TouchCad testimony by a user
Hello:
I don't normally go on forums, but this one's close to home as I enjoy designing a lot and would like to see others enjoy it too. Thanks for asking this, Carl:it's a question that needs an updated answer.
As Carl says, I design using TouchCad - the creation of boat designer and program developer, Claes Lundstrom, in Stockholm, Sweden. I have been using it for more than 10 years now and originally got it for the same reason Carl lists - I didn't want to use Microsoft products, but also because it allows for the use of as many surfaces as you want. I came to appreciate its many other benefits very quickly, though.
If your time means anything to you, speed from ease of use is a definite bonus. Around the time I purchased TouchCad I had been using AutoCad for 2D work, and was frustrated at how DOS and clunky it was, then discovered VectorWorks - a cross-platform 2D and 3D program, and my 2D work doubled in speed. Its 3D part, RenderWorks, is very close to programs like Rhino in abilities, but also includes the very powerful 2D part. I had been using MacSurf then for 3D boat modelling and analyses and switched to MaxSurf - the Windows equivalent, as Formation Design Systems had stopped updating the Mac version. This worked fine, for a while, but it was hard to be really creative and fast as, among other reasons, I was constrained by the type of net and control points it and most 3D programs use. My definition of being a pro is summed up as "consistent good work... and quickly". Completing things in "a timely manner" doesn't cut it for me anymore, as that has been defined by what I now consider are slow programs. I got to see these in action while on a panel of designers (that Carl facilitated) at the 2012 IBEX show in Louisville - where 6 of us described what we used. My presentation was a small video that you can view off the link on my homepage:
www.mcgowanmarinedesign.com There is a WoodenBoat article about TouchCad on the "Tools" page of the site as well.
The hydrostatics and analysis part of TouchCad has been pretty simple, no doubt, but Claes has almost got all the bugs worked out of the large-angle stability part of the program and is revamping the rest of the hydrostatics calculations a lot. The large-angle stability calculations are not an add-on, or a paid-for extra, as with other programs. I still use some of the Formation Design Systems programs for analyses but less as time goes on. And there are some things that TouchCad does that other boat design programs can't do though, like (apart from the speed difference) 100% accurate 3D-to-2D unfolds (TouchCad models ON the surface itself and not beside it, so the unfolded and 3D surfaces always have the same area), and lately an 'image mapping' with unfold feature has been greatly improved, and it's pretty incredible. This is where a 2D image is 'mapped' onto a 3D surface, and the surface when unfolded to 2D panels has the correct and accurate part of the image on it. Lately I've been doing more full-size pattern or hull station work as it saves boatshops a lot of time to be able to cut out things on the bench or CNC machine, then have to figure it out on their own.
I really look forward to starting a new boat or other project in TouchCad as it's always an adventure. It doesn't matter whether the item is tricky or simple, it's still exciting as I can really get into and stay in the flow part of the design process a lot quicker than before. TouchCad IS more expensive than Rhino, for instance, but if your time means anything then this difference will likely be made up quickly from the speed difference.
Laurie McGowan
Mochelle, Nova Scotia
ps. I have a regular design spot in WoodenBoat magazine called "Sketchbook", where people write in with their dream boats and I design them (Michael Schacht helped with some, too). You can see summaries and movies of these in WoodenBoat's "Extended Content".
http://www.woodenboat.com/extended-content PROTON is the most recent one. These are all designed using TouchCad, and some are getting made into construction plans, while the first of LOON is getting built right now.
