Sailboat model (Rhino)

I made this sailboat model in Rhino as a practice. I did not find more pictures of the details, so this model is little bit rough. The most difficult part to model is the hull. Well, Rhino is a very powerful and easy-to-use program for hull modelling, I think next step is to import the hull into Maxsurf to do some analysis... Well, analysis, still have lot to learn about this.

AutoCAD Assignment

Yesterday we did an AutoCAD assignment. We were asked to draw centerboard and rudder according to an existing plan in AutoCAD. Our drawing should include several different layers for lines, dim, text and we need to make new layout in paper space to display our drawing in right scale.
The assignment included five stages:
1.Sketch. We need to sketch the plan on paper, copy necessary information from the original plan. I think this is the most important part. The sketch will tell you what to draw. It provides basic information for the assignment.
2. Drawing in AutoCAD. Follow instructions of the assignment, create different layers, create drawing from the sketch.
3. Print out draft.
4. Mark out. Check your draft with Chris, and to see if there is any mistakes. Mark them out, and then go back to your computer and fix them in AutoCAD.
5. Print the final drawing.
At 4 pm, we handed in our marked out draft and the final drawing to Chris.

AutoCAD, boat plan and faying surface

This morning, we started with a discussion of our feelings of drawing a plan in AutoCAD. The small boat was designed for beginner boatbuilders, so as the plan itself.We got six sheets of plans. And guess what, everyone seems confused, because we can not decode the plan.As we were asked to draw the plan in AutoCAD, we found it is so difficult to duplicate it because we can not find enough measurements!

This proved a fact: for a boatbuilder, knowing how to use AutoCAD is far from enough. AutoCAD is powerful and useful tool, but you need to combine boatbuilding knowledge with your AutoCAD skill in order to get expected outcome (we have done several drawings in AutoCAD: tool box, oilstone box, stem section, deck camber, scupper hole...I think everyone in the team now knows how to use AutoCAD and has got basic drawing skills). That is why programmes such as AutoCAD are only computer-AIDED design programme.

Luckily, the course of boatbuilding is the exact process for our learning of boatbuilding knowledge. Chris showed us this morning the relationship between the faying surface and the PT (Plank Thickness).Actually, this is one of those difficulties we had in yesterday drawing. The length of the faying surface is PTx4.This is one of those important rules for boatbuilders.

Movign from Vox to typepad

I am moving my boatbuilding blog from Vox to typepad, as Vox is closing this month.

the length of the faying surface