drafting software

[jeff spinney]

hi, i'm looking to buy software for drafting simple boat designs ex,profiles of sides ,mast designs,layouts of pilot house,cabins,decks,etc. anyone know of a program that would be easy to learn,and good for someone who only had about an hour or two a day to tinker,thanks.

[captaintrue]

Alas I must say one of the best programs for doing basic designs is Sketchup which now has a program called Layout to go with it. Sketchup is creat for easy 3D conceptual drawing.

I've had experience utilizing AutoCAD, Rhino (which is quite good), Alibre Design, Pro/Engineer Wildfire, ACD Canvas and more.

For 2D: I've come to love ACD Canvas. For 3D: Sketchup, Rhino. TurboCaD/Inventor are also quite good programs. But for marine specific you're maybe talking Maxsurf, Rhino + plugins, Autoship, Delftship/Freeship.

But seriously you might do well to give Sketchup a spin. Its not marine specific but its hearty and intuitive. For complex very 3D shapes you might have to really get deep into the program.

[masalai]

Jeff, many on the "free software" arena seem to swear by Freeship, and when trying to upload I kept on being diverted to Delftship (free) so now I have both.

I doubt they would suit professional work but seem to work at a hobbyist level to give the basic ideas a chance of being presented or exported to something grander for professional work. Google either for sites to download.

[Saylaman]

Jeff
I bought TurboCad a few years back because it was much cheaper than anything else. I was studying yacht design and had very little money. I have been using it ever since and am very happy with it. It took me very little time to learn. Since then I've tried to learn AutoCad a few times, but given up and reverted to my old faithful TurboCad. It does much more than I could ever use. I use Prosurf to create and fair the hull, export the lines and do the rest in Turbo. I don't know whether TurboCad is still cheap?
All the best, Kevin

[jeff spinney]

i'm going to consider all of those,i didn't have any idea where to look or begin but i can't wait to look a little deeper. thanks again.

[captaintrue]

No doubt TurboCAD is a great program. In all honesty, even though I have some of the higher end software I find some of the paradigms or interfaces a bit weirdish. I found the TurboCAD interface to be a lot more palatable then the typical hypersupermegacadprogramwith9billionoptions interface.

Sketchup for example has quite an intuitive, non-traditional interface. Its probably best suited for designing superstructure or mechanical elements than for hulls. But its great for developing roughs.

Rhino, TurboCAD, ACD Canvas are all worth trying IMHO. ACD Canvas is a nice 2D package. Your tastest might differ from mine.

[Tumblehome32]

I'd go with AutoCAD or the free evaluation download of Rhino (it gives you 25 saves, I think, so don't save while you learn the software).