Neat computer tool

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Sparetime
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:18 pm

Neat computer tool

Post by Sparetime »

At my main job I am a civil engineer. In order to complete our design work we use AutoCad Land Development Desktop. One of the utilities in this program allows importing of points from an excel file. These points are given a number x and y description and a description.

I just used this tool to create a table of offsets and import them directly to AutoCad. The entire 18 forms of a prospective kayak project were plotted out in coordinates (offsets are x-y coordinates, right?) in a lot less time than it would have taken to plot them by hand on the graph paper. I can then plot each station mold to the plotter and have a full size drawing in hand. I will then fix the plot with x-y coordinates on mold material, fair the curves and cut out the form.

The advantage of using this over the plotting routine in Excel is the ease of plotting to full scale from AutoCad. It took a little longer for the first boat to complete, but the next one will be fast.

I suspect there is a coordinate geometry program out there available at little or no cost that could acheive the same results as the expensive AutoCad.

I just thought this was a really cool adaptation of a software designed for other purposes put to use in boat building.
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