Redesign

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started off with the Wyoming Woody – it’s a really nice looking teardrop, there’s lots of detail about the build on the site, and the CAD model (in SketchUp) is available for download.

After mocking the Wyoming Woody up in cardboard, I decided the roofline was too low – from the floor to the highest point in the roof is around 38″. So I decided to raise the roof, while keeping same classic teardrop profile. Instead of using SketchUp, I went with Autodesk Fusion 360, a full parametric modeler that’s free for student, educator, and hobbyist/startup use.

 

 

My final design raised the roof interior height to 48″, and I think I did a pretty good job of keeping the vintage teardrop shape.

I’m not going to lie, Fusion has a fairly steep learning curve. But I think the results were worth it.

 

Individual components like the roof ribs and spars, walls, and shelves are designed as individual bodies, then assembled into components like the roof, hatch, and cabinets. These sub assemblies are merged into the final model and constrained as required (rigid joints for fixed parts, cylindrical joints for hinges, linear joints for sliders/gas shocks).

 

 

Raising the roof meant that I couldn’t use a 4′ x 8′ sheet for the full wall height. The precision of the ShopBot CNC router allowed me to design a puzzle joint to piece together 2 sheets to make the wall without sacrificing the strength of a solid sheet. More on that later

 

More details on the CAD design process later.

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