pic: Adjustable WCD Proof of Concept
 

This is a project I started to work on earlier in the summer during the WCD craze. It origonally started as just a basic WCD with inverted CIMs. However as I progressed I had troubles deciding on the chassis size I wanted to make. I knew I wanted to make a chassis with a 120in perimeter as per Strongholds rules. However I didn't know if I wanted a square, long or wide chassis. That's when I decided to do all of them.

I have created a CAD model of a WCD, where through the aid of designs tables in SolidWorks, I am able to select the Perimeter of the chassis and the length of it. From there a few formulas take care of the rest and voila, you have the bones to a new chassis in a matter of moments.

Right now it still has lots of flaws and isn't near complete (still missing a belly pan, guessets to hold the tubing together, bumper mounts etc.). I also need to be careful when choosing dimensions for the chassis as so not to choose something riculously small. So long as the length/width is more than the combined size of components between the rails, it works. I have incorperated the spreadsheet made by Paul Copioli into my design tables so that whenever I update the length of the chassis, my chain runs update to a proper length for tensioning.

I am hoping to post the solidworks files to grabcad soon, however I'm currently having some troubles exporting them with all of the design tables. The next step hopefully should be making a belly pan with a truss pattern in it that will adapt to the size of the chassis.

Any questions or comments please feel free to ask.

Re: pic: Adjustable WCD Proof of Concept
 

Is there anything in this assembly that you did with design tables that could not have been done with Global Variables? If you are just adjusting dimensions, you could just base the model off of Global Variables and change them as needed. Also, I'd love to see a render of the gearbox itself. It looks interesting.

Re: pic: Adjustable WCD Proof of Concept
 

The biggest reason for using Design Tables is because of my familiarity with excel making it easier for me to work with. This also allowed me to directly use the calculations in the Useful Calculations spreadsheet published by Paul Copioli. Here is a screenshot of the config spreadsheet I use for the chassis.

As for the Gearbox, I have just uploaded the assembly to GrabCad so people can have a look at it.

https://grabcad.com/library/wcd-inverted-gearbox-1

Re: pic: Adjustable WCD Proof of Concept
 

Makes sense to go with the tools you're familiar with. I may use your models and design tables as inspiration for a similar "build-your-own" WCD assembly using design tables to customize part selection and such.