| Carlson's Hull Designer Program Tips ... |
 |
Gregg Carlson has written an amazingly powerful boat design program that is popular with many of the amateur designers on the web. It is also FREE, which is a small miracle.... thanks again Gregg! It's available towards the bottom of his home page HERE. Very interesting stuff on his plotter cutter CNC machines there too. |
Or, download Gregg's Hull Designer , here.
It is a simple, interactive, visual 3-d hull design Windows program
for modeling and developing panels for plywood or metal chine construction. Find
Center of Buoyancy, Center of Lateral Area, Length Waterline, and righting
moment (pitched or heeled) among other calculations. Create patterns for stem,
stern, bulkheads, up to 10 chines, and up to 8 frames for construction. Includes
a 3, 4, or 5 sheet nesting and hand-plotting capability and output to VRML, DXF,
HPGL, or Carlson plotters. Includes sample designs and Word 6.0 manual. User
Gavin Atkin offers a tutorial
and additional sample designs.
Users Tips:
Carlsons software also creates VRMLs which, with a free pluggin, can be loaded
into a browser and spun around in 3d as a solid object, shaded and everything.
Really a great visualization of the boat, much improved over what is in the
package for minimal work.
***************************Not instantly obvious is the fact that until you save a design (even if you just opened it) none of the parts will be available in the "nesting" section for fitting onto plywood.
| . |
Back to Methods and Materials