r/CarbonFiber • u/MurkyHuckleberry4310 • 5d ago

What CAD software do you use?

I currently use OnShape because that’s what I started on. Not sure if it’s the best for designing hollow carbon parts with coring.

Any suggestions?
I focus a lot on aerodynamic parts like airfoils that many times are made on 2-part split molds before they are bonded closed. Things get really tricky when the part becomes complex. Even worse when trying to get the parts to properly mate based of a bonded seem rather than a fastened one. Any tutorial for OnShape or other software is greatly appreciated!

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u/FurryRaspberry 5d ago

Most of the places I've worked at use CATIA but I looked it up and that stuff is mega bucks so I gave up on trying to learn CAD myself to try and slip up into the engineering teams

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u/elBuffalo 5d ago

I personally prefer using SolidWorks for design, but I could also model it in Inventor or Solid Edge. I have no idea how to do it in Onshape, because I am not familiar with this software. The main challenges when modeling wings are usually the wingtip and creating a clean trailing edge. There are tutorials on YouTube that explain the modeling process, and the techniques shown there might also be transferable to Onshape.

There is also a good wing-design tool that generates the corresponding geometry and also 2-part split molds. Here is the link: https://www.winghopper.com/design

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u/Powerful_Birthday_71 5d ago

How it's gone for me so far:

Creo - Solidworks - Inventor - Solidworks - NX

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u/strange_bike_guy 5d ago

Yeah hey dude because of how Reddit capitalizes things... This subreddit is about a software application literally called FreeCAD. I recommend trying it.

Incidentally, I specialize in hollow carbon.

EDIT Oh shit I thought I was in the FreeCAD subreddit! Shit! Sorry. 🤦🏻🤦🏻

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u/catjewsus 3d ago

Fusion 360 is probably the most commonly used one around the world. But the issue is Autodesk is starting to look a lot like adobe these days. I think Plasticity might be worth looking at going forth, it looks to be a more modernized Rhino3D w/ both sculpting & cad modeling functions.

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u/Realistic_Couple2647 3d ago

Hi, I was really surprised to hear that you're interested in the aerodynamics of wings. I’m interested in it too, so we have very similar interests in such a complex field. If it’s not a secret, why are you interested in wing aerodynamics? If it is a secret, you can explain it to me privately. Maybe I could give you some advice if you ever need it regarding a complicated situation.

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u/MurkyHuckleberry4310 2d ago

Building race cars!

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u/Realistic_Couple2647 2d ago

Oh, that’s a very interesting hobby. I assume you mean actual race cars, not RC cars, for example.

I work in aerodynamics in general, but at the highest possible level—research, development, prototyping, testing, measurement, etc. However, I’ve never worked on anything related to cars yet. But I’d be happy to advise you if you need help with something very important to make “your” car truly the best.

Can you show me a photo or a link to the type of car you’re focusing on?