: So, the exercise is one of taking hundreds of x-y points, plotting them onto
: a big old piece of ply, connecting the dots with a batten, and taking saw
: to wood. The last two are decent ways to spend an evening. Plotting all
: those points sounds like considerably less fun, and a challenge to do
: accurately. I'm seriously considering the purchase of some Lee Valley
: bench tapes to stick directly to the ply to aid in the process, and
: probably another to add to the edge of a shop-made T-square.

firstly, if you can, choose consistent x points. bunch up only where curvature is great and sacrifice wood to make this step easy rather than try to save wood by layout orientation.(or if you can instead of bunching up, plot off the hard parts and spray glue in location when you get there.)

you will be marking out on the backs of your good panels, so can mark up big time. make all marks crisp and accurate do not make multiple lines, you'll forget which which is which when you get there. as you are premarking down the x points, you will only have to take and make y measurements(work cut in 1/2)

draw parallel ref lines say 6" spacing along the whole sheet.

do all your dwg measurements in decimal scale as it is the easiest and quickest to write down, remember, find and transfer to accurate measurements.

so now you have marks across the doubled(as easy to make full as 1/2 model) sheets at the decided upon x points, and longitudinal ref lines at 6" or 8"

then beg borrow buy or kill for an 8" dial guage caliper(pretty cheap now - $25) and use that for all vertical measurements. (quick, easy to read and change, easy to transfer written or built measurments and easy to take to the monitor, dwg board, workbench or wherever to dial in or take a measurement. otherwise you'll go fkg crazy trying to transfer measurements to say nearest 1/64" vs .01" which is a snap to dial in. and works for depth, outside and inside measurements all at same time. measure from all the 6" parallel ref lines you drew to account for the max 8" jaws.

but really is labourious when you get down to it. full size plotting (still using the ref lines tho') is the other quick way, unless cnc. but who has that.

To make it more interesting, i would make and cut out one or 2 panels at a time and stitch in place, then the next. this is by far the best way to go for panel checking as you can make minor allowances and mods along the way. for a first one, making all the panels first is stupid at least for pple like me.

so get out lots of light, get the layout table at a nice comfortable ht, and get cracking.

i'm doing something like that and having lots of fun seeing problems and successes. be prepared to make mods and do some steps over.
this last few days, i've been truly intrigued to see the wierd 2-d shape of an unfolded consistent (in 2 90deg directions) 3d curve.

and use that chopstick batten trick for layout i wrote about a few days ago - way more faster, accurate, flexible, than nails or wts. no hands, inside and outside curves, easy to mark around etc etc.

anyway some ideas, have fun
-mick