CAD hull analysis

Hello everyone.

My name is Andrew. I am 100% new to this forum and this is my first post. It looks like there are a lot of knowledgeable folks on here so I'll take a shot with my question.

I enjoy designing boats on 3D programs such as AutoCAD and Rhino3D. I have built and designed mostly Airboats as that is my specific interest. Airboats have flat bottom hulls and are often driven on very flat, smooth water. I have recently done a few new hull designs, some of which being step hulls, and I am looking for a program to do some analysis on the hulls before I actually produce them. Dose anyone know of any good programs for this? I want to track hydrostatics on the hull, be able to visualize how the hull will ride, and also see how the hull will react in the water with different speeds and wind conditions.

Thanks in advance for any inputs!
Andrew

Re: CAD hull analysis

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard Andrew,... Most of Us 'round here test in the water, rather than in a 'puter....

Hopefully, somebody'll be along with similar interests, 'n have some ideas for ya...

Re: CAD hull analysis

Have you been on the boatdesign.net forums yet?

Re: CAD hull analysis

Might try an Autocad or Rhino3D forums, or maybe google hull design or boat design forums.

As mentioned, this forum is more about repair and water testing than actual boat design.

Re: CAD hull analysis

Thanks for the input guys.
I am on Boat Design.net as well. (Actually just joined). I was hoping to find someone on here who may have applied the PC stuff to actual testing and have some experiences. Some of the sites seem to be filled with folks that dont even own boats. They just design them for fun on their computers and are more interested in making Games and Movies. Dont get me wrong, thats cool but I need to know how they actually work, not just look good on the big screen! LOL BoatDesign.net is very good though. Lots of knowledge there. I'll keep posting around on the different forums and see what I come up with. Anyone have any experience or tips/tricks with step hull design?
Thanks!

Re: CAD hull analysis

http://www.delftship.net/

Re: CAD hull analysis

I ended up with too much on my plate, and haven't had much time this winter to work on my designs, but I started planning for a re-design of the bow of my houseboat. Its wide, with very little draft, so it slams thru waves. I'd rather have it slice thru, so my beers dont get shook up so bad..

Here's my old thread http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=496566
Post #9 is where I posted what I had found and started using.

Re: CAD hull analysis

Based on the fact that you're using auto cad to design it, this suggestion may be a bit out of your price league - but we use a software package called Fluent to do all internal/external CFD (computational fluid dynamics) modeling at work. There may be a "lite" version, dunno. Good luck with it, sounds like a fun project.