: I took the plunge and have been playing around with HULLS! and FreeShip.

I had heard of HULLS but never tried it. Now that you mentioned it I downloaded it too and played with it. That looks like a good choice. Straightforward, line interpolation based, simple and reliable, no developability problems. It's a lot like what I wrote in SciLab except mine is limited to vertical cross sections, HULLS allows more flexibility. You could still import the developed panels in SciLab and move them around so they fit on a long 2 ft wide plywood panel where you can hand draw them on a grid. Or you can plot the panels on paper I suppose, never done that myself, SciLab would help with that too.

: Since I have only a very basic understanding of hull design and a few
: questions. Is it better to post them here or in the Design forum? Looks
: like the Design forum isn't used much. But it's better to ask first.

I suppose that's what the design forum is for. It has been dead for quite a while so if you post it there, you may still want to announce it here or else nobody will notice it.

Henk