BoatExpress version 1.0

[Gerard DeRoy]

Hi,
Just to say that there is another boat design software available.
It is free and may be downloaded from www.boatarchitect.com.
I am the sole developper of this product. I wrote the software while I was cruising the caribean and had a lot of time and a computer on board.
I was reading the book Principles of Yacht Desing by Lars Larsson and Rolf Eliasson and needed a tool to support all those calculations. The software is supporting all the steps in this classical approach.
There is no need to export to another software because you go from the hull design to components design, hydrostatics, stability, forces, sail , appendages, mass and CG , vpp and all required offsets to build your boat.
I have design a 50 feet motorsailer with this sole software. Boat under construction ( hull, deck and pilothouse completed).
This is a graphical interface mouse driven Windows application.
Download, unzip and click on the exec file, that is all.
Good set of documentation included.
Its free ! Try it
Best regards,
gerard deroy( a member of this forum).

[Gerard DeRoy]

Hi,
I found some missing links in the BoatExpress Overview on boatarchitect.com.
These have been corrected. Sorry.
Fortunately these links are ok in the documentation if any of you did download the documentation.
Gerard Deroy

[Raggi_Thor]

I looked at the documentation very briefly.
How do you draw accurately, or how do you move the control points for the bezier curves one or ten or 0.5mm?

[Gerard DeRoy]

Hi,
There is to type of precision here:
The control point location.
The actual drawing and offsets precision.
The control points are move with the mouse and the best accuracy is to move from 1 pixel on the screen. With a resolution of 1000 pixel and a 10 m length(10000mm) the accuracy is 10 mm. This is just about the same when drawing to scale on paper.
For the precision of the actual drawing it is different. The initial control point are scale up a hundred time internaly and the bezier curve is generated with thousands of points. Then the offets report is produce by selecting points at convenient internal to be used on the true scale physical contruction of the hull. The precision of the offsets points are given in mm. It is some sort of virtual lofting.
For any Cad software the limitations of the precision is the resolution of the screen. Another way would be to enter the control points manually with any precision you want but than the visual representation on the screen would be a bit false.
In practice : I did produce the 26 temporary supports from the offsets for a 50' boat and buil it strip planking way. I had no surprise.
Hope I understood your question and gaven a satisfactory answer.
Gerard Deroy

[Raggi_Thor]

I think you need to add some kind of "nudging" capabilities (as it's called in Rhino). Select one point and move it in steps with the arrow keys.
It's hard to move just one pixel with the mouse.

[Gerard DeRoy]

I recognize that it is not easy to move just one pixel with the mouse.
I do it with the zoom function and do succeed but nudging is easier.
I put nudging in the list of Nice To Have of BoatExpress.
Thanks
Gerard Deroy

[Raggi_Thor]

I don't want to be a pain in the ass,
but have you compared your program with FreeShip, Prolines, Naval Designer, Hull and others?
Is BoatExpress easier to use or does it have any features not found in other programs?

[yipster]

at my leisure learning freeship but still using 3d max the most after 13? years
only looked at Boatexpress site and must say it looks pretty good also to me
any 3d render in it? think you guy's should join up and i must work harder

[LP]

I can't get the links to come up from the contents page concerning documentation. I downloaded the documentations files, too, but the location that I installed them doesn't allow them to work.

Or.... I'm just inept. That's always a possibility.

[Gerard DeRoy]

All questions are truly welcome because they forces me to compare with other ways and benifit from large experiences of others with design tools.

Yes I have downloaded most of the trial or free version around.
I have not tried to design a boat with any of them. I did look at the interfaces, fonctionalities, play a little with some of them and read most of the opinions on those softwares from this forum. I have never felt that another software was using the same path as me.

My remarks are based on this superficial knowledge of other products.
0) Some have a very large scope. Do everything, which make it difficult to select and learn what is needed for boat design.
1)Some are professional tools, expensive, the best for some functions and then need to switch to other software.(a combination of 2 or 3 from experts on this forum).
2)Many were originaly general 3D CAD System with not much to offer for boat design analysis.(hydrostatics data, stability,hull lines, sail plan and appendage data to calculate all the forces and moments requires for a VPP and easy to used offsets to actually build the boat) . These fonctions are added backward. Nothing wrong with that except that the boat design paradigm is hard to folloiw.
3) I have not seen much about mass calculation and CG. But no extensive search done.This is a long task. Have try to make it easier.
4) Fine for a professional to register and follow expensive courses to learn how to use very sophisticated functions and usage of dozen icons all around the screen.
The classical boat design paradigm seem absent from many of these software.
A menu bar with descriptive item related to boat design language is better except for knowned icons like Printer.
5) 3D design: by grabing a point and moving it seem efficient but gaves you no idea of what is happening to your buttocks, flottaisons or prismatic coefficient. Same as rendering and the inability of human vision to analyse correctly in 3D( for marketing OK).

I will stop here because I d'ont want to start a debate on questions that I truly have not study. It is just my general perception.


What is different with BoatExpres?
I cannot point to a specific function that would be unique VS the sum of all softwares on the other side.
The original goals were:
Respect of the traditional process of boat design.
Support the full process to a level of quality acceptable to build from the output of a single software.
Keep the interface as friendly as possible.
Limit the amount of software development to what is truly essentials.
Here I may be shouting myself. The hull curve are limited to 4 control point. The advantage is that the curve is perfect and no fairing algoritm required(A beginner cannot make a bad line). The disadvantage is apparent limitation.
I did repliquate the delf series of hulls and section without problem and was able to design a hull that look good to me and get the hydrostatic data exactly as I wanted them.

BoatExpress may be unique because it completely follow the boat design process?
I built it from the Table of content of Principles of Yacht Design by Larsson and Eliason. The menu and item are traceable to there great work.
Note: Missing is the scantling. I did progammed all the calculations from Gerr The Elements of Boat Strength for steel, aluminum,wood
strip planking( Lord's design). I have seen the comments on this forum about Mr Gerr work but went ahead and used them to build. I will not offer this functionaly because I believe Dave Gerr has the rights to is work. Also the rig calculation is programmed but need further testing( may not be so usefull).
High Speed Hydrodynamics Chapter 10 seem of interest on this forum.
Tedious calculations (could be of interest)

In conclusion , I think that BoatExpess may have a little niche among the boat design software for amateur(700$ is high when you intent to cut your lumber) or professional designer/builder if they are not looking for the best of the trade on each particular function but something good enough to do the complete design quickly, at no cost and with a quick learning curve.


Also in my opinion the boat design software industry is not there yet.
There are just to many needed components to do the job.
Most mature software in general are at version 7.0 or more.
This is just BoatArchitect version 1.0.

Thanks for your interest.
Gerard Deroy

[westlawn5554X]

Great to Know someone is twiching a new program... Thanks I have download it...

[Robert Miller]

"All questions are truly welcome"

Thanks for saying so

"The classical boat design paradigm seem absent from many of these software."

With respect to other CAD design packages... I agree with this thought, exactly.

"What is different with BoatExpress? ....
Respect of the traditional process of boat design."

I very much agree that this is precisely what is needed - (and is something I just do not see) - in any CAD software I have looked at.

But why, oh why, is development of another Windows CAD package needed? There are already so many available and in widespread use. Why are software developers beholden to Windows, when the logical, productive, and stable MacOS platform is available. (Please don't flame me. I have no wish to start or participate in a Windows vs. Mac war.)

I use Windows all day at work, and come home to a Mac...and I feel a sense of relief. The difference in productivity and ease of task-completion between these two operating systems is simply striking. Additionally, lack of security issues, viruses, vastly increased productivity... all of it.

These things add up to efficiency. Why are we not taking advantage of that?

Your program really does look like it is on track toward the approach I have been looking for... But I'm just not willing to waste my evenings fighting with Windows, as I must during my workday.

Robert

[westlawn5554X]

They have a parallel program for conversion from Windows to Mac... so it will work on Mac.

[buckknekkid]

I struggle everyday with Autocad but I'll look into this. I like new toys

[Robert Miller]

Originally Posted by westlawn5554X

They have a parallel program for conversion from Windows to Mac... so it will work on Mac.

I believe you may be referring to "Parallels" here. That's a pretty neat bit of software that allows you to have both Windows and MacOS reside side by side on your hard disk.

Of interest, on PC forums, (not Mac), paticipants are saying that Windows runs faster and with greater stability on the Mac Harware compared with their PC's. The Windows OS partition of the disk is, however, subject to the usual viruses and security issues, though.... even while the Mac partition retains all of the MacOS capability, stability, and freedom from such viruses and worms.

This does not really answer my post above because Windows CAD packages, or any Windows software, is still only able to run on the Windows OS, - Mac though the hardware may be. Instead, I was asking for the sort of yacht design package described in this thread for the MacOS specifically.

Robert