10 replies to this topic

[Maverick Master]

I fell stupid asking this question but i was wondering how you guys make those cool homemade desings. I searched but found nothing that helped. Is it a special program or something?(I have all of the microsoft office things and everything)

Edited by Maverick Master, 04 March 2006 - 07:08 PM.

[Meaker VI]

If you're talking about people like Boltsniper, he uses things like AutoCAD, which you are unlikely to be able to get ahold of. If you are intending to design the guns, you don't need those programs to do it though. I believe that Boltsniper also used an excel spreadsheet that was turned into a grid for some of his diagram stuff. But seriously, you don't need programs to design, graph paper (or a napkin) works just as well.

[m15399]

^But it doesn't look nearly as cool.

I draw most of my designs in Paint, just because it's quick. When I'm doing a quality drawing, I use GIMP, which is like Photoshop only its free (not quite as good, but it works really well). I've drawn some pretty awesome designs for stuff without using CAD.

[munson20]

You can just use M@cromedia Flash. I can do it with it and you can use the free trial from online, or find a serial code online.

[davidbowie]

If you're talking about 3D drawings, you might want to take a look at Rhino3D.

You can download a free trial version that is fully functional except you can only save 25 times. This is easily bypassed by doing a print screen of a render preview and saving it in paint.

[boltsniper]

Rhino is more for surface modeling and industrial design. It's not the best to use for engineering design. But it can be used for it. You can also look at Gmax which is free. Alibre Design in a parametric solid modeller and they offer a 30 day fully functional trial. I don`t think any of the others offer trials. I used Solidworks for the 3D drawings of the FAR. The rest was done in Excel. Powerpoint and Excel both are really useful for quick designing because of all the shapes you can drop in, resize and move very easily with the mouse. I use powerpoint a lot to quickly sketch out something before I move on to more detailed design. You can do the same thing in flash but if you don`t intend to animate it, then I see no advantage. PLus, you more than likely will not be able to get hold of it except for the trial.

As said above, you can simply just sketch with a pencil, or use what you do have on you computer.

[LastManAlive]

I have a Rhino and AutoCAD program. I have used them some for designing. Mostely just single shot guns.

[Doom]

The best sketch is a functional product in my opinion. Focus less on making pretty pictures and more on making your product. There's not much I dislike more than people who post loads of pictures but never make an actual product. That goes for all of you "new concept"-type guys - actually make something!

Regardless, I do most of my water gun and Nerf gun designing in my head. I don't waste much time drawing my ideas out at the moment unless I am having a hard time visualizing, which doesn't really happen because I try to keep things simple.

[m15399]

Mostely just single shot guns.

If you need CAD to design single shot guns...

I usually make drawings on sticky notes in school (he he) and then make neater paint drawings. I might use GIMP to illustrate an article, but I haven't had the opportunity to do so, since I haven't written any articles since I learned GIMP.

[ompa]

I usually draw them out first, but just to get an idea of how I want to make the gun in terms of size and whatnot. Also, if I have any ideas I don't want to forget later on. Like the progression of the lever trigger I used in mine, which ended up going through 3 revisions; all on paper.

~ompa

[boltsniper]

My design process is as follows:

1.) Brainstorming. Just thinking about different designs and whether or not they will serve the intended purpose. Coming up with multiple ways of accomplishing the same goal and picking a few of the best concepts

1.) Intial concept sketches by hand. These are extremely rough sketchs with no dimensions and not to scale. They are simply to get an idea of how a design will lay out. You wouldn`t beleive how much of this I do. Not jsut for my Nerf stuff but for everything. At this point I will sketch every concept I have come up with the better determine if it will work and how easy it will be to fabricate

2.) If a concept is deemed viable, then I usually move to a more acccurate means of sketching. I typically use excel or powerpoint to do this because it is extremely quick and easy. These sketches will be more to scale and will serve to weed out any problems not seen in the initial sketch.

3.) Dpending on the complexity of the design I may do go straight to fabrication or I may model the design with a solid modeler. When I did the FAR I did the solid model after the gun was constructed. For my past guns I have always built the gun after the 2D drawings were done. The guns can be represented in 2D pretty well though so the 3D model is not really needed. For my latest project, I have been designing the rifle in CAD. Teh action is more complex than any I have done and it is proving beneficial to model it in a 3D evniornment and manipulate it to see how the components interact. I may post some pictures of this.

4.) Fabrication. I tend to design the gun all the way through completion. I typically don`t come up with detialed plans before I start builiding. I start with the parts that I know need to be certain sizes and work out. The final product is often very different from the initial design.