Maxsurf VS Autoship

[christos]

Bit confused here, Im in the middle of evaluating both the Maxsurf and Autoship demo versions and have'nt reached to a conclusion yet. Any suggestions from your personal experience will be very helpful.
Thanks

[Jeff]

A difficult choice as both Autoship and Maxsurf are very good programs. Both also have a comparable selection of integrated add-ons for hydrostatics/stability, performance prediction/powering/resistance, and structural drawing. Unfortunately I can’t really comment on the differences as I have no experience with the modules in question (Maxsurf offers span which doesn’t have a direct counterpart, whereas Autoship offers AutoNC for CNC/nesting). I’m a bit surprised that after working with the demos for a while you don’t already have some preferences? Have you talked with both companies already? One thing which is important to me is not only the current software but also the people behind the software, because with a major investment in both money and time to learn a particular suite of programs, you want to be sure that development and support will continue to be strong long into the future.

It might be interesting to have an idea of the work you will be doing with the program, or what special needs you might have.

[christos]

Jeff,
thanks for your reply, we presently use the Wolfson Unit Shipshape for hull fairing and the Hydrostatics & stbility suite for further calculations.
Maybe you have heard about this software, it uses B-splines instead of the surface approach that both the Maxsurf and Autoship use.
I need the software for hull fairing, mainly to be able to input easily, existing hull lines (either digitize them or offsets input). Most of the hull forms I am handling are round bilge forms with b/bow and a few chines (passenger ships etc). Furthrmore, fitting sponsons on existing hulls and B/Bows. I havent tried this yet, but Im sure both programs will indicate the same degree of dificulty.

Up to know, I find Maxsurf more simple to use.

If anyone has some good experience on Maxsurf or Autoship, It will be very useful...

Thanks,
Christos

[DavidG]

christos,

Bit of a late reply. I use Autoship which I originally found more intuitive than Maxsurf, but this was originally because Maxsurf was on Mac's and Autoship was on Windows.

I do a lot of transfering lines from the drawing board to hull fairing packages in order to carry out stability work, also doing initial drawing work using splines and curves gives me more feedback ref. spatial awareness and how materials can be formed/bent.

Anyhow, Autoship deals with this well, because you can put reference points and curves on the screen and loft around them, upto a while ago you certainly couldn't do this in Maxsurf (you may be able to now).

I like the program and I have never had any problem with Autoship's support, BUT Maxsurf is more affordable and seems to be becoming the generic product amongst Yacht Designers, although the Autoyacht product is more competitive than Autoship, you get the feeling Autoship is pitched at the Ship market which may be less price sensitive.

I would strongly recommend that you go for a program that gives .IGES import & export which would allow you to use Rhino as well.

Hope this helps.