Part 1: Roughing out the design using Carlson's classic Hulls software.
After all the software I've played with I think this is the fastest way to get a design started. And as we'll see in Part 2 it has been so popular that subsequently converting to other file formats is not as hard as you might think.
Getting started:
The Hulls software is available here: http://carlsondesign.com/software/add-ons/shareware/hull-designer
The necessary tutorial to get you started is included in the zip as a pdf.
An alternative tutorial by Gavin Atkin is here: http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/hullstut.htm
Note that Hulls won't run on 64 bit Windows 7. If like me you are running 64 bit you'll need to install 'XP Mode' from Microsoft first: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
Capabilities:
Besides the obvious ability to enter your offsets directly and quickly and get a quick 3D view, Hulls gives some basic hydrostatics as well. Importantly you can also do pitch and heel analysis to see the changes to waterline shape as well as movement of the centre of buoyancy and centre of lateral resistance. You can also produce development patterns for a sanity check and estimate of the material required.
Limitiations:
For a start its for hard chine boats only. This of course can include wooden boats with any number of strakes. You are limited in the number of section offsets (5) you have to control the chine lines though this seems enough for small craft. Also the stem line is shown as straight segments between each chine. In other words if you want to have a curved profile at the stem you can only approximate this in Hulls.
Design process:
I suggest that its worth working in Hulls until you have the hull shape complete in the sense of meeting your functional requirements for the hull. The final fairing (including a rounded stem), plate development and internal arrangements can be tackled using different tools.
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