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Interestingly, whilst computers play an ever more dominant role, there is still a large amount of trial and error that goes into hull design. All famous hull d

by Stevvo 5y ago

Interestingly, whilst computers play an ever more dominant role, there is still a large amount of trial and error that goes into hull design. All famous hull designers draw their curves by hand.

WJW 5y ago
That is mostly because you only get to be famous as a hull designer if you make "beautiful" hulls (ie for yaghts and stuff), and beauty is very difficult to express mathematically. The people designing containers ships don't draw their lines by hand but rely on large amounts of computing power to compute hull stresses and squeeze every last bit of storage space out of their designs. As an interesting anecdote, when I was still working for the (Dutch) navy they had a project going on to use constraint solvers to generate new submarine designs. The design team would generate 10 designs every week, take them to the sub guys who would spot new problems ("there is no bathroom close to the command deck" for example) and then go back and translate all the problems into new constraints for the solver. Later iterations even had VR models so they could "walk" through the virtual ship.
- tobmlt 5y ago
  I can relate. I wrote a constraint solver as a pre-processor for my curve and surface generator. Never quite made a “beautiful” hull…. Probably an issue with my objective function and graduation constraints ;)
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Reminds me of designing a house. Want a bigger bathroom? The closet shrinks.
pomian 5y ago
Have you ever tried to model a sailboat hull in AutoCAD, SketchUp? I remember trying out all the"new" cad software in the 80/90's, it was impossible. I still think it extremely difficult. What you can do by hand is easy, conceptually and practically. Software is there now, but still extremely complicated. Not a single bit of straight line, anywhere, in any direction!
- Stevvo 5y ago
  I've not tried, but I'm familiar enough with modern CAD software to know how I might approach the problem. Basically you draw your cross-sections as NURBS curves, then let Catmull-Clark subdivision make a smooth surface. I find that much easier than using a pencil.

by Stevvo 5y ago

Interestingly, whilst computers play an ever more dominant role, there is still a large amount of trial and error that goes into hull design. All famous hull designers draw their curves by hand.

WJW 5y ago

That is mostly because you only get to be famous as a hull designer if you make "beautiful" hulls (ie for yaghts and stuff), and beauty is very difficult to express mathematically. The people designing containers ships don't draw their lines by hand but rely on large amounts of computing power to compute hull stresses and squeeze every last bit of storage space out of their designs. As an interesting anecdote, when I was still working for the (Dutch) navy they had a project going on to use constraint solvers to generate new submarine designs. The design team would generate 10 designs every week, take them to the sub guys who would spot new problems ("there is no bathroom close to the command deck" for example) and then go back and translate all the problems into new constraints for the solver. Later iterations even had VR models so they could "walk" through the virtual ship.

tobmlt 5y ago
I can relate. I wrote a constraint solver as a pre-processor for my curve and surface generator. Never quite made a “beautiful” hull…. Probably an issue with my objective function and graduation constraints ;)
WalterBright 5y ago
Reminds me of designing a house. Want a bigger bathroom? The closet shrinks.

pomian 5y ago

Have you ever tried to model a sailboat hull in AutoCAD, SketchUp? I remember trying out all the"new" cad software in the 80/90's, it was impossible. I still think it extremely difficult. What you can do by hand is easy, conceptually and practically. Software is there now, but still extremely complicated. Not a single bit of straight line, anywhere, in any direction!

Stevvo 5y ago
I've not tried, but I'm familiar enough with modern CAD software to know how I might approach the problem. Basically you draw your cross-sections as NURBS curves, then let Catmull-Clark subdivision make a smooth surface. I find that much easier than using a pencil.