Bonneville Salt Track racer concept

[Speedster]

Hi all;

Finally had a break from an especially difficult medical device design, and took a well earned "play day" to run KS4 through it's paces, and also evaluate a new SolidWorks plugin called "Power Surfacing for SolidWorks, from www.npowersoftware.com.  I've been wanting to do this Bonneville Racer concept for years, but it's almost impossible in SolidWorks, which, as all SW users know, is not strong in surfacing.  This was a perfect excuse!  I swiped a lot of parts from my other car models.  The driver is from years ago, for a "flying automobile" project.  Crude, but works in an enclosed cockpit.

The body is fully modeled in subD, and all from within SolidWorks! It then converts to NURBS, all in SW!  Took about 5 hours, but I was starting from scratch and learning the new (and simple) tools as I worked.  All additional features were added after I was pleased with the body and shell.  Power Surfacing is in an early release, and from talking to the boss Dave Gill,  it's already being greatly improved as we speak.  I intend to add it to my pipeline at the expiration of their generous 30 day trial.  It shows great promise, just as many of us recognized in the very early days of KeyShot and its predecessor.

Red is DuPont "Red Hot Meltdown", HDR is "Airstrip", no backplate.  White version is DuPont "Snow Storm", and HDR is a massively warped (KS Edit) "Overhead Array".  Wire wheels, grill, pipes, etc. are all Titanium, which I have been using instead of chrome.  I just like it better for cars.  I used the new "Ground Plane" to stick the tires to the ground, instead of my usual mistake of sitting up on the tangency.  I tried some decals, but nothing would work.  I discussed it with KeyShot, and I think I may have an issue with the install, as it works for them. 

And guess what!  You can now go back into SW and remap (UV) a surface, click update, and the newly mapped surfaces update in the .bip!  I made many geometry changes as I went, and did test renders along the way to check progress, and the model updated flawlessly in seconds.  v.4.0.74

Last image shows the basic workflow.

Anyway, now I'm charged up again for another brutal week.  Comments welcome, and all you fellow SolidWorkers- check out nPower!

Bill G

[feher]

Nice work Bill.
Love that backplate on the white version.
It's a keeper
Tim

[tsunami]

Love it bill!!!i would love to get a chanche to make a render of that bonneville

[DriesV]

Yes, I can see the impossibility of making that shape inside a pure SolidWorks environment.
Nice car!

Dries