Expert: J. B. Borge - 8/20/2006

Question
i've drawn a boat in 3d using splines and straight lines. It is a boat that could be made from plate steel or plywood. Is it possilble to lay out a plank   from my boat which is twisted and bent in 3d, in 2d.
then i could cut it out in cardboard to make a model. I've tried lots of things the closest ive got  is measuring all the diagonals and drawing it again in 2d. which takes a long time.
to do it like that would take me hours im sure my comp could do it in 30 secs but how?


Answer
Robert,

Unfortunately your options are limited in Autocad - was not designed to do such feature since its kernel is not really running on a 3d engine. Inventor, Solidworks, & Rhino on the otherhand can perform 'unfolding' features in its sheetmetal functions. Any type of curvature can be flattened out & then easily facilitated for production. FYI, your model can be imported (as IGES) in these packages & be able to recognize the surface data. Hope this helps!

-Regards
J. B. Borge