Best Amateur Design Software

[Gary Dierking]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Is "Freeship" available for Macs?

John Welsford

I run Freeship on a Mac under "Wine". It works fine.

[Sea Dreams]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

...Now, the last boat may be, and probably is, a "better boat" than the first two in almost every respect. Certainly I would prefer to own the last boat, shown above. Also, it takes talent, skill and experience to design something like the last boat, shown above. But the honest truth is that the first two will WORK. You can put on your lifejacket, get in them and have some fun on the lake without spending a mint on materials and three years of your time, or more.

Seriously, I think that a lot of folks are just way, way too paranoid about designing their own small boats. A flat-bottom skiff is does not take a genius with twenty years of lofting under his belt to design and build. A forty foot yawl or an Arctic Tern DOES take those kinds of resources.

My thoughts exactly. I have only built 3 small boats so far. The first one was a Summer Breeze designed by David Beede who I'm pretty sure is not a professional boat designer.

My second boat is a simple, one sheet boat that I designed myself using a simple 2D CAD program. Basically all I did was draw a 4 foot by 8 foot rectangle and kept trying things to get a shape like the Summer Breeze only smaller that still fit the very limited materials available in only one sheet of plywood. I did build 2 duct tape models before building the actual boat but it is still my favorite boat for the waters I play in.

My current project is a PDRacer that I am copying from another builder. That builder is much more experienced than me but still NOT a professional boat designer.

Designing and building your own boat is a lot of fun and an educational experience. I realise I shouldn't design my own ocean crossing boat (YET) but, for protected waters, it isn't that hard to come up with something that WORKS. The ones I have built are/were cheap enough that they could be considered disposable. They are still a lot of fun to design, to build, and to use.

I have tried some of the mentioned software but haven't spent the time to learn how to use them yet.

Sea Dreams A.K.A. Brian

[JackYoung]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

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[alfredparker360]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Is "Freeship" available for Macs?

John Welsford

No, "Freeship" is not available for Macs. It is compatible with Windows operating systems only.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

I run it under Linux using wine, if you have an x86 Mac there are a couple of different ways that might well work.

Either through Wine or by running a windows instance.

I've heard that wine will even run on an M1 Mac, but I've not seen it done.

[W Grabow]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

I have been doing amateur boat design and building for forty-plus years using basic geometry and algebra concepts. Using this approach, there is no question about developability. I use a TI-36X pocket calculator. Now working on my twelfth build; previous hulls have included power, sail, rowing and paddling.

developable-surface-boat-designs.blogspot.com

[Peerie Maa]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

I have been doing amateur boat design and building for forty-plus years using basic geometry and algebra concepts. Using this approach, there is no question about developability. I use a TI-36X pocket calculator. Now working on my twelfth build; previous hulls have included power, sail, rowing and paddling.

developable-surface-boat-designs.blogspot.com

That blog suggests that your understanding of "developable" does not include one or two wide strakes of plywood.

This has developable surfaces


See how wide the planks are?

[W Grabow]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

The entire topside of this boat is one developable surface:

DSC_0975.jpg

While this one is broken up into more individual planks:

DSC03940.jpg

Is there something unique about "one or two wide strakes of plywood"?

[kbowen]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

I designed theatre scenery in CAD for years, but opted for full-sized lofting on the boat I built. There is something about choosing what batten to use for a given curve and bending them: your hands talk back to your head. You will be bending boat wood to those same shapes, so the lofting process can tell you what is going to be tough to build. But you have to be careful to get power into the hull and this may require a sharper turn to the bilge than any of your battens, so you need to have the guts to make some thin kerfed or tapered battens and try them. In addition to wooden battens I had good luck with various patterns of cheap plastic house trim from the big-box store: there are fewer bumps such as you get with wooden battens that have slightly wavy grain. Having said all that, I wish I had a digital version of my boat with all the construction details that I could pop open on my desktop at any time. Regarding balance, buoyancy, & metrics I learned how to use a spreadsheet to do this: It's tough to set it up the first time, but once you have all the equations input, you can quickly answer questions like "what happens to the CG if I move this ballast water tank 2" forward?"

Ken

[Lee.007]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Ryan,
For 12 years I worked as an electro-mechanical design engineer before I came back innthe Army 13 years ago. I used AutoCAD, so to keep my skills fresh i would do a project every two years or so. 4 years ago i started designing my own kayak with a free kayak software. I had no knowledge of hydrostatics with the exception of basic buoyancy. My design was seriously flawed. But, through trial and error and the generous help of experienced boat builders and naval architects on this forum, I learned how to sail, and how to make a boat work. I am currently building a trimaran of my own design. But I spent two years researching and studying naval archecture text books and also looking at other designs and learning the "why" of certain methods.
I say all this to say that i beleive there is NO software that can teach you what you need to know to design a boat that works. CAD is merely a tool to speed up the drawing of a design that is well thought out. Start by developing requirements for what you want. How much weight do you want to carry in the boat (people plus gear), how fast do you want it to go, what is your maximum size you want to stay under, etc. Then look at other designs that are close to what you want, read books, talk to the old salts on this forum, and go for it. Dont sweat the small stuff. Almost every mistake you make on a wooden boat can be fixed. Nick Schade said, " a wooden boat will suck up every bit of perfection you can throw at it, learn to pick your battles".
Search my profile name if you want to read about my journey and you will find my two build threads.
Dont be afraid to roll your own. Just put that life jacket on and let her rip. I was terrified the first time out in my kayak trimaran sail rig, but i didnt sink and i didnt die.
Drawing by hand works. Drawing by cad works. But neither woks if you dont know some basic boat design principles.

Have fun!!!

[Peerie Maa]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

The entire topside of this boat is one developable surface:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]137957[/ATTACH]

While this one is broken up into more individual planks:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]137958[/ATTACH]

Is there something unique about "one or two wide strakes of plywood"?

Nothing unique.
However, hand lofting usually uses conic projection and a bit of iteration and what you usually get is a runabout like your top image. Something like Freeship is far more controllable and flexible and quicker. It will also give you the developed plank shapes. The model is standing on the shell expansion printout.

[W Grabow]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Using algebra and geometry in a mathematical X-Y-Z coordinate system provides great design accuracy and guaranteed developability. but, as hull form designs progress to multiple chines and plank shapes become long narrow surfaces, it will not give you developed plank shapes. A slight deviation in layout or building will allow significant errors over the length of the proposed plank. I used paper patterns or spiling.

[Peerie Maa]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Using algebra and geometry in a mathematical X-Y-Z coordinate system provides great design accuracy and guaranteed developability.

That is what computer software does, without the labour and with the ability to visualize the surface in 3D and rotate it so that you can visualize it from any direction, does that algebra do that for you? Got any pictures for us?

but, as hull form designs progress to multiple chines and plank shapes become long narrow surfaces, it will not give you developed plank shapes. A slight deviation in layout or building will allow significant errors over the length of the proposed plank. I used paper patterns or spiling.

Freeship will give you developed plank shapes as in this six strake design that worked up and proved with a model


I assume that those planks are narrow enough?

I still dispute your use of the term developable. You admit that the strakes on this were not developed by your algebraic methods.



They were no more developed than the planks on my Perrie Maa.

[W Grabow]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Nick,
I now understand your differing opinion, and we are allowed to disagree. The hull of mine that you displayed was designed purely by developable methods up until planking. One of the projections was only about 2" wide, another was 3+ ", others were wider. But my planks were only 2" wide; instead of using straight lines between defined points on the frames, I allowed curved lines and then fit the two-inch-wide planks to those curves. At the bow and stern, the developable surfaces are by nature convexly curved. All major dimensions were determined by developable methods. You are allowing absolutely no departure from that approach in your definition. I rounded things amidships in the final step to create a more smoothly curved hull shape. Narrow planks facilitate that.

On my earlier designs, I also allowed no departure from true developable projection. It is appropriate on a hard chine power boat, but the multiple ridges left on a multi-chine design were less aesthetic to me, thus I made the change. My current build uses 1.5" wide planks which allow some edge set. Trending toward strip planking? But all major dimensions will still be created using developable methods. Agreed: my planks are no more developed than on Perrie Maa, but everything behind that is pure development.

[Peerie Maa]

Re: Best Amateur Design Software

Nick,
I now understand your differing opinion, and we are allowed to disagree. The hull of mine that you displayed was designed purely by developable methods up until planking. One of the projections was only about 2" wide, another was 3+ ", others were wider. But my planks were only 2" wide; instead of using straight lines between defined points on the frames, I allowed curved lines and then fit the two-inch-wide planks to those curves. At the bow and stern, the developable surfaces are by nature convexly curved. All major dimensions were determined by developable methods. You are allowing absolutely no departure from that approach in your definition. I rounded things amidships in the final step to create a more smoothly curved hull shape. Narrow planks facilitate that.

On my earlier designs, I also allowed no departure from true developable projection. It is appropriate on a hard chine power boat, but the multiple ridges left on a multi-chine design were less aesthetic to me, thus I made the change. My current build uses 1.5" wide planks which allow some edge set. Trending toward strip planking? But all major dimensions will still be created using developable methods. Agreed: my planks are no more developed than on Perrie Maa, but everything behind that is pure development.

But has nothing to do with the question in the OP

Good afternoon all,
I have a strong desire to try my hand at designing a boat, and wonder what software exists, and what is best for amateurs. Specifically I'm looking for something that provides the following:
- For plywood construction, gives an indication on if the curves designed are realistic, considering the bend-ability of wood/plywood.
- Provides information about stability, waterline, center of effort...basically the information to make sure you don't build something that has issues.

I look forward to hearing what folks have to say!


Ryan

Developed shapes of plywood panels, Stability, hydrostatics etc.
I know that without software like Freeship, doing it by hand is a tedious repetitive iterative process. So can you set out software that does what Ryan needs?