XL Fuselage Drawing

[Winston]

I am still in the cogitating stage and since I regularly use AutoCad, I decided to produce a 2D cad version of the fuselage plans. This is not an attempt to improve on the plans but just to help me visualize things. This has helped me on past airplane and other projects, so if anyone is interested I am attaching a pdf of what I have so far.

[Samyguy]

Nice

[Kamcoman77]

You are showing the rudder post as 9". My XL plans show 11-3/4" The 2-3/4" extra goes above the upper longeron. The vertical stabilizer spar fits into this portion of the 7/8" post. I guess some of the XL plans are different. My plans are H-51.

[Winston]

You are right and I think my plans are the same. My CAD drawing did not show sufficient tailpost detail but I have attached a revised drawing. Since the (9" dimension is a center to center dimension, I think the tailpost projection above the upper longeron should be approximately 2 3/8" (11.75 - 9 - 0.3125 - 0.3125 = 2.375).

[Kamcoman77]

Looks Great! I see you put a 7/8" x 0.065" tube for tailpost. I found that a 7/8" x 0.058" tube will fit the 3/4" aluminum vertical stabilizer spar without reaming the tailpost. Some people have said an 0.065" wall tube needs a little reaming. My 4130 tubing datasheet shows a 0.745" ID for 0.065" wall and 0.759" ID for 0.058" wall. Thanks for working on the drawing.

[Maxray]

Great work Winston! Outstanding. Do you have a .DXF file? I would like to build a 1/3 scale model
and finish it like my Eagle. Your drawing would really help!

[sideband]

These look amazing! I was hoping to do the exact same thing with my CE plans. I don't have any experience with CAD though.

[scottiniowa]

These look amazing! I was hoping to do the exact same thing with my CE plans. I don't have any experience with CAD though.

Are you folks aware of the fantastic program availability with the EAA and SolidWorks?   Basically your membership allows you to get and use a very expensive program. (free)  If your not a member... and want this access, the membership cost is trivial in comparison.

If you can't find the details, let me know, and I will get you going in the right direction.

I help teach this and show the basic's at OSH each year.  There are NO strings attached that I have seen.

For a person wanting to make a 3-D version, and wanting A 2-D drawing, this won't get you all the way there... But with your plans and solid works, it is NO problem. (and then your scale model won't be any problem as well)  In SolidWorks, there are about 6 ways to do nearly anything, but there are two different but very simple ways that work well for this.

[sideband]

Just downloaded Solidworks and going to mess with it a little bit. I've tried it before and just wasn't really getting to where I wanted to be. I'll have to check out your class at EAA this year.

[Winston]

Scott is absolutely right that EAA's Solidworks offering is a great opportunity and probably worth the membership dues alone. I did my drawing in 2D AutoCad just because that is what I am most familiar with and as I indicated earlier, I did it just to help me visualize the fuselage layout and not in any attempt to improve on what others have done. This sort of computer doodling has been very helpful to me for thinking through parts of previous projects and I wish I felt more comfortable with Solidworks.

[scottiniowa]

Looks like some are trying the EAA Free SolidWorks download.  

• Almost any question you have can be found on some sort of YOUTUBE showing.   With about 80% being pretty good.
• If you don't understand the answer from someone, there is a likely a better more understandable answer out there.
• Getting started use the basic tutorials that are included with the software
• save often (even down to 5 minutes) to avoid loosing your work.
• Pay attn. to the first three "sketch planes" they will be your friends forever in your sketches.

Best of success.
Scott

[tkyler]

Hi, Tom Kyler here, new builder.  I too am performing a 3D 'virtual build' to help understand the plans and construction.  For those interested and software saavy, an alternative to Solidworks is Blender 3D, which is free and a relatively small download.  The learning curve is still required as would be expected with any new software, but I believe it is no more complex than Solidworks (which I use in my engineering day job).  Blender is NOT a CAD software, but rather a generic 3D/animation software...no history based or parametric modeling, but its ridiculously quick to build geometry for "what if" scenarios.  The following work I did in about 2 hours.  Note that I do use a CAD package (Vectorworks) to develop the design dimensionally from the plans...but then I use the CAD reference dimensions as inputs to Blender 3D.

[kalazzerx]

Very Nice - I have also been doing the same - looks like a lot of us are all doing the same thing.  In my case I am using Fusion 360

Galery location:
https://gallery.autodesk.com/fusion360/projects/legal-eagle-xl

[scottiniowa]

Very Nice - I have also been doing the same - looks like a lot of us are all doing the same thing.  In my case I am using Fusion 360

Galery location - https://gallery.autodesk.com/fusion360/projects/legal-eagle-xl

 It is listed as a gallery, but this comes up
This project is not public yet. You are not authorized to view it.

 

[kalazzerx]

Strange - I looked at the link with another browser where I was not logged on and I could still see it.  Maybe I was still messing with the gallery at the time.