STEP 4: Loft test

1. Station Workplane

First we need a workplane (WP) at station 1. It will be parallel to the midship plane.

• In DD, workplane mode > set "midship" as current
• RB in table > Create New > "STA1"
• Set the new workplane STA1 as current. Still looks like the midship plane.
• Modify the Position; X was 2.68040000000000010000e+003 which is 2680.4, now change to 0. So position is now (x,y,z)= (0,0,0)
• Refresh the WP (set another WP current, then current back again)
• Spin it to test placement

2. Draw a loft profile spline

• Set DD Workplane: View by " STA1".  Set DD Layer: "splines_fore"
• Pick the Spline tool. Set the color to red (or something that stands out)
• Using snap (intersection is OK) to snap the 12 points. Make sure the spline starts at the lower inside on the limit line - and nodes are in order up to the top/outside. 
• Edit the spline to nudge it - Click on the (red) spline > RB > Edit Node. This should show the 12 dots (nodes). You zoom up on the line and nudge it closer to the black dxf line by shifting a node. This is a bit of an art, but you get the hang of it. Try to keep the nodes on their radiating line which helps the smoothness of the final loft. Best to use the snap mode "Nearest on Graphic" to hold the node on the divider line, or end lines. Don't get too fussy - if you zoom up too much you'll be there forever. 

Note. The dxf curve is a bit rough at places isn't it? Don't worry, let the spline take the 'average' shape of the curve.

3. Do the first 5 splines...

Repeat steps 5 & 6 to draw all the splines for the hull. I suggest you do about 5 and then test it out...

The X position data for all stations;

Just  do the first 5 for the moment...  

4. A test loft

Test the layers. In Design Director (DD), hide a layer - you should see 3 corresponding curves disappear, which is really the one curve projected onto Here is STA2, where you need to cheat a bit to get the spline to match the dxf curve. The radiating lines are just a guide, so disobey them if necessary. 

5. Test Loft.

• Make a new layer; "loft" and make it the current layer.
• Spin the model so that you can easily select the (red) splines. (Like image in step 4 above)
• Select each spline, in order from STA1 to STA5 . Remember to hold shift key during multi-select.
• RB > finish

Note: Hooray - some 3D geometry!  Notice how I hid the waterlines and every station aft (layers set invisible) - to keep it simple. 

• Better check the loft is actually on the "loft" layer. If not, do the move trick. (Select the loft, then make the desired layer current)
• Save it.  (BTW. I am up to Ship008.tcw now. What are you up to?) 

You see, every time I do something a bit serious, I save the file with an incremented name (Save As...). That way if something happens I can go back to that previous step. I have had one TC sickness so far in this session - the X position of the new workplanes wouldn't change in DD, so I closed and restarted TC and fixed it. I'm using TC 8.2 pro - seems to work OK on my AMD 2.8, 512RAM, and it cost me AUD$70 unopened from a Ebay retailer.   

6. Fun with rendering

Well, if you got this far you deserve a fun break. 

Lighting. First thing is to get rid of the squillions of lights in default settings. Keep it simple - just start with the ambient light.

• In DD pick Lights category > delete them all.
• In DD table > RB > Create new "ambient" 
• Now RB on "ambient" > Edit Properties > Light
• Choose ambient type. Power = 1000W should do - and pick a color. Make sure it is ON !

Textures. 

Go back to properties. (RB on the loft itself) > General > Pick "Wood Floor" and "Pine Floorboards" > OK

Now view this with the Quality Render button (teacup) - or View/Camera/Quality render. 

Hmmm. Sometimes it doesn't happen - try toggling clicking the light visiblity icon (the blue eyes and nose stands for visibility)

Fun starts about here...