Boat Design 101 Carlson Design: Hull 1.8 An Introduction to CAD (Computer Assisted Design) for the layman and sailor. Lesson I
Hull 1.8 allows you to determine the physical dimensions set the weight (displacement) based on your building material pre-choose the general shape from templates add panels/chines add interior panels manually or mechanically cut out panels
What Hull 1.8 will do for you calculate panel dimensions calculate hull volume calculate hull center of mass calculate center of buoyancy calculate righting moment scale the hull to human dimensions output panel dimensions to .dxf or plotter and help you develop an eye for hull shape!
What you need A PC running Windows 98, 2000 or XP 128 megabytes of RAM 10 megabytes of hard drive space Hulls.exe (free download and install) vbrun300.dll (free download and install) a simple b&w printer time, patience, and a designer’s eye!
Let’s get started! http://www.carlsondesign.com download the Hulls software. store on desktop unzip and install to C://program files/Hulls download the vbrun300.dll unzip to C://WINNT/System32 restart PC
Open the program Navigate to C://program files/Hulls/hulls.exe Open the application by double-clicking Close the copyright window.
Choose a Hull Template File pull-down menu click on “new” find the hull templates on the left pick the 13 foot skiff Do NOT click on the “Done” button!
The Main Working Screen Views: Main, X, Y and Z (3-D) number of chines This is where you will add chines and change shapes
Manipulate a Panel Watch how the objects changes in the X,Y and Z view panes as you manipulate the panel definition point.
Experiment with changing panels Activity: 15 minutes Use your mouse to change the shapes of the various panel definition points and learn how changes are reflected in the X, Y and Z panes.
Rotate the Main View Visualize your shape in different dimensions Use the X, Y and Z buttons to rotate your shape in 3-D space
Changing the number of panels/chines “Chines” are the joints between panels. Reducing the number of chines also reduces the number of panels.
Add Chines/Panels Add back the chine you took away in the last exercise. (Return to 5 chines) It appears in the old orientation. When you add more panels/chines they may not appear in a spatially “sensible” manner Activity: 15 minutes… manipulate your added chine/panel with your mouse until the overall shape is smooth.
Save Your Work Name your design! Do not just save it! Enter in your personal information if you want Choose folder to save into. (does not have CD-writing capability) Next Week: defining interior panels, displacement, and righting moment.