Front axle

McPherson wheel suspension

This is the front axle. It was simplified to the maximum. The polyurethane foam element is spring, damper and bearing. The McPherson suspension is a well accepted design but is it the lightest alternative ?
In the first comment on this post Bob Stuart, the designer of The Car-Cycle X-4, 
argues that the McPherson is one of the lightest options. In our design of a micro electric car (Elite) we used an alternative construction. It is a sort of torsion beam suspension. Because the distance between the wheels is so little, this construction may be lighter than the McPherson. Another advantage is that it incorporates the anti-roll function.

This drawing shows the wheel suspension of the Elite micro electric car. It was mounted to the body via silent blocs

The McPherson construction distributes the wheel load over six distant points on the monocoque. Large torque loads will be transferred as small forces in these points (braking, cornering). This seems all very beneficial but the McPherson construction urges us to strengthen the monocoque at places where we really don't need it to be strong at all, would we not have this suspension. When we use a McPherson suspension we are forced to add material at the mounts of the longitudinal arms and vertical columns. We also have to increase the lateral rigidity, for instance with an u-frame between the front wheels. This may increase the body mass. The torsion beam axle connects to the monocoque at the front side of the seat. This is a place where we need it to be strong and stiff anyway...

Torsion beam suspension

About mass

Mass distribution of the first prototype. Total mass 27 kg.

13 years ago I determined the mass distribution of my first prototype (see here). Although it was larger and a 'head in' design it is still illustrative. The total mass of the first proto was 27 kg. The second proto is 23.3 kg. The mass reduction is due to leaving out the heavy polycarbonate window and the rear wheel suspension and also due to the smaller size and improved body construction.

Mike Burrows Windcheetah, the archetype of a tadpole trike, is 15 kg. Based on my figures this would mean that Mike uses 5,4 kg for frame and seat. In the first prototype 3,5 kg is used for wheel suspension which the Windcheetah doesn't have. We can conclude that a velomobile of 23,6 kg is still 23,6-15-3,5=5,1 kg too heavy. Although one might argue that the mass of a coat and two bags should be added to Mike's (beautiful) design...

Film making at NID: A design form or is it art?

Alpavirama 2011: NID film festival and conference

Prof M P Ranjan
Alpavirama 2011 is an event that includes a short film competition, a retrospective of select NID films and a seminar on film making and the design space, all conducted under the banner of NID in its 50th year of existence. Prof Arun Gupta a film maker and teacher at NID who coordinates the cinema short film conference and festival at NID asked me to comment on the forthcoming event on my blog so I raise the question – is film making Art or Design? To answer that question you may need to attend the conference and see the offerings from students and professionals who have managed to get their short films included in this forthcoming event at NID, Ahmedabad.

Image: Stills from “Chaattalmazha” by Ahsam K R, one of the short films that has been shortlisted for screening at Alpavirama 2011 festival and seminar.

I have however retired from NID services at the end of last month and will move on to a new role of active engagement with design that matters in India and elsewhere. I have been contemplating a change in my blog posts that can be unfettered by official institutional strictures or censorship and over the past few months I have been travelling from country to country and in these journeys I was fortunate to meet some remarkable design thinkers and activists who could be the subject of some future posts in the new year ahead, a renewed Design for India platform that has now seen over 1,00,000 visitors clocking over 2,50,000 page views from 8000+ cities in its first avatar that started in June 2007. I have been invited to speak at a number of international events in Davos, Milan, Shanghai and Atlanta in the coming year and at events in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, all exciting and I do look forward to being "retired by NID and from NID" as a Design Thinker and an Independent Academic at large living and working out of Ahmedabad. I had a wonderful farewell party at NID last month and a huge flow of messages on Facebook wishing me well in my retired life, thank you all. Wish you all a very happy and eventful new year ahead.

Image: Stills from the farewell event at NID and the retirement poster from former and current students at NID.

Prof Arun Gupta has sent me a detailed mail outlining the festival at NID and the related events that form part of Alpapavirama 2011 from 18 to 20 February 2011. More information will be available at these links below:
Alpavirama 2011 - South Asian Short & Documantary Film Festival
Alpavirama on Facebook
A little bird tells me that some of our well established graduates from the film, TV and advertising industry such as Sonal Dabral, Anirudh Sen and Shetal Sudhir will be sharing their work in person besides many luminaries from Asia and the world.

Prof. Arun Gupta's mail with the details are quoted below:

I Quote:

Introduction
In celebrations of cinema short films are generally overlooked, compared to the conventional full length feature films. There is something intrinsically special about short films. Short films are like life itself, with myriad colours and nuances, each transient yet for ever. There are many quirky, intimate, unfinished aspects of human existence which can best be conveyed only in a short film format. Further, since this kind of filmmaking faces less commercial pressures (cheaper to produce, hence financial gain not the only consideration), it is more likely to explore cinematic form and frontlines, allowing marginal and non-mainstream stories to be told.

People involved in making short films mostly just stop there; and lot of films thus never reach the audience, their authors neither having the will nor the wherewithal to proceed further. The available exhibition avenues haven’t also caught up with the noticeable increase in the number of short films being made. Further, most such spaces are dominated by older established filmmakers, leaving no platform for the large number of under-30 talents. There is need for a venue and an occasion where these young, enthusiastic and often innovative filmmakers are recognized and celebrated.

At the Film & Video Communication department in the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad we have been promoting short filmmaking for over two decades now. Through these years our students and faculty have created numerous short fiction and documentary films, and the artistic quality and social relevance of these films have been recognized the world over. Our alumni occupy important creative positions in the moving image industry, in India and abroad. Thus its time (in the Golden Jubilee year of NID) the Film & Video Communication department of the National Institute of Design plays a more active role in establishing a credible exhibition platform for short films – especially those given life by the under-30.

The 21st century is commonly believed to belong to Asia. Within Asia, South Asia plays a very important role. It is at once a point of arrival and departure, a seamless link between the so-called orient and the occident. But the subcontinent’s enormous (and increasingly demonstrated) potential has been needlessly inhibited by fratricidal dissension & strife. South Asian short films are alive to these dilemmas, the filmmakers subtly foregrounding the frustrations, pain and promise of south asian life, in their cine tales, underscoring the basic desire of all human beings for peace and harmony.

COMPETITION -
For the Alpavirama 2011 competition section short fiction and documentary films, not-less-than 3 minutes and not-more-than 30 minutes long, will be eligible to participate. The film(s) should have been produced after 1st January, 2009 and should have been directed by a young person (under 30 years, as on 1st January, 2011), who is a citizen of and ordinarily resident in any of the SAARC countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). The subject matter of the film should also broadly deal with South Asia, its people and their lives.

Each film selected for the competition will be screened at least once during the festival. The competition Jury would comprise of eminent individuals selected from the fields of cinema, arts, culture and academics, from India/South Asia.

Awards (Golden Commas) will carry a cash component as well as a trophy. All films selected for competition will get a Certificate of Participation.

RETROSPECTIVE -
For over twenty years, the students of the department of Film & Video Communication at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad have been making short fiction and documentary films, as part of their regular course structure. Many of these films won national and international recognition in the years they were made, but have subsequently not been seen or heard about. Hence a representative retrospective package of NID Film & Video student films, produced in the last two decades, will be curated and presented in the festival. Alumni whose works feature in the retrospective will be encouraged to be present during the festival, to lead the pre and post-screening dialogue.

SPECIAL PACKAGE -
The fast pace of China’s growth in recent years have left several old international hegemonies panting behind. Hong Kong, as China’s emblematic entranceway, is a city undergoing intricate and provocative change, with its medley of communism and capitalism, vertical and horizontal, expatriate and local, Cantonese and Mandarin. It would thus be very interesting to find out how the young Hong Kong filmmakers, living amidst these complex shifts, record & interpret life around them.

At Alpavirama 2011 there will be a Special Package of selected contemporary documentary and short fiction films from Hong Kong. Efforts would be made to invite some of the young filmmakers from Hong Kong, whose works feature in the package.

SEMINAR (Creative Seconds? - Ads, Promos and PSAs)
Many established filmmakers started their careers making under-a-minute films. This is where they polished their craft and learnt the ropes of the business. Some moved on, to longer duration formats. Some occasionally returned, for quick money or to revisit the aesthetic and communication challenges of the very short film.

NID Film & Video alumni have consistently made a name for themselves in the world of advertising films and television channel promotionals. It’s natural therefore for Alpavirama 2011 to ask the question – are these under-a-minute ads, promos and psa’s as imaginative an activity as a longer duration film – and what are the specific features which make these seconds so special ?

Alpavirama 2011 will have a half-day seminar on this topic, with experts presenting their views and subsequently taking part in a group interface with the audience.

Selected Films for Alpavirama 2011 COMPETITION
(1) Avargalluka / Dir: Alfred Prakash (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(2) Bedtime Story / Dir: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram (English-FTII Pune-India)
(3) Chal Meri Luna / Dir: Hardik Mehta (Hindi-Gujarat-India) (http://vimeo.com/11262381)
(4) Dhuruva Natchathiram / Dir: Alfred Prakash (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(5) Eidiyaan / Dir: Aman Kaleem & Mohd Irfan Dar (Kashmiri-Jamia Delhi-India)
(6) Innocence, Medium: Water Colour / Dir: Al-Haseeb Nomanee (English-Dhaka-Bangladesh) (http://vimeo.com/11313427)
(7) Jhat Pat Ghich Pich / Dir: Varun Halder (Hindi-Children's Filmmaking Workshop Delhi-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8vnHAAtHA)
(8) Kal / Dir: S Manjunathan (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(9) Kalu / Dir: Naveed Anjum (Punjabi-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(10) Khel Khel Mein / Dir: Radha Kain (Hindi-Children's Filmmaking Workshop Delhi-India)
(11) Kusum / Dir: Shumona Banerjee (Bengali,English-SRFTI Kolkata-India) (http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3899/Kusum---The-Flower-Bud)
(12) Mera Ghar / Dir: Abhay Kumar (XIC Mumbai-India)
(13) Not Born Heroes / Dir: Vishesh Mankal (Hindi-Marwah Studio Delhi-India)
(14) Paci / Dir: J D Imaya Varman (Tamil-Vadalur Tamilnadu-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_hwyTXaCGQ)
(15) Poka / Dir: Ishanee Sarkar (Bengali-NID Ahmedabad-India)
(16) Pushpendra Pandey, Extra / Dir: Ankit Mehrotra (Hindi-TV Direction FTII Pune-India) (http://vimeo.com/10058792)
(17) Shyam Raat Seher / Dir: Arunima Sharma (Hindi,English-FTII Pune-India)
(18) Sound of Time / Dir: Pema Tshering (Thimphu-Bhutan)
(19) Samudra Ke Bare Mein / Dir: Malhar Salil (Hindi-NID Ahmedabad-India)
(20) Idhuvam Love Story Dhanga / Dir: G Bharani (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(21) Titli Udi / Dir: Payal Kapadia (Hindi-Sophia Polytechnic Mumbai-India) (http://vimeo.com/9151026)
(22) Trapped / Dir: Swapnil Ashok Kumawat & Prasad Bhardwaja (Hindi-Pune-India)

Documentary
(23) The Boxing Ladies / Dir: Anusha Nandakumar (Hindi-SRFTI Kolkata-India)
(24) Burning Paradise / Dir: Nisar Ahmed (Urdu,Pashto-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(25) Cinema Making Peace? / Dir: Nisar Ahmed (Urdu-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(26) I Woke Up One Morning And Found Myself Famous / Dir: Sumit Purohit (Hindi,English-BFA Baroda-India) (http://vimeo.com/11762097)
(27) In Search Of My Home / Dir: Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas (Hindi,Burmese,English-Jamia Delhi-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEQCm-MexAA)
(28) Missing Vultures / Dir: Muhammad Ali Ijaz (Urdu,Punjabi-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(29) My Armenian Neighbourhood / Dir: Samimitra Das (English-SRFTI Kolkata-India)
(30) The End Of Flight / Dir: Tariq Thekaekara (English-Srishti Bangalore-India) (http://vimeo.com/16215242)
(31) Sawaal / Dir: Dawood Tareen (Urdu,English-NCA Lahore-Pakistan) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO7exvXDreU)

Selected Films for Alpavirama 2011 RETROSPECTIVE
01) TOTANAMA (1991 / Fiction / Workshop with students conducted/directed by Chandita Mukherjee)
02) RAILWAY CLERK (1993 / Fiction / Student Director: Sherna Dastur / Faculty Guide: Binita Desai)
03) I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC (1997 / Documentary / Student Director: Shalini Ghosh / Faculty Guide: Akhil Succena)
04) LISTENING TO SHADOWS (1998 / Documentary / Student Director: Kaushik Sarkar / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta)
05) STARRING ANJU SRIVASTAVA (2003 / Fiction / Workshop with students conducted/directed by Aniruddha Sen)
06) SAWAN KI GHATA (2005 / Fiction / Student Director: Pryas Gupta / Faculty Guide: SB Saksena) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trvt5HlgbZ8)
07) BANNUBHAI SEHNAIWALA (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Adityan M / Faculty Guide: SB Saksena)
08) ONE SHOW LESS (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Nayantara Kotiyan / Faculty Guide: Milindo Taid) (http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3702/One-Show-Less)
09) IS MODH PAR KUCH NAHI HOTA (2005 / Fiction / Student Director: Hitesh Kewalya / Faculty Guide:Arun Gupta)
10) WORDS IN STONE (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Akhila Krishnan / Faculty Guide: Vinayan Kodoth)
11) PRAKASH TRAVELLING CINEMA (2006 / Documentary / Student Director: Megha Lakhani / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN5oMpfvT34)
12) SARAAI (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Prachi Mokashi / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/2376992)
13) TRAN EKA TRAN (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Aastha Gohil / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/11516664)
14) PURNA VIRAMA (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Ujjwal Utkarsh / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/5505853)
15) THE FURNISHED ROOM (2008 / Fiction / Student Director: Priyanka Chabra / Faculty Guide: Amit Dutta) (http://vimeo.com/8570638)
16) CHAATTALMAZHA (2009 / Fiction / Student Director: Ahsam KR / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta )(http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2007/Chaattalmazha)

Alpavirama 2011 SPECIAL PACKAGE from Hong Kong
From: Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
(1) Merry X'mas (Dir: Au Man Kit)
(2) The Story of Ah Poon (Dir: Tsim Ho Tat)
(3) A Day in a Life (Dir: Kwok Zune)
(4) The Monk (Dir: Chan Siu Hei)
(5) Homecoming (Dir: Kwok Zune)
(6) A Ferry Tale (Dir: Kwan Man Hin)
(7) Genesis (Dir: Cheung Timothy)

From: City University of Hong Kong
(8) This Pair (Dir: Wong Yee Mei)
(9) X’Mas Tree (Dir: Sin Tsz Man, Jun)

From: Hong Kong Baptist University
(10) Sophia’s Promise (Dir: Zhang Duanyang)

Arun Gupta
Senior Faculty, Film & Video
Festival Director, Alpavirama 2011
National Institute of Design
Paldi, Ahmedabad - 380007, India

email: guptarun(at)nid.edu
Ph: +91-79-26623692
Fax: +91-79-26621167
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

UnQuote

Yes, some forms of film making are indeed art, expressive in intent and form, exploring life and nature as only an artist can do with the artistic licence provided by society. However, the other forms are at the very heart of design and design thinking and in this form it is perhaps the most potent form of design action since it can be driven by intentions and act on society in ways that bring sweeping change through behavior change and support social action that is impossible with the mere design of material artefacts. The medium is the purveyor of the message and much more if it is wielded by a trained and sensitive design thinker and a political activist. Today in the age of transparency of Wiki-leaks and the RTI act in India along with easy access to MP3 recorders and MP4 and HDTV cameras in all digital devices and in mobile phones it is an invitation to the citizens at large to join the communication design action to foster change for the good and in the process shake up the establishments that are proving to be corrupt in many ways. Come and see for yourself.

Prof M P Ranjan

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Once again, I would just like to wish those of you that follow my blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Wow, 365 days disappeared very quickly and the older you are, the quicker it goes. Its been a very odd one with some real lows as well as amazing highs. These are my top ten cool/weird things of 2010, in no particular order……

• Presenting with James Van at AU 2010, but then forgetting how to draw a wall in front of 600 people!
• Being part of (all be it very small) the Mastering Revit Architecture 2011 authoring team
• Getting a message left on my cellphone from Autodesk to attend the 2011 AEC day in Waltham, MA, one day before April Fools!
• Autodesk releasing Vasari
• The Apple Ipad
• Twittering
• Angry Birds
• My blog post for RAC 2011 making it into AEC edge mag
• Stability in the RAC 2011 UI!!!!!
• Forgetting how to draw a wall in front of 600 people!
• Cloud computing

I look forward to 2011, its gonna be another interesting one……

AU2010 – adaptive component exercise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I’d run through the adaptive component exercise that James Van and I planned to show at AU2010. This exercise can be completed in either Revit 2011 or Vasari. The 60 minute class really didn’t provide enough time for us to go through this particular example, which I am sure was very annoying for the audience. Lets hope that the AU organisers listen to the feedback and return the class schedules back to 90 minutes for AU2011. However, in the meantime I hope you find this useful.

Last-minute holiday gifts for paddlers

Too late to shop. What are you going to do?

   OK, there are only five days to Christmas. You waited too long to order anything, and you don't want to go the mall. And besides, you're sick of the whole corporate gift-giving thing anyway, right?
   Don't worry. We've got you covered with many perfect gifts for the paddlers in your life.

1. A gift certificate from your local paddle shop. If you don't have a local paddle shop, buy them a membership at OutdoorPlay, which will entitle them to 15% off and free shipping for life. Couple it with a year-long membership to Paddling.net so they can sell their old gear.

2. Subscriptions to paddling publications. If your favorite paddlers are members of the American Canoe Association, they'll get their pick of Rapid Media publications (Adventure Kayak, Kayak Angler, Rapid and Canoeroots). Other great sea kayaking publications include Sea Kayaker, Ocean Paddler, and Canoe & Kayak.

3. Memberships in your local paddling clubs. These clubs offer training and outings, and many host lively online listservs. Like public radio, they rely on people to become members to support them. Membership is typically only $15, yet many people who benefit from the clubs don't bother to join. Supporting your local clubs helps them build the local paddling community and advocate for access to local waterways.

4. Memberships in sanctioning organizations that promote paddlesports, water safety and access, and set standards for quality instruction and assessment: the ACA, the British Canoe Association and Paddle Canada. These are the bodies that liaison with governmental bodies.

5. Donations to environmental organizations with a water-protection focus. These include local and national chapters of the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council. If there are groups working on stewardship and access in your local area, support them, too. Here in the midwest, consider the Alliance for the Great Lakes. And if you're in Chicago, consider Friends of the Chicago River.

6. Registration for a summer symposium, where your paddler can learn new skills, meet other paddlers and get to know some of the top coaches in the country or the world.  Early-bird discounts are available now. Suddenly, you aren't behind in your gift-giving; you're ahead of the game! 

designbymany

The guys over at Design Reform / Case Inc have come up with a novel new site, called Design By Many, its a community base site where you can post design challenges. The site is currently running a competition to design a parametric version of  Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House.

If you are into parametric design, make sure you throw you hat into the ring; they are offering a HP Design Jet 111 printer as a prize! This is my rather scrawny effort…:-)

Anyway be sure to check the site out at http://www.designbymany.com/

On the road !

Until I've got a better picture this will do. The black cover is fixed temporarily.
Lots to be done but I can ride it !

The second prototype is (almost) ready. I improvised a seat and made a short trip. Very much fun! Although some details can be improved I think the general concept is proven: It is possible to build a very light velomobile with plywood.

I will sum up the main specs and add a better picture as soon as the weather allows me to take one: Two front wheels with McPherson suspension, one unsprung wheel with Rohloff 14 speed hub behind. Two side sticks for steering. Monocoque body (No frame inside!). Drum brakes in front wheels. Size: 2750x720x750 mm (LxWxH).  Cost estimation: 300 euro (body materials only). Total mass 23.6 kg.

23.6 kg is very competitive...

Who's going to take the development further? Come and see our machine. Learn from our mistakes and and build your own! Please send me a mail if you are interested in building my plywood velomobile design.

High winds, big waves, spectacular ice

   Sunday's winds kept us off the water, but they didn't keep us away from the marine forecast. We were riveted by the prospect of 22-foot waves. What would they leave behind?

The marine forecast on Sunday promised some of the biggest waves we've heard about on southern Lake Michigan.

The biggest waves weren't forecast to hit the shores at Chicago, but Indiana looked like it was getting pounded.

   The wind continued on Monday, causing hazardous road conditions. But on Tuesday, we set out to see what the waves had created at the beach near Portage, Indiana. It was like a sculpture park, with ice that looked in some places like wax and in others like glass. The combination of freezing spray and wind created icicles with odd twists hanging at unlikely angles from some surfaces, and draped over others.

The Portage Beach building was closed for the season.

The walkway on the break wall was coated in ice.

We were astonished to see two surfers paddling out to try to catch some waves. 

Name Change

You may have already noticed, but I decided to change the name of this blog.  I decided that "Bryan's Boat Building and Paddling Blog" was neither interesting nor terribly accurate.  Hence, my blog will now be referred to as "The Mundane Adventures of Bryan", at least until I change my mind again.  That name is purposely non-specific, leaving me wide open to discuss whatever I want.  However the subject matter is not going to change, I'll still write about undertaking my small adventures, the Roughriders making it to the playoffs, cycling in traffic, travelling with family, things that annoy me, boatbuilding, and more.  All pretty mundane stuff, but that's what interests me.

Revit 2011 – Room Book Extension

Be sure to check out Simon Gillis post about the Revit Room book extension being made widely available from the Autodesk Subscription Center.

Project Vasari – Voids

Anybody who was fortunate enough to go to AU 2010 may have attended Phil Reads class Into the Void:Zen of Creating Complex Sculptural Forms. If you didn’t attend, be sure to check the class out as it uses some great techniques for carving and creating geometry using void geometry.

However, what Mr Read eluded to discuss was the use of voids in the massing environment within Revit 2011 or even Vasari. So this article is a continuation from my previous post where I hosted a profile on a line and created a form. In part 2, I will use the technique in the previous post; but I will also combine this with the carving void technique Phil demonstrated at Autodesk University to create the parametric form you see above. The exercise is undertaken in Vasari, but you could just as easily do this using full Revit's massing functionality. You will be glade to know that there is no music, just my dulcet tones explaining how I put this together.  I hope you find this useful.

How to model Gears and Chains

How to model gears and chains

This is a tutorial on how to model gears and chains,  I made it for a fixie bike I am currently working on. But you can use this method to model things like tank tracks, snowmobile tracks, any other type of gear as well. It's fairly advanced, so I skip certain modeling steps, but if you need help send me an email at Raymundo302@gmail.com, I'll be happy to help a fellow modeler.

Th important thing to remember is the distance between the two cylinders which I think in gear lingo would be the rollers, In most bicycle chains the distance is .5 inches, The other thing to consider is the size of these rollers, all these variable depend on what type of chain you want to build and how thick the gears are going to be, so you need to plan this out in advanced.

Building the chain

When building the chain you have to remember that there is two main parts, an inside link and an outside link.

Add a curve that is .5 inches long, center the pivot point than move the curve to 0,0,0

Add two circles to the ends of the curve, these will be your rollers, I chose a diameter of .26

Add a bigger circle on one corner, using the detach tool, detach it at about ¾ of the circle, like in the screen shot, mirror the circle to the other side and use a blend curve to connect both sides

Using the planar surface tool, skin and duplication, I made the inner link. I would also only do one side of the link and mirror it along the xz plane so that everything stays symmetrical. Remember to group them so later you can select them all as an object.

Remember you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want, take in mind that every surface will be duplicated hundreds of times so it can really push your system, especially when rendering things like Global Illumination, for my model, I'm going for a simpler model, since the only reason I really did it was to figure out how to model it.

When I modeled the outer link, I did it by duplicating the same surfaces, than just moving them to the outside. I also added a little cap on the corners to make them look better.

Put the curves and surfaces in layers and hide them for now. Below is an example of how later, when we finish the gear, the chain will look like, don't do this now, but if you want to check all your measurements line up and how the chain will look, just move the outer link .5 inches to the right, and than duplicating them both a couple times by one inch. Now it really does look like a chain.

Building the guide curves

When building a gear the things we must consider is how many teeth will be in this gear. For my main gear I chose to use a 46 teeth gear.

To figure out the mathematics, you just need to find your old trigonometry book, and get a couple sheets of paper. I'm kidding, luckily we live in the age of Google, and after a quick search I found this site. First thing we need to do is some simple math.

We need to figure out the angles, which is fairly easy, just 46/360 which equals 7.826086956521739, (A in diagram) you can simplify the numbers after we do the calculations. The next numbers we need to know is the other two angles. Since we know they are going to be equal and all triangles equal 180 degrees, than all we have to do is subtract and divide (180-7.826086956521739)/2 which equals 86.086956521739 (B and C in the diagram). The last number we need to add is the distance of your teeth, which equals .5 inches (a in the diagram)

Insert all these numbers into the calculator, remember to choose AAS in the option box, than insert the numbers where they belong. The number we were looking for is the distance between the center and the edge of the triangle, which is 3.6634108858967 (b and c in the diagram).

Now time to transfer those number into alias.

Go to the left view and add a edit point curve, type 0,0,0 press enter, then type 0,0, 3.6634. Depending on your settings Alias will probably only register 3.6634 anyway

Go to edit>Duplicate>Object. Duplicate it by 45, in rotation add 7.8261 to the Y column, the program will automatically round up the last digit anyway,

Group all the curves and rotate them as an object by half of 7.8261 which equals 3.91305. I'll explain why later

Building the Gear

First thing we need to do is add a circle that is the size of the roller, so add a circle in the center of the grid, scale it down to .26 inches (remember to enter A, if the scale tool is set to relative), move the circle to 0,0,3.6634

Use the detach tool to cut the curve, remember when using the detach tool, hold down alt to cut it in even places, cut it like its shown in the example

Delete the top section. Select the bottom section and move the pivot point to 0,0,0. rotate the curve by 0,3.91305,0 than mirror it to the other side. We are starting to develop the teeth of the gear.

Add another circle in the middle and detach the bottom portion. This will be the highest part of the tooth.

Connect all the curves using edit curves, or blend curves, it's all up to you and your design.

For my design I chose to have sort of a bevel. To make the side surface I just skinned two circle.

Using project curve, I trimmed the surface so I only needed to work on one section. Than I modeled my teeth section to my design specs and multiplied them all my 45.

By now I assume you have a good understanding on how to use math to work out whatever angle and repetitions your design needs. Here's my finished design.

Adding it all together

The first thing I do is move the pivot point of the links. Right now they are center, but I need them to be at the center of the the left or right roller, to do that I just use my original .5 curve as a guide for my pivot points.

Than I use curve snap tool (holding down ctrl+alt) I use my guide curves to move the first link where it needs to go. This is the reason we rotated all the guide curves in the beginning of the lesson. So they would line up with the links.

I did this for both links.

I go back to the left view and move both pivot points to 0,0,0

I chose the outer link and rotate it by 7.8261

Than I chose both links and go to Edit>Duplicate>Object, Since they are two object I only need to duplicate them by half of 46, which is 23 minus the one you already have so 22, and the angle would be twice as big as 7.8261 so it will be 15.6522

After that, you are done with the hard part, now all you have to do is add more chains and gears and connect them using the duplicate tool. Here is my finished example.

I'm going to be busy the next couple of weeks so I wont be able to finish my next tutorial, How to model g3 surface transition between cylinders, but make sure to check back. I'm currently working at Fisker Automotive as a Surface Designer. Reach me at Raymundo302@gmail.com. Take care and good luck.