Best Tutorial For Modeling a Propeller in CAD

Most of the videos I’ve seen on YouTube that show how to model a propeller in CAD focus on building something that “looks” like a propeller. The videos ignore that the propeller’s aerodynamic profile effects its performance and thus it is worth atleast trying to pick a profile that our understanding of physics would support.

This is particularly bad with videos where people model and then print toroidal propellers after basically making up dimensions and then are surprised the performance isn’t that great. Toroidal propellers got some buzz on the internet after a researcher at MIT pulished a paper showing a toroidal propeller design that was quieter and safer than traditional designs with comparable thrust. Most of the propellers I’ve seen people try on YouTube have dimensions that aren’t supported by theory (other than they look like the ones from MIT) and most of them don’t even do that.

The best video I’ve seen on YouTube that shows how to model a propeller in CAD is linked below. The presenter is not very exciting, but he does a good job explaining what profile he is using and how he is “twisting” the profile to get the right angle of attack at different points along the propeller.

The comments on the video by @gumbykevbo are also very informative.