PROJECT METHODOLOGY

There are four phases that this project went through: Initiation Phase, Planning Phase, Execution Phase, and Close-out Phase. This section discusses how I completed the milestones in each phase, what tools/resources were used and the rationale for the critical decisions.

INITIATION PHASE

Sep 11 - 18

• I started brainstorming project ideas as to what I can create in the solidworks software that would be the right size, material, shape and be practical to create a buck out of to be used multiple times in the vacuum forming machine. After doing some research online and talking to my project adviser, I decided that the 1970 VW BEETLE (Bug) body shape was the ideal shape to be thermoformed and a good challenge for me skills and techniques that were learned throughout the MEY program.
• Project Application - was submitted after consulting with the project adviser with the final decision being to start learning the surface tools on solidworks.
• Second meeting with Project adviser going over all the documents required to submit the scope package. Submitted pool of ideas and started working on the web page before the next phase.

EXECUTION PHASE

Oct 05 - 09

• Solidworks Design 1: After the 4th attempt, realizing I was not getting the right profile from the templates chosen, I decided to take a step back, re-evaluate and start from scratch on the design process again. This time around, I concentrated on the front body section with designing the roof, the a pillar, front passenger window and front windshield. What I did differently was to work with an existing edge already created to create the next panel. This way the flow lines lined up more successively and the curves were more natural looking and flowed well together.
• At this point I felt like I was getting behind and put all my energy into trying to create this model.

Oct 10 - 16

• SD 2: More progress was made after SD 1 as the front end of the front fender, bottom hood plate, light cover, outside curve, inside curve and back fender profile were created.
• Missed my first website update due to working overtime on the design process.

Oct 17 - 23

• SD 3: Started work on the back half of the body with the trunk bottom panel, back fender, back door, back window and c pillar panel. The panels flowed much more smoothly this time and there were not gaps between the panels. The body shape was coming out as per the templates and many profile pictures of VW Bugs online.
• SD 4: When I tried to merge the back half of the bug with the front half, There were large gaps in between the edge lines that could not be consolidated into one seamless shape. But the overall shape of the VW bug was starting to be defined at this point.
• I missed my first presentation also as I was not confident enough in what I had to show for my work so far.
• SD 5: I had to delete the front roof, side window and side door panels and redraw them in relation with the back half edge that was meeting with the front half at the midpoint. This led to a more concise body flow as well as better odds of the panels being able to be knit into one surface later on. However, there were complications due to some panels overlapping each other with gaps that solidworks was not able to merge together.
• SD 6: I was not happy with the initial front fender design so I had to scrap that version of it and redo the front fender again in relation to the new panels just created for the front door, window and windshield. The other problem was the unique curve flows of the head lights and the integration point between the light housing and the front portion of the front panel. To resolve this issue, I had to break down the front panel into different sections with different direction vectors for each panel and try to integrate them with each other so that the curves flowed better.
• SD 7: I started work on the front hood half and the recessed design styles on top of the hood. This was initially a challenge as I had not done much of offsetting of the panels and the use of ruled surface tools was new to me at this point. But I persevered and was able to add the offset panel on the hood to match the natural curves in the design.
• SD 8: At this point, I have completed most of the panels on the bug and now I spent many more hours on refining the curves and seams so that they flow congruently with each other. The issues I faced here were much of the same as mentioned in the previous design iterations but more prominent near the end. This was due to so many parts, sketches, vector planes, trims and surface knits already done previously that were bogging the rendering time down with every little change in the body design. This also caused a lot rebuild errors and design fails as I had to go back up the massive feature tree to find the errors and fix them sequentially.
• SD 9: Things are progressing much better now as I am close to finishing this model. I have created all the windows and recessed them with connecting gasket panels and added some finishing details like the running boards at the bottom of the door panels. It really stated to look close to the pictures of the beetle I was referencing however there were issues here as-well. Many panels were not meshing together well due to numerous errors and I was unable to figure out why they were not meshing together properly. To resolve this issue, I knitted together panels one at a time and then knitted the joined panels with other free standing panels to create one body out of many different parts.
• SD 10/10.1: After I had most of the parts knitted together, I mirrored the left side of the bug body around the center plane and got a complete model with equal dimensions on the right side as well. In order to make it a bit more appealing to the eye, I changed the appearance colors on the body to metal blue and all the glass surfaces opaque silver. I also differentiated the runner board at the bottom with a rubber texture and added a dark slate color to it.

CLOSE-OUT PHASE

I was able to create a .STL file out of the final design model (SD 10) and send it to Colin Delogu (Wood Shop Assistant Supervisor) who was then able to upload the file in the V Carve software in order to process it for the CNC machine in the wood shop in room B1001. Colin was instrumental in bringing my computer generated car design into a real physical model carved out of wood.