Part 1: Getting Started

Many people say that this 3D Boat Building Software with all its many features
is a bit difficult to learn. My own experience is, that once you understand the
basics, it is actually quite easy. This tutorial will show you how to use many of
its features by working on an actual hull.

In this tutorial, I will use his "Bobsboat", i.e. the same hull that he uses for his
hull design tutorial. This is the sketch of Bobsboat:
Now, let's see how we get there.
Jim provides the following drawings:
A "bodyplan view"

and a "plan view"

We start a new design: File -> New (or just click the Button).
From the plan view we see, that we would need 12 points in longitudinal
direction. The first one would be the transom, the last one the stem. However,
we choose now only 10, so that we can try some more features later. From the
bodyplan view we see, that we need 4 points in vertical direction: the first one
for the keel line, the last one for the sheer line. The length will be 20 feet. In the
bodyplan view we see the max. half beam as 36 inch, so the beam will be 6
feet. The draft we set for now to 0.5 and the units will be feet.

Before starting the editing process, I switch off all lines that I don't need for
now, and that only disturb the image: The grid, the stations, the buttocks, the
waterlines. Just click once on all those buttons:

The Perspective view should look now something like that:

The first what we need to change are the chines. We don't want a smooth hull,
but hard chines. So we select the chines by clicking on them in any of the four
"viewports". I find it the easiest to do most of the selecting in the Perspective
view. The selected chines will be marked in yellow.
To make them "hard chines" we select from the menu Edge -> Crease, or -
more easy - just click the button near the right end of the button bar.
But it is still a bit difficult to visualize the hull.
No problem. Just display also the other half of the hull by choosing from the
menu Visibility -> Show both sides, or - more easy - just click the button

Now we have already a hull that looks fairly close to Bobsboat. We "just" have
to get it into the right dimensions.

Part 2: Forming the Hull - X Axis

Before we start bringing the hull into the right dimensions we'll do some
project settings in the menu Project -> Project settings.
The project name is Bobsboat. You can input a comment and put yourself in as
the one who created the file. The next four entries are taken from the initial
settings and therefore ok. Our mainframe location is at 11 feet. The problem is,
that Jim measures from the stem, while 3D-Boat-Building-Softwarelikes to
measure from the stern. With an 20 feet long boat, 11 feet from the stem means
9 feet from the stern. So we deselect the "Default at 0.5*L" and enter the 9.
Finally I like another colour for the underwater shade. I click on the coloured
field, select the new colour and close the colour chooser with OK.

This is how our boat looks now in plan view:

We have to get it into something like this:

First we'll put all section points in straight lines at the correct longitudinal
positions. Let's start with the first one next to the transom. We select all four
points by control-clicking on them. We can do this in any view, but I find the
Proportianal view the most convenient. This is how it will look now:

The coordinates shown in the small dialog will depend on which point you
clicked the last.
All four points should be at 18 feet from the stem, this is 2 feet from the stern,
so we enter 2 as the X coordinate and hit return. All four points will now be set
to X=2. To de-select those points, we right-click anywhere in any view and
choose "Deselect all". In fact, this de-selection is not necessary for points.
Clicking the next one will automatically de-select the previous ones. We repeat
those steps for the next 3 sections, until we get this:
If we would have initially choosen 12 points in longitudinal direction, then we
just could continue. But we took only 10, so that we can try a feature: to insert
points. We want to insert a section at 11 feet from the stem, i.e. 9 feet from the
stern. For that we select the four chines where we want to insert the points:

Then we choose from the menu Edge -> Split, or - more easy - just click the
corresponding button .
Four new points will appear, all selected, with a dialog to set coordinates. We
enter 9 as the X coordinate and hit return. All four points will be now in one
line. This would be enough actually, but for now we want also the
corresponding faces to be split. For this, while all four points are still selected,
we choose from the menu Edge -> Insert, or - more easy - just click the
corresponding button .
We'll set accordingly the other sections, and will have to add one more section
like that. In the end the plan view will look something like that:

We have now all the X coordinates set, except for the stem. How should it look
like?
Jim says that the upper plank (let's call it the "sides") should be all vertical and
gives one more drawing:
We'll select the two points that determine the stem at the sides and set them to
X=20.

Hit "return" and voila - the stem is straight. From Jim's drawing we see that the
bottom panel should start 2 feet behind the stem, so we select that point and set
it to X=18. But what happens?
At X=18 there is already the point of the last section. As it turns out, the bottom
panel needs actually only 11 points in longitudinal direction. Means: we have
to get rid of something. First we'll move the point back to where it was, so that
we have clear access to the other items. Easy: just do an Edit -> Undo and we
are where we were before.

In order to make it easier, we'll first zoom in the Plan view. Either we do a right
click in the Plan view window and then select Zoom -> Zoom in, or - faster -
we use the mouse to drag upwards. Means: position the cursor somewhere at
the bottom inside the window, press the left mouse button, and while keeping it
pressed, move the mouse upwards. That should zoom in. Unfortunately, we see
now the middle of the boat, but the area that interests us is to the right. So w do
the same, but use the right button. You can move now the drawing until you see
the area near the stem.
Now we'll get rid of one section in the bottom and the bilge panel. We select
the two edges

and choose from the menu Edge -> Collapse, or - more easy - just click the
corresponding button .
This is how it should look now:
The single point in the keel line we don't need anymore, so we'll delete it: We'll
select it by clicking on it, then choose from the menu Point -> Collapse, or -
more easy - just click the corresponding button , and it's gone.
Now we can move the frontmost point of the bottom panel to where it should
be, to X=18:

In order to get smoother results, we'll split the bilge panel at X=18. For this we
select the two points
and insert an edge with the button.
Voila, looks fine:

and we've covered already many of the hull editing features.

Part 3: Forming the Hull - Y Axis

This is what we have until now:
(If you see only a part of it, then just do a right-click in the Plan view window,
and select Zoom -> All)

And this is what we want:

Easy. We start at the transom and select the two points that belong to the side
panel:

If the selection is too difficult in Plan view (since the two points are close
together), just select them in Perspective view or in Profile view where it is
much easier.
Now we want to set both points to a beam of 24 inch, as given in Jim's drawing.
But 3D-Boat-Building-Softwaremeasures in feet, so what to do? Just enter the
Y value as 0-24, meaning: 0 feet - 24 inches. Hit the return button and - the
transom beam is set. Deselect the two points and go on with the next section.
Select the two points and enter 0-27.7 as the Y value. In case you should have
measurements with 8th of an inch instead of fractional inches, 3D-Boat-
Building-Softwarecan handle them too: 0-27-5 would mean 0 feet + 27 inches
+ 5/8 inch.
After all sections are set, our boat looks something like

The beam is set, but the bottom panel looks still odd. If Jim would give an
offset table for the bottom panel, we could just move those points accordingly
and would be done with the Y values. But Jim develops the coordinates for the
bottom panel graphically from the Bodyplan view, and this gets literally tricky,
if we do it in FREE!ship. But it can be done.

For this we will later want to see only the forward or aft section of the boat.
Hiding parts of a design can be achieved with layers, i.e. by hiding layers. So
we will have to work with layers now. Layers are groups of faces, so we have
to make the faces visible. We select from the menu Visibility -> Interior edges,
or - more easy - just click the corresponding button .
Since we are lazy, we let 3D-Boat-Building-Softwaredo the work to assign the
faces to layers: We choose from the menu Layer -> Auto group, or - more easy
- just click the corresponding button .

You think, nothing has changed. But it has. Let's see. From the menu we
choose Layer -> Dialog, or - more easy - just click the corresponding
button . Yeah, I know, you know that "more easy - just click" sentence
already.
3D-Boat-Building-Softwarehas created two new layers, so that there are three
now:
But what are they? We click the checkbox next to Layer 0 and look what
happens: The side panels disappear. Since we know now what Layer 0 is, we
can give it a better name and choose a more appropriate colour. We also want
that 3D-Boat-Building-Softwareshows us later how the the panels should be cut
from a straight sheet of plywood. We click therefore the box for Developable.

The same we can do now for the other two layers. Say we call them "Bilge"
and "Bottom". All of them form the hull and will be needed for the hydrostatics
calculations, so we set all of them to "Use for hydrostatics". So far, so good.
We remember that we will later need one layer for the transom: we just click
the button to create a new layer. We name it "Transom" and set the other
properties similarly like for the other layers.
But now, the tricks start. We'll add three more layers and call them " Sides Aft
", "Bilge Aft", and "Bottom Aft". Colour etc. is not important, since we will
delete them later on anyway. We'll add two more layers: "View Stem" and
"View Stern".

We are done for now and close this dialog with the botton .
Next, we'll asign the aft part of our panels to the Aft layers. We start with the
bottom panel. This is easiest done in Plan view. We click in the areas of the
bottom panel until it looks like that:

This is how the Profile view looks now:

We see the yellow lines pointing outward of the hull, in this case downward.
Those lines are called "normals" and have to point outwards, otherwise the
hydrostatic calculations produce nonsense.
In case (in another design) they would point inward like this:
then we should choose from the menu Face -> Invert, .... (you know what
comes) ... or - more easy - just click the corresponding button .
Back to our boat. We have selected the aft faces of the bottom panel. We assign
them now to the layer "Bottom Aft" by choosing that layer in the selection
list . Important now is - especially if we are working
with hidden layers - to do a "Deselect all"!.
Next we repeat those steps with the aft bilge panels (assign to layer "Bilge
Aft") and the aft side panels. The side panels are easiest selected in Profile
view.
The reason why we did this, was that we are now able to "switch off" the front
or aft section of the boat, just as we need. And we will need to do that so that
we can edit Y and Z values in Bodyplan view.

As you see, Jim has one more plan of which we made no use until now:

We will need it now to determine Y and Z values. For this we'll draw this plan
as a projection in our design. 3D-Boat-Building-Softwarecan do things for
which it was not programmed!
We'll start with the Bow view and draw it at X=21, i.e. 1 foot in front of the
bow.
We choose from the menu Point -> Add, or - more easy - no, ther is no "more
easy". To add a point into empty space is not often needed, so there is no short
button.
The new point will be created at coordinates 0,0,0. In Profile view it is easy to
see below the transom. We have to select it and then move it where we want to
have it. We choose X=21 and keep Y and Z at 0. We add one more point and
move it to 21,0-24,0 and one more at 21,0,0-6. Compare it with the Bow view
above. Those three points form the projection of the bottom panel. But how can
we get the lines that connect those three points? We select all three of them
(easiest in Perspective view) and choose from the menu Face -> New, or - more
easy - just click the corresponding button .

Looks funny. 3D-Boat-Building-Softwaretries to smoothen the created face at

the corners. We don't want that strange look, so we select point by point and
make them to Corner points.

Then we go on and create the two missing points for the Bilge panel at 21,0-
36,0-9 and at 21,0,0-30. Same story. We select the four points that define the
projection of the Bilge panel
and click the button to create a new face. Then we can make points to Corner
points, like above. Finally the points that define the chine at 21,0-36,0-24 and
at 21,0,0-36. Select the four points, create the face for the side panels. Change
the points to Corner points. The edged that define the chines of the Bilge panel
have gotten a bit thin and difficult to see, so we select them

and make them crease edges with the button .

Now you do the same with the Stern view, but at X=-1, so that we have the
projection 1 foot aft of the transom.
In order to see it better, we move the scroll bar at the bottom of the Perspective
view to the right. This is how it should look like:
In case you have difficulties, this are the coordinates of the points, taken from
Jim's Stern View drawing:
Bottom panel: -1,0,0 / -1,0-24,0 (like bow view) / -1,0-15,0-9 / -1,0,0-9
Bilge panel: -1,0-36,0-9 (like bow view) / -1,0-24,0-16.6
Side panel: -1,0-36,0-24 (like bow view) / -1,0-24,0-28

Finally we move the projection of the bow view to the "View Stem" layer, and
the projection of the aft view to the "View Aft" layer, like we did it above with
the aft parts of the panels.

While we are already at this: You can use the same trick, i.e. creating some
faces that are disconnected from the hull as a projection of the plan view. If
you'd create them at Z=-1, i.e. below the hull, then they would interfere with
hydrostatics calculations. So I suggest that you'd create them at some
reasonable distance above the hull.

Part 4: Forming the Hull - Z Axis

First we'll do the forward half of the boat. Since the aft part only disturbs us,
we'll hide those layers: Sides Aft, Bilge Aft, Bottom Aft, View Aft. We do that
by unchecking the box in front of their names in the layer dialog. We get it with
the button.
What we know from the Bow view are the coordinates at X=9 and at the stem.
So we select the point at X=9 at the sheer and set Z=0-24 (i.e. the point is now
9,3,2). We select the point at X=9 at the lower edge of the side panel and set
Z=0-9. The points at X=9 at both sides of the bottom panel will be at Z=0.
From the Bow view we know also the width of the bottom at X=9: We set the
outer point of the bottom panel to Y=0-24. Hey, we have now completely
defined the cross section at the max. beam!
Now let's look at the stem. We select the top, frontmost point, at X=20, and set
it to Z=0-36. The point below we set to Z=0-30, and the frontmost point of the
bottom panel (at X=18) to Z=0-6.

Now let's have a look at the Bodyplan view. I have selected the sheer line, so it
appears as yellow:

The sheer is strangely bent, while in fact it should be a straight line in Bodyplan
view. The points at the max. beam and the stem are correct already, but the
points between are too low. So we'll select now one point of the sheer line after
the other and set the Z coordinate by trial and error until it lies on top of the
straight line. To make it easier, and more exact, we'll zoom in the Bodyplan
view. After setting the points, I have selected all of them, and this is how it
looks now:

We can do the same now for the bottom edge of the side panels:
However, we can't use the same procedure for the bottom panel, since the Z
coordinates of it are not yet determined. For the forward half of the hull, where
the Bilge panel is twisted, Jim takes the measurements from a drawing.

I think those values come close: X=10/Y=1.96; X=12/Y=1.75; X=14/Y=1.30;

X=16/Y=0.70. We set those values easily by selecting the points in Plan view.
Now we can go back to Bodyplan view. We set all those four front sections of
the bottom panel by selecting the inside and outside point of each and setting
the Z coordinate of them so that the outside point of the bottom panel lies on
the straight line:
We are done with the front section! If you haven't saved your work yet, this
would be a good time to do it.

Let's work on the aft half.

Open the Layer Dialog, unhide the aft layers, and hide the front layers.
Now you know the game: The aft point of the sheer line (X=0, at the bulkhead)
goes to Z=0-28 (taken from the Stern View drawing). The point at X=9 is
already correct. Now, in Bodyplan view, move the Z coordinates of the other
points of the sheer line up, so that the projection is a straight line.

The same with the lower edge of the side panels. The aft point at X=0 goes to
Z=0-16.6 - and the other points into a straight line in Bodyplan view.
With the bottom panel we have the same problem like in the forward half: Jim
does not give dimensions of the width. We'll try the same graphical approach
like he. For that we hide the interior edges . From the Stern view drawing
we know the width of the bottom panel at the transom. We set that point to
Y=0-15, and then set the Z value of both aft points (at X=0) to Z=0-9. When
moving the four points onto the straight line, this time we will not only change
the vertical Z coordinates, but also the Y coordinates in such a way that the
lines that connect them with the upper edge of the Bilge panel (see the yellow
lines below) are all in parallel with the red line that defines the max. beam of
the Bilge panel.

This is a good time to move the points with the cursor, then do the fine
adjustment with the dialog box.
Finally we have to make the bottom panel flat by moving the points at the
center to the same Z coordinate like the corresponding points at the chine. The
lines at the bottom panel should be then horizontal:
We are done - nearly. Our boat has no transom yet.

You know already some ways how to do it: We could select the points at the
end of the panels and make a new face to connect them with . This is what
we would get:

Just insert one point in the diagonale by splitting this edge and move it to its
final point at 0,0,0-28.
Then set the points as Corner points, and the edges around the transom as
Crease edges .

Alternatively, you could create a new point, set it to 0,0,0-28 and then create a
new face with all the points around the transom.

But I want to show you another way, using one more feature. In case you
followed the instructions above and therefore have already a transom, I suggest
that you do repeated "Edit -> Undo" until the transom is gone again.
We select the vertical aft edge of the side panels.

In Perspecive view make sure that you selected the edge of the side panel, not
that one of the projection!.
Then we choose from the menu Edge -> Extrude, or - more easy - just click the
corresponding button . We get a dialog

where we set the direction of the extrusion. We want the new face to go inward
from the selected edge, i.e. from Y=2 feet (24 inches) to Y=0 feet. So we enter
-2, or -0-24 and click the OK button.
We have the upper part of the transom. Now select the four corner points of the
lower part and create a new face . We know the rest: set edges to Crease
edges, and make points to Corner points. Finally make the inside edges
visible , select the new faces

and assign them to the "Transom" layer

Finished! You know by now pretty much all features that you need to edit a
hull. Wait - I forgot to mention one issue: Every edge can belong only to one or
two faces, not to more. If your design would require a third face connected to
one edge, then you'll need to find ways around it, e.g. by running a face in close
distance parallel to an existing face. I'll show you that in part 6.

The rest of our design is clean-up work: Make all layers visible. Select all
points or edges of the projections in front of the bow and aft of the transom and
delete them via the menu Edit -> Delete, or - more easy - just click the
corresponding button . Then select the aft halfs of the panels and assign
them back to the original layer. Finally delete all empty layers. Either via the
menu Layer -> Delete empty, or - more easy - just click the corresponding
button . This button is also available in the Layer Properties dialog.
Finally we want to see our Bobsboat a bit more nicely. In any or all of the four
views we do a right-click and select "Mode -> Shade". Looks nice, just the
control net still disturbs us. So let's get rid off it. Menu Visibility -> Control
net, or - more easy - just click the corresponding button .

How does it look like?