Wing Freeform

To control the deformation of the wing, you place two freeform points on the wing surface. These points are positioned at the wing tip (at the quarter chord location) and the upper surface of the wing (around two-thirds of semi-span location).

  1. In the 3D-CAD View 1 scene, hold the Crtl key, double-click the main wing face and the trailing edge face, and select the wing tip face.


    This selects all fifteen faces on the wing surface. When selecting the wing face, remember to include the main wing, the top and bottom surfaces of the control surfaces, all the faces along the trailing edge of the wing, and the wing tip face. Do not select the wing root face.

  2. Right-click one of the selected faces and select Freeform Surface.
  3. To create the initial surface freeform:
    1. In the Freeform Surface dialog, select (Create Point) and place a point on the wing tip as shown below:


    2. In the 3D-CAD View scene, select FreeformPoint 1 and drag the blue z arrow on the axis triad to set the Displacement Z to around 2.0 m.
    3. In the Freeform Surface Edit View dialog, adjust the Displacement to [0.0, 0.0, 2.0] m and click Apply.


An additional control point adds a rigid constraint to the geometry. The constraint maintains the position of the geometry in the point location when you make changes to the wing tip. The constraints force the surfaces of the freeform through the control points.

To produce a smooth deformation, use a small number of control points. If you use too many control points, the surface can become over constrained, resulting in a wavy deformation and, in extreme cases, in the failure of the freeform operation.

  1. To provide additional constraints to the deformation:
    1. Make sure the wing main surface is selected as shown and select (Set Number of Grid Rows and Columns).


      Each surface has its own unique UV grid. To produce a different grid structure on each surface, you can modify the grid structure for each surface of the body independently.

    2. In the Grid Rows and Columns dialog, set the following properties:
      Property Setting
      Number of Grid Rows 7
      Number of Grid Columns 7
    3. Click OK.
    4. In the Freeform Surface dialog, select (Create Point) and place a second point as shown below:


    5. In the 3D-CAD View scene, select FreeformPoint 2 and set Displacement to [0.0, 0.0, 0.117]m.
    6. Click Apply then OK.


Due to the deformation of the wing surface, the hardpoint is no longer attached to the wing surface. To reconnect the two bodies, translate the hardpoint first, then extend the hardpoint body until the surface touches the wing surface. If you perform the Extend Solid operation before the translation of the hardpoint, the hardpoint body impinges on the wings trailing edge control surfaces.
  1. To change the position of the Left Hardpoint:
    1. In the 3D-CAD View, expand the Body Group node.
    2. Right-click the Wings > Left Hardpoint node and select Transform > Translate.
    3. In the Translate Bodies dialog, set the Translation Vector to [-0.15, 0.0, 0.0]m and click OK.
    4. Select the upper face of the Left Hardpoint.


    5. Right-click the selected face and select Extend Solid.
    6. In the Extend Solid dialog, set the following properties:
      Property Setting
      Method Up to Face
      Target Face Face 1 (To select Face 1, select the wing main face directly in the 3D-CAD Viewscene.


    7. Click OK.
  2. Multi-select the Body Groups > Wings > Right Wing and Right Wing Hardpoint nodes.
  3. Right-click one of the selected nodes and select Delete.
  4. In the Delete Bodies dialog, click OK.
  5. To mirror the Left Wing and Left Hardpoint onto the right-hand side of the aircraft:
    1. Multi-select Left Hardpoint and Left Wing.
    2. Right-click one of the selected nodes and select Transform > Mirror.
    3. In the Mirror Bodies dialog, set the following properties and click OK:
      Properties Setting
      Normal [0.0, 1.0, 0.0] m,m,m
      Action Copy + Mirror Bodies


    The mirror bodies operation maintains the line of symmetry down the center of the UAV, which ultimately maintains the physics behavior exhibited by the aircraft. The mirror bodies operation produces a copy of the source body reflects the geometry along the line of symmetry of the aircraft. If you make changes upstream of the mirror bodies operation to the source body these changes are reflected in the mirrored body when the pipeline is updated.
  6. Expand the Features node and multi-select the five most recent features, as shown below:


  7. Right-click one of the selected nodes and select Group.
  8. Rename Features Group to Wing.
  9. Save the simulation.