KayakFoundry User Manual

Version 1.5
March 18, 2006



KayakFoundry is a graphical kayak design program that has been tailored speciically or
creating designs suitable or the wood-strip technique o kayak construction. It proides a
rich enironment with intuitie controls that allows you to create a design, inely-adjust its
shape, examine and ealuate its hydrostatic properties, and ultimately generate printed cross-
sectional and stem orms or construction.
Key Features
Kayakloundry contains a number o interesting eatures:
Simple, intuitie user interace with adjustable detail leel
Dynamically computed hydrostatics and graphics including waterlines and buttocks
Imperial or Metric numeric display
Undo,redo operations
Multiple-cockpit support
Auto-positioned cockpit,s, based on center o buoyancy
Display panels that can be resized or hidden to adjust screen real estate
Zoom settings rom 100 to 400
Lxaggerated cure settings rom 1x to 5x
Optional grid with user-speciied interal
Scaling unction to adjust length, beam, and,or height
llexible orm printing with multi-sheet support, user-speciied strip thickness,
printer calibration, and model scaling
Integrated KAPLR drag prediction and support or the Broze drag-prediction
spreadsheet
lorm export as set o coordinates
Print study drawing or export as a graphics ile ,png,
Simultaneous display o multiple designs ,or side-by-side comparisons,

Registration
1his program is oered as donation-ware. 1here is no registration ee required to usethis
program. loweer, i you like the program and ind it useul, you can make a contribution
o any amount that you eel is appropriate. 1o make this conenient, I`e placed a PayPal
button on the Kayakloundry webpage. I you sell designs deeloped with Kayakloundry,
sell kayaks built rom Kayakloundry designs, or in any way use the program commercially, I
do ask that you purchase a one-time license distribution. Please contact me or details.

Please send correspondence to:

Ross Leidy
rleidyblueheronkayaks.com or reer to
http:,,www.blueheronkayaks.com,contact.html or a mailing address
Support
1he Kayakloundry BBS is a public orum or submitting questions, problems, comments
and suggestions about the program. Please use this as the primary aenue to obtain
support. I will closely monitor the board and do my best to respond in a timely manner. By
keeping the exchange public, the board will beneit all users who may hae similar
comments, and will ,hopeully, encourage and acilitate discussion.
Concept
Kayakloundry 1.0 ollowed a design model that was similar to that used by Robert
Liingston`s Bearboat program. 1hat is, most o the kayak dimensions were under the
control o the user, but the program would partially control the hull cross sectional shape
based on a user-controlled olume distribution cure. In this model, the olume distribution
was an input speciied by the user, and it was used to help deine the appropriate cross
sectional shape o the kayak.
In Kayakloundry 1.5, I`e moed to a model where the user has ull control oer the hull
cross-section, and the olume distribution cure is a deriation o the shape o the
underwater portion o the hull. In ersion 1.5, you do not shape the olume distribution
cure directly - it is simply another bit o hydrostatic inormation generated by the program.
1he goal o these changes was to proide a more intuitie approach to controlling the shape
o the design ,certainly it is more in-line with general purpose CAD programs,.
\hile you hae control oer the cockpit`s shape, Kayakloundry computes its longitudinal
position. 1he program always places the paddler`s center-o-graity ,CG, directly oer the
kayak`s center-o-buoyancy ,CB,. ,1o simpliy calculations, the program assumes bilateral
symmetry o both paddler and kayak so that both CG and CB lie on the centerline o the
kayak., 1he cockpit,s, will automatically shit as the CB changes ,due to changes in the
distribution o olume oer the length o the kayak,. 1his ensures that the trim o the built
kayak will match that o the design. \ou`ll know exactly how the kayak will sit in the water
beore you begin construction.

Overview of Operation
Briely, here`s how you use the program to design a kayak:
Shape the kayak in Plan iew ,top,, Proile iew ,side,, and the Actie Section iew
,cross-section,. Lach o these iews contain a ixed set o control points that can be
moed around to deine the kayak shape.
Proide the weight o the paddler,s,, anticipated cargo weight, and estimated inished
boat weight. 1aken together, these parameters deine the total target displacement
o the design.
Adjust the Design \aterline ,D\L, in the Proile iew to control the design
displacement. 1he D\L should be adjusted so that the design displacement closely
matches the target displacement. All hydrostatic inormation relects the state o the
kayak at that D\L. \ou can play around with the D\L to see how paddlers o
dierent weights will aect the trim.
Shape the cockpit to your desired dimensions. In multi-cockpit designs, each cockpit
can potentially hae its own shape or the can all share the same shape. 1he position
o the cockpit is automatically moed by the program to keep the paddler`s center o
graity ,CG, oer the kayak`s center o buoyancy ,CB,.
As you shape your design, you can ealuate the eects o those changes on the
predicted drag o the design. 1he Drag Prediction tab displays a plot o drag s.
paddling speed, computed using John \inter`s KAPLR algorithm.
Continue to reine the design until you are satisied with the design and its
hydrostatic properties. \hen you`re ready to print orms, switch to the lorm Layout
tab, and deine the orm parameters and arrange the orms on a irtual canas. 1he
orm layout is printed across multiple pages, which are then assembled in a grid.
1ape the pages together, cut out the orms, and you`re not ar rom placing the irst
strip on your new design.

Kayak Views
Kayakloundry displays the kayak design in a number o panels. Lach panel proides some
inormation that is useul during the design process. \ith a couple exceptions, the contents
o each panel can be manipulated in some way to deine or reine the shape o the kayak.
1he main Design` tab contains the ollowing panels:
Hydrostatics - Contains all the calculated numeric data about the design. It is
organized in a hierarchical tree to make it easy to ind the data that interests you.
Nodes o the tree can be expanded or collapsed so the panel shows only the data you
want to see at the time. Lntries shown in blue can be modiied directly. 1o edit the
alue, double-click or select the entry and hit return. Lntries shown in black are
deried alues and cannot be modiied directly.
Plan view - 1he top-down iew o kayak. It displays the sheerline, waterline,s,, and
cockpit,s,. 1he cockpit shape and the cure representing the beam o the kayak
along its length can be modiied. 1he waterline cures are shown at 1-inch
increments below the D\L.
Profile view - 1he side iew o the kayak. It displays the deck, sheerline and keel
line, all o which can be modiied. 1he buttock cures are deried.
Body Plan view - 1he iew o the kayak sighting down the longitudinal axis.
Displays bow, stern or split bow,stern iews. 1hese cures are deried and cannot
be directly manipulated.
Active Section view - 1he section at the position o the sliding section marker. I
this position corresponds with one o the 5 representatie shaping sections, then the
hull and deck cross sections can be modiied. Click on the graphical arrows to moe
to the preious,next representatie shaping section. Also, the spacebar will
moe to the next section, and Shit-spacebar will moe to the preious section.
Distribution of Volume - 1he cure o areas along the length o the underwater
portion o the kayak. 1his cure is deried rom the underwater hull shape and
cannot be directly manipulated.
Notes - I you`d like to record notes to yoursel or descriptions o the kayak as you
create the design, you can enter notes in this panel.

1he Drag Prediction` tab contains the ollowing:
Drag Plot - Displays the drag resistance s. paddling speed. 1here are 3 cures that
represent rictional drag, residual drag, and total drag.
Drag Data - Raw data or the 3 drag cures.
1he lorms` tab contains the ollowing panels:
Iorms Layout iew - Contains a irtual canas` or you to arrange the orms.
1he orms will be printed in the arrangement speciied here. 1o moe a orm, click
and drag it to the desired position. 1o rotate the orm, use the let,right arrow keys
while you hae the orm selected. 1o rotate to 45-degree increments, hold down the
shit key while using the arrows. 1he stem orms can be mirrored using the
right-click menu. I a orm oerlaps another, the orms will be shown in red.
Usually, you probably don`t want to print oerlapping orms, so make sure you
arrange the orms so that they`re all green.
Profile Iorms view - Displays the position o each o the orms superimposed on
the proile o the design. 1he red orm can be dragged to deine the position o the
1
st
orm, which anchors the rest o the orms. 1he yellow orm can be dragged to
speciy the orm spacing. Its distance rom the 1
st
orm is replicated to all other
orm spacing. Both o these alues can be speciied in numeric orms in the edit
ields on the let hand side. Bulkheads can be placed at arbitrary locations along the
length o the kayak. Right-click to access the Add a bulkhead` menu option. 1he
bulkheads are shown in blue and are not subject to orm spacing. 1hey can be
dragged to any position along the length. 1o remoe a bulkhead, simply drag it o
the end o the kayak and drop it.


1ip: Use the \hat`s 1his` unctionality to get context-sensitie help. Select
lelp,\hat`s-1his, Shit-l1, or click the icon to enter \hat`s 1his mode.
1hen click on one o the panels or hydrostatic data items to get a brie
description o its purpose.

Kayak Views
In the main Design tab, each panel can be hidden in order to gain more screen real estate or
the iew you`re editing at the time. Panels can be shown or hidden using the corresponding
View menu item or by using the right-click popup and selecting lide. Panels can be resized
dragging the splitter bars that separate the panels.
Lach panel has a right-click popup menu containing entries to control aspects o that panel.
Most entries will be sel-explanatory. 1he only one that requires some discussion is lull
Controls` that appears in the Plan and Proile panels. It proides a top and side iew o the
position o the hull-shaping control points along the length o the kayak. \ou cannot
manipulate these points in the Plan and Proile iews - the display is or inormation only.
1he hull can be shaped using the 5 representatie sections in the Actie Section iew. ,See
Cross-Section Shaping,
Superimposed on the iews are loating markers that indicate certain important positions -
e.g., maximum beam at sheer ,BOA,, maximum beam at waterline ,B\L,, etc. 1hese
markers moe automatically as you shape the design.
All o the cures can be shaped by manipulating control points ,See Control Points and
Cures,. 1he control points are isible only in the panel that has ocus. 1his makes it easy
to identiy which panel is being shaped, and it gets rid o clutter in the other iews so you
can ocus on the shape o the kayak.

In the Plan, Proile, and Distribution o Volume panels, there is a sliding actie section line
that can be positioned anywhere along the length o the boat. 1he Body Plan and Actie
Section iews display the cross section at that position. In addition, the lydrostatics panel
displays all the releant data about that section ,e.g., deck height, sheer width, etc.,. Position
the line by dragging the control arrow at the bottom o the line.

1ip: Double-click in the panels to moe the actie section line instantly to a
particular position. Double-click on indiidual sections in the Body Plan
panel to that section the actie section.
Input Fields
1he lydrostatics panel has a number o entries that can be modiied directly. 1hese entries
are shown in blue to distinguish them rom the static ields. 1o modiy their alue, double-
click on the entry or select the entry and hit enter.
Some entries are string ields and there is no speciied ormat. lor example, the entry or
the Design Name can contain whateer text you like.
Numeric entry ields hae speciic ormat requirements. Most ields will require you to enter
a units designator ater the alue. I an inalid alue is entered, or i the units cannot be
determined, then the contents o the ield will reert to the original alue. \ith the
exception o weight entry ields, all numeric entries must hae units speciied. \eight alues
without units will be assumed to be in the units corresponding to the current display mode.
1hat is, i Imperial units are being displayed, then a unit-less number will be treated as lbs. I
Metric units are being displayed, then a unit-less number will be treated as kgs.
1he supported units are as ollows:
Length Units: <double quote>, in, ins, <single-quote> ft, mm, cm
\eight Units: lb, lbs, kg, kgs
All entries must use only one unit designator, so i you want to enter 1 t 3 inches, you must
type 15in or 15 or 1.25ft, etc.
In addition, the ollowing numeric ields hae alid ranges:
Bow 1ip Radius: 0-25mm or 0-1 inch
Stern 1ip Radius: 0-25mm or 0-1 inch
Cargo \eight: 0-136 kg or 0-300 lbs
linished Boat \eight: 0-136 kg or 0-300 lbs
lal-angle Distances: 50-200 cm or 19 inches - 6.5 eet
Cockpit edge to CG: 0-200 cm or 0 inches - 6.5 eet
lirst lorm Position: 10-61 cm or 4-24 inches
lorm Spacing: 10-61 cm or 4-24 inches
Minimum Stem Length: 10-100 cm or 4 inches - 3.25 eet
Strip 1hickness: 0-13 mm or 0-0.5 inches
Printer Calibration Multipliers: 0.1 - 1.5 ,no units,

I you enter a alue that is less than the minimum, the alue will be set to the minimum.
Similarly, i you enter a alue that exceeds the maximum, the alue will be set to the
maximum.
1ip: Notice that there is no speciied range or paddler weight, but my
adice is to keep it at a healthy leel.
Control Points and Curves
All o the cure shaping is done by moing control points. Let-click on a point to select it.
A red halo is drawn around the point to indicate that it is the selected point. \ou can drag
the control point with the mouse, or nudge it in any direction using the keyboard arrow keys.
1ip: Use the arrow keys when you want ery ine control oer positioning
control points. Lach keystroke ,a nudge, moes the selected control point,s,
1mm.
Lach control point has a speciic degree o reedom. Most control points can be moed in
any direction. Some are restricted to moement only in only x or y, and a couple o them
are stationary. lor instance, in the proile iew, in order to orce the bow to start at x~0, the
control point at the tip o the bow can only be moed in the y direction. Similarly, in the
plan iew, the extreme end points o each cure ends at the centerline o the boat. 1hose
control points allow motion in the x direction only - so don`t worry about dragging those
control points o center, they won`t budge o the centerline.
\ithin a panel, multiple control points can be selected at once by using Ctrl-let-click on
each point. Lach newly selected point will hae a red halo. \hen you moe a selected
group o control points, they all moe so that they remain in the same position relatie to
each other. \ou can moe the group by click,dragging any o the selected points, or by
using the arrow keys. 1his can be conenient when you`e got a cure about right, but want
to shit its position a bit. 1he selected group o control points has its own degree o
reedom based on the cumulatie eects o each o the selected points. So, i you select one
point that`s restricted to x motion and another that`s restricted to y motion, the group o
points won`t moe at all.
1ip: Use Control-click to select additional control points or click-and-drag to
draw a rectangle around a group o points to select.
1o deselect all selected points, click in an open area on the panel. \hen switching back and
orth between panels, when you irst gie ocus to a panel by clicking in it, the preiously
selected control points remain actie. A second click in an open area will clear all selections.
1his lets you pop back an orth between panels to tweak the same control points in each
without haing to re-select the points each time.
Bezier Curve Details
All cures are cubic Bezier cures that hae 4 control points each. Kayakloundry draws the
irst and last points as squares and the two middle points as circles. 1he irst two and last
two sets o points are connected by a dotted line. Bezier cures always pass through the
irst and last control points. 1his means that the square control points will all somewhere
along the cure o the kayak. Also, the shape o the cure at the endpoints is tangent to the
line between the endpoint and the adjacent middle point. Anywhere you see a square
endpoint, a circle control point, and a dotted line between them, the cure will be tangent to
the dotted line as it approaches the square endpoint.
Lach cure o the kayak is a spliced set o Bezier cures with shared endpoints. 1he last
control point o the irst segment is the irst control point o the next segment, so they share
a square control point. 1o ensure that there are no discontinuities where the segments are
joined, the program orces many o these adjacent segments to share the same tangent.
Visually, this appears as a teeter-totter motion between three control points with a square
point at the center. 1his behaior is consistent throughout the dierent iews.
1he control points or a set o spliced cures all hae the same color. Lach set o spliced
cures has a unique color within the panel. 1his helps distinguish which control points
aect which cures.
1ip: 1he orange and red control points aect underwater cures, gray
control points aect the sheer cures, and green control points aect the
deck cure.
Cross-Section Shaping
1he mechanism or shaping the cross-sectional shape o the design deseres special
attention. Kayakloundry deines ie special sections spaced along the length o the kayak.
1hese sections are reerred to as representatie shaping sections. 1he shape o these ie
sections indirectly controls the shape o all other sections. Kayakloundry blends settings o
consecutie representatie sections to arrie at the shape o the intermediate sections. At
each representatie shaping section, you can control two deck control points and two hull
control points. Moe between the shaping sections by using the arrow buttons in the Actie
Section iew or use space or shit-space to moe to next,preious shaping section.
As you drag the control points to shape the cross section, the cure will be drawn in red i
any part o the cure alls outside the rectangle bounded by the top o the deck, the keel, and
the max beam o the section. Any red is generally not a good idea since it means that cross
section is not a standard` shape. \ou should always take steps to remedy this situation.
\hen the Actie Section iew displays any section other than the representatie shaping
sections, it will display the interpolated positions o all cross-sectional control points as
smaller dots. \ou cannot manipulate them directly, but they do let you see where the points
are located.
Zoom/Exaggerate
1here are two eatures that help you to generate smooth cures: Zoom and Lxaggerate.
Lach panel can be zoomed rom 100 to 400 in 25 increments. 1he right-click popup
has a Zoom entry to let you select a particular setting. \ou can also use the plus,minus keys
to increment,decrement the zoom leel. \ith all zoom settings but 100, the panel will
contain scroll bars. Drag the scroll bars or use Shit-arrow key to position the iew.
1he cures in the Plan and Proile panels can exaggerated to make it easier to judge airness.
1he exaggerate unction scales-up the y-coordinate o each cure in the panel. 1he scaling
settings are 2, 3, 4, or 5 times actual y alues. 1he right-click popup has an Lxaggerate entry
to let you select a particular setting. \ou can also use Control-plus,minus to
increment,decrement the exaggerate leel. \ou may need to hide some o the panels to see
the entire exaggerated cure.
Used together, the Zoom and Lxaggerate eatures proide an eectie combination to aid in
creating air cures.
Detail Level
1he Options,Detail-leel menu gies you control oer the detail leel used in the display
panels. I you ind that the program is slow to update the screen ,particularly true when one
panel is maximized,, you can drop the detail leel and the perormance will improe. 1his is
a global setting and will aect all actie designs.
1his setting controls the details in the ollowing way:
High - Displays clouds and color gradients
Medium - Displays color gradients
Low - Displays no color gradients
Single, Double, or Triple
Kayakloundry lets you design a single-, double-, or triple-cockpit kayak. Control-A adds
another cockpit, Control-R remoes a cockpit. \hen you change the number o cockpits,
the lydrostatics panel changes to relect the new number o cockpits. Lach cockpit has
settings or shape, the weight o the paddler, and the distance rom the at-edge o the
cockpit to that paddler`s center-o-graity.
1he 2
nd
and 3
rd
cockpits hae settings or spacing. 1his spacing corresponds to the distance
rom the at edge o that cockpit to the at edge o the cockpit directly in ront o it. Based
on all these settings, the program calculates a cumulatie center-o-graity, which it always
places directly oer the kayak`s center-o-buoyancy.
Lach cockpit can hae a separate shape, or they can all share the same shape. Only the irst
cockpit o a particular shape will hae control points in the Plan iew.
As you add cockpits, the kayak`s total displacement will increase. \ou will need to moe the
D\L upwards to compensate or the extra displacement. Adjust the D\L until the Design
Displacement is approximately equal to the 1arget Displacement. 1his will gie you an
indication o how the kayak will trim with the speciied paddler weights.
Undo/Redo
1he program supports unbounded number o undo,redo operations. Undo the last
moement with Ctrl-Z, redo the operation with Ctrl-\. Multiple consecutie moements o
a particular point is considered one moement. So, i you moe one control point around to
ten locations, an undo operation will moe it back to its original location. Moement o a
group o selected points is considered a single operation. As you undo,redo control point
moement operations, the program displays the points selected. I the panel containing
those control points happens to be hidden, you will not be able to see any undo,redo
actiity, but the undo,redo operation does still occur.
Printing
Kayakloundry can print station orms, stem orms, and cockpit templates. Beore printing,
the orms should be arranged on the irtual canas in the lorms` tab. 1he orms will be
printed according to this layout. lorms that are oerlapping at all will show in red. Usually,
you don`t want any oerlap, so make sure all orms are shown in green beore printing.
1he Print lorms dialog contains a checkbox or each orm. 1he checkboxes control which
o the orms will print. lorms are printed according to the orm layout canas using with
multiple sheets o paper. Lach page will contain registration marks to make it easy to align
adjacent pages.
1he printer calibration option allows you to ine-tune the accuracy o the printed orms. It`s
a good idea to do this once on each printer to check the dimensions o the calibration sheet.
I it`s o, you can speciy a multiplier to allow Kayakloundry to compensate or the
inaccuracy. Print the calibration sheet, then measure the true dimensions o the printed
rectangle. I the dimensions are incorrect, calculate the ratios that are described on the
sheet, and enter the alues in the speciied edit ields. Print another calibration sheet to
eriy the new dimensions.
1he Print lorms dialog also allows you to print scaled-down orms or use in constructing
models. 1here are pre-set selections or 1,2 , 1,3, and 1,4 scale actors and a custom scale
actor that allows alues rom 1,0.5 to 1,12. \hen printing scaled orms, the printed orms
indicate the scaling actor, and the printed dimensions and distances are adjusted to relect
the scaling. So, i you hae speciied 12` as the orm spacing and you select 1,3 scale, then
the printed orms will show a spacing o 4`. 1he strip thickness setting is scaled as well.
Note: As the orms are scaled-down in size, the inner cure that accounts
or strip thickness will become less accurate - ,e.g., it won`t exactly ollow the
outer cure in a parallel ashion,. Lxpect smaller orms to get a little unky
as they are scaled-down - especially the tips o the stem orms.
1he printed study plans proides a one-sheet iew o the kayak design along with the
designer`s notes ,i any, and some o the more pertinent hydrostatic alues. 1he outline
iews o both the deck and proile can be used to sketch possible strip patterns. Study plans
or most kayaks will look best i printed in landscape orientation, but i you are designing a
relatiely short kayak, portrait orientation may be more appropriate.
On both printed orms and study plans, the dimension will be printed using the currently
actie numeric display mode ,Imperial or Metric,.
Export
Should you want to import orms into a separate CAD package, Kayakloundry proides an
Lxport dialog. 1he Lxport dialog is ery similar to the Print lorms. 1he Lxport dialog
contains additional settings to allow you to tailor the ormat o the exported orm
coordinates. Lach orm cure is represented as a list o X,\ coordinates that can be
processed by other applications. \ith Microsot Lxcel, the exported ile can be imported as
a comma-delimited ile. Select the X and \ columns, and create a X\ scatter chart to iew
and eriy the exported coordinates.
A Word about Precision
All dimensions are stored and manipulated in millimeters ,mm,. \hen conerted to
Imperial units, some imprecision can result. lor the most part, this is not a problem because
the sheer size o the kayak dwars any resulting rounding error. Kayakloundry aries the
precision o displayed Imperial units to reduce useless ractional inormation or larger
alues. 1he ollowing scale is used to determine the displayed precision o decimal numbers.
Values < J inch - rounded to the nearest 1,1000
th
o an inch
Values < 2 inches - rounded to the nearest 1,100
th
o an inch
Values >= 2 inches - rounded to the nearest 1,10
th
o an inch