Best Marine Design Software for Hull Modeling? (2007)

$20,000 for catia, you just get basic version, if you want to add additional modules, the price will be much higher.
I have seen catia demo in our company, but I didn't see that catia has the functions to model hull. If you talk about using basic geometric commands to create hull surface, then other software like solidedge, solidwork will do the same thing, and you need to spend so much for the functions in Catia you don't use.
I think it would be better to just compare the functions used for hull design, like Maxsurf, fastship, etc. then it make sense.

As to the best for hull design, fastship is one of them, but is 3k a license cheap or not? I don't know. You also need to consider training cost.

 

Dear rteng 97,

I'm agree with you . CATIA is not designed to make hull like maxsurf. But RHINO too. If you buy rhinomarine yes but that's all.
CATIA is not only a 3d surface modeler but a complet process with powerfull tools. That's why I said somewhere in this forum it depend on what you work with and with how you work for. If you work for a yard or you are in a yard which built serial boats like BENETEAU , it's really cool ; but for a one-shot , don't even think about it : buy RHINO ( the 4 seems to be interresting).

I work since 3 years with CATIA and RHINO , so I know very well the limits of each.ACtually I work on a multihull of 55ft RGP .I use first RHINO because it's very fast to make a model but when i need to have a real faired forme , i draw my part in CATIA ( like a ROOF or extending a hull in keeping the direction of isocurves.)

I actually study differents softwares and I think if we doesn't choose CATIA + MAAT circée , we 're going to buy RHINO 4 + FASTSHIP or RHINO 4 +pack maxsurf , I don't know. FASTSHIP is really expensive here ( 5500 €)

 

Dear Adrew Mason,

I think shipconstructor use software from your company to do the hull modeling. Do you know whether shipconstructor still market its own hull modeling tools?

I have seen the demo from shipconstructor, and from what I undersand, they can only handle 2D. But the hull surface is 3D, how shipconstructor handle it in autoCAD? You can't load the 3D hull surface into autoCAD as objectarx would't allow you to do it.
Besides, when you have the ship model complete, how shipconstruct display it in autoCAD? or they have their own tools to visualize it?

I think the topic is misleading, all the software shown here can't be used to design any ships, they are just tools to create models, but this is not design. If you talk about software for ship design, then paramarine or nautical is the software you are looking for.

does anyone have ever used Intelliship? any comments on that?

 

The poll is called "Best Marine Design Software for Hull Modelling (2007)". (I took the liberty of correcting the typo in the actual thread's title.)
All of the software packages being discussed are suitable, to one degree or another, for hull design and modelling.
If you're looking for a complete CAD suite to handle every stage of ship design from thepreliminary design, through the detailed mathematical analysis and predictive simulations, design refinement, construction drawings and every nut, bolt and seacock, then your criteria will of course be different.

 

ShipConstructor has some hull surface modelling tools, however it is really intended to be a detailed structural design and production system. Maxsurf, on the other hand, is a full hull surface design and analysis suite, not a structural design system. Although we provide the Workshop program, this is a parametric preliminary structural design program and has very little overlap with what ShipConstructor does.

No, ShipConstructor is fully 3D.

 

Hull design and creating hull model (or ship model) is totally different topic. E.g. if you want to put a bulkhead at frame 32 with material <x> and thickness <y>, you need to give the reason to do that. To find the reason, you need to do the analysis, none of the software will give you that functions. Now if you want to just create a bulkhead at frame 32, then there are many software you can choose.

 

Andrew, could you please tell me how shipconstructor import your hull model into shipconstructor system? is your hull model saved into shipconstructor sql database or into a separate file? How shipconstructor view your hull model? in autocad or does shipconstructor have separate visualization tool? does shipconstructor only use autoCAD to create structural members? does shipconstructor can only sketch a plate?

 

I have followed the discussion about hull modeling software and it seems to get more and more complicated. Are we talking about 3D-modelling or calculation software here?

In my world, working in a designstudio, any given design project starts out with a simple napkin sketch -"the idea".

Eventually, sooner or later, you would like to explore the concept even further - in 3D, to solve geometric problems etc(often these fancy design sketches tend to lie - a lot).

Once you start to model you will probably end up with a bunch of different versions of the concept.

In this process you don't want a software that is limiting you in terms of what you want to achieve and what the program let's you.

What I am looking for in a 3D modeling software, are this:

-intuitive and customizable interface
-powerful tools to handle and analyze curves (curves are the base in all advanced 3Dmodeling)
-surfacing tools that let's you control the degree and number of spans on the output surfaces.
-analyzing tools for surface continuity
-easy handling of 2d sketches (to use a background in side, top, front)
-Realtime visualization that let's you evaluate your model within seconds.

For me, there is only one program capable of all this (and much more)- Autodesk ALIAS STUDIO. For drafting and solidmodeling I prefer CatiaV5.

Bottomline is this: Yacht design is not rocket science. Don't kill your creativity with software that is limiting you. Take your time to evaluate and work on your design and don't think so much of wetted surfaces etc. You will have plenty of time to refine your concept, to meet different criteria, later on.

 

Check out TouchCAD. Does what you say, and does it very quickly. I typically sketch directly in it as the feedback is so direct.

It's a Swedish program so it is even avaliable in Swedish

www.touchcad.com

 

Has anyone used Autodesk Inventor?

2Lander; I assume are using ALIAS STUDIO; How do you preform hydrostatics? which program do you use?

 

I am also looking for software that you can draw with some ease as well as assemble the final thing into a model you can view.

ludesign, I'm trying to get the hang of Touchcad, but it's not going too well to say the least. There is no help file with the demo, so I'm trying to follow the 'help movies'. Man I get PO if the guy says 'now select these four dots' and you can't select bugger all - while all my settings are exactly as theirs.

Is there no step by step to indicate the basics before attempting complicated models or a help file somewhere ?

Currently I use Solid Edge for my drawings, and you can design the parts with it and assemble the whole thing, but it takes waaaaay too long and gets much too involved. If I'm not mistaken most of the other engineering drawing programs suffer from the same ailment - one million clicks to get something simple done.

And then there's the price tag which is rediculous for most engineering softwares, unless you have a huge tax problem and decides to take the software instead of the car I don't see how many people would go for it.

 

Got it ! The touchcad works a breeze. Couldn't sleep so I came to fiddle with it some more. Light just went on suddenly. Will buy when my ship comes in

 

Not sure why you find it complicated to select a control dot in TouchCAD. Fairly standard behavior if you ask me. Just click on a control point to select it. Selected dots (Control points) become red.

Shift-click to select more than one dot. You can also select more than one point by drawing a selection box with the Selection Arrow. Hold down then Shift key to draw more than one selection box.

Any number of control points in any number of objects can be moved, rotated, scaled, flipped, skewed and deformed at any given time. OK, it may feel a bit scary to have so many features in just the Selection Arrow tool, but once you get it, it is astonishing how much you can do with it, how quickly you get things done, and how seldom you actually change tool. As you point out, excessive clicking on various tools to do a single task is often a problem in many programs.

Note that there are four selection modes above the drawing area (starting with a globe symbol for global selection). These modes control how the selection works (Global, Object, Mesh and Vertex). As for help, have a look at a line above the drawing area. It gives a short written instruction what to do when you point at something. The demo also comes with the User's manual in PDF form. If you still have questions, try contacting technical support.

 

Eh Claes ! Relax man, youre far too tense. My other software works different from this, also I couldn't hear what you said on the one video, but like I indicated in the previous thread I figured it out. I drawed two hulls in about 10 mins, probably more by accident than anything else

Since it's my first achievement in touchcad I don't want to close the program else I lose all my hard work ! A once of save feature would have been nice, you know. Now no-one's going to believe me.

 

Delftship is the only one I got working on Linux using "wine". Prior to that was slide rule & paper etc....... More fair drawing than calculated stuff, but then many have been doing this, or even by thumb/eye, since the dawn of sail/boating....