Anyone intersted in Boats?

[jdarling]

No, I don't mean a game about boats, I mean actual boats that you put in the water.

There used to be a great software package call PlyBoats that let you design simple craft and then it would generate designs that could be cut from plywood and using stitch and glue formed into the boat you designed. Well, the software is long gone (damnit), and I lost my copy (double damnit). So I was thinking of trying to design something similar.

Few problems here; 1 I don't know where to start, 2 I have no idea how to take a 3D image and convert it to flat parts, and 3 if you started at flat parts how you get to 3D parts is beyond me. So, I'm looking for ideas or people to team up with. Would like to do a freeware project that is opensource (prolly on SF) for all to use in Lazarus and keep it cross platform.

Interested, got pointers, ideas, whatever, answer inline. This is my world wide brainstorming session.

- Jeremy

[noeska]

Maybe you are intersted in the following projects on building 3d printers:
http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
and
http://fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Sadly i lack the time and knowledge to use their instruction and build one.

Both are about creating 3d printers with software. Looking at these project could give you some more info on how to go from 3d to 2d layers and stacking them together.

This one is also quite nice: http://www.instructables.com/id/Wave_Laptop_Stand_Making_3D_Shapes_in_Ilustrator/
Also instructables can keep you browsing for a long time, so keep your goal in mind:-)

[jdarling]

Thanks for the sites noeska. We actually have a reprap and a professional 3D printer for our robotics club. Never really thought of looking at their software for pointers.

I did start working out the math and other fun things as well as started working on a high level design doc (basically bullet points and pretty pictures so far).

I'll keep everyone updated as it goes.

- Jeremy