Modeling Airfoils in Solidworks

Written By Tyler Barkin

Some Resources :

http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/supergee/SuperGeeII.htm

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag45ct02r-il

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag46ct02r-il

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag47ct02r-il

A quick list of steps to going from this :

 

To this :

  • I’m going model that AG455ct first. A quick search on http://airfoiltools.com/ brings us to a page with all the information about the airfoil we will need.

    • Search for AG455ct. A google search should bring up the airfoiltools page reliably.

    • AG455ct airfoiltools

 

  • Next we will want to download a file describing the points of our airfoil cross section

    • Click “Send To Airfoil Plotter”

    • Change the parameters to fit the dimensions of your airfoil

  • Click “CSV file of coordinates” to download

  • Open the CSV file in a text editor. We will be copying all the data for the airfoil surface to a separate text file.

  • Add another column of zeros to the copied data

    • add ,0.0 at the end of every X,Y coordinate. Solid works will be looking for an X,Y,Z set of coordinates later

    • find and replace with regular expressions enabled

      • FIND : \n

      • REPLACE : ,0.0\n

    • The only entry we miss is the very last one because there is no return after the last data point.

 

  • In Solidworks

    • Curve Through XYZ point (Good Example)

      • Brows to the text file with our airfoil coordinates and choose that as a coordinate source

    • Curve to sketch

      • Create a sketch in the plane where you can see the full airfoil cross section

      • Select the curve and use the convert entities tool

      • We need to repair the tail since the shape isn’t closed

      • Extrude into a 3D airfoil shape

Tyler Barkin