The Ship Model Forum

DrPR,

The original file was done several years ago on Cadkey 7 with FastSurf package. Great for 3d wireframe modeling and surface development on a small platform. About two years ago we switched up to Key Creator (currently 9.0) which uses the same algorithms as Cadkey, but is now has the FastSurf and FastSolid packages integral to the program.

I am using Solidworks 2010 also have Solid Edge ST3 but dont use it much as i am waiting to head to phoenix for some work and then gonna take some classes on it. the guy i work for got me a seat but needs to get me some training with it.

Joe

Fritz,

What software do you use?

I work the same way. I could never get a single surface to go through all the contortions at the aft end of the keel without it ending up with wrinkles everywhere. Knuckles weren't a problem in single surfaces, but I usually create two surfaces on either side of the knuckle anyway.

Another place single surfaces were hard to use was at the stern, at the lower outboard end of the transom where the smooth curve of the side meets the knuckle under the stern. You did a good job there on your Worcester hull.

well I am used to aircraft that dont have drastic changes in shapes like hulls do and I am used to just doing a solid loft all in one go. once I have the solid heres a cool trick. do an extrude cut and cut out all your stations. IE extrude cut and tell it to cut away everything but the drawings you made for the stations. now you have a lofted part showing all your stations.

Next save as an IGES file. close the loft then open the IGES. it will automatically create a seperate part for every station and create an assembly of all those parts. the only thing you will have to do is to mate them and I mate them to the top, front and right planes in the assembly.

thats a fast and easy way to pull out all your parts and it beats adding planes and doing intersect curves or projections

Joe

[quote="proflooney"] lol I need to take some surfaceing classes for Solidworks then maybe I can do hulls cause solid lofting sure dont work

Joe[/quote]

I'm with you, its the way we've always done it. Our old software (which this hull was originally done with, had the fast-surf package). It was a matter of digitizing stations, and then mentally breaking down the hull into its component fair surfaces. I.e. hull below chine, bulb, transom, half-siding, etc. then using diagonals splines to fair the stations and make individual surfaces. Then trim them. Now that we work with solid compatible software, its still both easier and more accurate to work with individual surfaces, and then stitch them to make a solid.

I tried the "deform a solid block till it looks right" method, but I found it near impossible to get it to mach a defined set of existing stations with any accuracy, not to mention issues with chines etc.

looks great I basically gave up trying to do a hull at least for now. one thing is I got too busy doing some aircraft for customers and cockpits, but then I need to get mack and try to finish my Yamato Hull if I can ever get it fixed. lol I need to take some surfaceing classes for Solidworks then maybe I can do hulls cause solid lofting sure dont work

Joe

Guess i might as well add myself to the list

Naval Architect/ marine engineer.

Also doing digital hull masters on the side for YMW. As the first one has finally been released, I can post these without letting the cat out of the bag. Unfortunately I've got several more I can't show just yet.

Best Regards

Fritz Koopman

USS Worcester Hull, CL-144 (sorry the exported renderings get funny shadows)

[attachment=2]cl144-1.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]cl144-2.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]cl144-3.jpg[/attachment]

I am a forklift designer, been running Pro-E for 13 years now.....haven't modeled a ship with it though.

rob you can delete all the superstructure and just do the hull if you like as the hulls are the only thing I need for my ships the rest of the superstructures I will be cadding myself anyways to be able to produce the parts on the laser

joe

Joe I was able to start converting it with a program I have but it keeps crashing the compy on me, so I need to play around with it. It is recognizing files and it is converting some of them, but about 20 minutes into it my laptop dies. I am going to try again tonight on my desktop which is a lot more powerful and 64 bit.

thanks yes I use solidworks most of the time for all my cad work working in parasolids. A friend of mine does a lot of 3d graphics work as I call it using 3d max and such for movies and cgi stuff. H happened to have a very detailed sumner class destroyer he gave me but it wasnt working to make a solid. oh well I was hoping to get off easy.

I have the station drawings vectorized for the Yamamoto and am working on the Hull stuff now then to figure out what I do with it lol.

Joe

Joe,

One of the problems I have seen in 3D file transfers is that what appears to be a solid in one program isn't a solid in another.

You can create a 3D object two ways in CAD, additive or subtractive.

Additive - draw each surface separately and then lump them together and call it a solid.

Subtractive - start with a large "work" piece and subtract "tool" pieces from it, like machining a block of metal on a milling machine or chipping away from a block of stone to create a sculpture.

The additive process can produce "leaky" solids with tiny gaps between surfaces. If exported to other programs these gaps can cause the parts to fail to be a true solid.

The subtractive process always leaves a true solid with no leaks.

well the file in rhino format which is what is supposed to be able to open in SW is at my website http://www.proflooney.net/destroyerrhino.zip

I get that it isnt a sollid or something in solidworks. I am gonna doublecheck the file seeif I can see something weird in it. but basically I want to get rid of the superstructure and just have the hull to start with in solidworks. I was in the navy and was on both a spruance class destroyer DD-967 the Elliot and a DDG DDG-15 the Berkeley both are scrapheaps now as the spruances they scrapped them all due to the aluminum superstructure cracking and I hear they rebuilt them with different materials and they called them something else now

Joe

I am something of a wiz at converting files if you need some help.

BTW I do have a really nice sumner class destroyer done in rhino and 3d max but it get errors trying to get it into solidworks

ok thanks rob. I think what gets me most is all those station or profile lines seem to intersect etc everything else. I am really good at loftin in solidworks even wrot tons of tutorials for the rc plane guys i just dont understand all the lines for the ship stuff so will be looking fer yer tutorial

Joe H.

Hi Joe, welcome. I am putting together a tutorial on how to make a hull using surfaces in Solidworks. I'll post it on here as soon as it is done. Make sure and look for another recent post where DrPr and I discussed it.

lol not sure what I have. for the bismark I am using the drawings out of the anatomy of a ship book. I just started a thread for the help stuff as I figured this wasnt the place to do a full discussion on it. I will digest what you just posted and see what I have and maybe post a pic on my other thread.

joe

Joe,

Are you working from station line drawings or a Table of Offsets?

Station lines are vertical slices perpendicular to the longitudinal center line. Waterlines are horizontal slices through the hull at various elevations. Butt lines are vertical slices at regular transverse distances from the centerline.

Station spacing varies from hull to hull. For example, for the 610 foot long Cleveland cruisers station spacing was 15 feet, but it was 16.5 feet for the 673.5 foot Baltimore class ships. The length of the ship is divided into some number of stations and the general lines are drawn onto the hull cross sections at these stations. Later, after the hull lines are done the actual frame lines are created.

The Table of Offsets is much more accurate than hull line drawings. For US ships the width of the hull (transverse or "Z" dimension) is given in feet/inches/eighths of an inch - so 23-7-3 would be 23 feet plus 7 inches plus 3/8 inch. Sometimes the eighths number may have a "+" suffix, meaning that it is more than the value given, but less than an additional eighth (I just add 1/16 inch). I am not familiar with how foreign tables are set up.

These numbers are listed at various elevations (waterlines, or "Y" dimension) at a given station (longitudinal, or "X" dimension).

All elevations are relative to an imaginary "Base Line" on the [i]inside[/i] of the keel plating. All offsets are to the [i]inside[/i] of the hull plating - the actual outer surface of the framing the plating attaches to. Hote: the hull is substantially wider where the armor belts are attached outside the hull plating.

Did this help?

hi guys im new here just signed in today. I been using solidworks for a while now as my main cad program and also useing solid edge for abt a year. my main cad is drawing aircraft from factory drawings for museums, replica builder, and rc modellers. now I wanna have a try at ship design but am totally lost as how to do hulls so hoping to learn something here.

I want to do for myself personally 3 ships to make as a large RC model. I want to do the Yamamoto, the Bismark (currently trying to vector the station lines to do my loft) and an old sumner class or fletcher class destroyer.

the rest of the stuff on the ships are easy for me but I cant seem to make heads or tails out of the station stuff for lofting the fuse.

Joe H.