Creating hull in AutoCad 2004?

[Runius]

I dont know all the software yet but I've seen some of them.

I got AutoCad 2004 on my computer. Is there any software that I can use with AutoCad to construct hulls?

If not, what programs do I need?

[CGN]

Plain and simple you can use AutoCAD to do everything, with the help a of a spreadsheet program and many extra information....want something to help you "speeding" the process?, then I can recommend Naval Designer Pro, it has a good price now for what is capable.

if 3D you want to do, then rhino3D or Touchcad will be a good choice, IMO, use a hull modeler software like Naval designer for hull design plus rhino or touchcad but depends how much you want to invest in the adventure and again use of spreadsheets for all your calculations.

AutoCAD has add-ons for structure modeling is called shipconstructor and runs inside AutoCAD (there is a version with certain number of parts only) but it cost almost the same a rhino or touchcad and still you will need a way to create your hull surface. really good but I do not recommend it for weekend projects.

I believe shipconstructor now is going to include the hull design module to run inside AutoCAD but again is quite expensive.

There is a lot of alternatives I think rhino and touchcad are good all around software's for marine use.

good luck

[mistral]

you can use autocad to create hull, but it's a quite tyring work!!!
all you need is sections and waterlines, then you can create a nurb surface and have your 3d hull model

ciao
Mistral

[Tim B]

Alternatively, get rid of Autocad (which is rather expensive) and use Rhino. In rhino you can setup a command file to build the surface for you, or you can script it yourself and make a command to build a surface from an offsets file. Also, you can write a similar script to get all the hull-lines data out. (possibly even hydrostats data if you wanted, but I have an external routine for this). These are all easy to script, I just haven't got round to doing it yet.

Nb. I don't know how good AC2004 is on surface definition, or how easy it is to edit surface control points as it came from a 2D direction. Also, be careful whether you're playing with NURBS surfaces or B-Spline surfaces they are quite different.

Cheers,

Tim B.

[Runius]

Thanks!

[mistral]

Rhino is far better; i use to work with autocad and i can tell you that it ain't an easy software to 3d modeling; it has a 2d approach and even update versions suffer from it; Rhino is absolutely faster to learn and has a direct 3d approach to design, so go for it doubtless!!

Mistral

[ludesign]

I disagree when it comes to TouchCAD as being just for 3D modeling.

I easily prefer TouchCAD for both hull fairing and general 3D free form modeling. It comes with built in marine calculations, dynamic cross sectioning and with full 3D navigation from any 3D view, dynamic smoothness analyzing, it generates lines automatically, all controls are on the objects and not vaguely beside it and you can simultaniosly edit any number of control points in any number of surfaces, objects have very extensive parametric settings (such as mesh resolution, skin type, no less than twelve different display modes, dynamic links to unfolded versions of surfaces with very extensive parametric settings, etc.), it does not have any limitations to how many surfaces you can use (I typically use hundreds of surfaces even on failry simple sketches - the image shows a sketch in progress, about a days work, and containing 235 surfaces).