Free!Ship nesting how-to question -> nesting drawing

Greetings all. First off let me say that I do not pretend to be a Naval Architect nor do I plan on building boats to sell, take offshore or even hang a motor on. For those I buy plans and follow them very closely I know there is a big difference between drawing a pretty boat and designing a safe boat that will perform well

I do however have this fascination with one and two sheet designs that are more of "Water toys" than actual boats. I've been toying around with a couple and would like to be able to play around some more in making my own. I've downloaded Free!Ship and cobbled up a couple of simple designs, but I cannot seem to take the design and lay it out as a nesting drawing. Is there are trick that I've not figured out or is it simply a process that the software is not meant to do? thanks for any help in figuring this out

Thanks,
George

 

There is an option in tools menu "develop plates". Not sure if its exactly the same thing but that will draw a plate projection.

 

I thought that would be it, but that option is not available for me. It's in the light font that lets you see it, but not click on it. I've tried about everything and it never will let me draw a plate projection.

Thanks,
George

 

Do you have Freeship or Delftship free version? Freeship should give you the option....except if your layers are not checked for developable. You also have to have surfaces that are actually developable. First chore is to right click and go to Mode and Developability check. You should have about 95% green or better. Separating your panels into layers and making sure the Developable box is checked for each layer is also a prerequisite to using Develop Plates. And...there is no option to nest the parts although you can rearrange them to fit together, there is no option to overlay them onto plywood or to divide them up into smaller parts except by dividing the panels into different layers on the model itself...I think this would actually inject some distortion to the developed panels though. It is a useful tool to help with making a complicated part developable when necessary.

 

Free!Ship 2.6

I'm good there as there are only a couple of tiny spots along the chine that are red, but about 99% of it is green.

... I think you've found my problem. I'll have to go back over them when I get home, but I don't know about this step so I probably didn't do it Thanks for your help, I should be able to get it figured out from here knowing this.

George

 

and a good thing is you can make the drawing devellopable afterward