This being my first post on this forum, allow me to explain that I am but an amateur 3D modeller with no more than a couple of months of practice, but before I retired, I was a highly experienced ship builder.
I have set myself the task of creating an accurate model of a full size ship with the hope that I will be able to also create the internal structure and eventually be able to ‘’walk through’’ the ship and see the engine room and bridge etc.
I can find very little relative information on the web re such a project ( although there is much about the work of Naval Architects, and I have used DelftShip in the past) but I thank Ben Simmonds for his Guide to constructing a model of the Victory, for having read this on numerous occasions, it is now beginning to make sense and I am now using his approach to the model build.
Using Blender V2.79 and PCLinuxOS I am now constructing the outer shell of the ship from original drawings (downloaded from the web) but which are somewhat distorted, however, I have them scaled and adjusted so as to be good enough I think!
My approach now is to use Nurbs Surface Curves to model the hull sections (2 at a time) which I then join with CTRL+J ( which I think links them) and then by creating a face at top and bottom of the ‘’panel section’’ I can do Grid Fill and then I save the object as an Assett to be Imported or Appended into the main Shipyard Scene, where I am delighted to say that they position themselves quite accurately.
Now to my question: I hope to be able to attach my current blend file and you will see that in the Top Ortho View (which is actually the Bottom of the ship) the lines of the edges within the panels are running roughly in line with the waterlines in the drawing, but when looking at the Front Ortho View these same horizontal edges mostly look very odd indeed, for they are not following the shape (the lines) of the hull. ShipyardBuildNumber4.blend (1.1 MB)
Is this something that I need to be concerned about at this early stage and if it is, what should I do about it ?
With Thanks.
Edit: Brilliant website and so easy to upload the file but I now see that the background images are not showing, however, hopefully that will not make too much difference. Thanks
Edit 2: This should have the background images and Thanks GrimZA for showing me how to do it. ShipyardBuildNumber4.blend (1.4 MB)
To everyone who has replied, Thank you all so much for those amazing links and all the advice.
Exactly what I was hoping I might receive and (once I have studied all that information) I now know that there are several other ways in which I might more easily achieve my main goal.
I had only come across one of those links before ( Blender Nation How to create a rowboat) and I had dismissed it thinking it too simple for my own project, but with the little experience I have gained I can now appreciate far more of what he is saying and I shall definitely be trying a similar approach.
My thanks to RickyBlender for the link to Clipper Ship Plans, especially for the lovely drawings of iron construction because seeing these drawings on screen is even better than looking at some of the original books and plans in my library.
I must also single out FlyingBanana for the link on HMS Pegasus. That work is almost unbelievable to somone trained in wooden ship building, but I doubt I will live long enough to come anywhere near close.
Wonderful link, wonderful encouragement.
My thanks to you all (until the next time)
As a result of all of your advice I have changed my approach and here is the result so far.
You will all see what I have done – Cube – loop cuts at waterlines and sections – hide everything except one section – shape each section – unhide etc and the result is the most encouraging so far.
Certainly it needs to be tidied up and that is my next job, then do the middle part of the ship and then the bow, join them together and mirror to get the other side. Lots to do and learn but thanks for getting me started. STERN 1.blend (1.4 MB)
Any comments on corrections I have to make would of course be most gratefully received.
With Thanks
Your observations are immensely helpful and so encouraging for I have spent almost the entire day tidying up, finding out how to duplicate and join the 2 halves (I could not get ‘‘mirror’’ to work however, although they look joined I don’t think they are, for I have to select each half individually and cannot get all vertices to show on the entire aft hull section. Yet the hull looks better to my shipwrights eye although I need more fullness in the stern and there are some holes that I now need to find out about etc etc etc.
Terribly time consuming but so immensely rewarding.
Here is today’s work (in the hope that others might also be encouraged). Stern both sides.blend (1.4 MB)
I do realise that this is only the hull plate (without thickness at present) but I am happy with what I am learning. The ultimate goal is to be able to see the internal structure and to be able to walk through to different cabins/engine room etc so I have a very long way to go, but it beats watching TV !
if using the mirror modif
all the center verts must be align then yo set the center to ne of the vert
and it should work
will check your last file
just one note
it is more a matter of choice I guess
but for mechanical things I prefer to stay in ortho mode to work
but you choose what you feel good with to work
in perspective it is more difficult to set verts on model!
it looks to me that some verts in the middle center are not aligned
You describe the changes in a few sentences yet the change is enormous and I must now track down all that you have done so as to properly understand so I will leave that for the morning when I am fresh!
I am intrigued also by the fact that I could do almost nothing with the file because you have a very different way of working but after I exported the object and then imported it into my setup it behaves in a manner that is familiar and I can now see more clearly what you have achieved, but before doing anything else I will delve into everything you have done.
I will look at all the ‘‘Blender’’ changes in the morning but I could not resist doing a comparison of the underside of the hull in your revised model with the drawings and now this is a boatbuilder speaking.
I always knew there was some distortion in these drawings but it did not bother me however, blender is showing me just how much and this I can easily change.
The waterlines aft are weak, they need more fullness in the run although the top 3 are about right.
I shall sleep well tonight.
should also recheck your lines some verts are a little off
but on the bottom I think it needs some more edge loop to get a smoother bottom
if you have time to experiment
you could try to redo it with a nurbs surface with only quads
but need to add a lot of loop inside to get a nice smooth shape
or looks at the wiki for skinning with nurbs splines
another way would be to use Bezier curves
with these you need to find how many edgeloop you need first
then all the other splines or Bezier curves have to have same amount of points
to get quads and smooth faces
there is more then one way to do things
so experiment and find which one you can easily work with and like
You describe the changes in a few sentences yet the change is enormous and I must now track down all that you have done so as to properly understand so I will leave that for the morning when I am fresh!