Kolywopter - Page 11

**outersketcher** · #**101** 03-15-2009, 04:23 PM

I was re-reading Ricks build thread of the P-47D that Leif linked to us... Holy smokes you guys are nuts! The level of detail and creativity is astounding. And I too squirrelled away Leif's tutorial for future reference.

The whale is in line. And I promise that I'm getting MUCH faster at this. First, I had to make all my mistakes with the Kolywopter.

I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and the free version of Google SketchUp on an Imac. SketchUp is a very simple 3D program that only allows the designer to work in co-planer surfaces. Many people view the co-planer limitations of the software as a bad thing. However, I see it as helpful advantage for designing something that will end up as a paper construct. For instance, you can make a dome shape in SketchUp, but you have to do from a series of shapes that naturally break down into flat pieces that can be re-assembled from paper in real life.

Here's what I do...

First I draw little sketches of the vehicle design in one of my sketchbooks. Then I use SketchUp to start carving out the design. Once done, I use a free Ruby script called Unfold to.... well... unfold the entire design. This must be done plane by plane. Yes, it takes a while, but I am able to control EXACTLY how each individual part will lay in it's flattened state. So I don't mind the extra work.

There is another program for unfolding SketchUp designs called Waybe that will unfold the entire model in one move... but it costs money. I did get a chance to be a beta tester for them a while back and while I saw a lot of potential in the program, I couldn't get the program to break down some of my designs the way I wanted. Odd breaks and many of the shapes ended up unusable as paper model parts. Maybe they've resolved some of those issues since then...

Once I have all the parts flattened and laying on the same plane, I switch to the straight down view so that I'm looking directly down onto my newly flattened pieces. Move in as close as I can and export the image as a jpg to my desktop. I save the jpg as HUGE. In the case of the Kolywopter, I set the settings to 36 inches across at 300 dpi.

I open up Illustrator and import the jpg. Of course it comes in as a monstrous file that I then scale down to a more comfortable size on it's own, locked layer. Then it's just a matter of tracing over the parts on a new, artwork layer... toss the imported jpg and print and test build.

Yes, I know it's a little tedious. But it IS a low-brow solution that works. And it can be done completely with free software. I know there are several very good free programs available for download on the web that are similar to Illustrator and Photoshop. And besides, many of you are on PCs anyway, you can just use Pepakura to unfold your designs.

David

**APA-168** · #**102** 03-15-2009, 04:28 PM

That's why I use sketchup as well...building hulls is very tedious, but with a plug-in called curvestitcher I can do it fairly quickly. Thank you for the information, it is helpful. I have less control over the quality of the exports on a Windows computer, so I'll have to borrow a Mac and try it out...

**Leif Ohlsson** · #**103** 03-15-2009, 04:39 PM

Thanks from me, too. Feel a lot encouraged by your seemingly tedious way of going about things. Suits me fine - and it seems I could do it!

Leif

**cdavenport** · #**104** 03-16-2009, 01:36 PM

Outersketcher, you wouldn't happen to know if Sketchup can import a .dwg file would you. I have a design of the Kronosaurus-powered submarine from Dinotopia that I would love to build. I did it all in Autocad and it is really detailed.

**rickstef** · #**105** 03-16-2009, 01:42 PM

Sketchup can import a dwg or a dxf file

**cdavenport** · #**106** 03-17-2009, 06:22 AM

Thanks so much. I am going to give it a go.

**outersketcher** · #**107** 03-17-2009, 11:04 AM

I like SketchUp...mostly because it's free.

But don't be fooled into thinking it's a weak program due to it's price. Programmers around the world have been creating little add-on files, or plugins called "Rubys", which are scripting programs designed to enhance the abilitie's of the base-program. APA-168 is right, if you find that SketchUp can't perform a particular task for you... it's likely that there's a downloadable ruby script that will.

Some of my own favorite ruby scripts perform functions like installing a center point on a selected plane, unfolding planes, enhanced alignment functions, stiching odd edges together, creating new faces (or planes) and... this is a cool one... skinning over ribbed structures. You nautical and aviation designers might like that one.

Oh, and by the way, I imported the Kolywopter schematics I'd created in illustrator as .dwg files into Sketchup to use as templates for the modeling of the parts.

David

**Leif Ohlsson** · #**108** 03-17-2009, 12:03 PM

Skinning over ribbed structures, that's were I gave up during my first attempts. Please, oh, please, what's it called, and I should be able to find it...

Leif

**THE DC** · #**109** 03-17-2009, 01:07 PM

I'm waiting for the OEM version after you're done with the prototype!

BTW: The interior is looking thrashing!

The DC

**outersketcher** · #**110** 06-03-2009, 06:17 PM

No... I'm not dead... just swamped with more projects than I have time to complete them. My goal is to complete this build and have the Kolywopter available for download by the 30th of June.

Have installed the landing gear struts... I like how fragile they look. But they are deceptively strong.

As you all know, I struggled for a while trying to figure out how best to provide for juicy, round, bouncy wheels. I ended up making 2 separate sheets of parts. One for the the disk-method and one for the tabbed method. I chose to build the tabbed wheels for this prototype. I like them. They look a little goofy on the vehicle, but so do ALL bush-plane wheels. That's the point really.

Sorry no pictures this post. I'll include them in my next post.

David