Testimonial- Charles Neville Associates

“I have known the developers of Orca3d for close to 30 years. What is important is not the long link that I have to them, but the vast amount of experience they have had developing software for Naval Architects and Yacht Designers. This group was among the first to appreciate the advantages of NURBS in the development of fair hulls. They did so in technical papers on the subject as well as in the software they developed. And it was all a period where others were still using less controllable objects.

Unfortunately their first software and the sophisticated hardware (for the day) that it took to run were much more expensive than this then young Naval Architect could afford. Though even in those days I knew them and their work I grudgingly purchased a significantly less expensive well known software. And I grew to hate it. I never felt like I was able to craft a hull to meet my planned specifications. What I did do was get tired of trying when I had reached a point of ‘good enough’. Luckily after only a few years of frustration the cost of software and the hardware had come down. I jumped to their software and have used it moving along with them as new platforms and versions developed.

Building on top of Rhino has allowed them to create a whole new generation of hull development tools including the best features of the past along with a seeming endless array of new possibilities. It has also allowed them to focus even more on the Naval Architectural needs of their clients. Orca3d currently offers a great number of improvements and utility features over products previously available and it grows with each new release. The tools are there to help build the hull shape you want quickly and easily. That hull can be as simple as you like, or as complex as necessary and the final geometry will not only look nice on the screen but can be readily analyzed to assure that it is both ‘fair’ and buildable.

You can also evaluate the results with their suite of performance, weight, stability and other tools. I have found that even outside of boat design they have provided many new and useful controls that add to Rhino’s overall functionality on all kind of projects.

Beyond the tools themselves the developers at Orca3d have always offered great support whether it’s understanding the program itself or helping you to figure out the best way to perform a necessary task. And that is probably the bottom line. Orca3d is software designed for Naval Architects and yacht designers by a group of practicing Naval Architects. They understand not just how to write software code, but what tasks need to be done and how a design professional will likely want to do them. Often that kind of experience and sensibility is a rare thing.”

-Charles Neville
www.nevilleboats.com