Rhino

I put some screen shots from Rhino in my gallery. http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/sh...at=500&thumb=1
This is a step by step of a simple canoe design I’m working on. This is only one way to draw a boat using Rhino. I’m having fun.
Gary

[duluthboats]

When I jumped from the gallery back to the forum I became a guest. I'll have to remember that.
Gary

[Jeff]

Thanks Gary!

I really appreciate you posting the whole series.

And sorry about that - there is still a cookie issue which is haunting me between the gallery software and the forum software. It doesn't happen all the time - just sometimes But hopefully next week I'll figure out how to solve it once and for all so it never happens.

Oh and since I plan to talk you into submitting lots more images over the next few months, if your image software will possibly allow you to save as either jpg or gif, the images will load a lot faster than bmp's and still have nearly the same quality.

[Polarity]

Gary

Sounds like someone took a byte out of your cookie...

[duluthboats]

Jeff, thanks for the comments and advice. I'll save as GIF in the future.

Paul, thanks for the encouragement, Bo Zolland won't have to worry about me for a few weeks yet.

Gary

[Polarity]

(after a quick google search ..) Bo Zolland:

http://www.hermanform.com/boat.htm

....ulp... he is safe from me too !!!

Paul

PS .jpg is generally better unless you have a lot of vertical or horizontal lines....

[Polarity]

Ahhh yes , I just saw the gallery.

Bo, those are awesome! - and I'm a rag and stick man!

Paul

[duluthboats]

Thanks Paul, .jpg 's from now on. Learn something new every day.
Gary

[giramonti]

I use Rhino ony after I've developed the hull and deck in Multisurf. I've never tried to develop a hull in Rhino, but I feel it would be quite difficult. However, using Rhino to cut into the deck and create cockpits and cabins is great. It is a great tool that reduces the time it takes to create difficult surfaces to ten percent of what it takes in Multisurf. In other words, a cabin top that takes twenty hours in Multisurf takes about two in Rhino. It's a big difference in time, the useful application of creative energy, and pleasure of creation. Multisurf is very precise, but the cost of precision is tedium in use. I personally feel that when designing a hull, precision is imperative, so I stick with Multisurf. But, precision is not a huge factor in above water structures. And, the problem is not so much that Rhino is not precise (it is quite precise if you set it up properly), it's that Multisurf is absolutely precise.

I love Rhino and I've recommended it to many people. It also has an Application Programming Interface (API) that can be used to customize the program for useful tasks (e.g. hydrostatics and stability modules, fast hull creation, etc.). I will be writing some Marine Design specific software for myself in the upcoming months. Others have seen the usefulness of this feature that makes this an infinitely flexible tool. Yes, the programming takes time, but the time I save on design using Rhino rather than Multisurf, can be used to customize Rhino into the exact tool I want it to be.

I used Solidworks for about a year before coming across Rhino. I found SW a difficult tool to use, the complexity stemming from it's incarnation as a large project design tool. I don't need that complexity. I share models with my colleagues (two of them) and about once a week we get together and update the master model with the work each individual has done. If you are working on large projects with many different contributors this might be something to think about.

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to e-mail if you have more questions.

[scarab2]

I'm not familiar with Rhino... I work with Catia V5 and Alias Wavefront's Autostudio for surface generation and 3D Studio Max5 for rendering which is awesome because of the built in radiosity lighting features...

Hi robeto

Can i ask you to give your point of view for working with soldworks i do understand that you didn't find it very friendly use, but you think that really have a use in shipdesign or boatbuilding, i will like to try a mcad in general to see if is posible but i will like to hear your opinion. i will say that the comunity will be interested too

in by the way rhino its a great tool, i used the software a lot, it's right for what we need and right for the price i hope when you finish your aplications for rhino you let us know.

thanks

[HOWdie]

Rhino V2 is a rocking Nurbs modeler and with the flamingo plugin it can render out some killer images. Best way to see is to login to the Rhino newsgroup the link can be found on the rhino3d website http://www.rhino3d.com more info for flamingo is at http://www.flamingo3d.com

For real offset and hydrostatic caluations you have to purchase the plugins. Cliff Estes plug-in is well worth the price.

Things are changing though in Rhino. Version 3 is coming out soon and from the news posts Rhino itself will no longer ship V2 after the first of the year.
Currently there are student packages avaible at greatly reduced prices if your in school or have a kid in school buy it for them . NOW.

All the plug-ins are being currently ported to V3.

Import/export support for the most of the major Marine Design packages is built right into Rhino.

[sailvayu]

OK I'll chuck in my 2 cents, I've been lucky enough to check out lots of software from the very high end like Pro Engineer and Ideas to the low end stuff most of us can afford. Like giramonti I have found mutisurf and rhino a good combination for the same reasons, I have tried and liked solidworks. A combo to try is solidworks with surfaceworks wich is really mutisurf setup to work inside solidworks. One of the problems facing any boat designer using cad is that there are basicly 3 types of software we need to use. 1st is for hull design which is a surface creation program, next comes hydro software for get all the numbers then we need to pull all this together for a complete design, and a solid modeling program is best for this. Finally we will want to do a really cool rendering. We are now starting to see the problem no one software comp has put this all together in one package that is affordable. Sure you could allways drop $25,000.00 for ProE but you'd still have to get the hydro stuff seperate. And of course tring to move all these files from one program to another and back again is a nightmare. So whats a poor designer to do? I for one will keep bitching to some software comp can give us something that will really do it all. So what all this boils down to is try the stuff if it works for you and you can afford it buy it but make sure it is going to work with the other programs you'll need as well. And the best Advice I can offer is try before you buy. If the vendor will not give you a FULLY functional 30 day demo look somewere else as you can never really get the feel of a package using a crippled demo. Get all the demos you think you want to try together at once and make sure they will work together like the vendor claims just because they say they will import an IGES file does not mean it will not scrable things when it does. Try before you buy

[duluthboats]

Well last night after several minuets off trying to rotate a model a small amount, I finally locked my Rhino software up. It took me several months; I can usually do it in less than an hour. I had to shut down the PC to get out and lost information back to my last save. After reboot I found MY error, and was back in action. This software amazes me every time I use it.

Gary

Rhino is a great program, I absolutely love it. I am going to take issue with a mention of accuracy, since if you don't think it's accurate, then you haven't used it enough. I haven't used the fastship addon yet, but I would expect it to further enhance Rhino's design capabilities. I have to admit that Rhino is the best CAD pakage I have ever used. And it only gets better, Rhino will output .POV Raytracing files. These can be read directly into POVRAY (available as a free download! at www.povray.org) and, with a minute adjustment (of camera position) this will give rendered images way better than Rhino, and as good as anyone will probably ever need, again it takes practice. The major benifit of Rhino is it's ability to create surfaces and abnormal solids (by which I mean fin keels and the like.) and calculate mass properties (Centers of Volume etc.) for single, or multiple solids. It's a great program, I would strongly urge everyone to look on the web for free software, some of it is quite good.

Cheers,

Tim B.