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trebuchet03 · 10-24-2008, 05:31 PM

Blue Bomber Man, if I may offer a bit of information regarding software...

There are a few big suites major engineering/design firms use.

*SolidWorks
*Pro/Engineer (Wildfire)
*Catia
*I-DEAS

There are others, these are the major one's I can recall off the top of my head. I have used all of them except for Catia. All of these function for parametric design - features are saved as steps, not verticies.

I personally favor solidworks for it's easy integration with both CFD (Floworks) and FEA (Cosmos). {I own a snazzy Solidworks backpack too

} But, I don't know what's missing from the student license... I highly recommend that you get in touch with me VIA email

For designing a car, something rather complicated with >15,000 parts - any one of these pieces of software will do. But that doesn't mean you can't use something else. BUT - when designing bottom up, can you afford to do so without FEM analysis? My opinion is absolutely not - especially if you're using composites. That doesn't mean you can't build something that works without the analysis, but safety is a legitimate concern.

Coraball is right, Kevlar does lose some of it's properties when exposed to UV.... If you use it, use it under your other composite materials (or between). Kevlar is NOT sandable, just FYI (it will ball up and create a nightmarish mess).

I think your budget of $15,000 is a bit low. Unless this is a tiny car. Don't underestimate the cost of the hundreds/thousands of fasteners necessary to assemble

http://www.grabercars.com/ - this is a beautifully made car from scratch (now sold as a kit less drive train for $25,000 - I imagine the first one off is more than that).

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to discourage you. I would just hate to see an awesome project like this backfire after a dead end.

But again, eMail me

10-24-2008, 05:31 PM	#27 (permalink)
trebuchet03 MechE Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,151 The Miata - '01 Mazda MX-5 Miata Thanks: 0 Thanked 22 Times in 18 Posts	Blue Bomber Man, if I may offer a bit of information regarding software... There are a few big suites major engineering/design firms use. SolidWorks Pro/Engineer (Wildfire) Catia I-DEAS There are others, these are the major one's I can recall off the top of my head. I have used all of them except for Catia. All of these function for parametric design - features are saved as steps, not verticies. I personally favor solidworks for it's easy integration with both CFD (Floworks) and FEA (Cosmos). {I own a snazzy Solidworks backpack too } But, I don't know what's missing from the student license... I highly recommend that you get in touch with me VIA email For designing a car, something rather complicated with >15,000 parts - any one of these pieces of software will do. But that doesn't mean you can't use something else. BUT - when designing bottom up, can you afford to do so without FEM analysis? My opinion is absolutely not - especially if you're using composites. That doesn't mean you can't build something that works without the analysis, but safety is a legitimate concern. Coraball is right, Kevlar does lose some of it's properties when exposed to UV.... If you use it, use it under your other composite materials (or between). Kevlar is NOT sandable, just FYI (it will ball up and create a nightmarish mess). I think your budget of $15,000 is a bit low. Unless this is a tiny car. Don't underestimate the cost of the hundreds/thousands of fasteners necessary to assemble http://www.grabercars.com/ - this is a beautifully made car from scratch (now sold as a kit less drive train for $25,000 - I imagine the first one off is more than that). Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to discourage you. I would just hate to see an awesome project like this backfire after a dead end. But again, eMail me __________________ Cars have not created a new problem. They merely made more urgent the necessity to solve existing ones.