Boat Building Forum

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Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
By:Aaron H
Date: 3/11/2009, 12:01 pm
In Response To: Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms (PatrickC)

I think FreeShip is your best option of the dedicated boat design freeware available. You'll need to build a table of offsets for input to create the CAD model; how complex the form shapes are will determine how many points each one will require. You could probably limit the number of points considerably (6 per form?) to save significant time and effort without sacrificing too much accuracy... This method is probably a lot faster and more accurate than trying to replicate it in Kfoundry by trial and error. It all depends on what you are most comfortable with, though; it may not make sense to spend a lot of time learning new software if you are already very comfortable with other options.

For basic hydrostatics (no performance calculations) I'd use something like Rhinoceros 3D. IMO, its easier to build an accurate CAD model in Rhino, especially with fewer offset points (MUCH more powerful curve and surface creation tools) but you'll be limited to the hydrostatic info you can generate... You can still export the Rhino model to FreeShip, but that requires a lot of tweaking once imported into FreeShip...

: It has soft chines. Woodstrip.

: Since building a boat is both art and science, i've done the art part...it
: looks good. I just wonder if it will float.

: If i can't do exact xy corrdinates then i did see i could use kayak foundry
: and get it pretty close by shaping a form with the program..then i could
: print that and overlay it over my form...repeat until they match. But i'm
: not sure kayak foundry can match the curves of the hull overall.

Messages In This Thread

Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
PatrickC -- 3/10/2009, 10:09 pm
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
Phil Nelson -- 3/11/2009, 5:11 am
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
PatrickC -- 3/11/2009, 10:00 am
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
Kudzu -- 3/11/2009, 1:48 pm
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
Phil Nelson -- 3/11/2009, 6:31 pm
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
PatrickC -- 3/11/2009, 8:55 pm
Re: Seeking: Reverse engineering forms
Aaron H -- 3/11/2009, 12:01 pm