Egilman

I knew you would get it brother.... I had faith....

Thank you... The ripple your seeing is a curve in the upper hull side that I took a shortcut in creating, it did the job but not as well as doing it the correct way with a spline... Yes, Rhino is very capable I tried to learn it a few years back, but I just couldn't get around the whole vertex manipulation thing... ie. you build something over hours being very careful to make sure you get it right then you find you need to move an edge so you rotate the model so you can select the vertex's that make up the edge but when you do it you miss one... to make matters worse you don't catch it until your three or four more steps down the road..... Not being very experienced I couldn't fix it and more often than not had to completely redo the thing I was working on... Mesh software and I do not get along.... I'm not sure about the faster and better though..... Blender, Maya, Rhino there are more of them and I've tried a lot of them... They all do beautiful work, for someone experienced in how they function... They are just frustrating to me, a tool I was unable to master... I have a great deal of respect for those that get them to work for them... But I see work done in SW and Fusion 360 that rivals them all... and for some people I think they would be easier to learn and use... and yes I have access to Rhino version 8 is the latest I think... Just my opinion.... Set up my table and drag out my pencils and I'll draw with the best of them, I still have all my drawing tools except for the table.... (and I shouldn't have gotten rid of that) But I have to go into software if I want to model what I want and SW and F360 are the first ones to actually give me useable, real world results....

I understand what your saying Richard, now I can change the stern edge of the upper hull to remove the fillet and use a spline to make the curve having complete G3 continuity, I just saved myself the work of that with lines and a fillet... I'll change it and post the results... As the hull build progresses the turn of the bilge is done with edge fillets along the curve which will result in the same thing.... The program handles filleting surfaces differently than filleting lines in a sketch... Being as this isn't a mesh cad program I don't have any control points to manipulate but showing the curve as control points is a good way to illustrate the problem you are explaining... Thank you I will take out my shortcut and do it the hard/right way..... Good catch...

Very true, chine hulls for the most part are just that, flat panels bent into a curve in one direction.... Extremely simple and very quick to build.... For example... A Sunseeker Predator 108.... No compound curves..... I'm not saying you can't have compound curves in a chine hull cause you can, it's just not very common and in construction terms overly complicated.... I think the whole process of building those surfaces took about an hour but it's hard to judge given the amount of documentation I was taking.... The whole process of posting that took 4 hours and the actual modeling of it was a very small part of the process.... I'm sure that this would work for a compound curved hull, I've built the superstructure of this boat and it is nothing but compound curves.... Two curves delineate the two edges of the surface and an edge forms the shape of the surface... You see this in the lower hull part, the stern edge not a straight line yet it forms the surface of the lower hull... which makes it a curved loft along a compound curved edge doesn't it? Take a close look at that lower stern edge, it's a very gentle curve changing radius to a very tight curve at it outer end, look at the vertical stern edge of the upper hull surface it has a 200/400mm dogleg in it... Compound curve hull, with no lines, no frame profiles, and no problems brother...

Now we start on the lower hull... Open a sketch on the side plane.... Draw a horizontal line from the stern plane to where the keel line starts to curve upwards.... Draw a single spline from the end of the horizontal line to the bottom corner of the loft you just created.... Make both ends tangent with the lines they are attached to.... Then adjust the handles to match the curve of the keel line as close as you can.... (may not be exact) Close and rename the sketch... Create a new sketch on the stern plane... And draw a single spline as seen here.... Rotate the model so you can see both the spline and corner of the loft above... Select the lower corner of the loft and control select the end of the spline and set a coincident relationship.... The spline end vertex will snap to the lower stern corner of the loft Select the other end of the spline and control select the keel profile and set a pierce relationship.... The other spline vertex will snap to the end of the profile line.... Go to the normal to view the stern plane and select the spline, and adjust the handles to match the curve on the drawing as best you can.... Close the sketch and rename it.... Your two profile curves are set up.... Go to Insert > Surface > Loft, when the dialog box opens, click in the Profiles box and select the bottom edge of the hull side and the keel horizontal profile as shown in the picture, a preview of your lofted surface will appear.... Make sure that the green balls are both on the same end as shown in the picture, If not, click and drag one ball to the other side of the sketch.... (you see the preview of the loft) Next, click in the Guide Curves box and select the Stern end profile, make sure to set Guide Curves Influence Type to "To Next Guide"..... Click the green check mark to ok the loft.... SW will take a few seconds to calculate the loft and pass it to the screen... Here is is.... Voila! you now have a finished hull surface... Make sure to save your file as giving it an appropiate name... (I used Hull Surfaces) There is still a lot more to do to close off the Stern but I will do that in the next installment as this is quite long as it is... Give it a try, it's not hard at all... EG

Ok lets get a hull built.... The first step is to start drawing out the hull curves in 2D space... We start with the top view hull edge profile by starting a sketch on the bottom plane and rotate to the top view.... Using the spline tool create two splines, starting at the intersection of the front plane and the side plane... The end of the first spline is located between the side plane and the side line of the hull... From there create another spline that runs to the portion of the hull side that is straight, (the connection between the two splines should be tangent to each other, SW does this relationship automatically) Use the spline handles to match the spline to the line on the drawing as close as possible.... Next, draw a straight line from the end of the last spline, horizontally to the stern plane.... Make sure the connection from the straight line to the spline has a tangent relationship... Also add a fixed relationship to the three lines, this fixes them in space so they can't be accidently moved... (I don't know if you can fix/lock lines in F360, you can in SW so take advantage of it) Close the sketch and name the sketch to something you will remember... (include a number in the name so you will also know the order they were created, I used 001 Hull Upper Edge H Profile, the "H" is to tell you it is a horizontal profile) Next, we draw the horizontal upper edge profile.... Create a new sketch on the side plane... Draw a straight line from the front plane along the top edge of the hull to the point it starts to curve upwards... Then draw three connected splines following the curve of the hull edge.... Then draw a straight line from the last spline to the stern plane... At the two ends of the spline section, add tangency relationships between the end splines and the straight lines... Close and rename the sketch.... (I used 002 Hull Upper Edge V Profile, the "V" for vertical) Now we are going to create a projected curve in 3D space.... In Isometric view, you can see the two lines you just sketched, on their respective planes... Go to Insert> Curve> Projected and a dialog box opens asking you to select the profiles you wish to project... You select the two sketches you just created and SW projects the intersection of the two curves in 3D space as a yellow line.... Accept that and the line turns blue and the sketch line dissappear in the viewport, (they still exist on their respective individual sketches).... You now have the top edge of your hull in 3D space... Simple wasn't it? We will now continue on to project the compound curve chine line in 3D space.... Create a sketch on the side plane... Draw a straight line over the upper chine line from the Stern Plane to the point where the chine starts to curve upwards... Draw two connected splines from the end of the straight line to the bow stem line.... Add a tangent relation between the first spline and straight line then use the spline handles to match the splines to the curve, the same as we did for the first edge.... note that the line in the drawing is not a perfect mathematical curve but the spline is so you will have to compensate... (you want the perfect curve, if you duplicate the line exactly your hull will be distorted when lofted) Close the sketch and rename it... (I used 003 Chine H Profile) Start a sketch on the bottom plane... From the stern plane draw four connected splines.... Rotate the model space so you can see you splines and the profile of the last sketch you made... Select the left endpoint of the previous profile... Now select the left endpoint of the spline you just created and add a coincident relationship between the two end points.... the spline point will snap to the side plane in the same position as the previous profiles end point.... Return to the bottom view.... Use the Spline handles to align the splines with the upper chine line in the bottom drawing as close as you can, when done add a horizontal relationship to the end of the spline at the stern plane.... Close the sketch and rename it.... (i used 004 Chine V Profile, At this point I think you all get the point of naming the sketches makes it easier to follow the steps you used to create your feature) In isometric view you can see your two sketch profiles.... So we now project these profiles as well to project the chine line in 3D space... Go to Insert> Curve> Projected, select the profiles you just created and wish to project, SW projects the intersection of the two curves in 3D space.... You now have two projected curves in 3D space covering the side of the upper hull, before we can loft the surface, we need to close the gaps at the ends.... First the stern... We create a sketch on the stern plane... Draw a vertical line down from the upper projected line half way down towards the lower projected line.... then you continue with another line connected to the first angled towards the lower projected line... Connect the top vertex to the end of the upper curve, the bottom vertex to the end of the lower curve.... Turn on your stern drawing and rotate the view so you looking directly at the stern view, (normal to the stern plane) you see that your lines don't match up well with the drawing... The vertical line of the hull is not vertical it slants towards the center and the corner doesn't match the slight turn of the hull at the intersection of the lines.... Create a 200 mm fillet at the connection of the two lines... Select the vertical line and remove the vertical constraint.... Grab the upper vertex of the fillet and move it to line up with the bend in the hull side shown on the drawing... Close the sketch and rename it.... Now, to close the bow... Open a new sketch on the side plane... Draw a line at an angle but off the bow stem line.... Select the upper vertex of the line you just drew and control select curve 1, when the dialog box opens select the pierce relation... The vertex will snap to the end of the curve line... Do the same for the lower vertex and curve 2... Close the sketch and rename it... Go to Insert > Surface > Loft, when the dialog box opens, click in the Profiles box and select both Curves 1 and 2 as shown in the picture, a preview of your lofted surface will appear.... Make sure that the green balls are both on the same end as shown in the picture, If not, click and drag one ball to the other side of the sketch.... Next, click in the Guide Curves box and select the two end sketches, make sure to set Guide Curves Influence Type to "To Next Guide"..... Click the green check mark to ok the loft.... SW will take a few seconds to calculate the loft and pass it to the screen... Here is is.... Next post we will start on the lower hull... EG PS: sorry for the long winded post.....

I would say a '43 model, (maybe a '42)....

Ok I will start modeling with the Solidworks version as it is the version I am most familiar with.... The steps of this process is the same for both software's, SW & Fusion 360... The tools used are the same, it's just the way the tools are used is different between the two... Those familiar with SW will be able to follow with no problem, the same with F360.... I will be doing this in both software as I wish to learn to do it in both so those with F360 experience can advise me as well... Disclaimer: The point of this is to learn the process of designing a 3D solid body ships hull... This is not a tutorial on how to use either software, (sorry brothers) If you need to learn how to use the software I would suggest you use any of the plethora of introductory tutorials on the net to learn the basic operation of the software.... There are many free ones both video and PDF for basic sketching and interface operation... Also, I'm not going to get into the details of the actual ship... Windows, portholes, deck furniture, superstructure are not going to be modeled... Again, the point is to show the process of using common drawings to produce a fairly decent ships hull in 3D software.... Another thing to note, the software we are using is not CAD, it is parametric 3D modeling software. There is a huge difference.... Now onward... What are we designing? We are designing a basic deep "V" hull... In it's basic form, it has two panels that form the hull that run the length of the boat... Think speedboat, PT boat, yacht, offshore racing boat etc. etc., it is a very, very simple basic boat hull design.... I think the technical term is a "Chine" hull.... They can be built in many different ways depending on the size of the hull from frames/bulkheads/plating in a shipyard, to molded fiberglass one piece, to plywood stitch & glue in your garage at home.... For our purposes, no matter the size, we will be designing it as a single piece... Creating the port side then using the software's capabilities, mirroring it to the other side and stitching it together to form the complete hull form as one solid piece... All we really need for this type of hull is three drawings, Main deck, Full Side Profile, (including the underwater part) and a Bow on view, (preferably, so we can check the position of the chine locations) More drawings are better (especially a bottom view showing the chine location which I will be using) but not necessary... We have already covered the steps in the two software's for getting the images into the software scaled and indexed... Now on to the fun stuff, actual modeling... EG PS: If any of our brother ship modelers are experienced SW or F360 users it is my sincere wish for them to chime in with anything that is a better way of doing things than I lay out here, please please chime in an d share! this is the point, start the discussion so we can learn the proper ways of using this newest tech and open it up to everyone.... Demystify the process

Yes an excellent suggestion Kevin, in either software specifically name everything..... One other thing I want to say, SW takes a bit more time to setup than F360, but SW is more accurate with it's scaling function.... I had to tweak all the images in scale in F360 to get them to match.... Each one has it's idiosyncrasies, the same but different....

Setting up Fusion 360 to model the Sunseeker Predator 108... Startup fusion 360... It will open on a generic screen... Go to your data panel and click the little home icon.. you see a button saying open a new project which you do and name it to what you want... Everything you do will be saved to this project so it's all in one place.... Once you've done that go to the assemble tab and click create new component, name it something that contains the word hull..... (I used Predator 108 Hull) This is where your modeling will take place... Now your going to need five planes for the drawings.... You go to construct tab and select offset plane it will open a dialog box asking you to select the plane you wish to offset.... I selected the top plane, and you fill in a distance for the deck plane you enter 10m and select OK.... Fusion instantly creates a new plane 1 10m above the current top plane..... Next you add the second plane except you select the front plane and the distance is 32.92m, you now have plane 2 full scale distance from the front plane... In your feature tree you will also have a construction folder containing the two new planes.... At this point you select the insert tab, then select canvas... A dialog box pops up asking you what you want to insert on your canvas, you select the insert from my computer button and navigate to your drawings and select the front bow view..... Another dialog box will open asking which face to put it on... Select the front plane and hit OK.... The image will open on the plane you selected and a canvas properties dialog box will open, set your visibility to 40% and select OK..... A canvasses folder will be created in your feature tree and open it... You will see your image in the folder... Right click on the drawing you just installed and it brings up a menu, one of the selections is "Calibrate" what that does is put your canvass in a mode that will scale it to whatever length you want it at keeping the aspect ratio constant... You mark one point on the drawing, then another point on the drawing at the end of a known dimension... I selected the two wings on the lower sides of the hull and a dialog box comes up showing the current dimension of the drawing, input the 6.3m beam measurement and Fusion 360 enlarges/scales the drawing for you to the dimension you specify maintaining aspect ratio... (You will need to scroll back out from the drawing a good distance to see the image cause it is now full sized) Once that is done, you again right click on the drawing in the Canvas folder and select edit, you can then move it to line up whatever index point on the document you wish to use with the origin.... (I chose the same setup as I'm using in the solidworks setup so I positioned the image with the origin in the middle and along the lower edge.... When that is done, you repeat the process for each of the four remaining planes/images and this is what you have... It is a much faster setup than Solidworks all it took for me was about 30 minutes to set them all up, and it only took that long cause I tweaked them to as close a matching fit as I could.... Then save your file it will ask you for a name and a project folder to put it in, I used Predator 108 hull for the name and put it in the Sunseeker project folder... Your now ready to draw.... It's amazingly simple to get background images into Fusion 360 and get them scaled to the dimensions you want.... Much faster than SW.... Next up, we start to create the hull....

Welcome to the thread..... The information in the drawings is the only information that going to be used... It can be done....

It definitely has that dusty "road" feel to it.... Very well done brother....

Beautiful work Richard, Rhino does some fantastic modeling no doubt... Yeah your right it is just a tad bit more advanced than this thread needs at the moment, we are, (most of us) relative newbies ya know... (just getting the basic drawings into a useable work environment is an accomplishment) {chuckle} Thank you, if you have some advice for newbies just starting out on process please jump right in.... Please remember we are not building real ships so that level of construction detail is not where we need to be..... We need to be concentrating on software and how to use it, the artwork of it is still a ways down the road for us..... You are already at a spot in 3d modeling that some of us may reach some day.... (a couple of decades from now if ever)

Now for the Bottom View image... Select the top plane and create a new sketch and load the bottom image just like you did for the last four.... Process the rest of the image the same as the deck image, rotation, scaling and position don't forget to set your transparency..... Close the Sketch picture properties and the sketch, Finish the process as with the previous four planes... Now to finalize the the build environment, Look at the feature tree, notice that yellow line at the top, grab it and move it to the bottom of the list... What that does is lock the drawings and added planes from any ability to edit them... Your construction box is complete.... Ready to model.... At this point Save your file to a place where you can find it again and give it a name that tells you what it is, I called it Drawings.... Next, I will go thru the process of setting this up in Fusion 360.... Thanks for reading/following...

Now for the Stern View image... Again Create a New Plane, Go to: Insert > Reference Geometry > Plane... In the First Reference box: click on the Bow Plane... Change the Offset Distance into: 32.92m... If your new plane jumps off the screen to the left, select Flip Offset, the plane will jump to the end of the deck. Make sure the plane arrow is pointing towards the stern, If it isn't, In the options section check flip Normal so the plane will be facing the right direction.... Click ok to accept the new Plane 2 Select the plane and create a new sketch and load the back/stern image just like you did for the last three.... Process the rest of the image the same as the Bow image, scaling and position don't forget to set your transparency..... There is one more step to take.... Before you close the sketch picture properties rotate the model space to get a look at both the bow and stern images at the same time..... Take a look at the twin horns on the equipment bar, if they are on the same side you are good to go, if they are not you need to flip the image so it is... Just below the lock aspect ratio check box are two buttons, they should be self explanatory on what effect they have the one on the left flips the image horizontally the one on the right vertically... Flip the image so the horns match the bow image.. (they should be on the left side) Looking normal to the stern plane make sure the image lines up with the bow image top to bottom and side to side... if there is a discrepancy in either direction uncheck lock aspect ratio box and using the arrows increase the image size until the drawing outlines match... (my stern image was 200 mm off the bow image in height at full size) So I needed to adjust the height to match the bow drawing, this is how that is done... Close the Sketch picture properties and the sketch, Finish the process as with the previous three planes... Bottom Plane next....

"snip" (image of A7V) A Mk IV would work just as well Alan, the IV's were being replaced by the V's when the FT-17 took to the battlefield.... The A7V would be a good representation from the other side as well...

Thank you Mark, I have that one downloaded into my archive along with several others... What he is doing is drawing up a set of ship plans to be printed on paper to make templates for cutting out the framing parts... The Classic way... The process isn't that much different than what happens on a mold loft floor making full sized wooden patterns for cutting frames... The difference here is we are aiming at 3D printing using typical drawings available off the net and projecting the hull as a 3D solid object... No need for frames or framing plans.... It's an excellent treatise on using cad to aid the classic time honored process of lofting a hull but using cad to do it in scale.... Shows and explains the over 600 year old process very well... We are basically not creating a new process, but exploring the ways to go about it using the current tools. The ships I chose specifically are chosen to stay away from the classic process of doing a wooden full framed ship.... (I will eventually do a wooden sailing ship hull) We just need the hull surface and main deck, profile drawings and a body plan with sufficient stations should suffice to image the hull into a solid body... the main issue being sufficient stations... Richard above showed that Rhino can extrapolate body station profiles from lofted surfaces closely... I don't know if either Solidworks or Fusion 360 has that capability, they will probably be able to do it manually though, not automatically.... I chose this first hull cause it is a simple two panel, single curved chine hull, we don't even need the body profiles to replicate it closely just a set of decent profile drawings showing the hull chine lines.... (a PT boat hull can easily be done this way with great accuracy) I chose the second one cause it does have some recurved (curved in two directions) panels in the hull which steps up the complexity a bit needing stations to get the correct lofts.... And the third is a modern hull with compound hull curves which is where we wish to be.... Once we learn to create the hulls as solid bodies, we can cut them up into parts and print them... We also see from several current builds that a modern warship hull can be modeled and 3D printed.... It's the next logical step in the model creation process... Just trying to demystify the How - To process is all...

Now for the Main Deck/Top image... Create a New Plane, Go to: Insert > Reference Geometry > Plane... In the First Reference box: click on the Top Plane... Change the Offset Distance into: 10000 mm... Click ok to accept the new Plane 1 Select the plane and create a new sketch and load the top image just like you did for the last two.... When the image loads you will see that it is aligned 90 degrees off from the plane axis.. In the properties section you click on the rotation block and type in 90 and click into another block and you see the image rotate 90 degrees to align with the plane.... Process the rest of the image the same as the previous images, scaling and position don't forget to place the origin at the bow and not the railing and set your transparency..... Finish the process as with the previous two planes... It is getting easier isn't it? Next up the Stern View....

Now for the side image... Create a new sketch on the Right Plane, follow the steps above the same as we did for the front plane and select side view as the image to insert on the plane.... Solidworks is going to ask if you want to load a high resolution image or a low resolution image, I choose a high resolution image but your choice will depend on how powerful your computer is... A HR image may cause your computer or SW to lag if your machinery isn't capable of handling HR imagery... The general process is the same as the front view, we are just locating the image in a different position relative to the origin... When the image opens you need to scale it up to 32.92m.... Again, place the left end of the scale tool on the tip of the bow, not the tip of the railing the tip of the bow... Move the arrow end of the scale tool to near the end of the fantail but don't go past it... The dimension box will appear and hit to red X to dismiss it..... Using your cursor, (it will change to a directional arrow) move the image so the tip of the fantail is on the edge of the screen.... then grab the scale tool arrow and move the end of the line to the edge of the screen matching the fantail position keeping the scale tool horizontal.... We use the edge of the screen as a ruler... When the dimension box appears input the 32.92m and hit enter.... Grab the image and move it so the right edge is close to the front plane (viewed edge on in the image) and the bottom plane... Zoom in on the bow and move the image so the bow aligns with the front plane, remember not the rail the actual bow of the hull... Then go to the properties block and set the "Y" axis measurement to zero... Note down the vertical size of the image, you will need it in the next step.... Select full image and set your transparency, hit the green check mark to accept your settings and go back to the Sketch edit window... All that is left is to change the plane and sketch names to something appropriate and resize the plane to encompass the sketch and match the image size... Next up the main deck.... The main deck will be placed on an offset plane that you create...

Me TOO! {chuckle}

Ok, first step in loading images into SW for modeling... Open SolidWorks, Go to: Start > Programs > SolidWorks, Open a new part with model units set to millimeters..... In the feature tree on the left side of the screen, select the three planes, right click and make them visible by clicking on the eyeball. (SW 2021) Select the Front Plane in the Feature Manager, right click and select the Sketch icon to make a new sketch... Then go to: Tools > Sketch Tools > Sketch Picture and select it... Browse to the location of your image files and select the front or bow view drawing, Click to open it.... As you can see in this image below the picture opens on the plane much larger than the initial plane.... On the left side of the screen you can see the sketch picture properties.... your going to change these to set up your image for modeling.... In the width and height section the bottom two shows the current dimensions of the image, prior to scaling, we are about to set the scale of the image.... A Predator 108 measures out to 32.92m OAL, 6.3m beam & 1.58m draft, we are not going to worry about the draft cause being a deep "V" hull the keel isn't parallel to the waterline anyway.... As long as we have a known dimension SW will scale the drawing for us.... (we are going to work in full scale) You notice the blue scale bar in the middle of the drawing, you take the left end of the bar (purple dot) and place it on the outermost line on the drawing.... (zoom in for accuracy) Then you click and drag the arrow on the right side of the line and move the dot to the opposite side of the drawing.... (again zooming in for accuracy) When you release the arrow to place the dot, an input box will appear and you enter the beam dimension 6.3m.... (Solidworks automatically translates units to the appropriate one for the unit settings of the model your working on so type 6.3m in the box and press enter) Check the image below, Solidworks scaled the image up to where the plane is no longer viewable.... Also, take a look at the image dimensions in bottom of the properties section, the image is now ...7.133m wide and 9.5m tall! Easy Peasy!! We now deal with the position of the image relative to the origin point in the sketch.... The second dimension from the top is the "Y" plane and represents the distance above or below the origin point so we change that to zero placing the lower edge of the image right on top of the origin point.... Next we change the top dimension which represents the "X" plane and we will shift the image so it is centered over the origin point as in the image below... (use the arrows to tell which way positive or negative numbers) Next we no longer need the scale tool so uncheck it to disable it in this drawing and leave the lock aspect ration selected... Under transparency, select full image, a slider and percentage box will appear and set your transparency to your liking... (I prefer .4 or 40%) this allows you to see thru the drawing to the other side.... Now you select the green check mark to record your sketch picture preferences and return to the sketch edit view.... In the sketch edit view select the Front Plane again and a box will appear around the outside of the plane your image is on and the balls are the handles to resize it, drag the balls to increase the Plane size so it matches the edges of the image as shown below..... At this point, close the sketch.... Last thing to do is rename the sketch and plane in the tree on the left to more appropriately describe what it is.... I use Bow Plane for the plane and Bow View Drawing for the sketch..... This is what you wind up with in the image below..... Notice that the plane your image in on in the window is now labeled Bow Plane and no longer Front Plane.... Next step, we do the side view....

A MK V would be nice, and period appropriate.... {chuckle}

BINGO! unless you become very very good at mesh (NURBS) surface modeling... Mesh modeling can be used to represent surfaces but that's all they are and as solid objects all the triangles or quads need to be on the same plane with the surface normals all facing the same direction... This isn't as important for a CGI model but is critical for a 3D print model... The resulting mesh exported into the STL file HAS to be manifold for resin printing, you can get away with some manifold errors on an FDM printer, but not on an SLA printer... At least that is what I learned from my test prints of downloaded models and discovery that some modelers uploading models to the various sites have learned that as well, and make models specifically designed for SLA resin printing.... Best practice is to stay manifold in your models... {chuckle} Both Solidworks and F360 insure it before it will allow you to make it a solid body Good point Kevin

Welcome aboard Kevin... Good point, except the tools one decides to use is what works best for him/her.... My experience over the years is one is no better than the other, they all do the same things just one does it differently than the other... and we are talking about general 3D modeling software here... Rhino 3D as mentioned by Richard above is a professional production grade 3D application and yes is used in many industries, it is the top of the pyramid in terms of capability, The rest like Inventor and Autocad 3D are a slight step behind it in terms of capability... (especially for curvy surface modeling) Solidworks is also almost as capable as Rhino, but it is a solid modeling program as is Fusion 360 and their surface tools are not quite as capable as Rhino's... There are other lesser well known 3D softwares out there too many to list them all... Basically, find one you like and learn to use it.... I'm not going to tell anyone which software they should be using, I'm a general newbe to this so I have no opinion that is worth anything... Just trying to show the process of modeling a ships hull in software.... It's not as difficult as some make it out to be, but you are also right, it's not as easy as someone with several years with a specific software package experience makes it look... Just like any skill, practice makes perfect... The more you use your chosen package the better you will get at it and eventually you will become an expert breezing right through a model that today makes your head spin.... Me, I'm still working out the 3D modeling workflow as it would pertain to 3D printing, (solid models) But ship hulls are created easiest by lofting surfaces, hence the need for software that does both.... Particularly one that can directly create solid objects from lofts.... I don't know yet if Rhino has that capability, but for what we are doing, it is essential, that means Solidworks and Fusion 360 and possibly Inventor, because I know for a fact that Autocad 3D does not.... (it can be done but it doesn't do it directly like SW & F360) Anyway welcome to the thread, and please bring forth anything you wish to bring up and we will try to figure it out together... EG

Ok I"m going to start with the Sunseeker Predator 108 in Solidworks by loading the documents, then loading them in Fusion 360.... You can get the drawings here..... And you might want to check out Jan's site, (Learnsolidworks.com Jan Zuderdyn) his courses are pricey, but they will get you familiar with working in Solidworks fairly quickly..... Now those drawings are nice, and I built the hull using them, but they are not accurate, it's like they were drawn to facilitate the course which is ok we are here to learn how to use drawings to build a hull in software, not design a hull for a customer.... So I first load them one by one in the free Gimp image processing software to accurize them..... Typical stuff, using the keel line as a baseline I make sure it is horizontal, using the Guides, Crop Tool, Canvas size function I center it in the image making sure it is an easy to remember round number size at 300 dpi... It is then exported as a PNG file under the same name appending Modified to the name so I don't mix up the source with my edited files.... The image above is at 5450x1600 a bit fuzzy in places but not bad for a raster image..... When I have accomplished this I'm ready to set up the drawings in Solidworks.... This is a good habit to get into the practice of, it is much easier to model when you have drawings that are all in synch with each other before you start modeling... The main deck.... (at 5450x1200) Remember, if you do download the drawings from the link above, they are not the same as these I've modified.... (I did quite a bit to them to match the pictures of the real ship)