Joining points in Prosurf

[Willallison]

I recently downloaded the demo version of Prosurf.
I am reasonably familiar with the operations of Multisurf, but the two programs seem to operate quite differently. In Multisurf, I have generally built up a model by creating a bunch of points, then joining them with curves and finally adding surfaces controlled by those curves and points.
In spite of much reading through the help notes, I haven't managed to find how to do the same in Prosurf. I can create a bunch of points without any problem, but how do I go about attaching curves controlled by those points? And then attaching a surface controlled by the curves? Or must I do things in a completely different way?
I have no doubt that I've missed something very simple, but blowed if I can find it.....

[Steve Hollister]

In ProSurf, you do not have to create a surface starting with points. (Ugh!) I suppose you could, but why should a program force you to do that? In ProSurf, you could snap a curve through a set of points and then you could skin or loft a surface across the curves. This is perhaps what you would do if you were importing a table of offset points. Other than that, why would a program force you to painfully go through that process?

In addition, ProSurf can skin or loft surfaces through curves with un-equal number of edit points and with hard or knuckle points. This means that you could skin a series of station curves for a multi-chine hull with one command that will create multiply-connected NURB surfaces that are automatically "bonded" together. This means that you can immediately edit the common chine edge without disconnecting or "exploding" the surfaces. Many surface modelers don't allow you to do that.

To start a design in ProSurf, you can use the "Create Boat" command that will create a round bilge or a chine hull boat given the boat's principal dimensions. This is a starting shape for the boat that you can refine and modify or completely change as you wish. If you wish to add or delete a chine in the boat, that is done with one, simple command.

To add an extra surface, like a keel or rudder or transom, you can use the Add Surf command where you create a simple, 4 corner surface by picking or snaping the 4 corner points. Then, you can add additional, internal "rows" or "columns" to the NURB surface using one of several commands. These additional rows and columns give you more edit points (ON the surface) that you use to modify the shape of the surface. There are even some commands that can force a surface row or column to a particular shape, like straight, arc, or even airfoil shapes. This makes it very easy to create an airfoil-shaped keel or rudder.

If you download the software, you can see the full Help in the program (same as our 350+ page manual) and you can go to our Articles and Tutorials sections for hundreds of more pages of assistance. The tutorials section includes a step-by-step example of creating and fairing a hull. You can also see our www.pilot3d.com site for more examples and tutorials.

Regards,
Steve Hollister

[Willallison]

Thanks for getting back to me Steve.
I've had a quite a few run through's using the "create Boat" command and agree that in general this is probably a quicker and easier way to go. My 'preference' for doing it the other way simply comes from the fact that that's the way I'm used to doing it. I'm a true beginner at this, so for all I know Multisurf may have better ways of doing it too!