fnkershner

Have you tried Onscape. I was talking to one of our better 3D print guys today. He says he has gone from Fusion to Onscape. Most of what he told me was over my head but it is just an idea.

I so wish I had your Fusion skills! Wow! I am about a year behind you. I am still struggling with projecting the frames onto the offset planes. From there the lofting is easy.

The answer Thomas depends on the 3D printing process. The machines that Shapeways uses are the highest quality. I am very impressed.

We also have a ABS printer in our lab. I have not used it. I have not found a need to buy a reel of ABS. There is also the issue of venting fumes.

Lou - I can help you with the fusion 360 and you know where the printers are.

Haze Gray - I can offer you 3 printers if that will help. 2 are Leap frogs and 1 is a CR10. All you have to do is provide the filament. 

Have you considered the binder clip clamps?  I like them much better than those screw in clamps. If anyone wants screw in clamps let me know. I used them once and immediately switched to the binder clips. The price is right to! My employer at the time was kind enough to donate to the cause.

This is the most complex Fusion drawing I have seen so far! Lots of great work.

What is your fav source for PLA? If you are considering building your own 3D printer at Maker Space they have several workshops to assist.

CDW - I suggest you friend also look at Shapeways.com. Cost is a bit higher but the quality is amazing.

Joe - I will echo CDW. I have recently retired after 44 years in the IT industry. So I do understand the technology side, and I enjoy it. I should also mention that my modeling skills are not what I would hope for. I often substitute power tools for skill. So spending time in front of the computer seems normal to me. (just ask my wife) . I have spent the last 4 months learning Fusion and 3D printing. I am very impressed with the opportunities this gives me. Now it is hard to say where I spend more time. We will see as I progress.

I cannot comment on Onshape. I have never used it. But considering the amount of free training available for Fusion I think that would sway me.

Fusion 360 is Cloud based. So you can store your designs on the web and share with others easily. Also several people can work on the same design.

Haze Grey - A few posts back you mentioned Seattle. Do you live in the Puget Sound region? We have a club - The Puget Sound Ship Modelers. I would love to meet you and compare notes on Fusion360. Please PM me with an email address.

I agree about the YouTube videos. Lots of good info. Not much for ship building. So your initial plane was the deck or the cross section along the keel? How big is your 3D printer? This is a large model.

Ok lets start with a question or 2. what is the total length of the model? How are you planning to print her? I assume in sections and you will lay them down with the cross section to the 3D printer bed to reduce the support structure required. If you print in sections are you planning something to assist the join? Such as a tab that overlaps.

How did you arrive at the hull design? For my project I have been thinking of establishing the initial plane as the deck (mirrored). The at points along the hull create construction planes and draw bulkheads on these planes. Then use loft to connect these bulkheads.

I am so glad to find this thread. For the past several months I have been teaching myself Fusion 360. I have found it very powerful. There is a steep learning curve but it does pay off. Particularly for someone like me who has never used any CAD/CAM S/W before. I have just recently started to experiment with the lofting command. So get ready I am going to bore you with lots of questions! 

So I am still more interested in using Fusion to create plans for wooden Sailing Ship based on blueprints, or creating a design for a CNC Router to cut a half hull. But first let me comment on your subject. I think this is a very interesting subject. These Pre-Dreadnought Battle ships are some of the last Tumblehome designs. It seems that the French were quite late in moving from Tumblehome to Flared design. There are some that feel that this contributed to the failure of the Russian Fleet during the Russo-Japan war. Most of the Russian ships were of a French design. While the Japanese were more modern and used the Flared approach. Tumblehome ships had poor protection below the waterline and were susceptible to capsizing. The Russians lost 2 ships this way.

PS most of the navies of the world watched the Russo-Japanese war with great interest. Afterwards almost all Tumblehome ships were scrapped.

I will organize my thoughts on Fusion and be back. Thanks again for starting this very interesting discussion.

As mentioned above. Shapeways has recently increased the list of materials they support.

Stainless Steel

Bronze

Brass

Aluminum

Porcelain Ceramic

Several colors of various Plastics. 

This list is growing. I suggest keeping an eye here.

I agree! Lars is outstanding. I think he is getting tired of my emails.  but he answers each one. Slowly but he does answer. He is up to 144 live chats. I have asked him for a video on lofting ship plans. He has promised to do this soon.

CDW - This is not true. Shapeways will print any design in 4 different materials - PLA, A different Plastic, Gold, & Silver. of course the Gold & Silver will cost more. The intended Market for the gold & silver is jewelry design. I am not going to tell you this is cheap but it is doable.

PS 3D printing is moving in the direction of printing almost any material. Including Drugs.

Spider - I know how hard it is to get rid of the salt in your blood. As you can see from my profile pic. I used to race Sail boats. The knees don't like the diving under the boom anymore but the rest of me loves a good sail.

I will definitely pass on your good wishes.

PS Gil once told me that when he was in Medical School. He was told to tie knots inside a match box with tweezers & forceps. And yes his rigging is that good.

AS the president of the local modeling club that Gil is a member of, I can tell you first had that all of his models are excellent. He has the Flying Cloud, Constitution, and of course the Victory as mentioned above. He has retired from modeling and just recently completed a semi-scratch model of a sailing yacht. He may not see your posts here.

Model Monkey is very reasonable. if he doesn't have something you want you can send him a jpg of the part and he will model it for you. He has done this for me and I was very happy with the speed, price, & quality. If you have a design you want to print. I have access to several 3D printers and I would be glad to print them for you for just the cost of postage. But as mentioned above, I cannot match the quality of Shapeways.

This is not an area I am very good at. I am very interested in 3D printing. I have stumbled across this site. I noticed all the 3D parts for US Navy ships.

If you go to Shapeways.com you may find additional parts of interest. they have a huge inventory of recent US Navy ship detailed parts.