I recently installed fusion 360 after watching the tutorials on youYou it is nearly as intuitive as Photoshop was when I was in school 20 years ago a few things to know but simple enough to work and figure out
It's a good program but it can also tax a computer when models have lots of parts and get very complex. I have one model (a tug) that I did that takes 10 minutes to load and can crash my computer to a BSOD pretty easily but on that model I forced/tricked fusion to do a few things and it's really the only one that give me problems.
So, would like to add a few things on using plans to 3d model ships - in fusion 360 the way I originally started doing hulls was to create planes and draw each frame and then loft a body the going from frame to frame (1st frame to the last). But this left the Bow and the stern to do separately which was often a pain in A@$&#%!! Also sometimes it's difficult to get the loft to go to all the frames if you constrain the shape with rails. Now days I still do frames but I do just the surfaces which gives more freedom and ease to deal with the bow and the stern but you have to use the "thicken" command which can give you it's on set of issues (complex curves can't always be thickened). One this I will share is that I have more success just doing one side of the hull and then mirroring to make the other side. I've also tried mixing the techniques but.... with mixed results. I'd like to try delft ship but there doesn't seem to be a lot of how-to videos out there for it
Drawing the frames and lofting between is exactly the same approach I took - with exactly the same difficulty regarding the bow and stern. I am now in the process of starting with Profile-Waterlines-then Frames, and lofting the decks, from flying to the main to waterline, etc to the flat(planar) portion of the bottom, using the frames/profile as guide rails. I'm hoping with this approach to easily incorporate the "pointy bits" at the bow and stern, as well as model the sheer at the bow afterwards...
Oh yeah, another issue I found with my lofting frames approach was how sensitive the final hull shape was to variations in the frames - any deviation from the correct spacing or contours of the frames produced noticeable ripples in the hull, especially in the stern. I'm hoping that starting with the waterlines to provide a generally smooth framework, and perhaps reducing the number of frames used, will make for a cleaner hull... [where's that darn crossed-fingers emoji?]
I have found in Delft ship after lofting a ship there is best described as a skin tool that turnes different colors for high and low points, after I have a happy medium that I am satisfied with I ajust the ribs to match the hull skin. I am going to have to buy a liscanse for Delft ship as I am using the free version and I don't want to virtual build the ships I have already created Delft in to Auto Cad also, simplify things for me as a model can be turned in to a DFX with the full version of Delft not the free trial version.
I'd like to be able to use Delft ship and import into fusion 360 - I think I read Delft Ship can export to Iges files - is that the best way?
that is what I was thinking. now I need to save up 150 Euros wife told me I could only spend or save 20$ a pay check on hobby stuff "Sad Face"...
So I've been making progress in my effort to produce a 3D model of the IJN Yamashiro using Fusion 360: I've had success creating waterline profiles and then lofting those using the frames and bow/stern profiles as rails, which avoids the difficulties of the bow and stern bits when lofting from frame to frame, and seems to give an overall smoother hull. Lofting is definitely more "Black Magic" than science, as I've found the success of a loft varies depending on which direction you are lofting (up vs. down) , which rails are selected, and in which order - the bottom loft was the most problematic. I considered turning the body into a surface or a shell, but since I am going to print it, I think it will work to simply slice the body along ribs (22 x 6mm) and carve out the bits I don't want (the jack-o-lantern approach).
I've not tried the waterline method before will have to give it a go - I agree there's black magic in lofting - I usually have to mix in some voodoo to get things "good enough". Sometimes I loft between frames but for bow and stern I do a kind of waterline type loft. Seems nothing is ever easy.
