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[kno3]

thanks!

[Greggy1964]

Ok here we go, bear with me cos I aint touched FreeShip in over two years

We are going to walk through how to create 'Plank Developments' using the jpeg images below.

Its a quick overview to get you started and then you should get the idea.

Expand the number of planks you require by splitting the control points to adjoining panels and creasing the new control lines to create any number of planks you desire.

I'm going to use the default boat you see when you open up a new file in FreeShip.

Here goes



Open up the default Boat, I'm using the 3D veiw because it's easier to see what's going on.



Select the control lines 1st up from the keel, we are going to crease this edge using the 'Edge/Crease' command and create a chine at this point.



Do the same process for the 2nd set of control lines.



You will notice as we progress the previous set of control points will have turned Red



Now go to 'Show Interior Edges' (the little red box with the crossed lines in it) and you will notice a new light green grid appear.



Starting at the stern select each panel on Plank1 (the light green grid will turn yellow), then go up to 'Layers' (found between Face & Visiblity) in the menu bar and select 'Auto Group'



Open up the 'Layer' menu and you should see a new layer has appeared, re-label it Plank1



Do the last two steps for the next plank up . . . . . .



And label the new layer in the 'Layer' menu Plank2



And again for the next plank up . . . . . . . .



And again for the next plank up . . . . . . . .



Now we should have four new layers, Plank1, Plank2, Plank3 and Plank4, I just used layer 0 for Plank4 beacuse Layer0 is redundant for our purposes here. You could create a Layer5 and relabel it Plank4 if you wished and keep Layer0

You should now be able to go back into the Layers Menu and be able to switch each plank off in turn and leave only the plank visible you wish to see, this confirms that each of our 4 planks have a dedicated layer each.

Think of them as four layers of tracing paper laid one on top of the other with one plank drawn on each.

Now comes the clappy handies and jump up and down moment.



Make sure that the 'Developable' check box is ticked for all four planks in the 'Layers menu' (found nestled in the checkbox list to the right)

Then go to 'Tools' and select 'Develop Plates'



Hey Presto! four brand spanking new developed planks.

The cool thing is that it produces a set of planks for both sides of the boat.

Look over to the right, and check the list of errors. None of them should be greater than 0.001 if the printed planks are to fit together.

The file can now be exported as a DXF file for use in AutoCad or exported as a BitMap or simply sent to a printer.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a copy of AutoCad the file can be manipulated to create plank outlines at any scale you derire.

Be aware though that the plot aussume infinite thinness of developed planks so when you transfer them to plywood which has thickness you will have a spot of edge shaving to do to make them fit.

Dig out the cereal boxes I'm forever getting you to save and print out the file at A3 and spend a couple of hours with a roll of cellotape making a little version of your new boat!

Of course if we bothered to go to the trouble of adding a stern panel to out boat, that would be plotted too, but that's opening up a whole new can of worms!

Enjoy!

[Greggy1964]

In the isometric view, if we right click in the image and select 'mode' and then 'developability check' we can see if our baby will actually be transformable into flat developed panels

Red area indicates stretching and deformity and it always appears to some extent on the planks adjacent to the keel but can be minimised by tweaking.



The image suggests some concaving of the first planks at the bow which if I worked on it it could eliminate it, but for this project the model serves its purpose.



Right clicking again and selecting 'mode' and then 'shade' gives us the above.

When in the developed planks file, if we select the little blue 'pyramid' button in the menu bar the plot will show us more graphically the stretched areas which indicates more work in shaping the planks is required.



We would do this by altering the lines of the hull bit by bit and redeveloping the planks until we find the blue areas have been worked out of the planks.

Have a play but watch out . . . . . . 

It gets addictive

[Greggy1964]

Another thought!

A good way to eliminate that ugly sore area at the bow of the first plank would be to split this plank up into still thinner planks.

Think of broad planks on three penny bit style boat with its simple shape dictated by its form.

And now contrast this with the sexy concave hull forms that can be had using the strip plank method of building.

So what IS he     blathering about I hear you wonder?

Well, I'll explain . . . . . . . .

The narrower the planks on our model, the more we can introduce hollow bows without that ugly red area that says ''nope! you can't have hollow shapes within a plank of plywood''

Remember! A piece of paper/carboard/plywood cannot form compound shapes.

Try it if you don't believe me, and no crinkling it or crumpling neither!

Thats cheating.

But it can be fooled into two directions at once . . . .

How you may ask?

Form a sheet of paper into a cone and see for yourself.

See my recent ramblings and model photos here ;

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=21715.0

[Greggy1964]

More thoughts

FreeShip can represent a multi-planked hull as I have demonstrated, and by deciding how many planks you want per side on your hull at the start; you end up with some nice hull forms.



This is my 'Swift' sailing canoe hull design and she has ten planks per side which gives her hollow lines while not infringing the 'no compound curves within planks' rule.

I messed about some and came up with a multi plank version of the default hull just to show what can be done.

*'BEFORE PLAYING WITH YOUR LOVELY MODEL SAVE IT AS 'MULTI PLANK MODEL'* or some such and work on the NEW model so if you fluff things up there will be no   tears  

also *'SAVE'* as you go along so that you don't loose where you have got to.

I know I'm teaching Grandma to suck eggs but I've fallen foul of this before so I'll save you the trouble

I used the same method I described in my 4 plank hull in the post above.

Use the 'Edge' 'Split' command at each of the bulkhead wire frames all along the hull between each existing plank, you can select all sections between planks at one go and do the 'Edge' 'Split' all at once to save time.

Here is the wire frame with both sides of the hull


Next comes the shaded hull - bow on


Then stern on

Note the lovely hollow shape we now have at the bow compared with the four plank hull in my above post.

Then developability check

The red areas on the plank seams is a bug I think because the program has no trouble plotting the results and the error indicators on the right of the plank plot are in the order of 0.000000 error.
Look closely at the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  figures V V

And finally all those lovely planks - 16 of em! I have only plotted the port side because if you plot both sides the image comes out too small to show here

It has taken me about 1 1/2 hours to knock this up so with practice you can get good results.

My original sailing canoe design and indeed the model I built from this design called for clinker (or overlap/laps strake - call it what you like - fill in the blank   ...............) style planking.

You could take the developed planks and add the overlap manually and get clinker planks I think . . .

But I'm sure FreeShip will be able to deal with the concept, but as yet I haven't tried it . . . . . . . .

hmmmmmmm

[kno3]

Wow, that's a great walk-through. 
I've followed it with my copy of Freeship and I got my first set of planks! This should help me a lot with my next model, thank you very much for taking the time to write this up!

[boatmadman]

Great addition to the tutorial, Greggy.

I have had a play with delftship, and found that by following your instructions, you can do almost the same as you have done with free ship.

I say almost. The bit you cannot do is pretty important to us. You cant export or print the file of developed planks!

I think this may be because Delftship took over the freeship software and probably disabled that feature to try and get more people to buy it.

Freeship download here: http://download.cnet.com/Freeship/3000-6677_4-10558861.html

Ian

[Greggy1964]

Hello Boatmadman,

I confess I have not tried to print out the resulting planks of late, when FreeShip originally popped up it was a new development and the guy promoting it was a naval architect/computer boffin type collage student with a bright idea who put it in the great ether as a full working program.

I guess he did this to gauge whether or not it would be a viable commercial product for him back then.

Buying the current evolution of FreeShip costs 178.00 Euros or £162.00 or $244.89.

It is only fair that the fellow should be rewarded for his efforts in providing us with such a useful software, it's how the world works after all, and at a very reasonable price too considering that you could set yourself up creating boat plans for yourself and others for a     financial inducement     of course!

And I for one (when I am in a financially fluid situation) will buy a copy.

But contrast this to the price tag of AutoCad2010 at a cost of   1290.00 Euros or £1168.00 or $1774.00     and the cost of buying Delftship starts to become attractive and the bonus is that you have then a fully developed software specifically geared to Naval Architects with all the knobs and whistles!

Don't be put off by this by the way, naval architects put their underwear on every morning one leg after the other like all the rest of us lowly beings It's just a learning curve at the end of the day and if you enjoy what your doing and have a passion for it, then it becomes play and not work!

There is somewhere lost in the great ether is the original beta copy of FreeShip, I am not sure that the copy I have on my PC is the original ( I lost that with a hard drive meltdown a couple of years ago!   ) and I'm not at this time I confess, connected to a printer or plotter so I cannot test my current copy out.

I will endeavour to do some digging

If in the meantime anyone else reading this witnessed the birth of FreeShip and can shed any light on the whereabouts of the original Beta copy, we all would    love you forever    

[Greggy1964]

Yet another thought on the plotting issue of the plank development plan.

Boatmadman's comments set me thinking and I've come up trumps!

Cheers Boatmadman

Do all the required steps above to get you to the developed planks plot for your model.

Blow it up to full screen and look closely.

You will see a grid behind the planks with measurements from a zero base line at the centre of the plot.

You also have the option to zoom into any area to read the mesurements.

Also by switching off all parts of the model except the plank you want figures for, the plank development plot will only plot this plank

The figures you see are measurements from the base line to the edges of each plank at the frame positions you set in your model.

The more wire frame sections you build into the model, the more sets of these measurements you will get and the more accurate will be the planks you plot from this info.


In this shot the measurements in metres are given to plot the full scale ship planks on the mold loft floor.

Right at the beginning of a new model in FreeShip you have the option of setting scale, measurement type and the number of frames in your new boat, it can also be accessed at a later date during the creation of your ship.

The plank plot will give those mementos in the resultant plank plot.

How difficult is it going to be to grab a suitable sheet of paper, a bunch of dress makers pins, plus a suitable board so that you can push pins through the paper at appointed plot positions, and grab some various sizes of piano wire, spring it around the pins on the paper plot and draw out your planks out manually?

I can see this as no greater hardship than the way model builders traditionally find the shapes of planks, plus the bonus it that you just know all the resultant planks will fit together and form your dream ship

I will create another tutorial here to show you how to manipulate the plot to get the results you need.

Watch this space

[Greggy1964]

Right I'm here again.

Fun this isn't it?

I'm using the default multi plank model above for continuity.

Grab your plank plot and resize it full screen on your monitor.



Here are all 32 planks.

In your plank plot window, press down your right mouse key and drag the toolbox on the right to the centre of your screen and then roll your mousewheel to zoom in.

The whole plot will pan across the plot window and grow on you until you see what you're after.



You will see this image.

You may if you wish switch off all the plank images but the one you are working on.

There are three boxes that you may enter data into, the top one sets the rotation of the whole plot in the current window.

The second sets the measurement SPACING of the required plotted plank edge figures in the X axis, and the lower box is same for the Y axis.

Changing these figure will cause the plank plot to redraw showing the required measurements.

Play about with this after you have saved your work so far so you can hurt your original, save it as *'Plank Play'* some some such.

Now you can mess about and explore with a free conscience

Note I have set the figures I require in these boxes.



Here, the plotted plank dimensions are at X 0.500m and Y 0.500m



It is not too clear on the screenshot, but to the left we have the horizontal zero line datum and the vertical.

Use the right mouse button and the scroll wheel to zoom into the measurements you are after and scribble them madly down in a legable format on a note pad for each plank.

Depending on the number of planks you have on your model and the measurement spacings you have set, you're in for an evenings worth of panning/zooming and scribbling.

The more closely the plotted measurements, the more accurate will be your paper plot and the planks you draw out.

But at the end of the day you will have a bunch of figures to set out the planks of the full size ship!



Here is the stern end of plank 6, now we have a zoomed in on an image of the stern end at X = 0.100m and Y = 0.100m spacings of dimensions.

Have fun boys but don't pee off the missus with your new found addiction!

Of course it goes without saying that when you have written down the notes in your notepad . . . . . . . you have converted each measurement to the scale of the model boat you want!

Haven't you?        

[boatmadman]

Of course it goes without saying that when you have written down the notes in your notepad . . . . . . . you have converted each measurement to the scale of the model boat you want!

Haven't you?         

Alternately, let delftship scale it for you. Select transform and you get a scaling option in the dropdown, select the size you want, and Bob's yer Auntie

[Greggy1964]

Hi Boatmadman,

You're right that does work!

I'd missed that one



Same hull but scaled to 1/12 scale, here we have the bow end of both planks 1 with rotation setting at -2.5/2.5 degrees, X Grid 0.005, and Y Grid 0.025.

Note all measurements are taken from the zero line to where they cross each plank edge.

Also, if you switch off all planks but the one you're dealing with, you can rotate it over the grid and the measurements will change accordingly.

One thing to watch is that the software cannot subdivide measurements smaller than 1 mm so at small scales you will still have a little fairing to do while plotting you planks on paper, as the software was designed for plotting planks out at full scale.

i.e. 125mm scaled down by 1/12 = 10.417mm, the software would round down to 10.000mm which will make a difference when you're trying to fair in points along a curve.

You can see this problem by studying the plot above.

Maybe I'm being a perfectionist

In those cases where you want accuracy I'd still suggest plotting full size and converting the measurements by the multiplication factor as you transfer them from plot to note pad

[phil85]

Hello! I am a newcomer on this forum, and also on Delftship !
First of all : BRAVO to Ian and Greggy1964: Delftship seems suddenly almost easy ! I have achieved the modelling of a small and simple hull !!
It's just a basic hull only used to understand and "play" with it, that I can easily modify. So, it's rather good !!
But I have a real problem with the modelling of the deck, or rather with roof and companionway, and so on...I don't succeed in modelling these parts...

Does somebody can help me, please ???

[boatmadman]

I will knock something up to get you started - watch this space.

Ian

[phil85]

Thanks, Ian !!!

So I wait...But I continue to try, and again, and again..! It's a good method to learn a software !!!

Best regards,

Phil

[Greggy1964]

Hello Phil,

The trick with Delftship as with everything else computer and file based is to save your work regularly and work on a copy of your drawing as things evolve.

You can't 'break' anything this way and it will allow you to freely explore the Delftship environment and play with it.

If you fluff up, it's simply a case of going back to a good copy before things went pear shaped!

I confess to have not explored the issue of decks and upper structures too much thus far, choosing to concentrate on hull shapes only.

I too am interested in such a tutorial and bow to Ian's greater knowledge.

[furball]

I had a play over the weekend...





Poolbeg lifeboat 'Helen Blake'.

Not finished, but quite pleased with it so far!


Lance

[boatmadman]

Lance, looks good, you are getting the hang of it.

Tutorial under way

Ian

[boatmadman]

Delftship – a brief tutorial on developing decks and superstructures.
This is a model hull of a fast rescue boat I am working on to go with my current project.


 
First thing to do is open the perspective to full page, select wireframe and work with just half the hull – it’s easier to see.
You should have something like this.   
At this point, select a point at deck level at the widest point of the hull and remember the Y axis value in the dialogue box that pops up. Here I used the point at the transom, but any point the widest point will do.
 


Now, select the bulwark line to get the pic below.


 

[boatmadman]

Go to edit, edge, extrude and enter the value you remembered in the transverse value box, also, put a minus in front of the value, to make it a negative and press enter, and you should have this:


 
Now deselect the yellow line, and select all the points on the new extruded line and give them a ‘y’ value 0, this will move the line to midships, and give you this,.


 
Now, select the new deck area as described earlier in the tutorial series and group into a new layer, name the layer ‘deck’ and give it a different colour, grey in this case
 


Right click on the pic, select mode, shade. Then show both sides of the model and you should have something like this.


 
Superstructure to follow soon.

[boatmadman]

And now a superstructure:
Select the line on the centre line shown, extrude in y direction by 1.75m, you get this, or something like.



Continue the extrusion vertically up:



Select the lines as shown above and extrude back to centre line:



To get a cubic shape, select the 2 edges in yellow above, and crease them to get this:

[boatmadman]

Deselect the grid, select shade and both halves for this:



Now go back and insert an edge:



Select the two points on the new edge and give them a vertical value of 4.8, (arbitrary value to get a vertical position)



Now select the top edge and move it forward 0.6m:



Select the yellow edge and crease:

[boatmadman]

Build another superstructure ‘box’:



Go back to wireframe and add a box for the funnel:



Move it around a bit to make it look pretty:



Throw some paint at it and voila:



Hopefully that should give you enough to start building your own decks and superstructures.

Ian

[phil85]

Thank you very much Ian !! That's great !! It seems to be quite simple !

I think I have a problem  because I worked a long time - 8 years - on 3D software for automotive industry and it was very different to develop a surface. I have yet some automatisms.
I think that I'll have other questions to ask you !!!!

And now, I go to.....Delfship !!!

Phil

[Craggsy]

Hi

I was wondering if you could do another tutorial to show how to add superstructure to a hull and of course equipment on the decks I am a serving Chief Officer on a brand new Dive ship being built in Norway and I would like to draw the vessel using Delft Ship.  As Chief Officer I can get hold of all the drawings etc from the designer so I can import them but I cant get the Superstructure to work, and I have come to an abrupt halt.  I wanted to use delft ship to make a PT boat, out of wood but I would also like to make a model of the ship I am working on using delft ship.

Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, I love the drawing of the Bourbon Boat, and I love the models too, I have never made a model before thats why I wanted to start with the MTB and work upwards.

Many regards

Craggsy