Where to find boat-specific geometrical info or 3D computer model of Catalina 30

[Stu Jackson]

If (when) the weather gets a tad warmer, have you considered going to a boatyard? With all ther boats up on the hard, I'm sure you'd find a C30 somewhere. Photo it with a yard stick or measuring tape. You only need a few spots anyway for what you want to do: transom, midships and few in between spots, since you already have the two other "views" from the brochure. Good luck.

[Hope_I_Float]

Thx Eigenvector.

I wasn't familiar with Pix4D. Had a quick look at their website and you're right, they're doing some interesting stuff. Shortly after drones started becoming commercially available for relatively cheap, I'd had the notion of starting a business around this technology, very similar to what Pix4D did ... then I returned to daily life

I'm with you 100% as far as really just needing a basic surface profile of the hull (and later of cabintop etc.). The method you're describing, if I understand correctly, is what I was thinking of doing, if I couldn't find a technology-enabled shortcut to do it with (for example, using Canvas, discussed in my previous post, or say Pix4D which seems to be setup to process users hi-res videos ... the fact that they are angling this to drone-obtained footage is ancillary in my case ... they seem to clearly have the processing capability to turn the videos to model information).

I took delivery of a Bosch GLM100c laser measure yesterday which I'd previously ordered with a bunch of uses in mind. The product reportedly is integrated with various apps (some free) which allow laser-measured data to be mapped back onto photographs etc.. I haven't had a chance to look into this yet.

If I can't get the above mentioned surface-mapping tools (like Canvas or Pix4D) to do the mapping for me 'all at once', given that I have the plan view profile (from C30 brochure), I'm conjuring up some ideas of moving a plumb line dropped down from the edge of the deck, with height-reference markings, say, as you suggest, in 2' increments, and shooting my x-distances (ie distance of point on hull from edge of boat, at a given y location along its length). Similar to the attached image.

[Hope_I_Float]

Hi Stu,

Nice to hear from you. I've read many of your posts which have been very helpful to me. Many thanks.

My boat is currently on the hard so from that perspective is easy to get at to take hull profile measurements (e.g. pic in my post above). If i understood Eigenvector correctly, that is generally what he was suggesting as well as one option.

For general purposes, that approach would do fine for mapping the hull but will get tedious by the time I get to modelling things above deck.

Eigenvector also pointed me in a good direction with the photogammetry tools and I'm pretty sure something will come out of that. Googling around and following some threads among other things led me to a pretty good review of some free 3D scanning software by a fellow called Nick Lievendag: 3 Free 3D Scanning Apps that don't require extra Hardware

The above review shows some pretty impressive scan-based modelling results (note: the 3D model viewers on Nick's webpage wouldn't load for me in Chrome but work perfectly in Internet Explorer or Edge ... in case any of you are experiencing black windows in Chrome when trying to view the models).

A free approach isn't necessary for me but I'm also trying to stay under say $1000 (preferably a lot less) all-in for software and any add-on hardware which might be required. That rules out some of the heavy hitter solutions out there but Nick's review points to some promising options like AutoCad's ReCap 360 and Trnio, to name a couple.

I'll keep dabbling at this and report back in if I come across anything useful to share or if I make some practical progress in any of these directions which might be helpful to others.