A new project - Nichimo Spirit FF - The first of a kind

[silvertriple]

As planned, I applied the same method for the rear tyres...





There is still a lot of things missing:
- few pivot balls
- shocks
- Air scoop, bodyshell, roof and wing

And I will need to have a look at the rigid groups, pivots and motion as the front suspension is not ins a normal attitude. I need to correct this (the only question I ask myself is why am I doing all of this? )

[XLR8]

.... (the only question I ask myself is why am I doing all of this? )

I reckon it's because you find the work interesting, it increases your knowledge of the car you are modeling and it adds another dimension to the hobby.

Besides, virtual vintage RC's never break, they never get scratched or dusty and they always look new.

By the way, when I open to full screen one of your CAD images above, I have this irresistible urge to click-and-drag to orbit the model.

There's a plugin available for Sketchup that among many other things, allows the user to defining axis of rotation, degrees of motion, etc. so that one could animate complex systems like suspension and steering components. I've never taken the time to install or learn the plugin but it certainly would come in handy to study Ackermann effect and bump steer. Maybe someday.

Very nice work, by the way.

[silvertriple]

There's a plugin available for Sketchup that among many other things, allows the user to defining axis of rotation, degrees of motion, etc. so that one could animate complex systems like suspension and steering components. I've never taken the time to install or learn the plugin but it certainly would come in handy to study Ackermann effect and bump steer. Maybe someday.

Very nice work, by the way.

Thanks...

I'm using Fusion 360, here, and it seems that motion study is possible without the requirement of a plugin... And as said, as I did not draw the arms in the right angle, I'll need to correct this, and that will be the way to go for this...

And As for the learnings, I can right away tell :
- I learned a lot about Fusion 360. My first real project was the Marui Samurai Rims, the second is this one. I would probably do differently if I had to redo the same project.
- i noticed a few things modeling this car which left me a bit hungry about Nichimo's cars and history.
1. This car is the first one, and although they look the same, it seems that the Vantage FF do not have exactly the same chassis or there was an iteration of it.
2. The front right gearbox halve of the Exceed 443WDS is the symmetry of the left one of the Spirit FF/Vantage FF. I studied the manual, and I may want to model it as well at some point, as it is indeed interesting

I had a lot of fun doing this. Among the things I still have to do is to prepare my parts to be printed in MJF/SLS PA12 to get my Nichimo back on the road. The chassis is already done (in transit), and I'll decide if I print only the broken parts or the full plastic parts once I get it.

[Dadio]

I too get the urge to try and orbit the image on the screen

[silvertriple]

@XLR8 and @Dadio, I'd like to be able to make a gif with both orbit and motion just for you, but at this stage, i'm scratching my head to add joints in the design: it seems that whatever I do, it explode my model in puzzle

Trying to learn a bit more about joints, and it is definitely not easy... Maybe I should have done this much earlier in the process...

I'm a bit fed up by this, I did many tries with adding joint ,and it puzzles everything; it maybe time for a break on this topic for me... And I should model the shocks before maybe, so my bucket of part to model is actually empty...

[Dadio]

Take a break , it's wine-oclock

[silvertriple]

For one time, I thought it would be better to read the manual or view some videos to understand what I could have done differently (better) for the joints, so they actually work...

Until last Tuesday, I did not create a single joint in my file. Looking at the video, I understand I could have gain a lot of time while doing copies of components to move them in the right place by just using a joint rather than move them is the proper place... I guess that could have saved me a lot of time... I will have to rework some stuff, I guess

[silvertriple]

I'm not sure where I do things wrong... But it's weird...


Later on, still not perfect but slightly better


i'm not really sure how to deal with this. I should have probably used joints much earlier in the process...

[silvertriple]

After few days of confusion (360), with a lot of model explosions, and a few crashes of the application...


I'm very happy to say I finally succeed to have some progress today

First I got one shock.


The design is quite similar between the rear and front, everything is the same between the front and rear except the diameter. Copy, paste new, modify sktechs, done. All the shocks done, including the joints, in a separate file and linked...

Next was to get everything linked together.... Multiple crashes, a corrupted save, some hiccups in the middle, some explosions again and I now have my car with working suspensions, shocks, and steering working...





That was difficult, but I got it. I note for next time that joints used earlier in the process would have definitely helped...

[GoMachV]

That is so frickin cool! Very nice!

[Dadio]

That is so frickin cool! Very nice!

Well said

[silvertriple]

The problem now is that I feel the urge of adding a driver figure, a body shell and a wing on top of that thing

[silvertriple]

Took the driver set stls from mininguy71 on thingiverse and reworked it to add a driver to my Nichimo. It took a bit of time to understand how to integrate the Mesh in, but I finally have a driver in my car...




Need to work out the airscoop, bodyshell, roof and wing next, and then only things missing will be screws and nuts...

[Dadio]

How do you integrate an imported mesh , I was trying this today and gave up , I'd imported tires and wanted to integrate them with a wheel I modelled myself , importing the mesh was easy .

[Dadio]

When are you printing the replacement chassis to fix the car , I'd love to see it running .