Monday 12 October 2015

Grasshopper Parametric Ship Hull Modeling




Parametric hull modeling for concept design, requires a flexible and versatile approach. Rhino enables this in combination with Grasshopper scripting.
Another new application is to create a systematic variation of a ship hull for CFD calculations to find the design with a minimum resistance.

We are proud to publish two ways to model and design ship hulls with free open source Grasshopper scripts. The two scripts that are published enable you to model a bulbous bow and pram aft body type hull with a press of a button. Both solutions are based on our Rapid Hull Modeling Methodology which is the manual way to design a ship hull in Rhino.

The first solution (01 RapidHullFullyParametric.GH) is only a script which contains a fully parameterized hull in which also the loft curves are scripted. This is a more academic script that optimizes the design of one type of ship hull. For this you only have to open a new Rhino session and then activate the script. For modeling other ship types you have to fully understand the hull definition in the script and this is not so easy.

The second solution is a combination of a Rhino file (02 RapidHullPartlyParametric) that contains the loft curves as well as a script (02 RapidHullPartlyParametric) that contains the rest of the solution. The idea here is that the physical Rhino loft curves are input for the lofting in the script. The advantage of this script is that you can create easily new ship type solutions by modifying or even replacing the loft curves. In the Rhino file you'll find several ship types.

Resources:
The first script is the result of a collaboration of the following people from their respective companies and organisations:
  • Bas Goris, GustoMSC, started the quest for Rhino hull modeling methods
  • Phil Shapiro, Cadlantique, presented the loose loft 3d curve technique
  • Bart van Oers, TU Delft, put this Rapid Hull Modeling methodology in Rhino Script
  • Julien le Rouzic, GustoMSC, converted the Rhino Script into a Grasshopper Script
  • Gerard Petersen, RhinoCentre, added real time lines plan and displacement functionality

For us it is important that you share your experiences, changes and additions to the script. So please send them to us and we can learn from you!