Hull Designer by Carlson Design is a free, interactive 3D modeling Windows program specifically designed for creating hard chine boats. It allows users to model hulls and develop panels, making it particularly useful for plywood or sheet material construction.
This video demonstrates the process of constructing the chine flat lamination for a boat: Key Features and Capabilities:
Modeling: The software supports creating up to 10 chines and 8 frames to define the hull shape.
Design Tools: Users can calculate key design parameters, including the Center of Buoyancy, Center of Lateral Area, Length Waterline, and righting moment (both upright and heeled).
Construction Output: It generates patterns for the stem, stern, and bulkheads.
File Export & Plotting: The program supports exporting designs to formats like VRML 1.0, DXF, and HPGL. It also features 3, 4, or 5-sheet nesting and hand-plotting capabilities.
Resources: It includes sample designs and a Word 6.0 manual.
What is a Hard Chine Hull?Chined hulls are designed to be cost-effective and simple to build by utilizing sheet materials like plywood or steel. While these materials are flexible along their length, they are rigid vertically, which creates a sharp angle—a “hard chine”—where the bottom and side panels meet. This design is common in, for example, the single-chined Graduate and the double-chined Enterprise dinghies.
Other Design ApproachesFor more complex, multi-chine hulls with a flattened region in the keel, software like MAXSURF can be used, which allows for adjusting control points to shape the chine lines. If you’d like, I can: Find tutorials on how to use Hull Designer. Suggest alternative boat design software.
Explain the advantages of chined hulls over round-bilge designs. Let me know how you’d like to proceed.
Which types of boats are you planning to design with this software? Hull Designer – Carlson Design
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