3D ArduPilot Mega Assembly

Toby Stein December 18, 2010 at 9:11am

Hey Sandro,

I'm modeling a custom arducopter frame..I'd like to show the actual APM/oilpan on the frame.

Do you share your models?

Can I have a copy of the APM model?

any plans on modeling the oilpan?

Best,

Toby

VR4GUID August 27, 2010 at 5:37am

These are some amazing illustrations. Sandro you do great work. VR4GUID

Developer

Sandro Benigno June 20, 2010 at 4:36am

Hey, Ravi! LW3D is a complete tool, from modeling to animation and rendering. I work with it since 1993 and I have a tattoo of its logo on arm (seriously). The rigging process is very complete, with bones, joints, weight map, direct and inverse kinematics, expressions, dynamics, etc. We are totally off-topic here... :P So, I recommend you to know more from here: http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/overview.php

Regards

Ravi Gaddipati June 17, 2010 at 12:56pm

Nice! I never got around to texturing it, I just kind of quit after rigging it for animation. Can you rig models in Lightwave 3D?

Developer

Sandro Benigno June 17, 2010 at 10:45am

@Patrick, I'm extracting plain shapes and textures from Eagle. The 3D modeling part was done on Lightwave3D. I tried to use Eagle3D, but it only generates POV Ray scripts for direct render. It couldn't be exported to another 3D format (not yet, until someone create a software for it). Unfortunately or fortunately, it wasn't so automatic. I read a lot of data-sheets to know the package from each piece for modeling. I composed some textures for board level as well (color, specular map, normal map, etc).

@Sgt Ric, thanks for the comment! Yes, I know it maybe expensive, but not so hi. I'm adman and my company does digital signage projects. But, here, I'm doing it for contribute with the cause, inside the ArduCopter Team. I learn a lot here, every day... maybe it's a way for return it in someway. :)
But I'm accepting donations... (please, I'm joking)

@Ravi: Very cool your work. It's a little off-topic here but, coincidentally I made one, based on references too (from 2006... long time that I don't play with experiments like that... today my time is occupied with learning UAV things... hehe):
http://playmobil.deviantart.com/gallery/#/dmuhuy
wireframe: http://playmobil.deviantart.com/art/Virtual-Ant-Wireframe-38375216
About the descriptions, when we add more parts, like IMU sensor board, etc... I will add more textual info. Or maybe a still frame at the start for enumerate, and a subtitle during the animation... something like that. Good point!

Ravi Gaddipati June 17, 2010 at 9:36am

@sgt:Not quite 10 grand.
Animation is a lot of work (especially for organic models).
@Sandro: Are you good with organic models? I could never get it to look right (Im not the artistic type). Most complicated (actually, only) organic thing I have done (and it was based on a picture): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp2XimLhDPM
You should add short descriptions at the beginning for each part (not that important for such a simple assembly, but still nice).