Hi Hank, I can't answer many questions about AutoCad 14, and I don't know much about lofting hull profiles, but I use a 3D solid modeling CAD package at work called ProEngineer. It's expensive, I think around $12,000.00 but I'll never go back to 2D modeling after being exposed to 3D solids. It does a good job at capturing complex geometry with bounded surfaces and variable section sweeps. Also, the assemblies and drawings are parametricaly linked so that whenever a feature is changed in a part it updates instantly in the drawng and upstream assemblies. I'm finishing up my first cedar strip canoe (Freedom 17) and have thought I might like to get into hull design someday.

Another Cad package to keep your eye on is called IronCad. They have a web page and I believe it has lot's of potential. Although not up to speed with ProE yet on surfacing, it may be be in a few years. Also, the cost is much more reasonable at around $2000. They may have a scaled down version for less. Of particular interest is that the structure is such that they can drop in kernels with each revision. They added the acis kernel which ProE uses and also the one that UniGraphics uses. This let's it use native CAD files. I saw a salesman demo the package a few monthes ago and it had some impressive web formating stuff with shadded images on the drawing and animation. Also, they can get away from a history based building proccess which lifts more limitations.

Cheaper yet, is Rhino which you can download a demo version for free and buy it for around $600-$700. It has a lot of the functionality of Alias at a fraction of the cost.

Hope this helps. There'e a lot more than just AutoCad nowadays.