Boat modeling advise

[nicnormal]

Bonjour

i'm new to Autocad (mac) and to CAD. My first project is a detailed 3d model of a french barge. I started with the hull. I first create a planar surface of one of the sides then i lofted the stern with arcs cross sections. I only have a lateral picture and i can't loft with ribs. 

My questions : 1) am i in the right direction (using surfaces) ? How can i merge the different surfaces? I tried to make the side shorter and to  use the blend surface tool. But there's no continuity.

Thank you very much for your help.

Nicolas

[maxim_k]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

I think you are in "one of the right directions" and blend works here just fine.

You can merge surfaces with UNION command (see #2 in attached drawing)

You can also convert surfaces to mesh (see #3) and close bottom "hole"

Maxim

[pendean]

As a side note, if this is a career and not a hobby, I would consider more specialized software like http://www.ssi-corporate.com/product-services/autodesk or http://www.ssi-corporate.com/ which is Autodesk/AutoCAD based.
Or Autodesk Inventor.

Or go off the reservation with something like http://www.delftship.net/

[nicnormal]

Thank you very much Maxim for taking time to do my job (amazing)  and Dean for the links to  SSI (mind blowing pictures there)

this project is just for hobby . I studdied mechanics and industrial design a long time ago (when design was with transparent paper and rotring pens 🙂 ) .CAD fascinates me, and ship building as well. I'm glad to hear i'm on the right track with the barge. I cheked continuity with analysiszebra and it's seems there is a problem between the small blend surface and the stern. I'm afraid that could be a problem when i will apply texture on the hull . I don't now how to do it yet (i learn doing that project). Before the "small blend surface solution", i had perfectly aligned side surface and stern (see joined file) but couldn't find a way to merge them. Is there a way to do it ?

thanx again.

N

[nicnormal]

It's seems there is a way... Maxim you did it on the prow of the model you created. But how ?
N

[nicnormal]

Sorry for those successive messages.
Maxim, i try to apply surface blend or surface patch for the bottom and the deck of the hull but edges of the sides are not selectable at once. They are made of small segments. Is it normal? How can i apply blend or patch to close the hull. Thx
N

[maxim_k]

Hi Nicolas,

>>>>Maxim you did it on the prow of the model you created. But how ?

I made it as loft surface from 3 half ellipses (you can find them in attached DWG - cyan color) #1

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@nicnormal wrote:

Maxim, i try to apply surface blend or surface patch for the bottom and the deck of the hull but edges of the sides are not selectable at once. They are made of small segments. Is it normal? How can i apply blend or patch to close the hull. Thx
N

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You can create surface blend on the bottom with SURFBLEND command - see blue surface under #4 (I selected curved edges on the bottom of prow as the first surface edges and set of curved edges on the bottom of stern as the second set for blend)

About deck - as it should be lower then the sides - I created flat surface and used SURFTRIM command to trim it outside.

I also converted the resulting surfaces to 3D Solids with THICKEN command to give some thickness to the boat sides. (#5)

Maxim

[nicnormal]

Hi Maxim

thank you for that great help. The process is getting clearer. There are still a few things i'd like you to explain if you have time. In step 2 all the surfaces are merged (i still wonder how you merged the prow, there is no small surfaces between sides and prow, as between sides and stern. You didn't use surfblend, did you ?). I supposed thet step 3 must be ignored (mesh modeling). Then in step 4 the surfaces are not attached anymore ? did you recretate everything on that step or separate the parts (how?). In step 5 (1) you transformed every surfaces to solid (thick) except bottom, extruded cylinders for the portholes and in step 5 (2) you used solid substract to cut the holes. The portholes are not symetrical on each side on that barge (i know it because that's where i live)  and your way to cut them in solid is better than my way. I've tried to use surftrim with circles but each time i trim a hole on one side, another hole appears on the opposite site because the sides are merged (i did it in step 2). Do you know that problem ? I googled to find asolution, in vain.

regards

Nicolas