Hull design and 3D CAD modeling

[mwe14]

Greg G, do you know what program was used for that simulation?

[Murph]

Awesome Job. Sleek looking.
If your going to build yourself one out of wood, just incorporate the windshield look with a paint scheme.
Windshields are expensive, custom ones even more.
A lot of dollars and labour for something you don't even look through. LOL

[mwe14]

That's the plan. I just made it like that in the pictures because I'm still learning how to use the program and wanted to see how different colours/materials would look. You're absolutely right, on something as small as this, it's purely aesthetic, not functional. But if I do decide to put a clear windshield in it (just for looks) I could make one my self out of lexan or plexiglass. We have a CNC router and large powder coating ovens, so cutting and forming something this small wouldn't be an issue (and since you wouldn't be looking through it, some optical distortion wouldn't really matter), but it would probably be more work than it's worth.

[mr fun]

you're (I belive) a young man. this is a talent that you can pursue, and if you can navigate your way through the right channels you can have a "cool" career. I worked at sea ray when the computer revolution came through and spoke with the plant manager about my wife's uncle who was teaching computer useage, but being in a **** relationship with his niece I chose not to include him in my career. probably a mistake. anywhoo, I'm still interested in the science, thanks for sharing in such a easy to follow manner. fun out

[mwe14]

Thanks mr fun, and everyone else! With all of the great info on this site, I'm happy to add some of my own and help whenever I can. Designing and building boats for a living has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. When I was 5 years old my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, without hesitating I told her that I wanted to be a boat hahaha. 16 years later, they still take up most of my thoughts and time....

Needed a study break so I thought I would post a couple pictures of what I have been working on in my spare time. This is what I would really like to build when I can afford it. A 20ft (700lb hull) true tunnel, with a 2.5L 240hp engine (the one I found for my ScyCraft) top speed should be over 100mph, it's no drag boat (but 0-90mph under 30 sec according to the TBDP) but should take rough water well, hopefully lol. Here's the first sketch I drew out, the final (so far) design actually came out pretty close with just a few minor changes.

[mr fun]

I like it !!! we have similar ideas

[whipper]

Awesome!! I had the autoShip program from decades ago. :] It was hard because i never had a computer with enough memory ever to use it effectively. I have most of Jim's books from aeromarine research. I won a prop design book on Scream and fly from greg once also actually: ] Like you guys i've been drawing boat designs forever also. i would love to have some of the boats ive drawn inputted on cad to see what they look like with some performance data! One in particular. The one Ive always wanted to build.

Thankyou for sharing your info with us!!! Its really cool what your doing. That Tunnel looks sick BTW and the motor on the Vee also!!!!

I wish you well on your passion and hope you can make it to the Build stage one day. Are you on boatdesign.net also? I haven't been over there in a while. But have been registered since 2000Ish. Thanks again for sharing.

[speedinstream]

i would like to find out a way to try diffrent paint sceams is there anything out there

[mwe14]

There are a couple options depending on how detailed you want to be. If you just want a quick way to see how different colours look together, something like Microsoft Paint may work fine. However if you want to keep it looking realistic and maintain shading etc. then Photoshop or another image editing software is probably your best bet. There may be something better that I don't know about.

Here are a couple I did of my boat last night with Photoshop as an example/test. The first one, blue, is the original image.

[mwe14]

It has been a long time since I have posted so I thought I'd update the thread with some of my more recent work. Constructive criticism is welcome . I am still doing most of my 3d modeling work in Rhino, but have moved to 3DS MAX for material editing and rendering, and love it.

The first is a 25ft V with a Mercury NXT6 SSM drive.

The drive took quite a bit of time to get right (or close to right), since the only reference I had was google images and 2d line drawings from owner manuals. But I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I have also done a F1 style tunnel boat. Those of you who are familiar with Todd Wasson's fantastic race boat simulator, Design it, Drive it: Speedbooats (he has another thread about it on here), may recognize the new outboard engine model found on the boats from one of my previous posts. I also made the driver helmet and new digital dash display for the tunnel boats in the game. It has been really cool and a lot of fun helping him with the testing and development of his game, and it is awesome to finally see some of my own work put to good use in a real video game. Especially one designed around race boats!


This one isn't boating related but hopefully it's still ok to include.

I did not make the car model my self for this one, it's one I found online with no materials as a blank model. I did this one focusing on lighting/materials, scene setup, and compositing with a real background image.
Scene setup testing perspective and shadows before adding materials.

I hope you guys like them. If you have any suggestions for improvements or thoughts about new projects as I continue to build my portfolio I'd love to hear your ideas.