Methods for modelling ship hulls

[Kvack]

Hi!

I'm planning on making a ship hull in Inventor but i'm having troubble making it. Therefore i want to ask you on the forums how you would go about modeling the hull after a blueprint, lines plan, like the one below. Please link me to other forums, threads, YT, and other meterial discussing the topic.

Thank you for your time!

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Kvack

Inventor version you're using?  And how much experience have you had with Inventor?

[IgorMir]

Hi Kvack,

You need to have a table of ordinates with the drawing. You can, of course measure the distances from the drawing itself, but it is a tedious task.

I would create a part with the set of sketches, spaced in accordance with the drawing,  representing the ribs of the ship. That is a Master Part for the model.

Then derive that part into a new part, leaving one sketch visible at a time. Make that part a fully constructed rib. Do it as many times as there are ribs in the ship.

Once done - create an assembly file, place all the ribs into it, ground them to the origin. Add all the required structural elements, as required.

For the ship skin - derive the Master part with all the sketches visible into a new part and try using Loft tool. 

Be advised, that creating a model of a ship is a challenging task. Since there is no "Just Do It" button in any a software. Not just in Inventor.

Cheers,

Igor.

[Kvack]

Hi

I’m currently using inventor 2018 and regarding my experience I’m only self-taught and only model as a hobby in my spare time (I’m 17) but feel that making a hull like this is a good next step in my learning curve   

[rayessle]

You could check out this youtube video of a canoe construction. would be similar for the boat hull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtlNOh_Usc

Ray Esslemont

[Kvack]

Hi

Thanks for your answer! First, as I was very unclear with my post, I only need the “skin layer” of the boat and not the ribs as parts. Second I have tried to loft several “rib” sketches together with a 3D sketch as keel but I always get the error “specified rail not smooth”. I have tried to apply both tangent and smooth constraints to that rail (the 3D sketch) and not been able to solve this problem, is this a problem you have encountered before and can help me with?

[IgorMir]

Hi Kvack;

It is hard to tell what kind of difficulties you experience without looking at the file itself.  Ray Esslemont in his video demonstrates the way to go about in your design as well. That's all I can say for now.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@Kvack wrote:

Hi

Thanks for your answer! First, as I was very unclear with my post, I only need the “skin layer” of the boat and not the ribs as parts. Second I have tried to loft several “rib” sketches together with a 3D sketch as keel but I always get the error “specified rail not smooth”. I have tried to apply both tangent and smooth constraints to that rail (the 3D sketch) and not been able to solve this problem, is this a problem you have encountered before and can help me with?

[Kvack]

Hi

Here is the hull file as a .ipt file. The problem I have is that I cannot loft all of the rib sketches together and use a 3D sketch between them as a rail without getting the error “specified rail not smooth” when lofting. Note that this part is not made after the picture in the begining of the thread.

[S_May]

Hi @Kvack,

a steep learning curve,
try your luck....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZD-As77jhA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtlNOh_Usc

[S_May]

Hi @Kvack,

a really good start,
But you need to reduce the spacing of the ribs otherwise the areas float away

[IgorMir]

Sascha, where do you see a really good start? You, with all your experience - will be able to work that model out. But not the OP. The only suggestion I can offer to Kvack is to put that model aside for a while and learn the Inventor by creating simple parts. Then get back to the shipbuilding challenges.

Best Regards,

Igor.

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@S_May wrote:

Hi @Kvack,

a really good start,
But you need to reduce the spacing of the ribs otherwise the areas float away

[S_May]

Hi @IgorMir,

I want to say
he has the rib sketch managed,
most people can not do that,
now he has to test and learn a lot.

Loft Feature 

[IgorMir]

Hi Sascha;

I hope - I have got your name spelled right. 

Anyway, yes the guy did make some moves toward creating what he wants. But I always wary of giving a big praise to anything which is even less then half cooked. Because it might give a person an idea that he/she is already there. And than - a gross disappointment keeks in, once it becomes obvious that the journey has just began. I hope that the OP understands it and will continue to learn. Just like we all do. 

Cheers,

Igor.

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@S_May wrote:

Hi @IgorMir,

I want to say
he has the rib sketch managed,
most people can not do that,
now he has to test and learn a lot.

[Kvack]

Hi!

Thanks for the videos, but I must ask, were you able to solve the problem with lofting with the 3D sketch between the rib sketches? Here is also a picture of my first and only boat that came out preatty decent but when i made it i had no need for a 3D sketch.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have seen this topic and it helped me a lot. I want to make my own boat (on scale) in inventor. 

I'm planning to make the ribs of sheet metal and the hull layer of 1mm so I can bend it by hand.  

is it possible to convert the surface of the hull to a flattpattern. or are there any other possibilities to do this? 

I have seen some people use Rhino but I do not have access to the program. 

(I have looked for a similar topic regarding this subject but could not find one directly) 

Thanks 

[Kvack]

Hi!

Glad the thread helped. I have not tried to convert the outside of the hull into a flat pattern. However, with my little experience i doubt its usefulness in your case. Depending on the scale and accessibility to hardware would it not rather be convenient to make mold to shape the sheets after? A mold from a 3D model would be rather easy to make. Otherwise id try and look up how they shaped sheet metal for hulls back in the day, they evidently managed to do it without computers. 

Regards,

Axel

[2617206M4BP]

I'm trying to make a WWII Iowa Class Battleship (BB-61) but I haven't been able to find the right hull shape so I'm kinda struggling, can I get some help?

[Frederick_Law]

I have BB62 1:350 model at home.