Best Free or Low Cost Marine Design Software? (2008-2010)

[Fanie]

PI,

It is unfortunately a bit of a pain. You can zoom in to get it more accurate, but you can also type the distances in the measurement window to get it spot on. I use delftship, don't know if it is any different.

You can drag the profile ie the transom to the approx you expect, then trim it out exactly.

To get the shape right, you have to work on all three profiles.

Hopes this helps a bit.

[PI Design]

Originally Posted by Fanie

PI,

It is unfortunately a bit of a pain. You can zoom in to get it more accurate, but you can also type the distances in the measurement window to get it spot on.

Thanks Fanie,
Unfortunately it is only the control point you can type the location of, not a point on the hull surface.

[marshmat]

Hey PI,

I know what you mean about Freeship / Freeship+. I think to a large degree it is inherently part of the nature of a subdivision-surface modeller. Simply put, there is no exact hull surface in Freeship, at least not in the same sense as a NURBS surface where any point can be evaluated to arbitrary precision. The actual surface you see in Freeship, and that is used for calculations, is the result of a series of successive approximations. It averages to the actual surface, but it is not the actual surface.

Now, for all practical purposes, I find that careful use of intersection lines and markers in Freeship allows one to (with some patience) match the surface to the markers to well under construction tolerances.

I find lines fairing in Freeship to be a bit more of a hassle, though. Fairing by control curves is relatively easy. But the finite precision of the subdivision surface frequently makes curvature plots of diagonals, buttocks or waterlines oscillate like crazy, even when the curve is actually fair. It's much more of a problem on very gently curving shapes, like diagonals, than on high-curvature shapes like stations. But a nuisance nonetheless, as fairing by control curves alone always makes it feel like something was missed.

[thudpucker]

Help me, I'm baffled by the boat design software. I'm just a hobbyist, a tinker, and without a tutorial or a friend to help me understand these Cad Programs I'm lost in a desert.

Which of the Freeware Boat design software's come's with a Tutorial?
Or some other kind of help?

[sabahcat]

Originally Posted by thudpucker

Help me, I'm baffled by the boat design software. I'm just a hobbyist, a tinker, and without a tutorial or a friend to help me understand these Cad Programs I'm lost in a desert.

Which of the Freeware Boat design software's come's with a Tutorial?
Or some other kind of help?

Yep, I only want something simple as well and really, I have the hulls and am just after something for doing an interior layout with measurements.

Getting sick of using paper and scale rulers doing the same or similar pic over and over again

MS paint with measurements would almost do me, almost

[thudpucker]

sabahcat There's some good news on the horizon.
I have recieved a download of a Tutorial that will work with Freeship.

I'll send the sender a note to contact you. I'm not sure he wants me to blast his information all over the board.

It aint easy! But with some concentration, I'm learning the things that his program can do with Hull form (that's all so far) I think I'm just gonna need some patience to get to the rest of the Details.

[venomousbird]

For ease of use and dependability, especially for beginners, I would recommend google sketchup. I've put some high demands on my CPU with this program and had no problems with freezing. You can add accurate dimensions, and some higher-end programs are able to import the files you produce. It's not designed specifically for boats, but with the unconventional sorts of ideas I have, I actually find this to be useful. If I wanted a typical boat, I would just buy one.

[thudpucker]

I have Google sketchup. I cant figure out how to use it.
I wrote Google. They said there is no Tutorial, but there is a forum. The forum is for the Pro version. I didnt get any help there.

[sabahcat]

I've been trying to get my head around this freeby

Autodesk inventor LT

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/inventor_lt/

A long way from a result yet, cant even figure how to get it to play metric instead of that bloody outdated imperial system

[sabahcat]

Yep, just had a look at some of the tutorial videos in sketchup and it "appears" pretty easy

[mics_54]

Originally Posted by thudpucker

I have Google sketchup. I cant figure out how to use it.
I wrote Google. They said there is no Tutorial, but there is a forum. The forum is for the Pro version. I didnt get any help there.

DaveR posts tutorials for sketchup at http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/DaveR/blog/series/1186
and

http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/b...gn-click-build
has an archive of sketchup tutorials and tips pertaining to building furniture etc

[thudpucker]

Wow! Thanks a bunch. I'll try to copy that to my Thumb drive. Maybe there's hope for the dope yet!
I get stumped and my mind just goes off to some other place. I dont realize how bad it is till I suddenly snap awake and suddenly ralize I've been asleep.

I've been looking locally for someone who could teach that course real time.

[robherc]

Originally Posted by marshmat

Now, for all practical purposes, I find that careful use of intersection lines and markers in Freeship allows one to (with some patience) match the surface to the markers to well under construction tolerances.

I find lines fairing in Freeship to be a bit more of a hassle, though. Fairing by control curves is relatively easy.

Hey, I'm fairly new to FreeShip, and have been getting fairly irate as (for my multihulls, at least) I'm having aheck of a time getting the hull on the screen to match the one in my head...lol I know where the points I want the hull to TOUCH are, but I REALLY don't want to have to do the math (triangulation) to put the midpoint of a line there, so that the hull will match tangentally there.
So far, I learned how to "crease" lines and "mirror" planes to get a sealed hull that the programmed formulas can spit out info on. My biggest issue is that I always end up with the right co-ordinates for the centerline, but not ANYWHERE else...the entire rest of the hull becomes much finer than I wanted.

Can you @ least point me in the right direction here please?

[JotM]

Originally Posted by sabahcat

I've been trying to get my head around this freeby

Autodesk inventor LT

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/inventor_lt/

Man, this is frustrating!!!!

Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview 2009 is available as English language software and is available for download only in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the United States.

BTW as discussed here, Carene can be taken of the list. It is no longer available. (I have put out an independent request to Jeremy Lainé, the son of, but that has remained unanswered until now)

[mics_54]

freeship uses control curves too.

"Can you @ least point me in the right direction here please?"

Did you go through the tutorial available from delftship/freeship?