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Morgan 382 3D Model

Warren Holybee

Warren Holybee

Active Member
I am just learning a 3d modeling software called "Blender" Quite sophisticated and used in some feature films, but not as popular as the really expensive alternatives. Blender is capable of creating a photorealistic rendering, and then applying physics of wind, waves, etc. so the sails will fill, the boat, heal, and a wake in the water, all as realistic as could be. I'm not nearly that good with it yet ....

Anyway, as one of my first learning projects I imported the drawings and am modeling the Morgan 382. I've made some mistakes, and had to start over a couple times, but it is very rewarding, and a new skill.

I made a video showing a bit of the process and what I have so far. Still lots to complete, but the boat is recognizable.

 
Nice work! Will it generate an IGES surface file? If so, I'd love to get hold of that, I could bring it into Solidworks and draw the "other parts" and bring them into an assembly. Could use it to also install the wind vane model for evaluation and fitment.
 

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So I just did a bit of googling, and there is an IGES plugin that apparently doesn't work great and has limitation. Blender will easily do STL files though, and I think Solidworks can convert those. When I get off work tonight I'll try and export a few tests and post them someplace.

The hull shape, keel, skeg, and cabin top are all separate objects,(as are the rig, sails etc.) I will probably export them as such and let you assemble them in Solidworks. I'd like to print it eventually, which would require merging everything into one object, but I'm not sure of the consequences of that so not ready to do it.

It'll be an interesting experiment. Blender is not CAD. I keep struggling with precision I am used to with Autocad. But 3d artwork in Blender is super easy. 3d in Autocad and 3d in Blender are completely different conceptually, probably why IGES files aren't really supported. "Solid" isn't a feature of blender that I am aware of. Everything is wireframe, vertices edges and faces. Some of the objects in my model are open, for example the keel has no top. And the sails have no volume at all, they are a simple plane with no thickness, and warped by a wind physics modifier.

The cockpit will be interesting. There is a boolean operation such that in theory I can draw the cockpit, and subtract that from the basic hull shape much like in Autocad. But the hull is very complex, and results have been mixed with the simple cases I have experimented with.
 
Will be interesting for sure. I have not worked with that type of artwork type cad, only engineering cad, so know little about it. The surfaces will be similar to a 3D scan I bet, sometimes hard to use. AutoCAD can import a jpg and you draw over it in a similar fashion, called raster image I recall, then scale it to full size.
 
Well that was rather difficult....
Before I could export, I had to fix all the errors in the mesh. It turns out there were a lot of them, and some quite difficult to find. But that had to be done anyway, so thank you for making me take care of that now instead of later.

The stl files are on github
github.com

GitHub - wholybee/morgan382

Contribute to wholybee/morgan382 development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

I look forward to how they import. I drew them full scale, but not sure how scale translates in an stl file. I am pretty sure all the material information is lost.
 
You have come a long way, wow.
I can scale the surface model easy enough, as long as each station is the same scale, also as the station distances apart. Next day or two I will see if the stl will work.
 
That's very cool, Warren. I was going to try similar last year with Sketch Up, but never found the time. I've used AutoCAD a lot, but almost never in 3D - which seemed pretty tedious. Although I'm guessing it's improved since the 10+ years ago I was dabbling.

As you mentioned, it would be pretty cool to do a 3D print of the hull, although I'm guessing that would not be easy.
 
mpearson said:
That's very cool, Warren. I was going to try similar last year with Sketch Up, but never found the time. I've used AutoCAD a lot, but almost never in 3D - which seemed pretty tedious. Although I'm guessing it's improved since the 10+ years ago I was dabbling.

As you mentioned, it would be pretty cool to do a 3D print of the hull, although I'm guessing that would not be easy.
Click to expand...
I did a test print last weekend and it worked surprisingly well and looked really cool. I've got the cockpit done now and will print another this weekend and post a picture. I still need to do the companionway.
 
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