freeship

I created a hull using carene 2008 and imported it into free ship when i click develop plates only the sides appear, Does anybody know how i can develop the transom and insert frames into the model and get the measurements for these also.

 

Go into layer properties and highlight "Close Hull", on the right click "developable"...that will give you your transom.

Click on the left most point...at the top of the transom and note what the X coordinate is. It will probably be a negative number if the transom is raked aft (if it is 0 don't do the next bit). Right click and clear all, then go to transform/move and click yes for all layers then move the hull an equal amount positive so that the aft most point is 0.000. Once that is done go to Calculations/intersections and put in stations at each of your frame positions. Once this is done, export your offsets and each of your frame positions will have a set of knuckle coordinates. Use these to plot your frame dimensions full sized...keeping in mind that you will have to subtract your skin thickness from the frame and also that you will have thickness to the frame and you will have to bevel it properly on the actual frame itself.

 

Ok did all that, thank you.

Do you know anything about proge-cad? I read a post on here that said you can import frames from freeship to proge-cad and develop them on there. so i downloaded proge-cad 2009 smart for free, figured out i have to save the file from free ship as a dxf file then i could open it up in proge-cad, but thats as far as i got. How do i develop from there? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Also, this is all new to me, i built my 1st boat last year from plans i got from Selway Fisher, just a 14' Dinghy. the building was easy, carpentry is a large part of my every day job and i enjoy working with wood, but i want to go further this time and actually design a boat myself.
Ive never used design software before freeship looks good but i wouldnt know one way or the other if it actually works or not,but from what i gather i can export my design to different programs to see how the hull will perform in the water for example.

Am i going the right way about this? I find freeship, then discover its better to design the hard chined hull in carene then import to freeship, then modify it in freeship and export to proge-cad!
Ive looked at other programs some of the guys on here recommend like maxsurf autoship and rhino but im not planning on designing a super tanker or a commercial ferry!
I just want to design a hull thats stable and if possible, be able to print out the dimensions for all the panels, transom and frames without having to spend a few years learning how to use CAD. Not that i have anything against CAD, it just seems to have an abundance of things and i will never use, i read a post from one guy on here thats been using it for 7 years and hes still learning! Id rather be out there getting my hands dirty.

 

Got a few years and a chunk of change for books? Building one boat doesn't really qualify you as a designer. The software will draw anything you want...but you have to know what you want and WHY you need to have things a certain way whether you want it that way or not. I started over 10 years ago...and I look back at what I was so proud of back then and thank my stars I never actually built most of that crap or risked my skin in it. A few were OK...but only OK. I'm still learning...and probably will be buried with a book on design and a sign that says the same thing. Playing around with Freeship is fun and educational but you want to learn the principals behind the drawings before plunging into the cost and effort of doing a design you want to build.

Just sayin...and there will be more here that say the same. I am not trying to discourage you but there is more to designing a safe and well performing craft than just drawing it in on a computer.

Oh...and all the NAs around here continue to remind me of exactly the same thing I am telling you right here...nagging they are and that's a fact

 

Thanks for the advice, and your right building one boat doesnt qualify me as a designer and after giving it some thought i think I'd rather be spending time building boats than spending years getting to grips with software learning how to design them. Who knows, maybe in a few years i wont have to learn how to navigate my way through design software i will just verbally tell the computer what i want how i want it and it will do the rest for me, all without touching a mouse! Lazy! you may call me but im sure when CAD first started being used the old time builders called the new designers the same.

Books i do like. So do you have any recommendations that will teach me why we need things a certain way.