AutoCad Tutorials

Representation of a Ship Hull Surface

Using AutoCAD to represent a Ship

Hull Surface using its Offset Table
Step by Step Tutorials

Tutorial I

Drawing 2D representation in the form of Lines Plan

1.

2.

Start from Scratch:

When you load ACAD2000 or

any other previous version, a
startup
dialog
appears
waiting for your orders as
shown in the next figure

Select Start from Scratch

button and press Ok

Here you have told the ACAD

to use the default settings in
order to have a quick start

Setting the drawing environment:

1. First of all well adjust the units by selecting Units Format>Units
2. In the units dialog box be sure to select decimal in the length type,
0.000 in the precision, then press ok
3. Notice the mouse counter at the most left bottom of the CAD screen,
its now have the new precision
Hint: you can also display the Units dialog box by typing units in the
command line
4. Now lets set our drawing limits by selecting Units Format>Drawing
limits.
5.

A prompt at the command line asks you to specify the lower left
corner, type 0,0 in the command line and then press ENTER.

6. Another prompt for the upper right corner; here the maximum length
we have to deal with for ship lines is about 150 m. and the height of
the drawing is the sum of the ships depth and half breath plan in
addition to some empty spaces so we type in 200, 90 as our answer to
the command prompt.
1/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
Hints:
1. You can also display the Drawing limits Command by typing
limits in the command line
2. We simply chosen 90 as height because if we plot our drawing
using 1 drawing units = 10 mm this 90 would be equivalent to
90 cm the width of the paper roll and so the drawing scale
would be 1:100 to see the boundaries of your drawing space
draw a rectangle with lower left corner 0,0 and upper right
one 200,90
7. Finally in order to see your drawing limits, press the zoom all button
in the zoom fly out located in the standard toolbar, or simply you can
type zoom then all in the command line

3.

Start DRAWING:
1. Once you have set up your environment for drawing, you
can start by
i. Drawing the molded base line of the profile using the line
command and specifying the starting and ending points (lets
say 0, 50 & 200, 50
ii. Drawing the Center Line of the half breadth plan using the line
command and specifying the starting and ending points (lets
say 0, 20 & 200, 20
Hints:
a. As you sure noticed the two lines are drawn with the same line type
and color, to deal with this problems we have to learn about layers

b. Display the Layer Properties Manager dialog box by pressing the

layers button in the toolbar shown above, or type layer in the command
line:

2/10

As you see there is only one layer named O with white color and
continuous line type

By pressing the New button a new layer appears with its default
name highlighted waiting for you to change it, try to make the name
expressive; ship center for example.

By pressing enter AutoCAD accepts the new layers name and then
give you a chance to make another action (either adding anew layer
or changing a property of any other layer)

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface

Since this layer represents a center line so its a common thing to

change the line type to center; you can set the line type by clicking the
word Continuous a select line type dialog appears but
unfortunately it contains only one type so we have to add the type
were looking for by pressing the Load button now search for the
center line type in the load dialog box and double click it

Repeat the last step to add a Hidden Line Type.

Before you exit the select line type dialog box be sure that the center
line type is Highlighted to assign it to the ship center layer

Press OK to exit the layers dialog box

Now select the center line you have drawn latest and assign it to the
ship center layer by clicking on the O in the layers toolbar shown
above and selecting the required layer then press Esc twice to clear
your selection, notice the changes!

The type line has changed to center but its still has to be adjusted, to
do this select the required center line and then type properties in the
properties dialog box set the line type scale to 0.4 its adjusted now
so close the properties dialog box
iii.

3/10

Drawing the Center Line of the Body plan using the line
command and specifying the starting and ending points (lets
say 100, 45 & 100, 70 as we did before adjust the layer for this
new line as well as the line type scale I think 0.1 would be good
this time.

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface

* The Body Plan Curves

2. Now we can start drawing the curves of the Body Plan:
i. Using UCS (user coordinates system) command, set the location
of the origin to the intersection between the body plan the
molded base line:
Type UCS in the command line then press Enter
ACAD prompts you for a UCS option, type New
Specify the new origin as 100,50,0
Notice the changes to the mouse counter after what
you did
ii. Now youre going to work with a small area in your drawing The
right half of the body plan area to draw the forward station
curves so using the ZOOM command magnify this area to fill
your ACAD screen:
Type zoom in the command line then press Enter
ACAD prompts you for a zoom option, type win
Specify the first corner as 20, -7
Specify the other corner as 20, 25

4/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface

3. Now preparing for the body plan curves to be drawn set a

new layer named Stations & give it a specified color
rather than white to be easily recognized. Also make itthe
current layer.

4. Start drawing the station curves one by one with the

forward stations to the right of the body plan center line
and the aft stations to the left:
Assume that we have the following data for one of the
forward stations in the offset table:

WL
Offse
t

5/10

O
.
0956

0.5
.
4348

1
.6

2
.
7217

3
.
7652

4
.
7913

5
.8

6
.
8261

7
8
.
.
8609 9043

9
.
9739

Here the water lines location are presented as ratio of

the water line spacing while the offset values are
presented as a ratio to the half breadth of the vessel

In order to draw this curve in our ACAD drawing we

have to rewrite this table in x-y coordinates that are
represented in m. so the values of the water line heights
Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida
March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
should be multiplied by the WL spacing (1.58 m. for this
example) and the offset values should be multiplied by
B/2 (11.5 m. for this example)
Y (m.)

.79

1.58

3.16

4.74

6.32

7.9

9.48

11.06

X (m.)

1.1

5.0

6.9

8.3

8.8

9.1

9.2

9.5

9.9

12.6
4
10.4

14.22
11.2

5. Every thing is set up now for using the SPLINE Command:

Type SPLINE in the command line or click on the

SPLINE button on the DRAW toolbar

ACAD asks you to specify your first point so you should

enter 1.1,0 then 5.0, .79 for next point, & so on till the
points are finished press enter without entering any
value to tell ACAD that you have no more points on this
curve.

ACAD prompts you to specify the start tangent with

your starting point located on this tangent so you can
specify any point on the molded base line to the left of
the body plan center line to ensure that your curve will
end tangentially to it as it should be

ACAD prompts for the end tangent for this curve and
since we havent got a specified one we can simply press
enter to finish the SPLINE command

6. Repeat Steps 4&5 for the rest of the stations with negative xvalues for the aft stations to be drawn to the left of the body
plan centerline and thus your body plan is completed.

* The Bow & Stern Contours

7. Use the zoom all command to view your drawing limits.
8. Its time now to draw the aft and forward perpendiculars of
your vessel (remember that your origin is still located
amidships at the molded base line.
6/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface

Set the a new layer for these line name it perpendiculars

and adjust its line type and color

Using the Line command draw the two perpendiculars

using the following data for start and end points:

Aft Perpendicular
Start from
-L/2, -50

Forward Perpendicular

To
-L/2,40

Start from
L/2, -50

To
L/2, 40

9. Assume that we have the following data measured from the

aft perpendicular for the bow contour in the offset table:
WL

0.5

Offset (m.) 2.0

2.2

2.4

2.7

2.4

1.3

-3.1

-4.9

-5.4

-5.9

-6.1

Here only the values of the WL heights is to be adjusted as

the Y- coordinates because the offset values are already
adjusted in meters

Same steps used in drawing any of the stations curves are

to be repeated after adjusting the origin at the intersection
point of the aft perpendicular and the molded base line
using the UCS command

10. Repeat the last step using the data of the bow contour

* The half breadth Plan Curves

7/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
11. Start drawing the half breadth curves one by one all above
the half breadth plan center line, after adjusting the origin
at the intersection point of the aft perpendicular with the
center line of the half breadth plan center line

ST
Offse
t

O
.
3304

1
.
6957

Assume that we have the following data for one of a

waterline in the offset table:

2
.
8870

3
.
9739

1.0

1.0

6
.
9652

7
.
8272

8
9
.
.
5706 2957

10
.
0348

Here the stations location are presented as ratio of the

stations spacing from the aft perpendicular while the
offset values are presented as a ratio to the half breadth
of the vessel

In order to draw this curve in our ACAD drawing we

have to rewrite this table in x-y coordinates that are
represented in m. so the location of any station should be
multiplied by the ST spacing (12.55 m. for this example)
and the offset values should be multiplied by B/2 (11.5 m.
for this example)

Y (m.)

3.
8

8.0

10.2

11.2

11.5

11.5

11.1

9.513

6.562

3.4

.4

X (m.)

12.5
5

25.1

37.6
5

50.2

62.7
5

75.3

87.8
5

100.4

112.9
5

125.5

Hint: have to find out the end points of each water line using the stern
and bow contours before drawing them.

8/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
12. Now work on the Body Plan to find out the offset value of
any desired buttock to be drawn in the profile the distance
command will be helpful in this case
13. Finally finish your drawing using leaders, text tools after
adjusting the drawing boundaries. Prepare for plotting by
adjusting the pen assignment for each color used in your
drawing.

Your final result should look something like this

Tutorial II
Drawing 3D representation for the hull surface
1.

WL
Offse
9/10

Pre-drawing preparation:

Prepare your offset table in the form xyz coordinates; x represents

longitudinal direction, y represents the breadth direction and z
represents the depth direction

Assume that we have the following data for the

amidships station:

O
.

0.5
.

1
.6

2
.

3
.

4
.

5
.8

6
.

7
.

8
.

9
.

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
t

0956

4348

7217

7652

7913

8261

8609 9043

9739

Then our prepared table for this station would be

Z (m.)

.79

1.58

3.16

4.74

6.32

7.9

9.48

11.06

Y (m.)

1.1

5.0

6.9

8.3

8.8

9.1

9.2

9.5

9.9

12.6
4
10.4

X (m.) L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

L/2

2.

14.22
11.2
L/2

Start Modeling:

In order to represent the Hull surface of a ship we shall use here the
3dmesh command theres so many techniques used in modeling but Ill
try here to discuss the simplest one.

* The BODY Plan and half-breadth plan Curves as wire frames

Using the same SPLINE command start to plot the body plan curves
one by one as you did before with only one exception youll give your
coordinates in xyz coordinates.
Notice that for the same station
curve the x coordinates is the
same.

Repeat for the half breadth plan

curves taking care that the zcoordinate this time is constant
for the same curve

This net of curves is called wireframes; it gives us an idea of how does the hull look like. But in order
to have better effect, we have to deal with surfaces or 3d mesh
command.

3.

Working with surface modeling:

Using the 3d command start to load 3d
objects in ACAD and prompts you for the type of objects you want to create;
type mesh and then press Enter

(O, O, O)

(L, O, O)

Specify the following corners:

(L, O, D)
(O, O, D)

ACAD asks for the Mesh size in the M

direction > Type the no of waterlines you have in the offset table, also type the no
of stations for the Mesh size in the N-direction press enter to end this command

10/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001

AutoCad Tutorials
Representation of a Ship Hull Surface
To recognize the difference between
surfaces and wire frames type Shade in the command and see what happens the
mesh you have created are now acting like a plate sheet while the wire frames
didnt change. Press undo to cancel this shading

So we now have a surface but its still a

plane one while our hull surface is curved, to attain this curvature we have make
some deformation to our mesh this is done by selecting the mesh.

Once the mesh is selected its internal

nodes are highlighted by small boxes when any of them is selected its color turns
red and then this node ask you where to move specify the right location for each
point from your prepared offset table and when you are done the surface will take
the same form as the hull surface for have of the ship.

By using 3dmirror command you can

have a complete ship hull without the bottom and the aft most BKHD a little bit
finishing and you should have something like this.

With my Best Wishes

11/10

Eng. Mohamed Salah Ebeida

March 2001