Baja SAE Modeling Help

[Os2man4]

I am attempting to model my Baja vehicle as closely as I can to what the actual car will be, but I am unsure as to the best way to go about modeling the side panels. If you look at the picture thats attached, the side of the car has a complicated 3d shape. I was just wondering if someone could give me advice on the best way to construct the geometry for it.
Also on a separate note, the suspension is constructed using mechanism so that I could analyze the motion. I made the spring to the shocks flexible so that as the suspension moves, the spring height will change, while this works well for pictures because I can regenerate before I render it, for movies the spring height will not change. I was wondering if there was anyway that I could set it to regenerate the spring before rendering each frame? Preferably in such a way so that it will only regenerate the spring and not the entire car model.
My last question is that some of the parts were made using reference models that I do not have, I am not changing these parts, but when I regenerate the model it attempts to find the reference part and the component fails, is there a method of turning off regeneration to a specific feature so that it won't do that?
Thank you for your help,
Jim Giacchi
TCNJ Baja
View attachment 3172

 

[mcgowanp]

Hey Osman, if you define in your frame part/assemble points on the outer of the frame where your side paneling will attach and where it will most likely envelope, you can use these as reference entities for your panels. If you create a new part say, left side panel, leave it empty and add it to the assy and constrain it in position use base datums you can then activate the part in assy and add in curves. If you draw the profile of the side panel in say plan view and ref you points on the frame and so the same in side view you canintersect these curves to give you sections of your panel and the boundaries of you panel. And you can then use a boundary blend to make your surface.


Paddy