Creating stations from FreeShip

Discussion in 'Software' started by Vantage475T, Aug 5, 2019.

  1. Vantage475T
    Joined: Aug 2016
    Posts: 105
    Likes: 33, Points: 28, Legacy Rep: 10
    Location: Lymington,UK

    Vantage475T Adventure Trimarans

    I've got a basic design outlined and I'm looking at how I can export the stations to create full sized prints for creating the station for making the mould for foam building outrigger floats initially then the main hull for a 5m trimaran project.

    I can see about exporting offsets and simply plotting them onto the ply but is there a way to export full sized drawings to .pdf to print out full size, then stick them on for quick cutting.

    I'm looking for a local firm who could cnc cut them which might well be quicker and easier but if anyone has any thoughts I would be grateful.

    I have FreeCAD available but nothing else as yet but if there is something free/cheap that I can use that would help then please let me know!
     
  2. mick_allen
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 46
    Likes: 5, Points: 8, Legacy Rep: 59
    Location: vancouver, b.c.

    mick_allen -

    I'm not completely sure of all of the following so you should verify it for your own purposes.

    As freeship does not give you the ability to rearrange or nest the stations as you may prefer for printing etc, you will need a cad type program that reads dxf files. Furthermore, because the freeship 3d dxf output is much more refined than the 2d dxf output, a 3D cad program is much much preferred for more exact representation of what you want.

    So before you do the dxf polyline output from freeship, I believe you have to attach at least one curve to the model. [I'm not sure of this, but it might be just for 3d output so play around] Then make absolutely sure you have the resolution set to 'highest'. [This all assumes that you have set your station intersections to the locations that you wish] Then output the file and read it into your cad program.

    If you do a 2d output, all the stations will be overlaid in 2d at a fairly low resolution - a polyline simplification of the vessels stations only. But if you do a 3d output, all your stations will be in an erected 3d location properly with respect to each other [which you might wish to retain by notation, dimensoning, or whatever you choose] and will then have to rotate them onto your desired printing orientation and arrangement. The interesting aspect of the 3d output is if done at 'low' resolution it will still be much higher res than the 2d output was . . . and if done at 'highest' resolution it will have about 5x that resolution, so choose highest. Note that all the outputs are still 2d line segment simplifications of the original curves.

    So the best thing to do is to play around first and see what works best for you and go from there. I'm still not generally sure about output scale, but for working in imperial where the cad program is in inches and the freeship drawing is in imperial [fractions of a foot], I have to increase the imported model by 12x [seems logical: 12inches = 1 foot], but I'm sure that would change if in metric or if the cad program was in some other default dimension situation [say feet, so might be 1:1] - so you'll need to doublecheck that as well.

    [edited to add: I forgot that outputting the linesplan [assuming you've already preset the spacing and/or locations of the buttocks, stations, diagonals, and/or the waterlines as desired] is another alternative and is flattened, but the resolution of the 3d output is still about 2x higher.]
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
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