Hi there

I'm looking for a free CAD programm for hull designing.

Is there anybody who can help me? I have been using CAD for making technical solutions in my boats, however I need something much more simplier than common CAD program. Something which could have been loaded into small netbook to share information with other modellers during staying at lake.

Thank you in advance.

Peter

AutoCAD student version is fine for non commercial use. It has no time limit, all features is included, and you can use it just as the paid version. Except for commercial purposes.
Fair enough, AutoCAD is no lightweight program, but it is as easy to use as CAD programs get.
The most common and simple features is easily accessible for beginners, and you can simply forget about the complex features if you dont need them.
ACAD is excellent for simple sharing, lets say at the strip. You dont even need a laptop at the field, you can load your drawings to your android phone, and show and edit them on the phone with AutoCAD WS (free).

Hi

Thank you for your answer. When I wrote that I had been using CAD I ment AutoCAD. I have few AutoCADs: A9CAD, DoubleCAD and standard AutoCAD for technical designing. But when it comes to discuss the speed of the boat as a function of the shape of the hull, or when we think about positioning the shaft, there always hundreds of ununswered questions. Some friends of mine use Excel to calculate all above. I was thinking about somethning like Chine Hull Designer with options for calculating speed and other parametres. A program in which you can modify the lenght, width or shape of hull, and see what happens to the rest of boat parametres when it runs.

I use AutoCAD for all my models.
You first need the experience in building models before you design and build your own model.
Shape, shaft angle and CG position are just the basic things you have to know before you design.
And those things come with the experience in building.
First model that you deisgn is allways a prototype.
So do not expect too much from it.

I have been building my speedboats for over 12 years, so I'm not uneducated in this matter.

I need a program for dynamic analysis of hulls.

However, thank you for your post.

Peter,

What type of hulls do you build? What kind of speed are we talking here?

Ryan

Hello Ryan,

I haven't been here for ages! I'm back again on this forum after few months of being abroad ( I work as a engineer in power sector ).

I do hope You're ok, aren't you?

Listen Ryan, I got no much time today, but for your information: I've been building deep vee monos using playwood, balsa. When I was younger I was involved in building ABS boats ( Graupner, Kyosho, Robbe ), you know all that plastic boats you could have bought in local store.

Starting 2007, me and my friends tried to organise some kind of a modeller team located close to the big pond in my area. Then we started discussion about hulls, motors, props etc. That's why I'm looking for some kind of CAD program for describing what happens to the boat not olny when it runs, but also when we change it's characteristic by changing the shape, motor position etc. I call it a dynamic analysis of the hull. Why to build a prototype and waste money and time when you can try to do it using a computer? No no no, I'm not against making prototypes at all, no! But some times it's easier to do it without changing the boat using " saw and glue".

That was the core of my question.

Thank you Ryan for your post!

I previously used SolidWorks for this, with the CosMosFlow pack.
It lets you run liquid and gas flow behaviour analysis of any object you design.
I used CosMosFlow for everything from analyzing compressor wheels for gas turbines with the gas tubine builders assocation, to finding the optimal shape for my own rifle bullet castings.
Its great

There is no free, cheap or "lite" program that will do those things you want.

You need a fairly decent PC to run programs of that caliber...

Hi there

The point is, that all these"big and sophisticated" CAD programs take a lot memory in a standard PC desk computer. You are right.

But sometimes not. Take at look at this:

http://www.aeromarineresearch.com/tbdp6.html

I found a programm for tunnel boat design. When I get some free time, I'll check the demo of this progra, Maybe I will find something inetersting for me and my friends.

Thank You BassTronics for posting.

Peter

Interesting.

When I hear CAD I think AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks, ProE and the likes.

Computer-aided design (CAD), also known as computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation.

So, every program which was designed to help the user in the process of design can be called a CAD program.

Yo can call such program in any way you want, for example A Mickey Miki Mouse Cad Program. But is still A CAD. Even a small, primitive program for drawing and making circles on the screen is a CAD.

A program mentioned in may last post ( the one for the tunnel hull boats ) looks very inetresting.

Have good day, Basstronics.

I work in AutoCAD and Inventor play aroundd with SolidWorks- Design Engineer for a top of the line tube mill manufacturer. So Im familar with CAD and the packages mentioned.

That program you found, cant say Ive ever heard of it. I have more of an industrial mindset rather than a niche specific one.