Kevin-the-lubber

Try this; https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/how-to-draw-a-boat-hull/td-p/6428751. I always listen to what Peter Doering says, he knows his stuff. You'll find examples in the thread which might be useful - I haven't looked but some of the lofts on my stern follow the same principles. Personally I wouldn't go near forms for this, and I only use surfaces when lofting or sweeping aren't possible.

Probably the trickiest part to print, the main body.... Resin printing is fabulous for detail but, as with all things in life, you can't have everything. Hence the inside (second photo) looks like it's had the Intrepide or Redoutable lobbing 24 pounders down the length of every deck all day long. This is the underside when printing, to which all the supports attach. My priority is to try to keep the visible outside edges as sharp as possible, especially the very top and the letters, at the expense of the interior. This is a test fit directly after removing all the supports and before cleaning up. I've built in the benches in the captain and admiral's quarters, as well as the quarter gallery floors (with en suite's of course), to give added rigidity and assist with fitting. Between them, the benches and floors lightly pinch the hull sides such that the whole thing sits in place without glue. Though the lower floor needs moving up a foot or two, you'd be needing a ladder in real life. All that mess in the third picture is the printing supports. More resin goes into these than in the part itself, but I've learned to go big rather than penny pinch. I think somewhere in that pile is the lower gallery decor I made a couple of days ago 😂... I tested it for fit ( fits nicely) but can't find it now so assume I scooped it up when tidying up. The only area that will, I think, need more than the lightest filling will be where the lower counter meets the hull. It's as good a fit as the kit part, which isn't saying much! The gap won't be as big as the picture suggests, just a little where the hull halves don't quite match.

I just got a chance to try the same thing (projecting the curves) myself, today, as I haven't used the project>intersection function, but as you say, it doesn't do the same as the solidworks equivalent. Pity, there are places where this would be useful. I think the best way to do this in F360 is through lofting with guide rails. The workflow would look something like this; 1. Draw the half deck view. You will only really need the outside edge, as a lofting guide rail. 2. Draw the side view. for the sake of simplicity here, keep the top edge straight and horizontal. make sure the sketch is closed (extrudable) 3. Draw the half stern view. Again, for simplicity's sake, make the top edge horizontal. (make sure the sketch is closed (extrudable) 4. loft the end to the side using the deck edge as a guide rail. This will give you a solid half. You could just as easily offset the hull edges to give a thickness and loft these. For what it's worth, I sometimes get tied in knots when lofting, with profiles apparently intersecting etc. And in passing, I sometimes get problems when combining complex shapes; I mention this because I use the same solution for both - I move one adjoining line either back from (lofting), or further into (combining) the other by typically 0.01mm. This usually does the trick. This issue has been very common, for me, when doing a '90 degree' type loft where the sections have a common line.

Thanks Marc, the hilarious thing is that this all started out as a way to have a break from my unsatisfactory and frustrating efforts to model the side steps - I thought I'd spend a week painting the stern from the kit, which looked interesting, while awaiting inspiration for a better way to do the steps. Until I found it impossible to paint the balustrades.... 😃. You'd have just got on with it! But it's got me to learn basic 3D modelling and the side steps should be much easier to get right, now. I know I can still improve on some bits of the stern, I could probably easily 'etch' this part a little more for instance, but at least I now have a fair base to work from if I get the inclination and, once I get the printing setups right, it's easy to make changes. I still haven't got a trophy that I'm happy with but will leave that for another day, nor touched the lanterns, which don't look so hard.

Half of this conversation sounds like etruscan to me.... jeers, thimbles, futtocks.. Which probably gives you an indication of how I'm getting on with Longridge, Bill. I like the drawings though. Look, it's simple. You just send it to me when ready, I'll stick it in my garage, after a month the resident spiders will have it covered in silken strings so fine and taut you'll be the envy of the entire forum.

It does hint at those round inflatable lifeboats on modern ships... does it have a quick release mechanism somewhere😊? In any case, plenty to hang onto once in the water....

Big day for me.... I essentially finished the stern modelling today, at least as far as I'll go with it for now. I have a printing marathon ahead... there are 39 parts to this 'mini-kit' and each one requires a lot of patience to set up for a good print, and no doubt some things will need a little fiddling. Here's the first off the press today, the fine decor at the bottom of the quarter galleries and lower counter, in this instance resting on the dummy body I made a couple of months back. Far from being an exact replica but I think it'll do. It's also the first time I've managed to do something using meshmixer, which I used to add the lines on the leaves.

Ah, now it makes sense. I knew there would be a good reason for it. Wow, that's a big platform, roomier than I thought. Sadly no longer present on VoP.

Neither, I mean the infill battens (or whatever they would be called) arrowed below. These days I imagine they'd be called a trip hazard :-). I realise these platforms were not for the faint-hearted and tripping was probably the least of your worries when someone was blasting cannonballs at the lower mast, but there must have been a reason they weren't just planked on top to create a flat working surface? (Meanwhile, I'm eyeing up the carbon fibre rods on my daughters old kite and thinking, would she ever miss it..... would she ever know.....)

On a different note, one of idle curiosity. Do you know why the fighting tops had the planking underneath the ‘joists’? I’m sure there was a good, logical reason for that.

That’s an interesting and unexpected change in properties!

I’m sure you would do this anyway but it’s worth mentioning at least two things here for beginners (I of course learned the hard way!). - make sure, when you create these planes, that the hull component is active (radio button checked), not the root. Otherwise It is an utter pain, down the line, to be trying to remember where things are. - name each plane, much as you do in solid works. Same reason - in a months time ‘Plane 3’ will mean nothing to you. I now name absolutely everything - every plane, sketch, extrusion, cut, etc etc. It takes very little time doing this as you go along and you get payback later on as it’s now very, very easy to isolate particular sequences in the timeline.

There's truth in that. Regarding resin, I'm finding ABS-like resin fairly tolerant of flexing, up to a point; and at that point, it simply snaps rather than remains bent. I keep meaning to read up on the structure of cured resin, I imagine it's crystalline, in case it's possible to heat treat it post-printing to make it more fibrous. I would have thought that, if the mast or spar has a carbon fibre/steel core, it would be fine. Something I'll test at some point.

Lovely detail there Daniel, even with resin printing (I assume) it looks like you are pushing the boundaries. I especially like the plank lines on the underside of the top. I have to admit I probably wouldn't have even thought of that. Are you not tempted to remake the masts as well? Doesn't look that hard 😁.

EG, this is a very helpful tutorial around basic workflow alone, I’m already beginning to feel slightly less daunted by the idea of taking on a hull (I.e a whole scratch built 3D printed mode). Richard, such a shame your couldn’t get permission for an AOTS book for the Cutty Sark. It’ll be the next thing I’ll build. I’m sure many here would appreciate a topic on building it in CAD.