The Offsets window allows you to view the offsets for a design. Offsets are found for the given station (or: section) as set in the Grid Spacing dialog from the Data menu.

The offsets are displayed for one station at a time. See the Displaying Offsets section for instructions on how to change this display.

To calculate offsets

§   Select the Offsets window.

§   Select Calculate Offsets from the Data menu.

A dialog will appear allowing you to choose whether or not to include skin thickness deduction and/or to automatically create a table of markers from the calculated offset points.

Offsets calculation may take some time depending on the number of surfaces and grid lines in use. Offsets are sorted by station position.

Note:

If your model contains bonded edges and you would like these to be included in the offsets calculation, you have to make sure the bonded edges are visible. Same for feature lines to calculate offsets at the position of a knuckle.

Offsets can be calculated after deducting the skin thickness. The skin thickness is deducted on a surface-by-surface basis. In order to ensure this is done correctly please check the following:

§   Thickness specification of each surface

§   Thickness direction of each surface, see Surface Materials and Skin Thickness.

§   Outside Arrows direction of each surface

If you have chosen to deduct skin thickness, Maxsurf will add or deduct that thickness perpendicular to the surface at each point on the hull, so that areas of the hull that are not parallel to the centreline will be correctly calculated.

Where an offset is for an edge or feature line, the following rules apply:

Edges

Skin thickness is taken along the surface perpendicular at the edge, rather than along a waterline, buttock or diagonal. An example of this would be for a sheer line, where the topside was not vertical, with the resulting offset higher than the original point. Builders should be made aware that the height specified does not correspond to the height of the sheer line.

Feature lines

Offsets at feature lines such as knuckles and chines within a surface are taken at the intersection of the projection of the deducted surface, rather than on a radius around the feature point.

To display different pages of the offset table:

§   Choose Go To Offset… from the Data menu

§   Enter the number of the station whose offsets you wish to view.

§   Click OK

The Offsets window will change to display the offsets for the station requested.

Offsets may be copied for transfer to other programs. To do this

§   Click in the top left hand corner of the Offsets table.

This selects and highlights the entire Offsets window for copying.

§   Select Copy from the Edit menu.

Switch to your word processor or spreadsheet and choose Paste.

Once a table of Offsets has been calculated in Maxsurf, it is possible to customize the names used for waterlines, buttocks, diagonals, feature lines and edges. Simply type the text required into the required cell in the Offsets window. These names will be used when the table of offsets is printed or written to a file.

It is also possible to write out a text file of the complete table of offsets. This can be read directly into other programs such as word processors or spreadsheets. To do this

§   Make sure the Offsets window is in front.

§   Select Save Offsets from the File menu.

§   Specify a name for the offsets file and click on the save button.

The offsets will be saved in a TEXT file of that name and may be opened by any word processor or spreadsheet.