How to turn linesplan into fullsize plans

[merry maid]

Hi there,

Thanks for this site.
A lot of you are brilliant people, and I am a dumb little newbie to the boat building world. Therefore, my first boat build will be based on plans of an existing boat, the Merry Maid.

The plans of the boat are freely downloadable here.

I have tried to draw out the plan on paper, according to the table of offsets, but I do find this hard - therefore I wanted to do this part of the building process with some software. However, I am new to it. So maybe you can explain to me what software I need to use to turn the plan of the merry maid into lifesize plans? And, what steps do i need to take? How do I print it? Do I need to use Rhinoceros, Autocad, Freeship?

Basically the endgoal for this first step would be to, on basis of the plan, generate 2d images of the individual pieces of wood I would need to cut.

Thanks a lot!

Regards,
MerryMaid from the Netherlands!

[jehardiman]

If you are just going build one for yourself, just loft it. It will be faster, cheaper, and more accurate. Buy/borrow Glen Witt's "Boatbuilding with Plywood". You can buy it through the Wooden Boat store. It will cover exactly how to build a boat of that type and vintage.

Edit to add, I looked again at the hull and noticed that, like most light hulls of the era, it was tortured plywood. This is a case where the skin will need to be cut slightly over and trimmed at fit-up. The book explains it all.

[merry maid]

Thanks, Jehardiman for your kind advise.

However, on the lofting by hand: I have tried this, but I get stuck. For instance, I don't understand how to get the lines of the body plan or the transom drawn out lifesize. Also, I have no idea how I could then get the drawn lines into a piece of wood. I reckon this is fully explained in Glen's book?

Furthermore, There is a tutorial on the freeship programme, which explains how to use existing plans to recreate them digitally, using them as background within the programme. See for yourself, here: click. . It is hard to do, though and still I would not know how to maker wood pieces out of lines on paper.

so, maybe one of you knows a step by step tutorial or is willing to help me out otherwise? Does anyone know anyone who could make these plans lifesize for me, digitally?

Thanks

[jehardiman]

I have seen that demo and still shake my head...the user could have developed the lines faster and more exact by entering the offsets by hand because there is no assurance the either the jpeg or plan itself was of the correct aspect ratio and unskewed. I know some electronic plans are deliberatly skewed to prevent that type of "cut and paste" splashing.

Anyway, if you look at the L&O's in figure 4, this is about as simple as it gets as the frames fall on the station lines and the transom is already developed. Once you have a set up loft foor and struck the grid, this shouldn't take you more than a day to loft. FWIW, the cost to print out full templates may exceede the cost of the materials (i.e. the 1/4" marine ply for the skin is about $600, while 10 H-size plots on mylar will run you almost as much). And if you need to go back and pick up dimensions for the jointer work, you won't have to pay for any more plots.

It would almost be cost effective to fly someone out from the states to loft it for you for a couple of liters of beer

[merry maid]

thanks, Jehardiman. A couple of things pop up:

First, what is Mylar? Is that the stuff what CAD printers print on? Couldn't I just print my plans on plain paper?

Second,... As you notice I am a total beginner. Are you sure the book you suggested will take me by the hand enough to produce the plans? I am scared to mess up and generate too much faults in the lifesize plan...

EDIT: I deleted the project in the attach, it was outdated.

I made a clone of the merry maid's linesplan in Freeship. The hydrostatistics generated through freeship pretty much were the same as the information filed under 'characterstics' in the plans of the merry maid.

My Question is: Now that I have the linesplan, and have developable plates made in Freeship,.... how do print them fullsize?????? What steps do i need to take in what program... DO i really need someone that can CAD print? Can't I just print multiple parts of the plan on a3 paper and then tape them together?

[merry maid]

BTW:
I found that in Freeship, under 'Layer' -> 'Dialog', checking the 'developable' checkbox will unlock the 'develop plates' command, filed under 'Tools'.
I have done this, and now fastly glued my prototype together. I took a picture of the boat, see for yourself in the attach.

Cheers

[jehardiman]

Originally Posted by merry maid

thanks, Jehardiman. A couple of things pop up:

First, what is Mylar? Is that the stuff what CAD printers print on? Couldn't I just print my plans on plain paper?

Mylar is a heavyweight drafting flim that is much more dimensionaly stable than paper, as well as being tear and water resistant. It is perfered for use as template material. When plotting, paper may be stretched in the pressure roller axis due to roll tension as well as the expected plotter sepecific bias in the x:y ratio, so always measure the plots afterward if you are going to make full size patterns from them, they are not as correct as one would think.

[merry maid]

Thanks, Jehardiman. Now I know what Mylar is. I have answered my own question, ... the one pertaining to the question of how to print .dxf plans into lifesize plans. I have made a tutorial so you will know, too.

Here is the link.

TUTORIAL: How to print .dxf linesplan with multiple A4 sheets!

[magwas]

Originally Posted by merry maid

Thanks, Jehardiman. Now I know what Mylar is. I have answered my own question, ... the one pertaining to the question of how to print .dxf plans into lifesize plans.

I took the easy path with my design: the local print shop pcan print in 80cm x 6m, so I arranged the plates with qcad to this size, and converted it to dwg (the shop can print dwg but not dxf).

Of course It can be done only if all plates are narrower than the largest printer in the shop

[merry maid]

Just went to the local print ship. One A0 costs Six Euro's (Im from the Netherlands), or around 5 dollar (black and white prints). It's printable area is 90cm wide, and it can print to 75m (lol). I might try to rearrange my dxf so that it is drawn in pieces on different layouts, all resembling one piece of the boat so that they can print it out. Might save me some desk time. But for now, I'm glad with my multiple sheets of A4 (see tutorial link, above). So you would say to try out and rearrange everything with Qcad, huh?... Maybe I'll try later on. However, I am sure that using the tutorial as my basis, I will be able to do the same with AutoCAD.

Cu,
Merry.

[magwas]

I just said qcad because I am using that. I am sure you can do that in autocad as well.

[daiquiri]

Originally Posted by merry maid

I found that in Freeship, under 'Layer' -> 'Dialog', checking the 'developable' checkbox will unlock the 'develop plates' command, filed under 'Tools'.
I have done this, and now fastly glued my prototype together. I took a picture of the boat, see for yourself in the attach.

Something must have gone wrong there:

[merry maid]

Haha, yes it did go wrong there. I printed it out all so small, so i made a lot of mistakes in taping it together,... imagine how much mistakes I'll make when making my first boat! Yikes . Anyway, I've made a better paper model, it fitted way better. Good spotting, though. .

[magwas]

This is why making a model is a good idea. If you can do it punctually enough, the real one is easier.