Abstract
The paper describes the measurement and generation of 3D models of various vehicles on whom significant design changes had to be made. In order to make the required design changes on the original vehicle, a 3D model of the vehicle had to be created. These modification and adaptation tasks had to be done without any technical drawings of the original vehicle. Therefore, the original vehicle had to be measured in order to create the CAD model of the vehicle. A vehicle is a complex shaped object and it is not always practical or possible to measure it using conventional measuring methods. The surface of such objects and specific points on the object can be digitized with various (optical) measuring systems. Based on gathered digital measuring data and via specialized software packages, 3D CAD models can be easily created. The obtained models represent a good basis for adaptation design interventions and various analysis and simulation tasks required for making good decisions regarding the design changes. For such purposes, two measuring systems were used: TRITOP and ATOS. TRITOP is a high precision measuring system which determines the 3D coordinates of markers and other visible elements on the surface of the measured object and ATOS is a digitizing system that enables a quick measurement of the surface of the measured object with high local resolution. TRITOP was used for the measurement of the city bus that had to be converted into a panoramic bus for city sightseeing and ATOS was used to digitize the driver’s door and the door frame of a production car in order to model the body of a Dakar rally vehicle and to digitize the rear door and the rear door frame of the vehicle for whom a new mechanism for rear door opening had to be developed.
Keywords: optical measuring system, reverse engineering, CAD modelling, FEM analysis