Delftship+Shipconstructor=good idea?

Hi!

I have a question about how the Delftship and ShipConstructor fit together? I have a hard time to get Delftship hull surface to the ShipConstructor. Well I can but it is not well performed- not single curvature surfaces and they are in small pieces. Is it possible to make it as easy as with Rhino. I see that there is function for Rhinoceros and it works fine, but I am used to work with Delftship and would like to use it also in the future, but this could be not possible if I can’t make it work with ShipConstructor. Thank you in advance.

 

Never mind...misread the OP


or maybe not. Do you have all three programs?

 

ShipConstructor: importing surfaces, basic rules

ShipConstructor will acquire a surface model in two ways:
- using the import functionality provided by AutoCAD (iges, etc.)
- reading a Rhino3D file

In all cases, ShipConstructor / AutoCAD can only import what is produced by the surface modelling program. Therefore the first rule is to clearly identify what the other program produces: true nurbs, Koon's patch models, Bezier's patch models, single or multiple surface models, etc.

Most programs produce surface models made of many small patches. In other words, the "holes" in a 3D wireframe are filled with nurbs or nurbs-like patches. Of course, in this case, ShipConstructor / AutoCAD will import the patches. This can indeed be inconvenient and, in some cases, of no practical use, as the patches must be combined into larger surfaces as needed for the job at hand (ex. to run hull stringers, to define shell plates, etc.).

Some programs, like Rhino3D, offer the tools to produce surface models with only one or a small number of large surfaces.

I am not aware of the nature of the DelftShip surface model and modelling tools, and will welcome the opportunity to review this topic in more depth, to finally possibly determine a "best path" to bring DelftShip surface models into the ShipConstructor / AutoCAD environment.
If anyone wishes to correspond, please contact me on ndar@ndar.com .

 

So far, the only way I've seen Freeship/Hydronship/Delftship produce single-surface shell (pieces, rather than bazillions of facets) is in the "Low" quality setting. But, that setting doesn't give good quality or Best quality curves. Medium, High, and Highest give better curves quality, but at the expense of multiple multiple thousands of facets. That, however, is apparently because I have around 7 control points at each "Station" or crease at intervals along the shell.

Another experiment I tried was to choose a convenient waterline and crease there, then reducing the number of control points that way led to a slightly easier shell plate, but it (I think) changes the curvature of the split stations tangent.

What I haven't yet tried is making two separate models, one with the waterline and below acting as a "common" hull model piece, and all variable work taking place on the waterline and above model. But, I somehow thing that the hydros engine won't like that. Plus, depending on the purpose of the hull, changing the upper portion might necessitate modification of the below part for stability -- stuff I'm not prepared to play around with.

Maybe more experienced/knowledgeable people can chime in?