight
onto extent select finite extent and key in 51.05 then make sure the material is remioved from the model by moving the cursor so the cylinder is towards the model then LMB the result should be as shown below.
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We now need to put some holes in for the axle to go through, so using the cutout place a 3mm hole through the wheel support as shown. Select the hole and for extent
use the through next option from the ribbon bar.
Lets do the same thing for the rear wheels again use the cutout from sketch and through next for the extent. All that remains is to do some aesthetic rounding.
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Round 2mm
Round 3mm
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Round 3mm
Round 3mm
Round 10mm
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Round 0.3mm
Round 2mm
Round 5mm
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Your car should now look something similar to the one below, experiment with the features to build your own unique racecar.