Best approach to modeling a tube-frame chassis

[mikedelong]

Hi, I have been trying to find the best way to model a tube-frame roll-cage or chassis for an off-road vehicle. I have tried using curves and then creating tubes from the geometry, but run into problems at joints, etc.

What is the best approach to this problem? Should I be modeling this with curves? sketches? How do I create a solid model so i can perform structural analysis?

Thanks in advance!
mikedelong

 

[Azrael]

What kind of cage are you trying to build? with only straight tubes or straight and bended tubes?

You could use sketches and use inter sketch constraints, but I would use points at intersections and use "spline by points" with single segment and associative turned on so I get associative straight curves (transform the points and the rest comes along). When you apply tube on the curves they will be short in the intersection so offset face and make a bisectrical line so you can orient in a wcs to it so you can get an equal angle cut on both tubes.

If this ain´t what you had in mind, explain the problem and we will see what we can help you with

 

[Dave K]

I did a rollcage, and used sketchs. First I defined my main roll hoops (front and rear), sketching in the tube centerlines. Then for the halo I put a plane in, tied to the top bars of the front and rear hoops, and constructed a sketch on that plane, etc. Once all the centerlines were in, I used the Tube feature, and then trimmed the tubes to the tube(s) they met, to create the 'fishmouth'.

-Dave
Everything should be designed as simple as possible, but not simpler.