I've had ideas kicking around in my head for a while for my own Dinobot toys I thought I'd try my hand at doing as CAD models. I'm roughly familiar with how the software works and everything, but it's translating ideas I've got sketched out in notebooks into 3D that I'm having issues with. How detailed is too much for the block model drafts? Hell, who even would be the best candidate to start with?

Or maybe there's a link I missed trying to Google answers that someone would send. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Not an easy question to answer, really.

It's one thing to have sketches on paper... but going to CAD is a discipline itself. Your mind sends info to your hand and you make sketches contained within the borders of the paper.
In CAD, you have an unlimited world and have to contend with actual dimensions. So whatever you draw had to have an actual dimension.
Suggestion: carefully draw the figure you want at the size you want on paper and measure off it for CAD.

What software you using? Many here would suggest Blender 3D. I don't know Blender, so I can't say. I myself use the hobby license of Fusion 360 for 3D modeling. When I end up learning animation I can take that geometry from Fusion to Blender.

Until you get to know the software, start simple.

 

I tried using Blender and didn't have much luck with getting joints to work, so I'm trying Fusion. I get how it works, it's just applying that to this application that I'm having trouble with?

 

I wrote some general design tips to get started in this thread (link here) but you may have already figured this much out.
I have designed (or tried to design) transforming figures for a few years (even longer if you count the Lego versions) and still don't know the best process. (I would love to know how Hasbro or third partie designers work)

You asked how detailed to start with. I would say as simple as you can get away with, usually the basic body shape. (I can add some pictures when I get home in a week or so)
My preferred work flow is to model the robot proportions and then try to fit it inside the vehicle as well as cutting up the vehicle to place on the bot. For a dino mode I would instead pose the robot into the dino shape and build the dino from there.
Not sure about Fusion but Blender have a very useful function where I can have multiple copies of the same part and all update simultaneously. I have one set of parts in robot form and another in altmode as I try to find the exact rotation points and model the joints.

This is what came to mind, feel free to ask if something wasn't clear or you wonder over anything else.

 

That's a good call on using graph paper.
And that's a good thread in general.

Also... get a sacrificial figure. Take it apart. Dissect it. Get some cheap digital calipers and take measurements.

And above all: keep things simple.

 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I don't have any access to graph paper to use, but I've at least got something to go off of! My idea was to try to make them work and have their dinosaur modes look as close to the current scientific consensus as possible. I've found orthographic views for some of them (mainly for Slag, Snarl, and Grimlock) I can use to model the dinosaur modes, but I'm having issues trying to decide how much I can get away with simplifying those organic shapes. I'll hopefully figure something out, soon enough. Thanks for the help!

 

Glad it helped and for graph paper I just use notebooks with square patterns.

 

Here are the pictures I promised.

As you can see I already had a sketch of the proportions and started with simple blocks. This is probably too simple to work with so here is another level of detail.

This is probably where you should be until you got the transformation in place. I tend to want even more details but be careful as the more you add the more work there is if you need to change anything. This is why I mostly added details to the head which wouldn't change much later.


Hope to see some of your progress some time (or those sketches you mentioned)

 

Personally I try to get the transformation working first in very roughly detail. Largely just block shapes. Get the transformation right with the biggest blocks you can and then you know what dimensions you are working in for detailing and you can update one piece at a time.

I also usually only model 1 side if and export 1 with tabs and one without if they are suitably apart. Occasionally, I put all the bits in but only if I want to see or test fit.

Here's some example of the helicopter model I'm working on at the moment. Now I'll turn it into the thing I want knowing the dimensions but with the added benefit that I have a template for any future helicopter I want. As you can see I have a few different options for the arms.

Would you mind explaining or giving the name of the function in blender? That sounds perfect! I tend to design mine in alt mode and manually rotating a joint at a time along with printing physical versions to test and it get tedious. If I could see it in both modes by changing one and and replicating, that would be awesome!

 

Are you using Blander too? I'm been thinking making some tutorials and tricks but never got around to it (not sure how many use Blender for designing Transformers).
Anyway, the function is called "duplicate linked". Instead of copying (duplicating) with shift+D you use alt+D. This create a new object with the same mesh (see link) so you can rotate and scale them individually but any changes to the mesh (the stuff you do in edit mode) cary over. Be careful with scaling thou as you want to keep your parts the same size to each other (I try to apply scale early and not scale in object mode after).
The main drawback is that you can't apply modifiers to objects with a linked mesh. The workaround is (for few links) to "make single user" (click on the number next to the mech name, recommended to name the new mesh something descriptiv like "shoulder" instead of "cube.012") then apply the modifier and finally go to the other objects and change their mesh to the new one (this work for applying scale to).
Another workaround is to "convert to mesh" but this will apply all modifier so you need to turn of the ones you don't want to apply (I rarely does this unless I have a lot of copies of this mesh)

Another trick I do a lot is to make another duplica and orient it in optimal printing orientation, name the object properly and use this with "batch export". Really useful when you start to have lots of parts as they always get the same name so I only need to click reload in the slicer and keep all the settings.

 

Very helpful advice! Thank you!

Yeah I use blender. Few reasons really.

- Open source (fusion is non commercial licence so technically shouldn't put stuff on cults)
-picked up a bundle of blender.ebooks for cheap on fanatical
- already started learning blender and got ok with it by the time I'd heard about fusion. Didn't like tinkercad for complexity options.

So just stuck with it. Not great by any means but much more.improved. the thing I feel I'm really missing is an easy way to see bot mode and alt mode or transform it. Was gonna try and animate but that's more work than I'd like to do for it really. Your advice should solve the problem nicely!

 

Sorry for the radio silence, school came first. However, I've made some progress!
As far as software, I just couldn't crack Fusion, and decided I'd go to doing stuff in Blender. Then I figured I'd start with Swoop being the smallest and having a relatively simplistic canvas to work from (I figure trying to do something like the Roche IDW1 design with the robot legs coming from the pterosaur's torso, and the arms from the legs) but I'm completely stuck as to where to go from here.

 

Good job so far if you just started with blender.
Here is what I would do.
-Set the origin (orange dot) to 3d cursor (while it's in the center as in your picture)
-Delete half the model and use mirror modifier (maybe you already have but the head didn't look entirely symmetrical)
-Make sure the scale is 1 (apply scale) and start cutting up the model into parts (wings, dino head, legs/dino-torso)
-Make linked duplicates (alt+d, see my answer above) of the parts and build the robot mode from those parts. Any new parts like robo head need to go into the dino model.
The mirror always go by the origin so when you move duplicates (like dino leg as robo arm) you need to set the mirror object to robo head or some other part centered in the robot. Naming the mesh also help when using linked duplicates.

I sugest you start with the robo arm / dino leg and try to design an elbow (you can design a click joint or use a pin/nail). Because the arm is separate it won't effect the rest of the figure and you can add more detail without being afraid it will need to be remade later because something changed. (you could essentially finish the arm/leg before starting the rest, thats why I like independent parts. The dino wing is another such part)
Also, because the arm/leg is one of the smallest parts you will see how large you will need to scale the whole thing based on how smal you can print this.
Good luck