Rhino - Structural drawings

[KRL]

After designing a hull in Maxsurf can one use rhino to do the structural drawing for fabrication?

For what is rhino used after the hull is nearly complete in maxsurf?? I have the impression that rhino is just there as a rending tool and not actually to do the structure.

What other packaged do you suggest for a 50ft aluminium planning boat in term of structural drawing?

[ACuttle]

A quick answer is to say that you don't want to be using Rhino to model structure, Rhino certainly isn't just there to render though.

Longer answer...
It's a bit hard to recommend something without knowing your circumstances. If you're a small operator and this is a one off you'd be best doing your structural work in 2D cad, off sections etc. with your maxsurf model as a base. This likely your best bet as other methods are more expensive and complex, needing software experience - which if you're asking the question you likely haven't got (though there is nothing stopping you learning).

If you're looking do this commercially, have the money to spend (and experience to operate the software) and want to follow a 3D design route you can look at something like Solidworks or Shipconstructor (there are other similar packages but in my experience these are the best two).

I use Rhino a lot to modify and rebuild surfaces that have come out of Maxsurf before I move it to a structural package. Maxsurf is very strong in it's own way but it has a lot of limitations and doesn't hold a candle to Rhino for modelling work. You could use Rhino to model structure (I use it to quickly validate concepts and designs) but it isn't ideal and there are better tools on the market.

[b1ck0]

The whole idea of CAD systems is a little different from what you're asking ... There is no point of doing Structural drawings if you already have a 3D model of your hull. Just imagine that you can add plates, decks, frames, stiffeners etc. at specific places with specific properties and after that the CAD system generate any structural drawing you want. There are a lot of such systems that you can use, but you can't afford some of them ( really a lot of money ) ...
-Catia ( don't really know )
-ShipConstructor ( for production )
-Tribon ( for production )
-Maxsurf/Workshop ( only for Initial Design )

I am sure that there are a lot of other software, but I am not familiar with it ...
I hope that is a helpful information for you

edit: Whatever software you use, you will need to modify something in AutoCAD after that ...
edit2: Using such software gives you a lot of advantages - they can create documentation of used materials, amount of material, what goes where, mass centroids and etc. ...