You hear that sound? That is the sound of a drone flying around, taking pictures or
cool videos. The buzzing sound is generated by the drone blades while rotating at very
high speed to keep the drone up in the air. The blades are essential pieces of the drone,
without which the drone would not be able to fly around. The shape of the blades drives
the performance and also the sound of the drone. In order to design these blades, we
need to have a solid model of them. Let’s find out how we can create a 3D model of a
drone blade!
To build the drone blade we would have to create the main body of the blade, the tip,
and the hub. Since the blades are the same, we can simply create one, copy it and rotate
it to generate the second one. The shape of the blade varies along its span. This means
that we need to know its profile at different locations. Once that is set, we can blend
the profiles into the blade shape. Then we can create the blade tip by reducing the profile to a point.
Last, we can generate the hub by creating a cylinder and rounding its top.
It seems we have a plan now! So let’s get started with building the drone blade.
Go to File menu and click SpaceClaim Options. Under the Units section, make sure that the
Length unit is set as “ Millimeters”.
Go to the Assembly menu and click File button. Select the file type as “Point Curve (text)”
and then select the file “profile.txt” and open it.
This file contains the coordinates of the points that describe the drone blade profile.
In our case the shape would be the same along the entire length of the blade.
Only orientation and scale would change.
Switch to 3D mode to view the imported profile.
Let’s create a surface body from this imported profile curve. Select the curve
and click Fill tool. This will create a surface body from the selected curve.
Hide the curves folder from Structure tree.
Select the Split tool and select the Edge split option. Now, select the edge and specify
51% to split the curve in 2 sections.
To view the split locations, go to the Display menu. Under Show, select Vertices.
Let’s further split the leading and trailing section of the profile.
Select the upper edge and split it on the left side by specifying the percent value
as 8%
Select the bottom edge and split the left section at 8% as well.
Now, select the right section of bottom curve and split it at 4%
Then, select the right section of upper curve and split it at 4% as well.
This step can be particularly useful when using the model to perform advanced simulations.
Let’s now create the different sections of the blade that we will use to create the
final shape.
Click the Origin tool and select the point located at the center of the leading edge
Now use the Linear Pattern tool. Select the surface body, then select the z axis from
the global coordinate system. From the Options panel, keep the pattern type as one-dimensional.
Specify the X count as 4 and the pitch as 45mm. Then, create the pattern
Now, go to the Display tab. Under Show, deselect Vertices to hide them.
With the Pattern tool still activated, expand the pattern component from the structure tree
and select the first component for patterning. Then, select the Direction option and select
the z axis from the global coordinate system. From the Options panel, keep the pattern type
as one-dimensional. Specify the X count as 3 and the pitch as 12.5mm. Create the pattern.
Select all the surface bodies from the graphics window, right click and select “Make Independent”
This would let us modify each instance separately.
Select the Pull tool and select the 4th profile from the local coordinate system.
Select the Scale Body option and select the point located at the center of the leading
section.
Now, p ress the Spacebar and specify the scale factor as 1.5 and hit Enter.
Similarly, select the 5th profile and scale it by a factor of 1.25
Now, Let’s rotate the scaled profiles. Select the Move tool and select the 4th profile.
Place the Move handle at the center of leading section and rotate it downwards by -20 degrees
Similarly, rotate the 5th profile by -10 degrees
Now, we have all the pieces we need to complete the main body of the blade.
Click the Blend tool and select the profiles one by one starting from either side.
Make sure to select the profiles in sequential order.
Complete the operation to create the blade model.
Let’s now create the blade tip.
Select the end face and switch to sketch mode
Click the Move Grid option and move the grid along the Z axis
by 8mm away from the blade
Select the Point tool and create a point at the center of the sketch grid.
This point would be the end of the blade tip.
Switch to 3D mode.
Click the Blend tool and select the 3 points. User the Ctrl key to select multiple points.
Click the Select Guides option and select the leading and trailing edge as the guide curves.
Use the Ctrl key to select multiple edges
The curve will now be tangent to the two selected edges. Complete the operation to create the curve.
With the Blend tool still active, select the smaller edge located at the leading section
and trailing section.
Now, click the “Select Centerline” option and select the curve that we created using
the Blend operation
Complete the operation to create the blended surface.
Similarly, create the blend surface on the lower side.
Next, select the two edges for blending and complete the top face.
Click the Select Guides option and select the faces connected to these edges.
Complete the operation to create the surface. Then, repeat the operation for the lower face.
We need to convert the surface body into a solid body. Go to the Repair menu and click
the Stitch tool. This will highlight a couple of edge locations that needs to be stitched.
Complete the operation to stitch the faces.
Next, click the “Missing faces” tool. This will highlight one location where the
face is missing.
Complete the operation. This will create a solid body for the blade tip.
The next part, now, is to combine the blade tip with the blade body.
Select the Combine tool. Select the blade body and then press the Ctrl key and select the
blade tip body to combine.
Now we can create the last item on the list. The blade hub.
Select X Z axis of the coordinate system that was created earlier. Then switch to the sketching mode.
Click the Circle tool. Go to Sketch Options panel and deselect “Layout Sketch” option
if active. Place the cursor at the center of the plane and hit Shift key to activate reference dimension.
Move the cursor towards the right and specify a horizontal reference dimension
of 6.25mm. Then, keep the other dimension as 0. Create a circle of 25mm of diameter using this point
as the center location.
Switch to 3D mode.
Select the blade body and create a new component for it.
With the Pull tool activated, select the circular face.
From the Options panel, select the Pull both sides option and pull the profile by 25mm.
Select the top face of the cylinder and pull it upward by additional 12.5mm
Select the top circular edge and pull it fully to create a hemisphere
To complete the model we need to copy the blade and rotate it by 180 degrees with respect
to the hub axis.
Activate the Move tool and select the blade body. Drag the Move handle over the cylindrical
face.
Press the Ctrl key and rotate around the blue axis. Specify value of 180 deg and hit Enter.
Finally, click the Combine tool and combine all the 3 bodies.
The model is complete. It is time to do some cleaning. Go to Structure Tree. Right click
on the topmost level and select Delete empty components.
Also delete the origin and the curves.
The Structure tree should only have one solid body listed in the tree.
Save the geometry and don’t lose the file! You will need it later on!
This concludes our lesson on how to model a drone blade.