What's become of Plyboats?

Design Software.

Formsys started allowing a fully operational version of the Maxsurf design software to be downloaded by students and backyard boat builders in 2004. I now using my 5th verson, it expires Jan 1, 2010. Not a problem as you can renew each year. I have to admit that it is not my primary design tool. I do the primary design in Autocad 2000 or Multisurf 4.8 (both are very expensive) then import the design into Maxsurf for fine tuning. Try it, use the online tutorials and other learning modules to get up to speed. You will not be sorry.


Register Here: http://www.formsys.com/academic/maxsurf/

 

Carene Software

We no longer have carene software for download on our site
http://www.epoxy-resins.co.uk
Can you please remove any links to this software
Rob

 

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/robert.laine/

You can still get Carene 2008 here for free.

 

AutoCad

jjoftheusa,
Do you use an add on for AutoCAD? if not please PM as I have and use AutoCAD mainly in a 2D format for work and would love to be able to use it for basic hull designs. Any info or help you have for using AutoCAD for hull design would be great.

Thanks

 

an effective software

The program has given me the possibility to design two very satisfactory boats: one of 3.6 m (oar and sail) and the other of nearly 5 m motor, stitch and glue. I wouldn't discard it so lightly. The development of the plysheets is perfect. I attach a photo giving only a partial view of the little one. Me at oars.

 

I didn't know Carenne was still around. I have an old version, not very flexible but surely the easiest to use hull design program ever created.

 

True...and the panels, while perfectly developable, are kind of restricted and very conservative in that there is quite a bit of fudge factor available...especially in the bow area shape. Carene allows very little in the way of twisting which is still quite doable. I usually bang up a basic hull near to the shape I am looking for and then import into FreeShip! to massage it. Use the "save as XYZ" format to save your file and FreeShip! will import it. If you are like me and like to use feet and inches, I usually work in Carene as if I am using feet and decimals, then import it, change to imperial and scale to .3048 in all dimensions...comes out perfect. LOA that starts as 12 m comes out 12 ft etc. Seeing as I already know about what kind of displacement the hull I am modeling should be at I do the lines to reflect that neighborhood so when I get it settled into Freeship there is only a little tweaking to do as far as that goes. If I am way off I can go back and alter the basic hull and re-import. It is so much easier to tell the program to move the bottom of the transom up .125 and get all the lines to fair along the hull length without having to move individual points and try to keep everything fair as I go. I think of it as doing the Macro hull in Carene and the Micro in FreeShip!.

Try the 2008 version...it has an option to do multiple chines over the normal 5, allowing you to consider lapstrake or even wide strip as a method of construction during your design phase. You can also play a bit with the bow shapes in this mode by varying the number in the stem shape around the zero default. + numbers give a more rounded shape, and - numbers more raked...in profile of course.

 

I hadn't realised Carene's XYZ format would import to FreeShip. Thanks for the info. I had the 2003 version which permitted a Vee bottom with limited twisting and 2 constant camber 2 planks; that's about it, although there were some features I never figured out without the manual. A constant camber plank is easy enough to develop graphically but it is a handy program nonetheless. The other thing that is so great in Carene is the way it displays the effect of moving the load fore and aft; it's very useful to be able to quickly see how stable a given hull is. I have downloaded the 2008 version and run through the manual which is going to be most useful; thanks again.

 

I asked Martjin to include it way back with the first version or 2 of FreeShip and as it was simply coordinates it went in well. I still wish I could find something that would give me a good look at the waterline shape with the boat heeled a various angles...and the displacement figures to go with it but so far anything that does is WAY out of my $ range...and probably too complicated for my pea brain to boot!

 

Hi All,

I seem to be suffering from the pea brain effect as someone else remorsed. I just downloaded the Carene software for a bit of fun (getting a 1st draft skiff sorted out fairly well), but have not been able to access the manual refered to in posts above. Great user info in the previous postings. Any other user tips would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

 

you'll have to ask specific questions about what you need...I never had the manual and it took me a while to figure things out. Funny...I never really got the hang of Hulls, but I tried it after using Carene so I think it poisoned me. There are a few quirks in Carene but I suppose there are in all programs...reflections of the writer I guess.

Just how did you access the manual if I might ask?

 

Free!Ship will allow you to rotate the hull about the X axis but it rotates the 2 halves of the hull in opposite directions! I haven't tried it but it may be possible to get it to provide the shape of the waterline for 2 cases rotated +x and -X degrees, and join these in a graphics program, but it won't probably won't be able to provide the displacement becaue of the leaks ot detects. Maybe if one side is displayed and a vertical wall raised from the keel-line, but again I haven't tried it.

 

Interesting...I will have to try that...like right now!

 

Well...Slap your grandma...it works!...Sorta. You close the hull along the centerline and you can get a good picture of the lee side as you adjust the waterline to reflect the displacement...a bit fiddly to do as you have to keep checking back and forth and resetting the waterline to get to the target displacement.

So now to try it with a - setting and see what the windward side will look like and if the two can be combined to provide a decent idea of what the heeled boat waterline will look like.

 

Well...with the meager tools at my disposal (Paint) and the obtainable views that I have been able to come up with so far...You CAN combine them up to a certain point...that point being that the centerline cannot be out of the water. DUH! If the centerline is out of the water then the rest of the hull is too...stupid!

Anyhoo...here is the result at 15 deg of heel...



The bottom is the windward side...the green is hull bottom out of the water, and the top is the lee side. Seems to work! It isn't perfect but it is pretty close...enough to give you an idea of what it would be at heeling angles


How I did this:
First...Save it as a different file! Then extrude the keel line up to the highest part of the boat to get the leakers above the waterline. DON'T do this AFTER rotating as you will be extruding at an angle to the hull! Deselect all then Transform/Rotate and rotate along the longitudinal axis...+ numbers will give you the lee side and - numbers will give you the windward side. The boat is going to rotate around the LCF so things are going to look a little weird in the bodyplan view. Deselect the Show control net button so the points disappear. Use the perspective view to get a plan view along the centerline looking down and right click and save image. Do the same, starting with the original and saving to another file name and tilt the hull in the opposite direction by the same amount. Open one file in your image editor of choice then flip, copy and open another copy of the editor with the other image, paste and line up the images.

Thank you Ancient WiseMan...for pointing me in the right direction!

Edited to add: you might want to fiddle with the color scheme to get the best results for seeing the waterlines