2015/12/30

Boat Design

Let's try to design a boat using Autodesk Inventor. 

First we need some technical details: this boat will have 4 meters length and 1,5 meters width. It will be all built in wood. The shape will be classical, traditional and ergonomic in the same time.
The first component will be the upper part of the skeleton. This will be modeled after drawing the shape. After this comes the bottom skeleton, the one which is the basis of the careen. For this I am using 50,5 mm frames. This skeleton will be reinforced by horizontal sleepers made in the same kind of frames. I will make a little space behind in the way an engine could be placed there. As you may see in the picture above this is how my boat looks like until now. 

2015/12/26

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Circuit

Abu Dhabi is one of the most revolutionary Formula 1 circuits. The first race was held on YAS island in 2009 and continues every year since then. Once this circuit was accepted in the F1 calendar, Ethihad Airlines became one of the most important sponsors of "the big circus". The circuit is situated about 30 minutes of Abu Dhabi - the Capital city of UAE.

The design of this circuit was made Hermann Tilke and is very complex. It has a length of 5,5 km, an area of 161,9 ha and a seating capacity of 41.100 viewers.The marina includes a theme park, a water park, hotels and beaches. 

In the picture below one may see Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. The image is taken from a ride in the world's fastest roller coaster - Formula Rossa. The Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit at YAS Marina is just next door.






2015/12/22

HAAS - Formula 1 Debut

Gene Haas - the co-owner of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series decided to be part of Formula 1 starting with 2016. Originally he wanted to do this in 2015 but he postponed for next year. Mercedes already claimed Hass as being the second team of Ferrari but the Americans declined pretending they are a self made team trying to win the circuit according all existing the rules. 

Haas F1 team will be powered by Ferrari. They will have as logistical partners TEXACO, HP and Budweiser. The most surprising rumor is the color of their cars. Usually any American team has 3 colors: red, white and blue. It seems Gene Haas has chosen yellow for his first Formula 1 season.

Another good sign for the next season is Renault staying in the big circuit despite the news announcing they will give up. Let's hope these two teams will not have the same color for their cars.

Anyhow I am waiting for your opinion: which of the concept cars presented looks better ? Anyone who knows who will be the pilots of HAAS F1 team ?

2015/12/21

Ferrari 2015 Design Challenge

Everybody knows what means Ferrari. Probably the most known race car, the team with the most fans in Formula 1. 

Sebastian Vettel, the most important pilot of Ferrari team just visited a showroom containing the most challenging concept cars of "scuderia". For these masterpieces were involved the best designers in the World. Actually the team of wild horse is the only one carrying the flag of Formula 1 from the very beginning until today. In the video bellow you may admire this incredible work and please, feel free to say your opinion about it.
All these model cars were first drawn on paper. after this they were projected using a CAD program. Probably something intern of Ferrari factory in Monza - Italy. After these they were produced in a smaller scale in the way every person in decision to chose the future look of Ferrari cars. It is a huge work made by the best people money can buy. I think these are very good spent money.

2015/12/19

Concept Cars

Every race car was a concept car before. There are very complex teams working to develop a race car. One of the most important members of such a team is the designer. A very good designer with a very impressive work is Simon Williamson.

You may see some of his work here . 

A concept car is the first step to build a car. It is sometimes only one idea or a lo of drawings or models. All these suggestions are analyzed and finally the future design is picked by engineers and made technically available. Most of these models are projected using CAD programs, as disgusssed before, the most known are Solidworks or Autodesk Inventor.

Another really interesting work in this field is the Ferrari Formula 1 concept car presented here . This is always a good starting point in car manufacturing industry.  

2015/12/16

Autodesk Inventor

Another CAD very used program is Autodesk Inventor. This program is directly competing with Solidworks and Solid Edge. Autodesk is a company which develops AutoCAD and Revit as well. These programs are very well known between designers worldwide.

Solidworks and Inventor are very similar. It is just a matter of choice of the designer to use one or another. In the end, the most important is the result of a designer work. If you're a fan of Star Wars, I bet you will really like the video above. R2D2 is my favorite character in this movie.

2015/12/12

Formula 1

Everybody knows what s Formula 1. This is a very popular international car race with a very long tradition. Anyone who speaks about Formula 1, thinks of Bernie Ecclestone - the boss of this event. This is a big show in the same time and men like Enzo Ferrari or Frank Williams can't be forget when speaking of it.

The best part of Formula 1 is it stimulates creativity. This is an industry already which forces contestants to improve themselves everyday. There are drivers who want to become better and better, mechanical teams trying to their best all the time, designers and engineers who are working for future projects of every team. Actually every year it is already known the next year's shape of the car. 

The aerodynamic engineers are a special category of specialists in this field. They are testing everyday the monoposts using wind tunnels, collecting data and parameters in order to receive the best car with the best performance. 

On the other hand, this is a tough business. There are circuits all over the World and many countries are interested to host one of them. Such an event represents a good opportunity to monetize science and technology but also offers a great exposure for sponsors and a huge image for people involved in it.

You may see here a video taken in a Formula 1 demonstration in Aarhus Denmark. It is the Classic Race Aarhus which was already presented in a previous post.

2015/12/11

Kailasa Temple

Kailasa temple is a temple build din the VIII century in India. It is a part of a complex  consisting of 34 temples of Ellora cave. Kailasa is a hindu temple. 

The most impressive fact is the way it was made. There were no pieces of rock used to rise this building. Actually it was carved in a mountain starting from the top of the mountain to the ground. All the details are incredible good and the technology of the VIII century wasn't able to produce such an architectonic masterpiece. The video bellow explains all the details of this building. In my opinion they are just amazing.



2015/12/10

CAD

CAD acronym stands for Computer Aided Design and it describes a software category of programs used in design. There exist 2D (for curves and figures) and 3D CAD software (for spaces and solids). This kind of software are very popular toay and they are used almost everywhere from industry design to architecture and building applications.

One of the most used CAD software is Solidworks. This program has alomst 2 million users around the World. CATIA company which owns it sold 1,5 licenses until now. This is how it looks the technology of 2015.

2015/12/08

Classic Race Aarhus 2015

Classic Race Aarhus is the biggest race festival in Northern Europe. It has a tradition of almost 10 years. In 2015 it was registered an assistence of around 32,000. This festival covers 3 days of races and one of celebration and prizes for the best contestants. There are many car classes involved in this event and a Formula 1 demonstration is the most interesting part of it.
In the video it may be observed the Gangster Car Class Race. There were more than 90 cars in this competition in 2015. The contestants were coming from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and UK. The admission fee for all the days of the festival costs 200€.