What design software for a car, Fusion 360?

I am planning my next car which will be based on a Porsche 911 (997 model) with a modified nose and tail. Previously, being a professional car designer, I have used MS Paint and just pinched screen scrapes to piece together but this isn’t going to cut it this time. You can see my source images and the hybrid result compared to a similar image someone else has done.

Ideally I would like to be able to take parts of the image, specifically the headlight bowls, and 3d print them. This is because they might look like the Citroen ones but all of the proportions will be altered to fit the Porsche. It is the same but more so around the back witht he ice cream cone lights and number plate surrounds etc.

Is it possible/practical to attempt this on a computer first or do I just wing it and spray some foam over the Porsche and shave and shape by eye?

Blender – see Fanatik Builds LS powered GT6 (there’s not a lot of GT6 left) – link

Its a complex blended 3D shape so a decent polygon modeller might be ok as it will fudge everything together. However, if you really want to do it properly you would use 3D polygon modelling or SubD modelling software to start then refine to class A level using 3D Nurbs modelling software, then transfer to DS Catia for final A class refine plus B-Surface with gap closing and release to tooling…simple becomes complex, very quickly.

OK, back to the question, Fusion 360 is not the way to go.
Blender is good (its also free which is always a bonus) but you’ve go to set up the initial shapes and make sure you can keep overall accuracy to fit in your bodyshell correctly. You can do the whole thing by hand but the big advantage of using CAD is that you can quickly do mirrored shapes so once you have the left hand lamp done, the right hand lamp is easy.

The only real issue with Blender is that as I’ve used Autodesk Alias (the auto industry standard 3D CAD-CAS software) for about 26 years, I view Blender as something akin to witchcraft. Also pretty much all the Blender tutorials are on YouTube and mostly involve some idiot spending 15 minutes of a 18 minute tutorial asking you to subscribe and make sure you “like” their video. For some reason I want to punch those people.

Oh and BTW World Class Accident, just a piece of gentle professional advice, grafting a DS nose onto a 997 risks you getting burned at the stake, but for some reason I’m intrigued to see the result… 😉

Oh, and here’s a question. WCA, do you own a current generation iPad or iPhone? You might be able to scan the front of the 997, might be very useful if you are doing any CAD modelling…

No scanner but tempted to borrow an iPad from someone for that very purpose. At least to get the initial dimensions and yes, using the software was to mirror the sides and avoid the creative use of penny washers when levelling the body work like on the TVR I had.

grafting a DS nose onto a 997 risks you getting burned at the stake,

Part of my motivation probably. I will form the “Porsche Depreciation Society” and possibly register the car as a “Porsche Citwrong”, if the DVLA make me reregister it, then drive from Paris to Stuttgart to see what happens.

In the mean time, I will investigate Blender and try to avoid punching the screen while watching tutorial.

Muddy@arseGuy – you saw my first attempt where I just eye balled it, right? I need to sell this to buy the Porsche so unlikely to happen before the spring : https://nclarksouthampton.wixsite.com/z300s

Even an older gen phone. Or just a camera and a pc:

– Reality Scan is an app from the company that has one of the proper industry grade pc photogrammetry packages. Others are available.
– Reality Capture is the PC version and has a pay per use function. With a dslr (and if you can matt up the car) you’ll get lovely results.
– Alicevision Meshroom is an open source alternative (there are several but meshroom actually has a GUI and tberefore isn’t awful to learn to use).

Blender- good tutorial set to get going is Blender Guru. Let’s see your donut once you’ve modelled it. I’m very much a novice doing polygon modelling compared to CAD and still think in part trees (although my detail CAD surfacing skills are a decade rusty by now) but there are some advantages to the polygon approach depending on what you want.

Watched the tutorials this evening but didn’t bother with bumps and sprinkles.

Enjoy a donut

Yum yum!

You’re next task is to graft a donut onto a 911

I was going top do donuts IN a 911