Hi Guys, I'm Bobi1 from the Madmechanics forum. I just found this nice forum after reading post at Madmechanics with a link redirecting here.
I'm almost ready with Aventador plans for building body plug with wooden cross sections. This is NOT just some quick projection of sections on the 3d model for a few minutes, like other people trying to sell plans do. I always add lots of additional details, make channels, ribs, holes etc, and my plans are 100% usable. The amount of work is huge. The cross sections I arranged at variable distance in order to provide useful information, such like where the door openings and window openings start and end, to name a few. There are 7 mm deep and 7 mm wide channels to mark the location of all body panel gaps. They are all hand drawn by me as well. It's supposed that builders will cover the wooden/foam plug with up to 2 mm thick layer of hard coat and body filler, so the 7 mm wide gaps on the wooden formers will become 3 mm on the fine finished plug, and 5 mm deep. Perfect for easy release of the moulds. I also add thin lines at each edge (aka "crease line" in the cardesign field) where the degree is too small, so using these guide lines you will know there MUST be an edge in that particular location even though it may look nearly smooth.
For my cross section plans I'm using the 3d model of Lamborghini Aventador extracted by the video game "Forza Motorsport 4" which is low-poly, but is probably the most accurate 3d model of the car and I also improved the shape in some areas to make it even more accurate. Since the 3d model is low-poly Mesh, I had to manually redraw the extracted cross sections using curve approximation technique to get perfectly smooth curves that a 3d Mesh model itself can't.
I make curve approximation and setup the plans to be able for printing on large paper size such like the European standard A0, or similar (suggestions here for American standard?). The plans are in AutoCAD's native DWG file format used by all modern plotters, printers and projectors, and popular CAD software as well.
Current pre-order price is set to 100 USD / 75 EUR, and once the plans are completed* they will cost 200 USD / 150 EUR. Also, people who purchase(d) my Aventador chassis plans will receive the body plug plans for free.
*in about one-two weeks depending on how long the curve approximation will take
You can contact me at e-mail: chassis_plans_4_sale at yahoo dot com
Shown below are some examples of plans I made for IKR's Reventon plug 4 years ago, just to show you the details I draw additionally on the cross sections and how the corresponding wooden pieces "lock" together with ease thanks to the additionally designed ribs and channels.
PS: Please, note that there are couple of almost-finished Aventador body plugs made out of foam that some other guys at Madmechanics are currently making, so consider carefully if you want to start building of Aventador plug from scratch, OR just wait a while for some fiberglass kit to be offered on the market. Building plug and moulds by yourself is not recommended unless you are experienced and know you can handle this type of work.
(example of the curve approximation I do)
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5218/curveapproximation1.pnghttp://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4142/curveapproximation2.png (examples of wooden cross sections designed by me)
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/1338/dsc01893hy.jpghttp://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5105/33939964.pnghttp://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7780/dsc02159qa.jpghttp://img818.imageshack.us/img818/3133/dsc02254g.jpghttp://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9181/dsc02163br.jpghttp://img109.imageshack.us/img109/5820/dsc02228p.jpg UPDATE Current pre-order price for the Aventador body plug plans is 150 USD / 110 EUR. From 22 September they will cost 200 USD / 150 EUR.
People who already purchased or pre-order my Aventador chassis plans before 22 September will receive the body plug plans for free.
The 3d Mesh game model from "Forza motorsport 4" which I heavily modified in the recent months is no longer used for extracting the cross-sections. It was too much pain to work with it to make it accurate. Instead, I'm designing a completelly new 3d model using NURBS, in order to achieve best possible accuracy/surface quality of the body and cross-section drawings for building the plug. This lead to about two-week delay in delivery of the plans for the sake of accuracy. Check my latest posts in this topic to regularly see update pictures of how the work is progressing.
When I finish the exterior 3d NURBS model of Aventador, it will be available for purchase at two prices depending of the geometry type. Both ways, this will include my Aventador body plug plans for free, saved in a separate AutoCAD files that will allow to import them individually over the car's 3d model.
a) 400 USD / 300 EUR (or 200 USD / 150 EUR for loyal customers): STL / 3DS / OBJ / MAX file, 3d Mesh model extracted from the NURBS model. In short, it will have the same high-quality shape and proportions as the NURBS model, but will be made out of high-density polygonal mesh consisting triangles and rectangles. It could be used for: extraction of spline cross sections based on thousands of straight segments (imagine and arc made of lots of straight segments); or CNC-milling. Not suitable for easy editing of the geometry since it's not NURBS.
b) 1000 USD / 750 EUR (or 600 USD / 450 EUR for loyal customers): 3DM / IGES / STEP file, 3d NURBS model made out of clean surfaces with optimised topology and minimum control points, allowing for: easy editing or adding extra NURBS geometry; extraction of perfectly smooth NURBS cross sections; or CNC-milling. In addition to this, when viewed in a 3d program, the NURBS model's geometry could be made totally invisible leaving only the border lines visible, for easier navigation in case of editing or working with other 3d models in the scene, such like chassis or interior.
