Giles G-200 Cowling – Onsite Digitization
Well the real “meat” of the Giles G-200 cowling project has begun. I flew out to very very hot Sonora, California yesterday morning so I could scan the aircraft and engine. It was an absolutely beautiful flight from Watsonville to Columbia – very still air, great visibility and very little traffic. I removed the back … Read more
KevCAM Part 3 – Polysurfaces, Rings, Script Shortcuts
So now it’s time to start extending these basic concepts to more real world situations. Everything we’ve done thus far has dealt with one single surface. What if we have a polysurface instead of one single surface? Let’s say we take our half pipe idea, and make it more like a s-curve: Now, you might … Read more
KevCAM Part 2 – Controlling Toolpath Orientation and Stepover
So if you’ve read through my first post on KevCAM you get the general idea on how the method works. On this post I’m going to show you how to control the stepover of the toolpath, and the toolpath orientation to your mold. Sticking with our very basic “bent half pipe” mold from earlier, the … Read more
KevCAM – A FlowAlongSrf Rhino Hack for CAM Toolpaths – Part 1
I use a program called madCAM for all my CAM toolpath generation. I like it very much and in general it works very well for what I do. Since I only have a 3-axis machine, I have the entry level version which sells for $750. I found their claim that you could download the program … Read more
T-Spline Tip: Defining Regions For Conversion
While Skype-ing with Matt Sederberg at T-Splines today, he turned me on to a feature of T-Splines that I’d never even knew existed, one that I think is very useful to what I do. We were chatting about some bugs I’d encountered on the cowling file for the Giles G-200, which they are addressing. I … Read more
A Better Way to Draw Airfoils in NURBS Modeling Packages
This post, and the methods I describe below stemmed from my interest in surface modeling aircraft structures in Rhino3D, and the problems I encountered along the way. While this method is especially crucial to those using T-Splines, anyone drawing airfoils using a NURBS based modeling package will find the information interesting. While the commands my … Read more
Cosine Spacing Plugin For Rhino
As I outlined in my post on my method for drawing airfoils in Rhino, the curves should be divided using a cosine spacing, rather than the typical division methods provided in Rhino. I had a friend of mine whip up this plugin for me, and so it’s a little rough around the edges, but it … Read more
T-Splines Article For Desktop Engineering
I wrote and article for Desktop Engineering about the limitations of NURBS based modeling packages and how T-Splines solves many of these problems. Check it out if you have a few minutes.
Prior Work – CompAir 8 Leading Edge Skins
This was one of my first Rhino projects done in 3D from start to finish, and the first project that utilized CNC water jetted plywood forms with steel studs to hold everything in alignment. The leading edge of this CompAir 8 was horribly misshapen, and it’s hard to figure out how anyone could not have … Read more
Prior Work – Zenith 801 Cowl Modification
This was my second project using the FARO arm, and the first done with the benefit of my Brunson Tetralock 400S-D Portable Stand. The stand itself is a thing of beauty, it’s rock solid and only weighs about 20 pounds. The 3-1/2″-8 thread on the top is made for newer arms, so I had my … Read more
