Some time back, Project Falcon was introduced on Autodesk Labs. At the time it only worked as a plug in for Autodesk Alias. Over time, the Labs team has introduced a few enhancements to Project Falcon. They added a release with a stand alone version for both OSX and Windows...and, now the latest release, with integration directly into Autodesk Inventor 2013.
Right on the Project Falcon page on Autodesk Labs, you can find videos, documentation and the software itself.
Last time I posted about Project Falcon, I channeled my respect for Thomas Magnum and took a look at the Ferrari 308 GTS. Since I couldn't find a free model of T.C.'s chopper (Hughes 500D), I decided another model from my youth would have to do.
So, I went on to GrabCAD.com and grabbed an X-Wing fighter. I wanted to have a goal...so, after thinking about it, I decided to see what kind of pressure was placed on R2D2 while in flight.
I did have to ignore a few facts about physics to do this with Project Falcon 1) space is a vacuum 2) Star Wars isn't real.
Let's get started!
Once installed, Project Falcon is easy to access right from the Environments tab on the Inventor ribbon toolbar.
Once you launch the Prjoct Falcon environment, it immediately begins anyalizing your model. Right from the ribbon toolbar, you can begin to dial in the simulation settings you want.
After selecting a setting, an on screen dial appears on the bottom right of the Inventor window. This lets you directly change the settings while Project Falcon is running the simulation.
Since Project Falcon runs in near real time, you can rotate the model, adjust settings, etc. all on the fly and immediately see the impact on your simulation model.
Now, to the problem at hand: how much pressure is little R2 under out there while Luke is out flying around firing off proton torpedoes?
From my research, the X-Wing has a Class 1 hyperdrive. So, it should be able to go ~1050k/hr (I know, I thought it would be a lot faster than that too). Project Falcon let me go faster. I cranked it up to ~572m/s (about 2060k/hr)...you know, just to be sure.
Once the speed was where I wanted it, I simply pressed the Surface Pressure icon to see what R2D2 was dealing with.
Turns out, the little guy was fine all along! I was worried for nothing.
I am sure you could shoot a few holes in my assumptions and theory with this simulation...but, I did it all (and wrote this up) in less than 30 minutes. And, it was just a nice bit of fun over my lunch.
Regardless, go over to Autodesk Labs and download Project Falcon for yourself. It is a great up front Simulation tool that now runs right inside of your Inventor environment.
Here is a quick video too
...and if anyone has a good model of T.C.'s chopper, let me know.
-lw
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