Department of CAD/CAM/CAE

A PROJECT REPORT
ON

SURFACE DESIGN OF A CAR

With

NX CAD

Guidance By Project By
P.Samar Vikranth. Aravind R
(Aeronautical Engineer)

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 Acknowledgement

I, Aravind R, hereby declare that I have completed this

project under the supervision of Mr.P.Samar Vikranth
during my training at EduCADD Learning solution Pvt Ltd,
Indiranagar.

Aravind R

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 CONTENTS

SI. NO. TOPICS PAGE NO

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1 ABSTRACT 5

2 PLM 6

3 SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE 8

4 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 11

5 MODELLING PROCEDURE 12

6 COMMANDS USED 17

7 CONCLUSION 27

Abstract

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The aim of this project is to recreate car exterior as
real as possible using surface workbench of NX
CAD design software.
In order to better understand the software I am trying
to recreate this car using surface work benches and
modeling work benches.

Product Life-cycle Management

Product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire
lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and
manufacture, to service, and disposal. PLM integrates people, data,
processes, and business systems and provides a product information

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backbone for companies and their extended enterprise. It can be
represented as shown below.

The product realization process can be roughly divided into two phases;
design and manufacturing. The design process starts with identification
of new customer needs and design variables to be improved, which are
identified by the marketing personnel after getting feedback from the
customers. Once the relevant design information is gathered, design
specifications are formulated. A feasibility study is conducted with
relevant design information and detailed design and analyses are
performed. The detailed design includes design conceptualization,
prospective product drawings, sketches and geometric modeling.
Analysis includes stress analysis, interference checking, kinematics
analysis, mass property calculations and tolerance analysis, and design
optimization. The quality of the results obtained from these activities is

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directly related to the quality of the analysis and the tools used for
conducting the analysis.
The manufacturing process starts with the shop-floor activities
beginning from production planning, which uses the design process
drawings and ends with the actual product. Process planning includes
activities like production planning, material procurement, and machine
selection. There are varied tasks like procurement of new tools, NC
programming and quality checks at various stages during the production
process. Process planning includes planning for all the processes used in
manufacturing of the product. Parts that pass the quality control
inspections are assembled functionally tested, packaged, labeled, and
shipped to customers.

SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE
NX, formerly known as NX Unigraphics or usually just UG, is an
advanced high-end CAD/CAM/CAE software package originally
developed by Unigraphics, but since 2007 by Siemens PLM Software.

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NX is one of the world’s most advanced and tightly integrated
CAD/CAM/CAE product development solutions. Spanning the entire
range of product development, NX delivers immense value to
enterprises of all sizes. It simplifies complex product designs, thus
speeding up the process of introducing products to the market.

The NX software integrates knowledge-based principles, industrial

design, geometric modeling, advanced analysis, graphic simulation, and
concurrent engineering. The software has powerful hybrid modeling
capabilities by integrating constraint-based feature modeling and
explicit geometric modeling. In addition to modeling
standard geometry parts, it allows the user to design
complex free-form shapes such as airfoils and manifolds. It also merges
solid and surface modeling techniques into one powerful tool set.

It is used, among other tasks, for:

• Design (parametric and direct solid/surface modeling)

•Engineering analysis (static; dynamic; electro-magnetic; thermal, using
the finite element method; and fluid, using the finite volume method).
• Manufacturing finished design by using included machining modules.
• NX is a direct competitor to CATIA, Creo, Autodesk Inventor, and
SolidWorks.

Features of NX
 Synchronous modeling
 Feature-based modeling
 Parametric modeling

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Synchronous modeling

Synchronous modeling is unique feature of NX CAD. Synchronous

modeling lets users make changes to models without knowing feature
relationships or dependencies. Changes to the model are preserved for
downstream processes like simulation or manufacturing and are tracked
with a feature in the feature tree. In synchronous modeling NX allows
you to directly import and use CAD models created with other CAD
software like CATIA, SolidWorks, etc. You can add features like pull
face, delete a face, replace face, reorder blend face, to your CAD design
and assemble modified imported models you created in NX with speed,
ease, and efficiency.

Feature-based modeling

The feature is the smallest building block in part modeling; it is a set of

information related to a model description. Feature based modeling
design is evolved by adding individual features (like extrude, hole,
revolve, slots, etc.)  Incrementally one at a time to meet a required
design

Steps involved in feature modeling:

 Creating a base feature
 Adding/subtracting additional features on the base feature

Parametric modeling
Parametric modeling is a method that uses parameters or variables to set
the dimensions of the part model. In parametric modeling, the shape of
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model geometry gets modified as soon as the dimension value of the
model is modified; when there is a change in a single feature it
propagates changes in other related features too. We use expressions
command in NX to define dimension values to a variable. The advantage
of parametric modeling is that the geometry can be easily changed by
modifying dimensions.

Automated design validation

NX offers automated design validation capabilities and enables you to
continuously monitor your design for compliance with company and
industry standards and easily produce design with the customer
requirements.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid size American automobile manufactured

by Chevrolet, classified as September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year

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and was designed as a competing model to the Ford Mustang. The car
shared its platform and major components with the Pontiac Firebird, also
introduced for 1967.
The Camaro received a complete redesign and new platform in 2009 for
the 2010 model year and fifth generation. Based on the 2006 Camaro
Concept and 2007 Camaro Convertible Concept, production of the fifth-
generation Camaro was approved on August 10, 2006.

Using NX 10 I am trying to recreate Chevy Camaro, So I used fifth

generation Camaro as my base design for this project, using Raster
image tool we inserted blueprints to re-trace the curve line in actual car
to recreate the car in our own version

NX also allows you to trace sketches using the spline and raster image.
This is useful when sketching on to an uneven face/surface. Curves were
important in my design process as they created much of the 3D profile
used to create my car replica.

Using various feature of NX 10 such as splines, through curves, ruled

fill surface and so on to completely recreate the car.

MODELING PROCEDURE

In this report I will be discussing the process of modeling and replicating

the design of this particular car model using blueprints and the tools

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provided in Siemens NX 10 CAD package. NX supports both solid and
surfacing modeling, in which I will describe their functionalities in
further detail later on in my report.

On opening NX 10 the user is presented with a home screen; from where

I selected a new project in the model template. The modeling template
allows the user to create parts and components which will later be used
in the final assembly. To save time searching for commands it is helpful
to load the “Full Menu” option from the menu toolbar to enable more
options if needed during to the modeling process.
To create a realistic 3D model it is helpful to use blueprints of the
vehicle you wish to model. To do so you need to insert them in to the
CAD package. You can do this by inserting a “Raster Image”. A raster
image is constrained to a particular plane which can be edited in size,
length and direction to the user’s choice. The user can then trace over
the image assigned to the plane using the sketch tool in order to create
an accurate shape. For my replica I inserted five raster images; a front
view, side view, rear view, top view and bottom view in which I
positioned them to appropriate size and orientation.

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With the blueprints successfully inserted into NX and onto planes, the
user can start creating multiple curves and sketches to create surfaces
and solid bodies.

There are a number of different tools within NX that allow you to draw.
Like most CAD packages such as SolidWorks, Solid Edge and Catia etc
3D models are created from 2D sketches. These sketches are usually
assigned to a plane derived from an X, Y, Z coordinate system or datum.
Planes can be created around this in to the user’s choice. I found that
there were two methods of creating sketches in NX. A quick way to
sketch is to use the sketch tool bar at the bottom of the screen to insert a
shape, spline or line to a plane or face. You can then constrain the sketch
afterwards. This is for more simple sketches e.g. inserting a circle for
extrusion. My more preferred way of sketching would be to enter NX’s
sketching tool environment where the user is permitted to assign the
sketch to a particular plane and orientation before it is possible to draw.

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This allows you to draw more entrecote profiles using constraints. By
sketching I was able to trance over the raster image.

Curves are similar to sketches; whereas sketches are 2D, curves provide
3D qualities as well as 2D. A good example of this is the Spline tool.
The spline tool is a line driven by particular points to manipulate its
shape. You can assign a spline to draw in a certain axis such as the Z
plane for example. However the spline tool has the potential to draw in
the X and Y axis too, therefore creating a 3D profile. If the View option
is checked in the spline dialog box then the user will be able to create a
quick 3D sketch straight away. This makes the spline tool very affective
when creating aerodynamic shapes e.g. the windscreen of my car.

Curves can also reference 2D sketches in order to create their 3D profile.

A tool I found useful during the design process was the “Combine
Curve” tool. The combine curve tool uses the coordinates from two
different sketches on different axis’/planes and combines them into a 3D
curve by merging the data of each sketch into one.

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NX also allows you to project sketches using the project curve tool. This
is useful when sketching on to an uneven face/surface. Curves were
important in my design process as they created much of the 3D profile
used to create my CAR replica.

Once the user has created the appropriate shape using the sketching
tools, it will then be possible to create surfaces and solid geometry. NX
contains various features that behave differently depending on the
sketches and curves that have been created. Closed sections will create
Solid geometry whereas open sections will result in surfaces. A section
can consist of a single object or multiple objects which can be curves,
edges or faces.
The exterior of my model is made from a number of different surfaces in
order to meet the requirements of the Car’s aerodynamic design.

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The exterior of my model is thickened and assigned color to give it
visual look to it.

COMMANDS USED IN PROJECT

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 SPLINE

 THOURGH CURVES

 RULED

 SEW

 UNSEW

 FILL SURFACE

 TRIM SHEET

 THICKEN

 FOUR POINT SURFACE

SPLINE:

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 A spline is created using either defining data or
poles. Defining data includes the points, slopes, and curvatures
that describe its shape. For example, when you use the Through
Points method, the curve passes exactly through all of
the defining points.

THROUGH CURVES:
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 Through curve mesh command use to create a body
through a mesh of sections in one direction and guides in
another direction there the shape fits through the mesh of curves.
A section is curves, point, solids edges, and solid face.

RULED:

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 It adds surface between two sections with linear transition.
No guide curve required here. In this way, with linear
interpolation we get the result.

FILL SURFACE:

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 Fill Surface tool, you can add geometry to a surface or
sheet body, patch holes, or partial holes, in the surface. As well
control the continuity of the newly created surface from G0
(Coincident or Position), G1 (Tangent) or G2 (Curvature).

TRIM SHEET:

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Trim sheet used to cut intersected surface with reference of
plane, surface, sketch on that surface.

FOUR POINT SURFACE:

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 This is useful for creating base surfaces that support the
surface based Class-A workflow. You can easily modify such a
surface by increasing the degree and patch into a more complex
surface with the desired shape.

SEW:

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 Sew command use to combine sheet bodies
by sewing common edges together, or combines solid bodies
by sewing common faces. The selected sheet bodies must not
have any gaps larger than the specified tolerance

UNSEW:

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 Unsew command used to disjoin sheet bodies
by unsewing common edges which are sewed together. The
selected sheet bodies must not have any gaps larger than the
specified tolerance

THICKEN:

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 Thicken command use to create a solid body by adding
thickness to a set of faces. Thickening occurs by offsetting the
selected faces along face normal and then creating side walls.

CONLUSION

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To surmise, while working on this project I understood
surface design work benches of NX 10 has versatile tools
and the flexibility of creating streamlined surface profile
in favor of better aerodynamics of a vehicle. I believe that
surfaces designing are an efficient way of creating
aerodynamic profiles. Solid modeling has it uses but
cannot replicate the level of freedom that surfaces
designing provide. Curves can be edited to alter the
geometry profile rapidly and efficiently. To conclude, by
exercising these features I feel I have successfully met the
requirements of replicating the design of Chevrolet
Camaro.

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