60 ft flat car project

Looks good to me so far, although I couldn't vouch for the accuracy aspect.  I'm currently also working on a scratchbuild project.  I agree that the underframe is one of the toughest areas of the car to get information on.  Fortunately I found an online picture of my prototype derailed, exposing the underside of the car quite nicely.

I also just jumped into Sketchup to see if I could make parts or jigs for the model I'm working on.  I found it somewhat frustrating to use.  Part of the problem may be that I've used traditional 2D autocad for years and am used to that program's tools and methods.  I know Sketchup is supposed to be relatively intuitive to use, but it's ease has escaped me so far.

Jim

Looks good. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

How is Sketch-Up to use? I have a couple of parts that might be better done with a 3D printed master instead of scratch-building a master.

Matt, that is how I thought of using Sketchup and Shapeways as well.  Not to produce the finished part, but rather the master to use in resin casting.

See my notes above about Sketchup.  I haven't given up on it by any means, but I have found it a bit frustrating to implement certain functions.  I was practicing on relatively simple forms.  I wonder how crazy I would end up working on something truly complex.  I do believe that part of my problem is thinking about how I would do things in Autocad, and how instinctive that is for me now.  

Jim

Thanks. Unfortunately I hadn't refreshed the screen before I posted.

Shapeways can't print a full O scale car in 1 pc., you'll have to break the model up into a few separate pcs. and join them somehow when finished.  Plus its gonna cost a ton for what you have drawn up.  

IMO, what you are doing  would be much easier and cheaper to do in styrene

Looks pretty plausible for a wielded car.  Shapeways can print out full size 0 scale cars, but it gets super expensive pretty quickly.  It's easier for simple cars like flats or log cars, but other designs really should be broken up.  Try to make the center sill hollow, as the cost is based on how much material is used.  I've been looking at Shapeways myself to make masters for resin casting but haven't done anything with it yet.

Jim,  I agree with you that Sketchup isn't the easiest for those of us coming from Autocad.  Fortunately I was able to score an unused license from a company at a bankruptcy sale for cheap and it works great.  Doubt I'll be able to find such a deal again, but might be worth trying for.

Google SketchUp is pretty easy to use, the software is free and there are plenty of tutorials for it. Proto48Patrick, seeing how the price is about $1.50 per CM cubed i can see how it can get costly on there. We do have one thing going for us though, as the technology advances the price of it will come down hopefully. On a good note i do have a friend whose grandson just built himself a stereolithography printer so i might be able to use theirs.

Here is a update of the car i have been working on too, not quite done but a bit left to go.

Looks like WSF can print 25" long or so, my mistake.  Everything I print is FUD, which had way smaller total dimensions for some reason. 

Dont forget to add room for some sort of weight on that thing

Here is an update on my progress, still got some left to do on it but I have been short on time lately, which is why this has been taking me awhile to complete haha.