I will make a boat in my garage, anyone tried?

[Pinion]

hi, I am a newbie here, I always like boats and am thinking to make one in my parent's empty garage (like many make kit cars in their garage), my boat will be a nice little frp single haul body walk around with cabin and top deck, comfortable accomodate 2-3 peoples overnight, easy access for dive and fishing activities etc.... I am looking for a software to put my dream boat in CAD drawing... I found a lot of compliment in this forum on Solidworks software...and I think it might be the best to get one now instead spend more time looking around, just wondering where you guys purchase this powerful Cad/rendening software in Australia? Or it's easier to buy from US as I assume it's US based software company .... I learnt CAD in college...if I can afford I want to get software that offers frequent updates then I can always have new functions to play with... and train myself .... anyhoo... I plan to have the boat finish in 2008... so if I get the software now I will be able to work on my drawing ASAP... and if I can I might post it here latter the year to get some oppinion and criticism... it will be fun... hope to see any reply here, thanks!

[antonfourie]

One thing to be aware of, if you are using any resin systems, they are clamping down on the use of it in residential areas in Oz so check that your neighbours are not going to report you if they smell it.

[Pinion]

yeh, propably, luckily I know a pal made car frp panels in his own place, and that wasn't too bad... if I walk pass his front door, cannot really smell what he is making in his house... another plus is my parent's place isn't in a crowd neighbourhood... so I guess nothing really can stop me ...

[antonfourie]

You should be ok then, as for software you can try Freeship, it is good for hull modeling and the basics, if you build it in plywood and epoxy using stich and glue, you could get your friendly CNC shop to cut the panels for you from the DXF from Freeship

[Pinion]

Freeship is good for Fluide Dynamic and modeling, but Solidwork has more functions to offer like Large Assembly Performance, Import Diagnostics, wide Selection tools and also has more updates on new functions... I want to get a software that can use in variouse project opportunities... but just don't know how much it's gonna to cost and where is the best place to get it

[Thors Hammer]

I am now a full time boat builder along with repair and finishing worker but I started building boats about four years ago while I was still in High School. When I started I worked out of my grandfathers garage in which I still work out of today the garage works great for me now but I am looking forward to getting into a larger fasility but for now it works good. All I can say is to keep the work space clean and try to keep the dust to a minimum. The small things can truly mess up a beautiful finish. I hope you are able to build your boat it is great fun and very relaxing I wish you good luck and happy boating.

[Chris Ostlind]

Pinion,

The suggestion as to the use of Freeship is very good at USD$ Zero. So would Rhino3d at USD$900 for what you are attempting to do. To drop nearly USD$4000 on a software package for a garage built boat for casual use is a little over the top from my perspective, unless you intend to use the package for other applications in the future and it can make real money for your efforts to learn it, or you are righteously flush with cash and truly dig on spending it. It's my understanding that Solidworks will not provide hydrostatic analysis unless you also purchase the Aerohydro package and pay the annual fees along with the initial software price.

A successful plywood boat is well within your reach for virtually no cash outlay if you were to download Carlson's Hulls software for use as a sketch pad and then port the .hul file over to Freeship for hydrostatics and cleaning-up the lines. The output in .dxf from Freeship is quite good and can easily be nested by any competent CNC shop for the most beautiful plywood hull panels you can imagine.

You can apply the saved money towards the materials list for this new boat of yours and away you go.

As always, please do whatever your pocketbook and common sense will allow you.

Chris Ostlind
Lunada Design

[Splint]

Hi Pinion,
www.intercad.com.au are the Aussie (not sure if exclusively) distributors of Solidworks. If you are an elegable student I think a student licence can be obtained rather than pay A$7 or 8 thousand dollars. Alternatively Freeship www.freeship.org seems to be a good hull design package and Rhino would be good for doing the rest of the boat.
Where in Australia are you? I am in Geelong, I am building a cnc router http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...t=15889&page=1 I am not finished building yet but the end is in sight. I might be able to help you with cnc cutting, certainly cheaper than using a commercial cnc cutting service. The machine is not big enough to cut a complete plug or mould from a foam block in one hit but it could be done in sections and assembled.
Send me a proivate message if you want to discuss it further with me.

Regards
Splint

[hansp77]

Sorry to highjack your thread Pinion,
but in regards to all this design software,
does any of this work on a Mac- OSX?
Ideally one of the free ones.

[Syed]

8 ft / Johnson 3 hp
Picture of the above, home made boat is in Boat Design Gallery. This is a stich & glue construcion from free design 'D4 Dinghy'.

[marshmat]

Pinion- I built one in my parents' garage too, with about two feet of clearance on each side. A bit cramped to work in but she turned out really nice, and loads of fun doing it.
As for software. Free!ship is great. Unless you are a mechanical engineer or are building much larger, pricier boats en masse, Solidworks or anything comparable is not worth the money. If you want to drop a bunch of $$ on software, get Rhino. (But get Freeship anyway, it's by far the best for getting your ideas down quickly and visualising how they'll look and perform.)
Hansp- Most popular CAD kit is compiled for 32/64-bit x86 (windows). And most of it will run just fine on OS-X under VirtualPC emulation.