Delftship: importing text files and or table of offsets

[kb1one]

Originally Posted by Rick Willoughby

You really do not need to pull the offsets out of you head to start with. Just use the starter hull in Delftship. Select the length, beam, draft, number of vertical and horizontal points and you are under way. You then pull and pro in Delftship. The fewer points you have the faster it is to pull around. You can always add more points by splitting lines and surfaces as you go.

Give yourself about 100 hours at and then see what you think. If something isn't obvious then post a question here.

You did not say if you could import the files I posted.

Rick W

I have been using the starter DELFT hull. I have not tried to run your offsets yet, but will soon. The wife is ringing the dinner bell. The offsets in my head are the only starting point I have for this new hull. It is stuck in my head.

[Guest625101138]

Originally Posted by kb1one

..... I may be transistorized now, but I still do not use satellites or relays, it's just me and the same windswept peice of wire. Thank you for helping me upgrade my ways.

How do you think we are communication across the globe in a flash of a second? Not much happens without satellites these days even if it is just the service guy looking for the broken cable. He might even use a mobile phone across a satellite link.

Rick W

[kb1one]

Originally Posted by Rick Willoughby

You really do not need to pull the offsets out of you head to start with. Just use the starter hull in Delftship. Select the length, beam, draft, number of vertical and horizontal points and you are under way. You then pull and pro in Delftship. The fewer points you have the faster it is to pull around. You can always add more points by splitting lines and surfaces as you go.

Give yourself about 100 hours at and then see what you think. If something isn't obvious then post a question here.

You did not say if you could import the files I posted.

Rick W

I have sucessfully imported your 15m offsets. I am obviously looking at a hull designed as part of a large and fast multi-hull project. Looks shiny! I am absolutely confident now that I will be able to format my own offsets, I just have to figure out what they are, then enter them. I will toy with your other offsets this weekend.

Splitting lines and surfaces has not been a problem for me. I understood the idea of importing offsets, just wasn't quite brave enough to try it. Thus far, working with the default hull has seemed more natural to me. Having a backround including autobody work, it was like electronically stretching and reshaping metal panels and frames.

I took a look at your gallery; it's all nice and shiny, too! Quality shows. Thanx, again.

[kb1one]

Originally Posted by Rick Willoughby

How do you think we are communication across the globe in a flash of a second? Not much happens without satellites these days even if it is just the service guy looking for the broken cable. He might even use a mobile phone across a satellite link.

Rick W

Mobile phones were made possible by HAM operators, paticularly those who stay on the higher freqs. I stay below 30MHz, where I can use the natural skip. It's more like trout fishing, and personal challenge. Getting the signal to the other side of the marble is a little more satisfying when you do it singlehanded. I may be a bit of an anachronism in that, but I will still be doing it when the tin cans fall out of the sky.

[ancient kayaker]

Rick: many thanks. I tried importing files before and it never worked but those files both imported successfully into FreeShip, which is the one I prefer as it will provide plank developments.

Once I understand the file format I should be able to generate my own. I obtained the lines of J. Henry Rushton’s 1893 canoe “Wee Lassie” from the Adirondack Museum which I have converted using a spreadsheet from the original feet-inches-sixteenths format, so now I can write a macro to generate a suitable text file for importing it to FreeShip. This will be a great help!

Kb1one: I’d be happy to work with you, I use FreeShip rather than DelftShip as noted above although they are very similar. Things may change now I can import offsets but previously I worked by using the New Project tool. I have mentioned this several times in other threads but it bears repeating: it is important not to use more control points than are necessary, it just makes things more difficult. As a guide, imagine bending a flexible batten around the curves you wish to create; the number of places you have to press on the batten to get it to curve is the minimum and therefore correct number of controls points, remembering that there is one at each end. For example, a typical pointy ended kayak can be done with only 3 points in the longitudinal direction. If the first hull you get looks way too narrow or deep, just use the scaling tool to get the beam and depth right before trying to move points around. I learned last week you can select multiple points and move them together with the up/down arrows in the selection box.


I hope your shoulder heals quickly; shoulder injuries can be painful.

[Guest625101138]

Terry
I wanted to make the point that both those text files I provided were generated elsewhere. The hull file will be quickly reduced to the number of points necessary to control what I wanted to control but the basic shape was produced in Godzilla.

The blade stays as is because it is machined to high resolution and that is the number of points to get the required profile. I fair it in Excel if necessary rather than fiddling with all those points in Delftship.

Rick W

[kb1one]

Terry-- I was under the impression that DELFT was FREESHIP, under a different name. I could easily be mistaken. The "Wee Lassie" is a real work of art. If those a copy of those offsets found their way here, I probably could not resist acting apon them. Thanks for the good wishes about the shoulder, unfortunately I am not so optomistic about it. It is a reinflamation of a past truck driving injury. It took a year to heal up last time. I am OK with most tasks though. I can still swing a splitting maul, and handle a chain saw all right. What bothers me is driving and writing/typing. Suck it up and get it done anyway. I'm going to let the VA look at it some time next week. I am not going to let it keep me from deploying next winter. The other soldiers need their Chaplain's Assistant. Besides, I am going to take my turn so someone else doesn't need to repeat.

Rick-- I think I've got a pretty good handle on it now, and that is your doings. I will try to post my own set of xyz soon. I'll run them through here first, but if someone else can run them that means I pass, right? I took a look at your site in the wee hours last night (the shoulder woke me up again).
It appears that you have a lot of fun, and are serious about what you are doing. It was really nice to see.

All and Any -- this is off thread, but we occasionally need special hardware. Check out backyardmetalcasting.com Among the features, look for Lionel's Lab and his waste oil burners. You can melt brass, you can melt steel, and you can do it very reasonably. I plan to scrounge together a burner for myself here this Spring. It is just something that is worth taking a look at.

Fair winds and godspeede.

[kb1one]

Terry -- Thank you for the wishes of my shoulder. Unfortunately, I am not too optomistic at the present. It is the reinflamation of an old driving injury, and took over a year to settle out the first time. I am OK with most tasks though, which is good. I can still swing a splittling maul, or handle a chainsaw without any problems at all. Driving or writing is like getting a root canal. Lot of time on the heating pad, and overdosing on ibuprofen: I carry on. I am going to let the VA look at it some time next week.

The "Wee Lassie" is a true work of art. If your offsets found there way here, I do not think I could stop myself. I have some info on them here, but nothing you most likely do not already have.

Rick -- I think I am pretty square away on importing now. I am going to try to write my own xyz.txt soon and run it through. If that works here, and I am certain it will, I may post it. If someone else can make it work on their end, I would consider that a passing grade. I visited your website last night, in the wee hours (the shoulder woke me again) and was awed and amused. It is apparent that you are serious about what you are doing, but also that you have fun with it. It was very nice to see.

Any and All -- this is off thread, but... We all have need for special hardware from time to time. I suggest a moment or two poking around on
backyardmetalcasting.com
Pay special attention to Lionel's Lab. He has developed waste oil fired furnaces that can be put together on the cheap. You do an oil change on your wife's car (get those "good guy dog points"), and go melt youself some brass. There is at least one there that will melt steel. If melting metal is not on the day's agenda, I suppose it could be convinced to generate a lot of steam...

Good Luck, Fair Winds, Godspeed
-- John

[chandler]

Hi Rick,
What would be the best format for posting my table of offsets?
Ms word txt.? or an excel spreadsheet? Work better as ft. inches and decimals?
or feet and decimals. Sorry but it would take me a week to put it in metric.
Chandler

[kb1one]

As I have gathered from other last night, excel (or any suitable spreadsheet) is easiest for compiling your offsets. It need to be imported into DELFT as a txt file, however. I ran some of Rick's that showed up here as windows notepad and they worked just fine.

I think it would be easiest for you to convert to decimalled feet. You can use quite a few decimal places to take care of the inches and eighths combined. Right now I am looking for an old sheet I made years ago that lists an entire foot broken down into sixteeths of an inch. Sometimes it is easier than doing each one with a calculator. DELFT recognizes either feet or meters, but not inches. I use inches on AutoCAD.

YES!!! I found it!!! Let me see if I can get these attached properly. Hope it helps.

Nope. I wrote them a long time ago in Works. I'll try to update and send later.

[ancient kayaker]

Rick: thanks again; the significance to me is the ability to import offsets prepared elsewhere into FreeShip so I can get plank developments and hydrostatics, rather than have a hull I can manipulate in FreeShip, so the excessive control points is no problem. Being able to do that from a simple txt file is great.

Kb1one: FreeShip existed before DelftShip but they are very similar in use, master one and the other is child’s play. I think DelftShip will load FreeShip files but not the other way around. If my efforts at the Wee Lassie come off I will publish the design and instructions on the Net, or the forum if it’s allowed.

Chandler: a spreadsheet is the best way to go. Most have conversion functions built-in. I usually convert in a series of steps, with each step on a separate page, which makes it very easy to check for errors. If you don’t have the necessary conversion function built-in it is easy to create a custom one or use a macro.

[chandler]

kb1one,
My offsets are already in thousandths of feet, ft.and inches and fractions,etc. as I did them myself.
A couple of years ago I asked this forum or the woodenboat forum or both, how to read 1/8ths of an inch from a 3/4" /ft. scale. Everybody had an answer but none of them worked, I figured it out myself.
I take a tick strip and mark the points then use a verniers micrometer to get the 3/4"/ft. scale measurements to thousandths of a foot, so as you can imagine my offsets start as thousandths of a foot and are converted gradually to feet inches and sixteenths.
Anybody that tells you house carpenters don't use 1/16ths has never built a house.
Chandler

[kb1one]

A house carpenter that takes the time to use 1/16th is a house carpenter who cares enough to do it right.

[chandler]

A house carpenter that doesn't use 1/16ths is one who needs to have their work covered by aluminum trim and vinyl siding.

[Guest625101138]

Originally Posted by chandler

Hi Rick,
What would be the best format for posting my table of offsets?
Ms word txt.? or an excel spreadsheet? Work better as ft. inches and decimals?
or feet and decimals. Sorry but it would take me a week to put it in metric.
Chandler

Chandler
The best for me is metric. Just meters to three or four decimal points.

If you provide them in Excel I can play with them a bit easier but it does not really matter.

Were you able to load the offset files I posted earlier to view the hull and blade?

Rick W