WT Forums

There, it's done. I've got myself an intel iMac, windows XP and installed SolidWorks. Now I've just got to figure out this bitch of a program, it's really complicated yikes...

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

My installation of win XP has made itself useless... Great, now I have to buy a legal version because there is no way I canmakethe free version work.

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

I've obtained a version of win XP that will work indefinitly, and SolidWorks is up and running. Now, the real work can begin. After getting the hang of SW's basic modeling tools I'll begin piecing together a new A-10 model.

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

Alright, I'm starting to get the hang of SolidWorks.

http://skildor.deviantart.com/art/Solid ... 1-66584989

This is the first part I made using solid NURBS, which is the kind of object I need to make to model my A-10 model. I'm very happy with the filleting options, as you can see by looking at the rounded edges. I went on a filleting spree.

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

What is that supposed to be of?

This is a practice object, in order to learn solidworks. I'll be making a few of them to test the techiques that I need for aircraft. SW is entirely different from my previous 3D software because the purpose of my previous software was art, and the purpose of SW is industrial and aerospace design.

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

I've left my A-10 modeling project alone for a long time because SolidWorks was getting on my nerves a lot. I decided I would restart as soon as I would be able to make a simple form using simple contruction geometry in the program. Well, I finally managed to do it:

http://skildor.deviantart.com/art/Piece ... d-76140243

This is the front part of an A-10 gearpod put together with a handful of curves, containing none of the imperfections present in my previous Maya model. The only reason the tip is a bit wonky is because the curves themselves are a shoddy job.

Now, I have to resconstruct what I already had in Maya...

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

Ah, well then, welcome back.
Keep us posted how it's going.

SolidWorks turned out to be a bad program for smooth exterior design, it is meant for mechanical design I eventually learned.

So, it's been a while. Here's what happened and what's going on:

1) I've taken a long break from 3D modeling
2) I purchased a student edition of CATIA for $75 and learned how to use its freestyle surface modeling components
3) Expect the first A-10 parts to appear in this post the coming weekend
4) All previous work and photos in this thread and my archives are enough to keep me going for a while, so all you need to do is sit back and watch the process unfold

A one-page promotional article about CATIA: http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/ourstory/family_catia.jsp (The second paragraph sums up why I picked up this program.)

27/07: Creating the A-10's hull from cross sections should be a trivial task, but it's not done yet. CATIA's surface manipulation tools are very counterintuitive compared to more artistic programs...

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III

Cool, I look forward to seeing what you've been able to come up with. If you have any questions, you are still free to ask. The A-10 does have at least one new antenna since 2 years ago, and at least one more is in the works. If you have any questions, you are still free to ask away.

I just found this thread and was already to jump in...then I realized it was two years old (when I was in Kabul).

Coach

Hey I'm not dead yet, I'm working on a comeback. If you'd like to help, a series of accurate cross sections from an A-10 fuselage would be great since at the moment, it's guesswork based on the seems between the platework on frontal photgraphs.

I found my old art site, here's some very early shapes. These aren't sketches, the surface just needs to be beaten into shape.

This is an image of the fuselage intersecting a reference photo. You can see the seems in the platework quite well due to some photoediting, but I could really use something better to determine cross sections:

http://skildor.deviantart.com/art/A-10- ... -131359445

A full view of the unformed fuselage:

http://skildor.deviantart.com/art/A-10- ... -131359741

_________________
Guns don't kill people, -I- do! - Dwarven Rifleman, Warcraft III