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From: Tom MacNaughton
Date: 01 Apr 2008
Time: 13:48:17 -0500
Remote Name: 66.252.37.135
Actually as far as general courses in Rhino goes a great many high schools, technical schools, community colleges, and universities have courses in Rhino. Specialized schools often have courses using Rhino for things like jewelry design, or house architecture. In our case of course we are the school which teaches the use of Rhino as the primary design tool in yacht and small craft naval architecture, which is often just referred to as “yacht design”. If one gets a good grounding in Rhino it is certainly true that many of the characteristics and concepts would make other NURBS based programs easier to learn. Since so many people have transitioned to Rhino from AutoCAD I know that they have said that it was at least a rapid learning process going in that direction. It is my understanding that Cliff Estes’s courses are oriented around creating models in the computer from existing designs. At least that is the orientation of the CD that he puts out. This CD is a great exposition of his methods for rapid development of visual models. However you are correct that, since we are describing developing designs right from scratch in Rhino and carrying them right through to a final package which includes accurate and artistic working drawings, photorealistic renderings, dimensioned patterns or CNC cutting files for building jigs, all parts of the vessel, and plugs and/or molds, our course is pretty deep and detailed. This is an emphasis on Rhino as a complete design package rather than just using it for its 3D modeling capabilities. Hull modeling packages like FastShip don’t seem to have the power to be a complete design solution, but there is no doubt that you can develop hulls to import into Rhino and finish off. However I have not been able to establish exactly why a professional would do this when they can start right off in Rhino and do beautiful lines work and then carry right through to the finished drawings and cutting files, etc. RhinoMarine add-ons seem to be tailored for the amateur to produce feasibility studies quickly. The professional will probably go for the greater versatility and power of constructing models from scratch in Rhino.