It's a long time since I've posted. I have been busy with a new project which even I consider slightly eccentric. I'm in the early stages of designing a steam motorbike.
I have started to learn a free computer aided design programme called FreeCAD. It is far from intuitive, it is in English but oft times I am driven to the conclusion that English it may be but not English as I know it. Like Blender, before I can enjoy using it I have to become competent and fastish. I am hoping to have the front wheel drawn up by the weekend, a water tube boiler will follow and then the real test will be a small compound double acting engine or possibly a uniflow to start with.
I have been using a standard model to learn which keys to press for what. This Turners Cube was constructed by creating sketches on a cube extruding or padding them then using the little blighters to create pockets..........all eighteen of them. It would be much faster to create a stepped cylinder then position it on the cube and perform a Boolean operation. I can do one face but not the other five.
This is it in FreeCAD. I can add materials this is supposed to be aluminium. I decided to export it to Blender, that took an hour of messing till I found a file format that worked. (obj.) extensions do the trick.
After importing it to Blender I gave it a quick plastic looking material then animated it. The ten second animation was a bit large for YouTube so I popped it into Handbrake and compressed it from 1.5GB to 1.3MB. All this software is free. Here is the result.
I have started to learn a free computer aided design programme called FreeCAD. It is far from intuitive, it is in English but oft times I am driven to the conclusion that English it may be but not English as I know it. Like Blender, before I can enjoy using it I have to become competent and fastish. I am hoping to have the front wheel drawn up by the weekend, a water tube boiler will follow and then the real test will be a small compound double acting engine or possibly a uniflow to start with.
I have been using a standard model to learn which keys to press for what. This Turners Cube was constructed by creating sketches on a cube extruding or padding them then using the little blighters to create pockets..........all eighteen of them. It would be much faster to create a stepped cylinder then position it on the cube and perform a Boolean operation. I can do one face but not the other five.
After importing it to Blender I gave it a quick plastic looking material then animated it. The ten second animation was a bit large for YouTube so I popped it into Handbrake and compressed it from 1.5GB to 1.3MB. All this software is free. Here is the result.
I think that's all for today.
Welcome back to blogger Adrian.
ReplyDeleteThis is all clever stuff, way beyond me I'm affraid!
A steam powered motorbike...hmmm, sounds like an interesting project, I'm looking forward to seeing it's developement in future posts. One thing worries me though..where/how do you carry the sacks of coal and the shovel?...lol....[;o)
Trevor, I have had a bit of bother with Blogger. I couldn't get to the dashboard. After using my special words I sorted it.
DeleteThis business is sheer lunacy but does keep me out of mischief. I just fancy a challenge. A Uniflow engine is the answer but as they are very hot at the cylinder head end and 100°C at the exhaust end the answer seems to be a tapered bore. I would prefer not to use rings and have the cylinder oil free. Hundreds of little problems to keep me amused. I'll keep posting until I either get bored or beaten. I'm a little worried about the coal. Probably use propane as an alternative.
It's great to see you back, Adrian, and you're amazing us in true Adrian style! I love the results, but I'm totally bog-mindled by your description of the process.
ReplyDeleteAs for the steam-powered motorbike, I'm not sure if the government would let you put it on the road. Now if it were hot-air powered you might be alright as they have a surplus of that.
Best wishes - - - Richard
Richard, That is two of us mind boggled. I suspect were it ever built then driving on the road would present few difficulties. The government are more concerned with cotton buds and making Ribena taste vile......Daft beggars one and all.
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