Software for plans

Hello all

I have produced a little catamaran for myself in Freeship and Rhino. It is almost built and a friend is building one too. I have been doing the plans in Rhino but it is not really suitable for producing 3D plans showing laminates, and cores in a realistic view as is useful in plans. Also text is not so easy to put where you want.

What basic software is good for producing 3D and 2D plans for others?

cheers

Phil

 

Try Draftsight: http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/
It is a freeware clone of Autocad, very well made.

Cheers

 

Is it a free software ?

 

Yes it is. But you will have to register before using it. The registration is free.

 

Thanks I will give it a try but it looks like it can only do 2D. I am trying to get that look where I can have a layer that looks like double bias glass and another that is a core of biaxial and give me a nice 3D shot.

Phil

 

I'll take a look at this too. The page Daiquiri linked only says that Draftsight does DWG files, but this page mentions that it also does DXF. That's really handy, because the free version of Delftship will export hulls as DXF.

 

Why not just use a 2D drawing program and draw things in isometric view? Seems perfectly adequate for showing things like scantlings etc...

The useful thing about 3D modelling software, is it allows you to see what the shapes are like aethetically. Apart from that, getting the 3D shapes you want, i spend most of my time drawing in 2D anyway... anything that needs to be measured and cut, is best shown in 2D...

i use autoCAD for the 2D stuff but its not free, theres other free stuff out there, or low cost stuff. Perfect for making up sets of plans... take your pic at whatever suits your style...

 

It could be me

Gday Groper

A little background - I am a Science teacher at a high school and during my time off I am building my second prototype folding cat. The first one worked really well and this one should be even better. It has taken me an age - about 6 years - to construct. I had a lot of time off doing house and big boat stuff.

A friend wants one and so I am drawing him plans using Rhino. The boat is designed using Rhino and we used this to produce DXF files to get his and my boat parts cut out using a router. I would like to make some plans like the ones Ian Farrier did with nice isometric views of laminate and bulkhead layout. His plans have the biaxial glass looking like biax and the double diagonal looking like double diagonal. I have tried doing Make2D in Rhino but it often leaves huge amounts out and my computer really grunts if the part is is any way large. It can't do hulls and laminates and I can't seem to get Rhino to do glass laminates that look good in black and white when printed.

I spend most of my time (when I am not at work) building, less time redesigning parts as they need it (this is the good part of doing your own prototyping) and then some time drawing plans. I am not that good at the playing with Rhino or Cad software as I am usually in the shed. I am a builder/designer who wants to use tools to draw better.

How do I do isometric views in 2D from a 3D model? Is it simple to do?

cheers

Phil

 

Catsketcher is this what you are after a flat 2d drawing from a 3d model in rhino,if so use the “make 2d drawing” command in the dimensions menu. Pick the view you need (perspective in this case) and parts you want, select current view and un tick the show hidden lines. This will put 2d drawing down on the xy top view. From here you can export out to a 2d drafting programme ( in this case I used DESIGNCAD as it has a good selection of hatch patterns and fonts which are all adjustable. You can also change line weights for different thickness.(see pic for examples )

 

CS, you sound alot like me mate, im just a tradie who should have finished my degree when i had the chance back then, now have to juggle a family, kids and now a boat build

So, i think your wanting to go directly from your rhino model to a workable plan drawing...

I cant help with the rhino stuff as i dont use it... But what i do is a 3D model in one program, then export all the sections, plan views, elevations etc to a DXF which i then manipuate in my 2D software from there. I dont touch the 3D software beyond that because it doesnt have teh capability to produce a working set of plans including all the dimensioning, text input etc etc.... the 3D software is only good for developing a shape, beyond that, its crap at doing much else...

To draw an isometric view, simply orientate yourself so that the x axis is drawn at 60degrees and the y axis at -30 degrees, the z axis is 0 degrees, on paper. Attempting to draw a curved hull like this is futile however. Most 3D software has the ability to export whatever view is shown on screen, so simply orientate the object the way you want it shown, then export the surface edges, then manipulate the object in 2D from there adding whatever detail you wish to show. Showing details doesnt have to be to scale nor does it have to be accurate, it only has to represent the detail youve chosen to illustrate - unlike a drawing for dimensions which has to be accurate and to scale etc...

 

Thanks

I have downloaded the CAD software recommended by Daquiri and will give that a go - exporting into it and then seeing what I can do.

I will get back with my progress

Phil

 

Like I said, it is a clone of Autocad. So it can handle all the types of file which are handled by Autocad. Including dxf.

 

Not having much fun learning the new CAD program - it will take time. Then I thought - have times moved on? It is probably silly to try and get a look that Farrier had on his plans in the 90s. Why not just do a nice render with photorealistic laminates and core where required. The import this into a drawing program for annotation. I think I would rather not have to bother with getting Make2D (which is such a pain) to work better.

Whaddaya think?

Phil

 

Check out the gallery of our forum member TANSL: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/profile/tansl.html . Those are assembly drawings for metal boats, but the same kind of stuff can be done for laminted hulls imo. However, you wont be able to completely avoid the use of 2D (imo again). You'll need it at least for workshop drawings, or for the cnc nesting, of mold framings...
Cheers

 

I can certainly understand doing 2D for nesting and plan orientation. I will still play around with 2D but will get a bit more into rendering too.

cheers

Phil