3D design

[island life]

I've been asked to provide Dcals for several models of helicopter but
short of travelling the country and asking for access, does anyone have
a suggestion for downloading 3D CAD info (.dwg) that will allow me to
work out the curvature and sizing from my desk?
IL

[Dikkie Dik]

island life wrote:
> I've been asked to provide Dcals for several models of helicopter but
> short of travelling the country and asking for access, does anyone have
> a suggestion for downloading 3D CAD info (.dwg) that will allow me to
> work out the curvature and sizing from my desk?
> IL
>
In the aerospace industry, CATIA is more widely used then AutoCAD. So I
do not think much 3D info is in DWG format. However, private designers
might use it.

Good luck!

[island life]

Thanks DD. Just spent 4 hours on a gazelle with a roll of patterning
paper and masking tape. I'll digitize it tomorrow. I'm not looking
forward to the rest. I'll look up CATIA, never used it. IL

[Simon Robbins]

"island life" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> I've been asked to provide Dcals for several models of helicopter but
> short of travelling the country and asking for access, does anyone have
> a suggestion for downloading 3D CAD info (.dwg) that will allow me to
> work out the curvature and sizing from my desk?

There a lots of Microsoft Flight Simulator models out there designed in 3D
Studio Max that are pretty accuracte. Depends what you want to do with them
though, as the designers will have rights over them, even if they are free
to download. (www.avsim.com has a large library.)

Si

[james cho]

island life wrote:
> Thanks DD. Just spent 4 hours on a gazelle with a roll of patterning
> paper and masking tape. I'll digitize it tomorrow. I'm not looking
> forward to the rest. I'll look up CATIA, never used it. IL
>
You'll be very hard pressed to find actual CATIA engineering models of
existing helicopters. If you do find the need to work with 3d geometry
though, try out Rhino (which can open CATIA files). CATIA is
prohibitively expensive for most humans and overkill for your purposes.


jc