Software for designing a dugout canoe

[BenJen]

Hi,

I'm currently a masters student in the UK and am trying to reconstruct a dugout logboat for my dissertation, but need some software to produce hypothetical designs before I begin considering any construction.

The dugout itself would be square ended at both stem and stern, with a gentle gradient from the stem to the lowest point of the "hull", but then relativly flat to the stern.

Which software would you recomend to produce such a model?

Many thanks,

Ben

[ludesign]

Originally Posted by BenJen

Hi,

I'm currently a masters student in the UK and am trying to reconstruct a dugout logboat for my dissertation, but need some software to produce hypothetical designs before I begin considering any construction.

The dugout itself would be square ended at both stem and stern, with a gentle gradient from the stem to the lowest point of the "hull", but then relativly flat to the stern.

Which software would you recomend to produce such a model?

Many thanks,

Ben

Check out TouchCAD. Info at www.touchcad.com

[Andrew Mason]

Maxsurf Academic should be ideal, please see http://msacademic.formsys.com

[Hans Friedel]

Originally Posted by BenJen

Hi,

I'm currently a masters student in the UK and am trying to reconstruct a dugout logboat for my dissertation, but need some software to produce hypothetical designs before I begin considering any construction.

The dugout itself would be square ended at both stem and stern, with a gentle gradient from the stem to the lowest point of the "hull", but then relativly flat to the stern.

Which software would you recomend to produce such a model?

Many thanks,

Ben

Hi Ben

Well any marin software will without any doubt do the job for you.

But I would look at some of the free software you could find in the thread abowe.

The Carlson program is very easy to use. And so are the Bearboat.

This canvas on wood canoe is made with Rhino and Phaser

http://www.friedeldesign.se/bilder/wekagu.jpg

You could use the Rhino demo but it is a bit more complicated than the free programs.

Regards Hans

[BenJen]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the advise, I've created the basic design of my dugout in maxsurf academic, but just wondered if you know of a way to have variable thickness surfaces? I need the base of my hull to vary from c. 40 mm at the stem to c. 100-150 mm at the stern.

Many thanks,

Ben Jennings

University of Bristol
bj3712@bris.ac.uk

[Andrew Mason]

Ben

Rather than using the skin deduction feature in Maxsurf which will only do a single thickness for a given surface, it may be easier to manually model a second surface which is the inside of your dugout. This approach may be particularly appropriate given how thick your skin is in some places.

To get a starting point for the inside surface, duplicate your hull surface and use the Size Surfaces command to shrink it slightly in length, beam and depth, then position it using the Move Surfaces command.

Hope this helps

Andrew

[ludesign]

Originally Posted by BenJen

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the advise, I've created the basic design of my dugout in maxsurf academic, but just wondered if you know of a way to have variable thickness surfaces? I need the base of my hull to vary from c. 40 mm at the stem to c. 100-150 mm at the stern.

Many thanks,

Ben Jennings

University of Bristol
bj3712@bris.ac.uk

No problem in TouchCAD. It's also easy to trim the edges to other surfaces. You can even generate curved edges.