Hey guys!

Long time reader, first time poster here. Recently got access to a phlatprinter 3 thanks to a good friend, and have begun translating some of my old plans for indoor aerobats into sketchup for CNC cutting.
First up was my Yak-55m design; I took the opportunity to do some milling on the thing to lighten it up, so far so good.

Was wondering, does anyone knows any good methods for importing text into sketchup for the purpose of milled logos or signage? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a couple shots of the Yak-55m model in sketchup; have already generated G-code and am going to try to cut out a prototype tomorrow!

 

for text you need to phlatten, then weld. The weld tool will not get everything at once. Double click on each face then weld what is selected. An area with many faces, like a wing with pocket cuts will only weld one pocket at a time. Text like the letter A will weld the outside lines, then double click it again then weld the inside lines. Work up the text off of the model then move onto the model. To weld a complex shape you hold the control key and select every line segment, then weld the selected line. do not close curves, if you do strange lines appear (just control z), but you have to start over, on the line you are working on. Once everything is welded, all those extra Z moves go away.

BTW, nice YAK, I might have to grab that one.

 

Awesome! Thanks, Foamlvr; I will try that out today. I'd like to have the Yak logo milled into the rudder and have already acquired the source images for the logo, I will try merging it into the drawing with the weld tool today. Will post some pics later once I get a prototype cut and assembled. With a 250 motor, 10 amp ESC and 9 gram servos, I'm projecting the AUW at 4.25 - 4.75 ounces. We'll see how close I can get!

 

Ok, I need all of you guys to slow down! I don't have enough time to make all of these awesome planes!

Great looking Yak! I hope you plan on sharing the plans soon, I need a good indoor plane.

 

Thanks, Toxic!

I too am a big fan of the Yaks, the 55 in particular. Both the 55 and 54 fly fantastic and have great areobatic ability, but I think the 55 has a slight edge in the the vertical fuse area is roughly symmetrical between top and bottom, resulting in knife-edge flight with little to no coupling.

Cut the parts out for this guy last night, and was very pleased with the results. Here's a shot from my cell phone of the completed parts:



Working on assembling the prototype today; afterwords I will flight test it and make any final revisions to the plan, and yes, I will share it once it's complete. Should have it wrapped up by the end of the week.

My next project is going to be converting my 46" Sbach 342 design over to sketchup, here's a shot of the original one I cut by hand:



Will definitely try the 2d tools for making fillets on the corners of the milled areas, that's a great idea!
Really appreciate the offer of help too, I may take you up on that if I encounter an issue. Thanks again!

 

Wow, those parts look great! Your Sbach looks awesome too. It looks like you've been at this for a while. Do you have a link to your planes on RCgroups or similar?

Thanks for sharing, can't wait to see more.

 

Hey, Silver!

Thanks! I've been scratch-building with foam for about 4 years now, started as a cheap way to learn 3D and ended up being my principle interest in the hobby. To be honest, I've never been real big on posting designs and builds on RCGroups, although I am a member and a frequent reader. However, I enjoy this forum and REALLY enjoy the fantastic product that Mark and Trish are putting out, so I plan on being a regular poster here from now on.

As far as published designs, I do have one other design that's out there, it was published in the nov. 2010 issue of RC Sport Flyer and is an indoor foamy Yak-54. This was my first scratch-build project and was a great learning experience. I plan on reworking that design soon for the PhlatPrinter and will definitely share it when it's done.

 

Test flying went well! plane felt just a touch nose-heavy, so I'm going to move the position of the rudder and elevator servo cutouts an inch further back. Ailerons did exhibit a small amount of warping due to aerodynamic loads, so I'm going to stiffen them up a little bit by taking some of the milling out. Tested it with a 250 size outrunner with an 8x4 GWS DD prop, 350 2 cell, 500 2 cell and 500 3 cell on a 10amp controller. All flew well, hovers @ 2/3 throttle. I really like the power I got from the 3 cell, better than 2:1 power to weight, but the plane flew noticeably faster due to the additional weight. Going to try a rimfire 300 motor with 2 cell, should be a good compromise between power and weight. Here's a shot of the finished plane:





Going to revise the plan and make one more prototype for testing, then hope to finalize it and share it!

 

Looks awesome!