buying ship design software

Discussion in 'Software' started by Archive, Jun 12, 2001.

  1. guest12020101217
    Joined: May 2003
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    guest12020101217 Junior Member

    Just wanted to put my two bit in.

    I work on RIB's, 5-12m (and greater). As has already been said, maxsurf and autoship suite are the market leader (and for good reason) but l would not like to comment on the cost issues regard this case.

    For lines, hydrostatics and maybe powering, both are of the above great. Personaly, l have allways liked the maxsurf route better, having used both.
    Maxsurf seem just that little bit more user friendy. Maxsurf with hydromax, hydrolink and hullspeed is a very powerfull and productive suite.

    BUT if it is producing drawings that is the real aim, non of the above will work on there own. (You can not use maxsurf or autoship on there own to produce a usable lines plan drawing, with lables, tilte etc. There not designed to. You need a CAD drawing package as well).
    Your need a good, no sorry great 2d CAD as the minimum.
    I.e. Something of AutoCAD standard and if you have the money and time to invest in learn a new program, then a 3d suite is the way to go. I.e. Solidwork/pro engineer/autoCAD (not the light verison)/marine autoCAD add on (ShipConstructor).
    3d software will cost in both buying it and time to learn how to use it, BUT if you use it in the correct way, you can gain great return in productivty etc.

    Anyway, that my two bit on this subject.
    Good luck in your work.

    Colin
     
  2. Unregistered

    Unregistered Guest

    ShipCOnstructor2004

    Hi, I need ShipConstructor2004.
    can anyone tell me were to find a copy??
    Thanks
     
  3. Slipy
    Joined: Dec 2003
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    Location: Poland

    Slipy Junior Member

    www.shipconstructor.com

    You may download demo version - full previous version of this software or buy it.

    Regards
    Slipy
     
  4. Unregistered

    Unregistered Guest

    Is there any alternative that also works with AutoCAD???
     
  5. John Halstead
    Joined: Feb 2004
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    Location: Australia

    John Halstead John@AMO

    I work for a company specialising in the design of high speed monohull vessels. we have 12 hull sizes 8 to 85 metres L.O.A. These design are old and are represented by offset tables and hand drawn. The hulls are hard chined with many sprey rails. sprey reversers, and complex surfaces. I have looked at many design programs to end up mostly confused. It would seem to me that most programs are designed for yachts with out hard chines.

    help me find a suitable program that is easy to learn. I dont want to become a computer programer, it's just a tool.

    John
     
  6. CGN
    Joined: Jan 2003
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    Location: MX

    CGN Senior Member

    Maxsurf, FastShip, Proline Pro, Prosurf. fastship has a version that works only developable surfaces, I never used it but I know they offer such thing.

    some do developing of plates and some needs plug-ins to do such task.

    most of the software will require some time to learn is not a dark science
    and by far you don't have to be a master in computers to deal with this software, practice takes care of all.
     
  7. John Halstead
    Joined: Feb 2004
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    Location: Australia

    John Halstead John@AMO

    Cgn

    CGN,
    Thanks for the reply.
    I am looking for a program that i can easly input my offset tables and produce a quality 3D image. The programs i have looked at so far are not designed to perform this process easly.

    John.
     
  8. CGN
    Joined: Jan 2003
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    Location: MX

    CGN Senior Member

    you are not going to find one like that, you are going to need to spend some time trying all the software that you know and the ones that we can recomend, they all need input, and usually you may still need to tweak your hull, so make list and go one by one and give them an score, but besides that, no, you are not going to find such software, like i mentioned before some are really hard, some are little bit easier to learn but still they need the input and the skill to use them which is just practice.
     
  9. cgorton
    Joined: Aug 2003
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    Location: Massachusetts

    cgorton Junior Member

    Download the demo version of Rhino. You can try it out and even make 25 saves. They have a newsgroup that is very helpful, and there are simple ways to insert your offsets as points. Creating the surfaces does not happen automatically, and it takes some practice to use the right tools to get the results you want, but the program is very intuitive as far as 3D surface modelling goes (and cheap). It's not hull specific software, but plug-ins are available that do hydrostatics.
    I'd be happy to coach you thru it if you'd like.

    Craig
     
  10. John Halstead
    Joined: Feb 2004
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    Location: Australia

    John Halstead John@AMO

    cgorton

    Craig,
    Thank's for your reply. I have downloaded Rhino and have progressed well. I am happy to use this program and would welcome your coaching re instilation of my offsets.

    The only other program i have managed to progress within my defined time test was Prolines.

    Aerohydro looks good and i shall test this week.

    I shall also look at PolyCAD.

    All other programs failed my time test.

    John.
     
  11. cgorton
    Joined: Aug 2003
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    Location: Massachusetts

    cgorton Junior Member

    I have also used Prolines. One thing to consider is that you already have a hull shape- you are just trying to recreate it in 3D form. For this, I really think Rhino is excellent. But you will need to learn some tricks.

    Bear in mind that your surfaces will be much more useful if you define your tolerance now and work with it in mind. A table of offsets probably has more data than NURBS surfaces need. So- after you get them in the file, you will be trying to get the surfaces close to the points (within the tolerance), but not exactly through them all. You may in fact find that many of the points are unnecessary.

    Once you get going, let me know. Maybe email is a better way to communicate. If you have a jpeg you can send me that would help.

    Cheers,
    Craig
     
  12. Davor
    Joined: Jul 2004
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    Location: Dubrovnik, Croatia

    Davor Naval Arch.

    Resistance and Propellers

    For resistance and propellers
    visit my web-site www.sea-power.net

    rgds

    davor
     
  13. Frans X L
    Joined: Jun 2004
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    Location: Cape Town, South Africa

    Frans X L Junior Member

    Have you tried Hullform9. I have produced several hardchined hulls. To produce drawings of existing moulds. Hullform does not work with surfaces. The result is maybe not 100% but you can get very fast to what you want.
    regards, Frans X Liebenberg, Cape Town.
     
  14. davor sablic

    davor sablic Guest

    project manager

    I am working in the Shipyard "3. maj" situated in city Rijeka, Croatia, Europe.
    Best regards
     

  15. Raggi_Thor
    Joined: Jan 2004
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    Location: Trondheim, NORWAY

    Raggi_Thor Nav.arch/Designer/Builder

    I have used ShipConstructor and I like it because I am very familiar with AutoCAD.
    Now I think a combination of Naval Designer (www.navaldesigner.com), Rhino and AutoCAD or IntelliCAD is very cost efficient for small companies. Do the prelimenery design and calculations in Naval Designer, import to Rhino via IGES, add more details and calculate weights, import 2D sections to AutoCAD/IntelliCAD for presentation or 3D (SAT) Solid models for sectioning and weight calculations. IntelliCAD is a bargain and can be automated using VBA. You can for example send name, weight and position of all blocks to a table in Excel or Access (or other database) quite easily.
     
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