Ship designing

[TheDerpGamer]

Does anyone here know of any programs for designing ships (like 2d drawings) or have any tips/styles they like to do when building? Like, when making a skeleton, what do you do first and how do you do it? Do you work on one section at a time and let the ship slowly get bigger as you build it? Or do you lay out the dimensions first and build a shell around that? Or do you use a program to draw it out first? I'm asking this as I'm better at interior design and want to get better at making hulls.

 

[Drakkart]

i guess the approaches are as different as the build styles.
generally speaking makeing the ship just bigger and bigger is not what will result in anything efficient or pleasant for the eye.
So have an idea first. what i do i roughly checking the dimensions then set fixed points on the hull where i want to place turrets, the bridge, any other windows or "hull/interior nodes" then i do the interior starting at the brigde untill that is at least outlined then i do power management hull building interior building, systems ...
sometimes you also just need to switch between tasks constantly so impotant is haveingreference points.
some people start with a skeleton ... i dislike that approach. well if you need guidiance on building i tried doing a shipbuild from the beginning on but turned out patches and such made the build obsolete before it even really started... but well maybe you gt the idea.

 

[Lecic]

I always sketch my designs out in paint or on graph paper first.

 

[Wilavid7]

I like to sketch a basic idea on notebook paper (often during school and build a very loose skeleton. Often the skeleton is ignored after a little while, since much of my style involves pieces towards the front flowing into the back.
Also, I like to stick to geometric shapes and angles that lend themselves to starmade, such as 45 and 90 degrees, rather than trying to simulate round shapes or different angles (Tetras and Heptas are your friends).

You shouldn't plan out a build too strictly so you have some wiggle room to work with. Something might look great on paper, but not so good when it is brought to 3D.

 

[jayman38]

Depending on the program, I recommend drawing in a computer program on a grid.

Personally, I usually use LibreOffice Draw (OpenOffice Draw is almost the same program). I have also used GIMP in the past for design.

Example images from my design work, in this case overlaying grid designs on top of a blueprint background image:

 

[FlyingDebris]

I lay out the basic design of the forward hull and the engine section, then build from there until I meet in the middle. Usually start with the top first.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I make the "drawing" in my mind and go off that unless I have some sort of picture that I partially based the design off of.

 

[NeonSturm]

For RP ships, it's good to follow these steps:

First, you should decide how big your hallways or decks are. 5 blocks high, 3 blocks?
Then take only multiple of that value to make a sketch of rooms (outlines of rooms, equipment, etc).

When you know how big your rooms are, you can puzzle them to a nice layout which fits your desired hull shape.
Place the high rooms (hangars, rooms which cover multiple decks) first, together with large rooms.
In this step, you can also re-size rooms if they take too much space or you have space left or reserve space for logic/rails.

Then start building.

 

[ASM]

I my self generally just make a 2D in-game frame of the horizontal skeleton then work out from there to the width using wire-frames.

Doing it this way may take a lot of fiddling around, but the key most of the time is to not be restrictive. Change any shape that doesn't look right to you generally.

Spoiler: Example

Which became

As i add plating, turrets, aesthetic pieces, functioning pieces etc...

 

[Sgtwisky]

Once I have an idea, I start my builds by deciding on some rough dimensions for the ship. Generally I will chose the approx length/width that I want to aim for and I will place some "Marker" blocks there from the core. Using this method allows me to get the core at the exact center of my ship. OR at least get the core very close. I then build something like a ship skeleton and mess with the shapes of it until I decide I like them. I will not that during this step my ship may grow or shrink some in any direction.

Once I have the skeleton, I start adding the "Skin" and any details I think of on the way. This is normally the point I decide where I want my docks/air locks to go. Eventualy I end up with a hollowed out hull for the ship, and I save it so I can revamp all systems in case of updates. Then I add power lines, and rooms. After that I get systems spammed in. Though I have a good diea of what systems I want, and where on the ship (front, back, sides ect.) I want them to be placed.

I will say though... 90% of my ships are still in the partial skinning and detail phase as I'm lazy and don't build as often as I should.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

I usually start out with a very crude and basic shape, then add things as I go. I don't really do too much forward planning tbh.

 

[Jerry_Brinefield]

If its small, I bust out the graph paper. If it's big, Gimp is the way to go. Pixel for meter/block is a great way to design ships.