ADVANCED TRAINING MODELING IN RHINOCEROS FOR MARINE DESIGNERS SIMPLE HULL FROM FLAT PLATE

Copyright 2001-2009 Cliff W Estes

Before You Start

Objectives This tutorial will introduce you to the methods needed to create a fair hull from a single flat plate in minimal time. The hull, itself is very simple, but with a little imagination, the reader can easily work out how to convolute it into a full-molded, bulbous-bowed super tanker. The tutorial, Second Simple Hull provides further guidance to get that supertanker modeled. In this tutorial, you will learn to: Make the edges and internal control points of a flat plate conform to a desired hull. The model created for this tutorial is included on the distribution CD. You can work from it or create your own while performing the tasks. To gain maximum benefit, the latter is recommended. Requirements In order to complete this tutorial, you should have at least the following: Rhino 2.0 or higher. Rhino proficiency to Level 1 Training (see Rhino web site http://www.rhino3d.com/ for details) Understanding of Marine Design Principles Completion of the tutorials, Sail, Skiff and Offshore

WARNING: This tutorial assumes you have completed the first three tutorials on the distribution CD (Skiff, Sail and Offshore) . If you have not done so, you are urged to complete them, before starting this tutorial. Some operations will be described in this tutorial, in a manner, which assumes youve already completed those tutorials. Conventions used in this document Where reference is made to a Rhino menu choice, command, option, or viewport, it will be shown in bold letters Example: From the Edit menu, click Trim Where a prompt requires you to type a response on the command line (e.g.: entering coordinates or options), the required response will be shown in bold letters. Example: At the Point to copy to: prompt, type 1.5,0

Any reports of progress made by Rhino during the execution of a command will be shown in italics. Example: Seven curves found Even though most commands in Rhino support pickfirst, all menu-based directions are given in this tutorial as if nothing was selected when a given command was issued, unless otherwise noted. Prior to doing any modeling, use the options dialog to set your meshes to a refined value in order for this simple hull to shade as shown in these illustrations. Your dialog should resemble the following:

Note the red rectangle in the illustration. This value should be set depending on your units setting. As shown, the value is good for models built in inches, which the current project is. However, if you are modeling in millimeters, the setting would be entirely too restrictive. This value tells Rhino that, whenever the edge of the mesh gets more than 0.01 units from the edge of the surface, to further refine it. The casual observer will realize that 0.01 mm is a very small distance.

The Vessel The vessel to be modeled in this tutorial is a very simple round-bilged hull. It has four edges and minimal control points, lending to quick editing from a flat plate to a very fair hull. As previously noted, the model will be built in inch units. It can be built in any units you choose, since it is actually quite non-dimensional. However, if youve set your meshes as shown in the previous illustration, use inch units to keep your meshes reasonable. The Files The files, which are part of this tutorial include: Simple Hull from Flat Plate Tut.pdf This tutorial. Simple Hull from Flat Plate Tut.3dm The finished hull. The Model To begin this tutorial, open one existing model, Simple Hull from Flat Plate Tut.3dm, provided on the CD. Your Perspective viewpoint should look like Figure 1.

Figure 1. The model with hull to be created and flat plate to start from. 1. Select the hull surface in the model and delete it. You will be creating your own. What will be left is the flat plate and three curves. The three curves are on layer, cCurves, which is locked, so you cant inadvertently delete or move them. 2. Rebuild the flat panel to 4 points each direction and degree 3 each direction. 3. Turn on the control points of the flat plate. 4. In the top viewport, select all the control points at the top edge of the flat plate.Your Perspective viewport should resemble figure 2.

Figure 2. Select the sheer points at the top of the plate. 5. In the Front viewport, move these control points to match the sheer curve.

Figure 3. Move the sheer points to match the sheer curve.

6. In the Top viewport, arrange these same control points to match the sheer curve in plan view.

Figure 4. Move the sheer points to match the sheer curve in plan view. 7. Move the points on the opposite edge to match the centerline profile curve in the Front viewport.

Figure 5. Move the centerline points to match the centerline profile

8. Note that the remainder of the control points are still on the baseplane and not where they should be in half-breadth. Arrange these to create a pleasing hull. The exact shape is left to the practitioner. Note: if you have the same problem I do, the hull will shade as shown below:

Figure 6. Rhino shades the model wrong. 9. Issue the Untrim command and select the surface. This should fix the problem.

Figure 7. After Untrimming, Rhino shades the model correctly.

10. If you want to take this exercise further, you can rebuild the hull again with 6 points and degree 5 in the U direction, while leaving the V direction at 4,3. This will give you additional control over the section shapes, without unduly taxing the flexibility.

So, there you have it. A really simple method to create a fair hull with minimal effort. With a little practice, you should be able to bat out a new hull in less than a half hour. It wont have the complexity of the offshore hull or Motoryacht, but it will be quite handy for a great many projects, especially in preliminary design.