Thursday 26 November 2009

Model Ship Hulls With Control Point Manipulation



This technique of modeling ship hulls is more of a sculpting approach.
Experienced users can design hull forms with direct control point manipulation. This method is based on generating a single surface with rows and columns of control points. Start with a flat plate and sculpt the form by dragging and pulling control points.
Advantages:
  • High quality single surface possible (depending on skills of user)
  • A lot of control to adjust the surface
  • Every imaginable surface is possible
Disadavantages:
  • Control points have to be positioned in a grid of rows and columns. Therefore too many control points at places where little control is needed and often less control points at places where a lot of control is needed. For example the difference between a straight midship section and a more complex bow area. T-Splines modeling offers more functionality when this aspect is important
  • Labour intensive to model the first hull
  • It is more difficult to edit the hull shape later systematically than with the Rapid Hull Modeling Method.
The Orca3d plug-in offers a more easy way to model ship hulls with easy hull wizards and extra tools to manipulate the shape of the hull.





Important Rhino Commands:
  • Move
  • Rotate
  • Scale 1d
  • Shear
Options and tools:
  • Project on
  • Object Snap on/off
  • Orthogonal on/off
  • Smart track on
  • Nudge option to move control points at predefined steps

See also this great instructional video of Brian James