Sorry Brandgw, it has been too many months without replying to you.
The shortish version:
... Refine the hull as far as you can in Freship, if that is still what you are using
... Change precision to high a
... Export export the model as dxf 3d polylines
... Import to viacad
... Isolate the various layers and entities to make things easy to find and manipulate
... In viacad, turn off edges, buttocks, and waterlines layers in the imported dxf
... Convert the stations to interpolated splines
Personally, i prefer interpolated splines over regular polylines or lines. For the hull sideshell, making a skin sometimes takes a split second whereas some surfaces generated strictly from curves/lines cost me 10 to 25 seconds.
In some cases, interpolated splines will curl or change the shape of a curve, especially in the keel if you joined curves. Visually inspect each join.
I now am swinging in the direction of making a hll in freeship of one piece with no creases and abandoning any hope of using meshes or of ever expecting viacad to nativelynjust convert the. No matter what i do, my vcp surfaces never, EVER track or follow the meshes. So, still, my surfaces and solids look beat up, and if ever i tried to use them in renderings, i would be laughed out of a room. I could cheat and use the imported meshes for visuals, but i cannot cut or limit any geometry with them.
Someone sent me an email about a non-commercial utility, but i cannot find the email now....
However, other than a few crashes here and therw, lately i have been feelng more productive with vcp.
As for making shell plating involving areas of high and compound curvature, add more intermediate stations (as tight or as close together as feasible) in freeship and import them into your vcp or viacad model or file. With exranstations, you can deal with the unfortunate absence of curve continuity a transition at the stem, depending on whether you have creases, wateelines, etc. in the model.
As for internal decks or the like, in viacad, set per-compartment waterlines and project those against the sideshell inside, from midplane. Use a waterline upper and lower part to set plate thickness. Creats a skin surface between thentwo. Projectoutboard from centerline a line that goes beyond the sideshell. That line will be for the direction/vector when you use the one solids tool to create a solid that becomes the deck. Make sure the upper and lower curves fit within the compartment, and make sure the outboard line goes beyond the surface or solid the deck will terminate against.
For stringers, do similarly. You may want to explore creatine waterlines in freeship, exporting them to dxf, and experimenting in vcp/vc.
Zlc
