Kirby260 Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 It's been a pretty tough few months for me....Lost my good paying job..had to take a massive pay cut and move across the country. Benefit is that I have alot more free time. It seems that it has been discussed on many forums but never achieved..that I know of. But with the help of a whole bunch of reference drawings and photos, I have started to do a reasonably accurate CAD model of the 240z. Here is a teaser of the first step: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue72 Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Looks like you found the chassis blueprints from the FSM. I've modeled the 240Z in 3D, but my model is based purely on those chassis blueprints, orthrographic views in the FSM, and eyeballing my own car. I would love to see someone do this in CAD or another program, but use actual measurements from a real car to get it entirely accurate. That'd be very useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudypoochris Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Just a thought... I believe someone linked in the off topic section how to build a 3d laser scanner accurate to 5 mil or something ridiculous for pretty cheap. Might be worth investing in such a thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby260 Posted October 22, 2008 Author Share Posted October 22, 2008 Looks like you found the chassis blueprints from the FSM. I've modeled the 240Z in 3D, but my model is based purely on those chassis blueprints, orthrographic views in the FSM, and eyeballing my own car. I would love to see someone do this in CAD or another program, but use actual measurements from a real car to get it entirely accurate. That'd be very useful. I am using the chassis blueprints from the FSM. It gives a lot of the structural hardpoints/datums. My hope is that a reasonable 3D sketch of these can be obtained. The next step is verification of measurements off my own car that don't appear in the FSM and the other reference drawings I have. Then hopefully stitch all known points together with surfaces and sheet-metal assemblies. I looked at creating the body work model from the orthographic reference drawings. How did yours turn out? Care to share higher-res/muti-views? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=139983 It was me . Not really CAD, directly. It needs to be converted from point corrodinants to vector mapping, or was it the other way around . Well since you have it all in there, might as well make a few improvements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue72 Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 I applaud your efforts. If we had a model with a high degree of precision, then we could expand our knowledge of Z car aerodynamics with CFD testing. Some other HybridZ members are already trying out bits of my model, but I'd probably have to tweak every last panel at least a little bit to make them line up with real world measurements. There are two High Res views of my model in my CGSociety portfolio: http://renderanything.cgsociety.org/gallery/ Here's a medium res shot of the undercarriage: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby260 Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 hardpoints, datums and dimensions. floorplan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcarluver Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I too have been pondering the idea of recreating an accurate Z body in Solidworks. I started doing the same thing with my FSM to recreate the body/ frame mounting points but I no longer have my Z to reference some of the sheetmetal. I think that it may be possible to convert some of the renderings into CAD data. I know I can convert my Solidworks files into 3DSmax using the .stl format but I do not recall if it can be converted the other way. I also do not have 3DSmax installed on my computer any more. blue72 - what are the file types that maya can be exported as? i wonder if your models can be imported into Solidworks in order to modify into real CAD files with exact measurements... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue72 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I've found that IGES is the most useful cross-platform, cross-program file format. I'm currently working on finding a way to convert my Polygon mesh to NURBS in a format that won't create too many points when exporting in the IGES format. AFAIK my version of Maya can export objects into the following formats: mayaAscii and mayaBinary, move, mentalRay, animExport, FBX, DXF_XBF, OpenFlight, GE2, IGES, aliasWire, OBJ, iv2, RIB, rtg and vrml2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse OBrien Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I too am interested in this project. I've been researching the best way to effectively stiffen my chassis while adding as little excess weight as possible. There's a fair amount of info on it here, but the answer I generally receive is "build Mull's cage" which kind of kills the quick-daily-that-looks-tame image that I'm going for. If we can get something decent together in a cross-platform format I can run it through my physics testing plugin in Blender, and maybe we can determine the technical "best" chassis modifications possible for the s30. It would also help with designing a killer suspension setup. Where are we headed with this project? Do we want to make it an open-source model? If so, I'm in all the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughdogz Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I have access to CAD and FEA software...I'd be interested too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckolander Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 It probably sounds stupid, but I'm a fair hand at Bryce 3D. If there is anything that I can do top help let me know. Speaking of which, I need to upgrade my Bryce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughdogz Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Hi Blue72, Can you send me your Alias wire files and / or IGES? I'd prefer the Alias wire files to maintain associativity if you update the unibody model. I've always wanted to try doing a stress analysis on the engine compartment. There is a long standing debate whether a triangulated strut tower brace is superior to a two-point one. The firewall is not all that stiff, so we want to do an FEA on it to calculate the deflection involved... Here are some snapshots of a model I made many years ago (I didn't use anything but photos from "Rebuild your Nissan / Datsun OHC engine" book). I think BRAAP already mentioned that I have some intake / exhausts flipped around that I haven't fixed yet. Thanks, -Hugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse OBrien Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 If we keep going with this, can we license it under Creative Commons? I think version 2.0 is my favorite thus far. Having a complete model of the chassis that's stress-test-able could very well bring the s30 back into the limelight. Recently, I've been seeing a lot of FITs driving around and it saddens me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wondersparrow Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Omg, I was just thinking it would be amazing if someone had undertakend a project like this. Big kudos for taking this on I look forward to the wonders that this thread has to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZXT_bean Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I look forward to the wonders that this thread has to offer. I completely agree. maybe someone is daring enough to a tempt a s130 car? hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mavsol22 Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Are you going to make this CAD file available for others to play with. I have access to CATIA, Solidworks, Inventor, ProE at my office. I would be interested in converting into a few formats. If not, would you be willing to supply an STL file as I would like to scale it down and print it out on our 3D Printer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrariferg Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Very interesting. I wish I had the time and patience to learn how to use CAD programs. I've learned a little on MasterCAM and my dad has another CAD program. Just never really got into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonZ Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Has any progress been made? I've been creating some body models of my own in Solidworks for mock up purposes. Maybe we could combine efforts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_hunt Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 A cad file would be nice to have, give me something to use to check dimensions. You can use a camera photo as an overlay appropriately sized to compare with the cad drawing. It'll give you an idea of where things are as opposed to where they are supposed to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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