GrabCAD engineer Stelu Harson’s model NRJ is one of the most downloaded models on all of GrabCAD (over 8,300). I took a moment to chat with Stelu about his model.
GC: What's the story behind why you modeled the NRJ?
Stelu: I started drawing cars when I was just a small boy, obviously with pencil and paper. I wasn't a big artist :-) but I always tried to improve. I started to do 2D drawings, mostly of the side and front of cars. Then I tried to make them on paper in perspective and this was a big improvement back then. During university I had the first contact with 3D CAD programs. This was a great opportunity to carry on with my passion for automotive design by make them digital.
NRJ is not my first automotive design done in Catia V5 and not the last one either. I am an automotive product engineer (plastic components), but the NRJ project is not related to my work. I did it for fun and as a challenge for myself. It was quite a long project!
GC: How'd you build the model? Did you collaborate with other engineers on it?
Stelu: I started with some sketches on paper. I wanted to make a very aerodynamic design, hence why I used the airstream design and dimensions from the Audi prototype in the movie I Robot. NRJ was entirely modeled by me.
GC: When you uploaded it to GrabCAD, what did you expect would happen?
Stelu: I wanted to share NRJ with GrabCAD community, because a lot of people have this passion for automotive design, doing renderings, and CAD work. NRJ, in my opinion, does not have an extraordinary design, but it's looks fairly good. It was nice to see some other renderings added by fellow engineers in the community. I’d like to thank all those people who uploaded renderings or revisions. I also have seen it in some presentations over the internet. Therefore I am very pleased and happy by sharing my work.
GC: Have you been pleased with the community's response to your model?
Stelu: 8000 downloads!! And counting!! Yes, of course I am. But the "score" as I call it, is not real. The most important thing is that I shared something useful and yes, I saw some happy faces and positive feed back messages :)
GC: Are you interested in collaborating on a project with the entire GrabCAD community? An 'open' project?
Stelu: I think the Challenges section GrabCAD launched almost one year ago has been a real success. The GrabCAD community responded very well and I think any other new project will have the same warm welcoming, same from my side.
GC: What's your next big project?
Stelu: At the moment I am more focused on my work so I do not have so much time for my passion, but in the future I would want to make some changes on my latest design Kydon (render below)
Cheers,
Gabe
