Car design software

["Clevor" Angel]

Do any of you have software like this, where you can desgin a car from the chassis up? If so, what type would you recommend?

[dydzi]

i think the first thing you should think about is a graphic tablet. i'm not 100% sure but imo photoshop is good enough for non-proffessional car designing

[:Exige:]

i think the first thing you should think about is a graphic tablet. i'm not 100% sure but imo photoshop is good enough for non-proffessional car designing

Barely geometrical and accurate. I think hes talking of a CAD program. AutoCAD is good enough for me

[Matra et Alpine]

How much work are you willing to put in ?
How much money are you up for spending ?

These will seelct the software for you. If you are hoping for the software to do dynamic movement, force analysis and CFDs on the bodywork then you better dig out 10s of thousads of dollars

If you're willing to use mutliple solutiosn and in some cases manually move concepts from one package to another then starting with AutoCAD is a good choice as suggested. If your'e going to do all the detail math then even cheaper solutions are workable eg 3dsMax

[BjD]

Agreed, i don't think PhotoShop would cut it if you want to design something properly

Alibre Design Express looks ok, Ive only played with it for an hour or two. You have to put up with ads though... but its free

I used Solidedge in uni and now ProE in work, both very good and expensive

["Clevor" Angel]

Well car design and in particular automotive engineering, is my chosen field. Of course I'd want all the physics worked out but I don't have that kind of money. So basic autocad is good enough for ametuer car design? I guess that makes it easy.

[Matra et Alpine]

Well car design and in particular automotive engineering, is my chosen field. Of course I'd want all the physics worked out but I don't have that kind of money. So basic autocad is good enough for ametuer car design? I guess that makes it easy.

Local guy designed a Viper copy kit car all in AutoCad and calculator
It was hard work he said though !!!!

[illusionest]

im not sure program name
but wireframe programs might be helpful...

[bluedak98]

Are you a student? I know you can get a student version of Pro/Engineer Wildfire for about $200. This is certainly much better than AutoCAD. At my university, they stopped teaching mechanical engineers AutoCAD 6 years ago, because it couldn't compete with other 3D cad software, and switched to Pro/E. I'm not saying Pro/E is the best either, but I've heard some auto companies such as toyota and the vw group use it for drivetrain design and I haven't heard of much of anyone using AutoCAD besides architects and civil engineers. I'm promoting Pro/E because I know there is a student version, but I believe most automotive companies use CATIA or unigraphics which are thousands of dollars as Matra said.

["Clevor" Angel]

Well I'm a student, but in high school. Do you have personal experience with Pro/E? I have a version of autocad already just wondering what else is out there.

[targa]

I use Microsoft Paint.

[bluedak98]

I was on the suspension design team for this car.



We used ProE for all the modeling, but also various programs for dynamic analysis, stress analysis, fluid dynamics, etc. I was also an instructor for a ProE course this past summer at the university. It's nice having access to all this basically for free, but I think you could probably get the student discount if you're in high school, if you really wanted to. Otherwise AutoCAD is good, basic software to start from.

[johnnyperl]

I was on the suspension design team for this car...

was that from this years FSAE?
Im using SolidWorks '05 to work on a car for that same competition.

Well car design and in particular automotive engineering, is my chosen field. Of course I'd want all the physics worked out but I don't have that kind of money. So basic autocad is good enough for ametuer car design? I guess that makes it easy.

what do you mean by all the physics worked out?
we use one program to design suspension points, than use solidworks to design vehicle/parts and do (basic) FEA.
there isnt one program for designing cars at the individual (amateur) level. and you can design/build alot without touching a computer.

[bluedak98]

was that from this years FSAE?

Nope. That's the 2004 car. I was on suspension senior design team then. Last year as a I just helped by designing the uprights because they had someone doing it who lacked intelligence, to put it nicely.

what do you mean by all the physics worked out?
we use one program to design suspension points, than use solidworks to design vehicle/parts and do (basic) FEA.
there isnt one program for designing cars at the individual (amateur) level. and you can design/build alot without touching a computer.

If you really wanted to do it right, you'd do as johnnyperl said. You start off with suspension geometry (MSC.ADAMS for example), and build your car off of that. If you're concerned about aero, you need a CFD program such as Fluent, which can also be used for intakes. Then use 3D modeling software such as Solidworks, ProE, CATIA, Unigraphics, etc to design the parts. Finally, you optimize with FEA for stress analysis (ANSYS, Abaqus, etc.) and iterate to build a lighter car. However, you learn to do all this in college, so again, "overengineering" in autocad to build a rough model of a car or parts of a car would be good practice when starting out.

[Cyco]

Pro E is good, but I have a soft spot for CATIA.

Also look at the lotus software for suspension optimisation