Software for GA Drawings

I am curious if anyone has found a 3d program that can be used to quickly create a GA in 3D and then create clean 2d views created from model sections and pretty it up with high quality shading and annotations, or are most people still using 2 or more programs to do the job.

 

Define "quickly".

The more details you put into the 3D model the better the 2D views will look. Model a cube in 3D and your 2D will look like a rectangle, but if you model a perfect cabinet complete with all hardware and every detail your 2D view will look like a perfect cabinet.

And what sort of price range? Solidworks can do this quite well for smaller vessels for about 5 grand. If you need to support hundreds of thousands of different parts you "might" need to move up to Catia. The base package went for about 12 grand 5 years ago.

I'm sure many other software packages can do this as well but those are the ones I'm familiar with.

 

Say a 35m crew boat in a couple of days.

I have used Swx and Inventor but hidden line control and line weight control are poor and too much time is wasted on cleanup.

I wonder if anyone is using architectural cad instead of mechanical cad since most of the GA is internal rooms and furniture.

 

Tricky problem. The 3D modellers (parametric and surface) are great but IMHO are not good at creating really nice visual drawings and views, at least yet. I expect you will get better results by generating the required views and putting into a 2D package. This sort of thing can be handled quite well by Illustrator, Autocad LT, FastCad amongst other programs out there. Rhino is not too bad if you use a rendering addon as you can 3D dimension/annotate.

As usual the caveat is knowing the program well and the speed of execution and tools in the program. I assume you would like nice orthographic projections plus perspective section views, say with deck (or part) removed etc. These views do look nice when coloured in as opposed to hatching. The editing tools in the 2D program are often the key to dealing with imported files. Ability to select by many criteria (linestyle, type etc) is a big part of dealing with this fast.

I would like to be surprised and find something that does this at reasonable cost. There are one or two tech illustration programs out there though and maybe worth hunting out.

 

Yes every time I look for a better way to work I always end up back at AutoCAD. Something like a marine version of Revit would be nice.

 

This probably happens for a reason.
Fixed with AutoCAD the issue with the GA, there are some application which, based on AutoCAD as drawing module, performs all calculations of naval architecture.

 

It's called Pro-E with the surface module!. Revit was started by a couple of ex PTC software guys to address large architectural models and parametric handling of many componenets. Autodesk bought it after a few years.

However AFAIK Pro-E with the necessary additions is around the £8-11k price wise in the UK. Very capable but for all that not really good at top notch tech illustration, or good quality presentation drawings. I've used it a reasonable ammount before but not the last couple of versions to be fair.

 

Yes powerfull but workflow is still too slow. Same for Catia and Shipcon. As an example to create a midship section drawing so much detail has to be modelled in 3d cad so its much faster to just draw it in 2d.

Its frustrating to be stuck in a workflow that I have used for 20 years because the software available to our industry hasnt advanced much in that time. The leap from paper to Autocad 12 was a great productivity booster but since then nothing has been developed to significantly change or speed up the work flow.

 

Nail, head, hit..!!!

 

We used to try and reduce 3D modelling time and errors by whipping up 2D drawings first to generate enough information. So much time is invested in the 3D model you don't want changes that will not allow rebuilding within a reasonable time frame or the worst case half rebuilding the entire model.

For certain types of project 2D is still completely viable - extrusions are perfect as an example and objects that are largely prisms. Good for mechanisms too, working out lever arms, ratios etc etc hence my previous comments.

One thing about 3D is that the toolmaker/fabricator role of interpreting the drawing is removed, putting the time back into the design side. No arrows with 'Blend' etc....

One day, it would be great if more f the packages 'spoke' to each other keeping valuable information rather than getting 'lost in translation'....
I think Mr Hirschstick (ex SW CEO) has a useful vision of what may come to pass.

The last set of paper drawings I did was in 1993, because the CAD software could not handle the highly curved surfaces required. Easier and faster ironically on paper!.

 

Personally, I do most of the 3D modeling in my hull fairing program, TouchCAD, in fairly substantial detail, including interior design, framing, presentation movies, weight and center of gravity calculations, unfolding, nesting and CNC preparation. I do however also use an external CAD program, Vectorworks for 2D drafting, 3D solid modeling, and partially for high quality renderings. I also use an external rendering program for high quality renderings and animations.

The picture shows an example, where the model is 100% TouchCAD generated in every detail, top left shows a rendering from TouchCAD itself, renderings in Artlantis, and the drafting made with Vectorworks, based on the 3D model and the nested 200 stainless steel part unfolds complete with on skin reference markings exported from TouchCAD. The model contains some 700 surfaces.

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