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Unread 29-12-2008, 20:42
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Re: pic: 6wd chassis - need feedback

Quote:
Originally Posted by squirrel View Post
It looks like there are only a couple different sizes of lightening holes. And they're mostly right triangles. It's pretty easy to estimate the weight savings of all the right triangles...length by width times thickness times number of triangles divided by two, times 0.10 lbs/inch cubed (density of aluminum).
An even faster way would be to simply look in inventor.

For a single part, set the material to aluminum under iproperties and it will give you a mass. Check the mass as is, then supress the lightening features and check again.

For an assembly, if all parts have an accurate material set, iproperties will give you a total mass. For parts such as motors, you simply override the mass value by typing your own.

I suggest you make this standard practice, good weight estimations are useful. Unless you're one of the great minds (which I'm far from) here, you can't really just guess the weight of a drivetrain (and I'm not even sure they would claim to be able to).
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