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Model railway roof curves

S

spiritdesign

Member
This is my first post as I’m a new user.

I've update to Alibre V27 from Cubify2014 but I’m still having trouble drawing the carriage's end. Probably because I’m self-taught. I've tried lofting, angle plane etc. to get the shape. Could someone draw the file and upload it so I can backward step through the file so as to learn the correct technique?
Cheers Chris
AWBW6365.jpg
 
Ex Machina

Ex Machina

Senior Member
Unfortunately, I do not have the time to work on something like that, plus the dimensions are not the easiest ones to read.

But try the following:

a) Use the projection of the roof from the "Along the centerline view" as a profile. I would even try as a single arc and line and then do a Thin Feature initially.
b) Use the projection of the roof from Section C-C as the path.

And try a sweep. If in a) you used a single arc and line do a thin sweep, if not, normal sweep.

In the thin sweep you will be asked in the dialog box for the thickness of the part.

P.S. In section C-C the path look like 5 different tangent arcs. 2 pairs on each side and one in the middle, but I'm just guessing here.
1696414897066.png
 
HaroldL

HaroldL

Alibre Super User
It looks like there are two different curves that need to be blended. If you are going to Loft the roof then you are missing the radius of the corner of the rail car. It appears the end of the car may be curved except for the area of the door. You need a Plan view with that radius for a Guide Curve. Also the Guide Curve needs to follow the curve shown in view "-At A-A-" which will need to be a 3D sketch.

As Konstantinos pointed out, these are not easily read dimensions. It appears that some may be missing but it may be possible to use insert the image and trace it. But we still need a corner radius.

Do you have a PDF that you could upload?

I did some looking on the internet and found the Victorian Rail web site. Their drawings are not very legible. I did find this image, is this similar to the car you are modeling? It was on a page of AW car types.

aw37mar1980pjv.jpg
 
Last edited:
J

JimCad

Senior Member
Don't know if these will help to find the missing dimensions.
I've scaled it fairy close and saved as DWG, DXF ( ASCII), DXF (Binary)
Jim
 

Attachments

  • Rail Car 1 ASCII.dxf
    184.4 KB · Views: 5
  • Rail Car 1 Binary.dxf
    94.7 KB · Views: 2
  • Rail Car 1.dwg
    34.5 KB · Views: 6
S

spiritdesign

Member
HaroldL said:
It looks like there are two different curves that need to be blended. If you are going to Loft the roof then you are missing the radius of the corner of the rail car. It appears the end of the car may be curved except for the area of the door. You need a Plan view with that radius for a Guide Curve. Also the Guide Curve needs to follow the curve shown in view "-At A-A-" which will need to be a 3D sketch.

As Konstantinos pointed out, these are not easily read dimensions. It appears that some may be missing but it may be possible to use insert the image and trace it. But we still need a corner radius.

Do you have a PDF that you could upload?

I did some looking on the internet and found the Victorian Rail web site. Their drawings are not very legible. I did find this image, is this similar to the car you are modeling? It was on a page of AW car types.

View attachment 39839
Click to expand...
Hi Harold, exactly what I'm trying to do. The measurements are fuzzy as I shrank the file to load but I assumed someone would just freelance the general shape (I'm in N scale) which I could follow my the file they create to upload or email me if that helps. Chris
 
S

spiritdesign

Member
JimCad said:
Don't know if these will help to find the missing dimensions.
I've scaled it fairy close and saved as DWG, DXF ( ASCII), DXF (Binary)
Jim
Click to expand...
Hi Jim, I downloaded the 3 files and opened them in Alibre V27 and Corel X6 but all show no visible lines. Chris
 
idslk

idslk

Alibre Super User
...found an old file...maybe it is a way to start...
1696457996254.png

Regards
Stefan
 

Attachments

  • TrainRoof_2.AD_PRT
    2.4 MB · Views: 3
J

JimCad

Senior Member
I tried to get AutoCad files from the drawings but it's not worked very well as they are scanned pictures which I then saved as PDFs
I've been trying a work around but that's not going too well.
Jim
 
bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
I could not read many (most!) dimensions but the drawings make it look like the carriage has compound curve to roof corners and a curve to the front.
Anyway - I came up with the attached.
Only a couple of the sketches are fully constrained because so many uncertain or unknown dimensions.
David
 

Attachments

  • Carriage.AD_PRT
    568 KB · Views: 6
bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
You have to admire the Victorian era; the engineering developments proceeded at an incredible pace driven to a considerable degree by the expanding railways.
I'm old enough to remember steam locos being the regular runners on my local line - but that was only because the UK could not afford the upgrade to diesel or electric during the 50's.
The local railway station (Marple) had been a thriving hub back in Victorian times but by the late 1960's (by which time the main station was 100 years old), it was looking decidedly tired. Sadly the money to restore the original ironwork was not available and it was all demolished... apart from one small piece that I now keep on the garage wall..
marple-station-august-1969a.jpg20231006_122244.jpg
 
S

spiritdesign

Member
bolsover said:
I could not read many (most!) dimensions but the drawings make it look like the carriage has compound curve to roof corners and a curve to the front.
Anyway - I came up with the attached.
Only a couple of the sketches are fully constrained because so many uncertain or unknown dimensions.
David
Click to expand...
Hi David, I've downloaded the file and will step back thru the process and apply it to my file. Thank you for this. Chris
 
S

spiritdesign

Member
A big thank you to everyone who has replied and also attached a couple of files for me to play with. I will sit down and backtrack through the drawings with the aim of learning how to do compound curves. If I succeed, I will post a picture in the future. Once thank you to all forum helpers.

Chris
 
HaroldL

HaroldL

Alibre Super User
Here's a late entry into the "How To" conundrum of the Victorian rail car roof profile. After some careful study it looks to me like the end was a sweep cut to produce the curve on the end above the door.
I tried to follow the drawing as close as possible while tracing. Getting the images at the same scale was a challenge, I think I got them pretty close.
 

Attachments

  • VICTORIAN AW RAIL CAR.AD_PRT
    2.5 MB · Views: 7
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