Software recommendation? (Have read poll thread)

Hi, advice on which free or low-cost software to use would be greatly appreciated!

What I need to do is about as basic as it gets. Right now I am only going to build a curved-bottom pirogue (if that isn't a contradiction in terms).

I've downloaded and installed Carene2008, BVB Cafe, Hullform 9, Delftship, Freeship, and Kayak Foundry. Not all at once of course, but out of downloading one, trying, not seeming to get far or running into an apparent limitation, and then trying another.

I want to enter some table of offsets values to define the three panels, and have them or get them to join up properly, and then unfold and output the panel shapes.

Which of these programs should I put my focus on, or is there another better choice for this really simple design problem? Thanks!

 

Every software has a learning curve. If you keep downloading and jumping from one software to another, without getting any deeper about their capabilities, you'll end up searching forever...

In my opinion, Freeship has all the features you need for the project you aim to do. It can handle tables of offsets, has a good hull-shape modeling capabilities and can develop developable surfaces. And, since it doesn't have a big number of commands, it can be mastered in 3-4 days of intensive use.

There are several good user-made tutorials about Freeship (apart the official manual, contained in the software package), like:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/de...-freeship-techniques-using-sofware-29973.html
http://www.hapby.v-nam.net/FREEship/FREEship-Tutorial1.html

Whatever program you chose to work with, be stubborn and don't give up at the first difficulty encountered. Ask for help if necessary.

Cheers!

 

Thank you!

Agreed completely on the uselessness of jumping all around!

 

Carene2008, Carlson Hulls and Freeship all are useful. For small craft, I tend to bounce between them, usually finishing with Freeship.

Carene could be considered a parametric modeler and creates hulls strictly defined and constrained by basic parameters (starting with this, you'll get a constructible shape). Good implementation of a mass budget to guesstimate the total weight.

Hulls gives you more latitude on shape, and does a decent job of providing hydrostatic info. It allows you to input a hull based on a table of offsets (after a fashion).

Freeship gives you a fairly robust set of hydrostatic and resistance calculations, but makes it easy to design a hull that isn't developable.

What would be nice is if there was a common drawing format interchange between the three.

 

My biggest concern really is with the surfaces being developable and the curve-fitting reasonably matching up with what plywood will do; and then unfolding this to patterns that should fit closely.

If what the program will "wrap onto" the data points in the table of offsets matches up well with what wood will do, in terms of unfolding it and then cutting to those patterns, excellent! If a given program tends to not be so close for that, then it wouldn't be so suitable for me.

I suppose I could work with not being able to define from a table of offsets, instead tweaking curves and hoping that by eye I'm matching up to what I'm trying to do, but I do like the idea of being able to measure existing drawings and work from there.

 

Freeship will do that task, plus it takes table of offsets as input.

 

Excellent!

I'll put my focus on it.

 

Try this for copying a set of existing lines.

Try this for entering a table of offsets. Still working on these tutorials because every time I do it I have to re-learn it; finally decided making a blog about it would at least force me to learn it and write it down this time.

 

@Adt2:
Yeah Rhino is a nice software but a bit costly for drawing just a pirogue.

 

Ah...didn't catch the "free" part. Oh, well. I purchased a student copy of Rhino a couple of years ago and it's been a great investment. I prefer it over the Delftship Pro installation I also have.

 

Rhino with the plugin RhinoParametrics becomes a parametric CAD software, easy to use, easy to learn. it is free for students and teachers.
have a look on www.rhinoparametrics.com