Rhino + what?

[Willallison]

Many of you will be aware that I've been fluffing about trying to get the hang of CAD etc....
Well, the time has come for me to buy some stuff!
Currently I use an older version of Multisurf for my hull surfacing and I have an (equally old) version of AutoCAD (R14) for general CAD.

I've decided to buy Rhino to do my superstructure, interior etc modelling - but what else should I get to go with it?

Phaser seems an obvious choice as my Multisurf won't give heeled stability? It has a new name now I think...? (get no response when looking at proteusengineering.com.....)

Rhinoffsets might be handy too - I take it that Rhino won't produce a table of offsets on its own, though from reading the reviews of Rhonoffsets it seems it will only produce a dxf file - not a word or excell file....

Multisurf produces a set of lines no problem - will Rhino do this too - or will I need another plug-in for that?

Any suggestions / advice would be greatly appreciated....

HI

Rhino has nothing compared to multisurf or Prosurf or prolines or maxsurf, or many other packages in the market for hull shape, most of them gives you plots, automatic lines plan generation (Buttocks, waterlines diagonals etc..), Rhino its a great tool wich i use a lot, but for hull shape i wont waste my time becouse it doesn't have the apropiate interface for hull design, yes rhino can do anyshape, and fair, but again its not set for that use, it has come out with great set of tools or plug ins like phaser for stability and rhinostatics or rhinoffsets wich are great tools and now albacore research came out with expander which is written for rhino with the capabilities or with the technology of shipcam for flatten and development of plates including double curvature wnich make rhino sucha n affordable software capable to creat fair developments of plates, but again its not a hull fairing software dont waste your time making rhino work for that, i will think that only if you have time and you are willing to live with it, then its ok i guess, but i won't recomended maybe becouse i started using software for hull fairing before jumping to rhino, now i use prosurf to model my hull and then export to rhino and finish the model there.

so i hope this help, and gives you an idea of the use of rhino, great program by the way, it gives some troubles in v3, but i havent had much problem or problem at all, i guess becouse i just use it for what i really need, rendering by bmrt works great slow but...free, and besides rendering its not that important for me.

[duluthboats]

Hi Will,

It would be my luck that Proteus is out of operation. But I’m guessing there site is down temporarily. The Rhino plug in from them is called Phaser; they give you Slicer for free. I wish I could give you a review but I haven’t used it enough. They do have a 30 day full function demo.

Gary

[Willallison]

Guest: Thanks for the advice. As you suggest, I'm not planning on using Rhino to model my hulls. Just for the superstructure, cabins, bulkheads etc. My hull fairing program only gives limited hydrostatics - and only upright stability data, so I'm looking for plug-ins to provide this and any other info I might need. Expander sounds useful - plate flattening is, I would think, a necessity for any metal, ply, or even flat-panel composite work.

Gary: I suspect you're right about Proteus....or at least I hope you are - I've been unable to access their site for 2 days now....
I tried the demo (I think of Phaser) some time ago. It worked ok on a monohull model I imported to Rhino's demo, but not on a multihull (gave a very odd displacement....) That may be something I did rather than the program. What do you use for producing a 'set of lines'?

[duluthboats]

... SLICER: This is a simple, yet extremely useful utility for cutting stations, buttocks, waterlines, diagonals, inclines, and cants through your Rhino model.

It comes free with Phaser. What can I say it works and I can afford it.

Gary

[Willallison]

Can you export the lines from Slicer back into Rhino (or into AutoCAD) to produce a profesional qulaity document?
This isn't really a necessity for me as I can already do this with my ohter programs, but it's always nice to have alternatives...

[duluthboats]

Will,

When you use Slicer it all happens on the Rhino screen, so whatever you can export from Rhino, which is .dxf for AC. It also lets you customize the spread sheets and the drawings to show your firms name. The spread sheets can be in Excell.

Gary

[ClarkT]

G

[ClarkT]

I could not disagree more with 'Guest' and his assessment of Rhino. I've used MaxSurf for years, until I got Rhino and RhinoMarine (Phasar). I've not used MaxSurf since. I still keep it around in case I need to do damaged stability analysis, but otherwise Rhino+RhinoMarine has rendered it useless. Vancanti's Prolines is a specail case, I'm not comparing Rhino to it, it seems like Prolines has some really neat special features, though Rhino is likely to have extensions developed that will give it these sort of capabilities.

Rhino has a better GUI, better surface analysis tools, better rendering, better surface trimming tools, and no limit to the number of surfaces. RhinoMarine gives fast and accurate stability data, and Slicer cuts stations, waterplanes, buttocks, and diagonals, assigns them to separate layers, and eases export to .dxf or .dwg. Expander makes hull plate expansion or laminate template expansion easy.

I'm surprised I don't see more Rhinovangelists around here seeking converts. Anyone use Rhino+RhinoMarine and does not think it is great??

[duluthboats]

"Rhinovangelists " I like that.

[Willallison]

ClakT:
Whats's GUI?
I note that you refer to Phaser as RhinoMarine.......Gary and I have been trying access Proetus via their website (www.proteusengineering.com ) for several days now, without success....given the name change, do you know of abother way of contacting them?

[Doug Carlson]

GUI = graphical user interface

proteus site is working

don't forget expander plug in form albacore research for development of plates

for damage stabilit there is a spreadsheet that was written by a naval architect for stability and damage stability calculations the only set back "if you can call it like that" is that there is no way to input your model directly into the spreadsheet, you basicly have to model the vessel with the spreadsheet which is not a big deal.

this is the website

http://www.hyss.net/Hyss/Intro.html

good luck

[Willallison]

Thanks - you're right...they've just come back online.
So, I've settled on:
Rhino
Phaser
Expander

Now the question is (given I live in Australia) where's the best place for me to buy it all ?!?
Proetus have the RhinoMarine bundle (Rhino + Phaser + Slicer) for USD $250 (student price) plus Expander @ $195......

I'd like to by in Oz if I can, but I guess it doesn't really matter.....