while on the subject one thing became clear to me as I drew the steam engine. I know CAD pretty good and have no problem in drawing the parts in both 2D and 3D.
What became a problem was the fact I do not know how a steam engine actually works and what all the parts are and how it all fits together. So I have part A that fits into part B which bolts to part C and part C has to line up with parts D,E and F. I have no clue if parts are missing or not or what they even look like.
Take a ship there are hundreds of parts that all fit together. If you do not know how a ship is built and all the parts that go into one you can not draw it.
there is a keel, keelson, rising wood, deadwood, apron floors, riders, sister keelson, stem, inner and outer stern post. As you work your way up the hull there are futtocks, clamps, counter, transom and so on.
There are few stand along parts each and every piece depends on another.
not to sound like I am discouraging anyone from trying this. As it is we have very few people who can start from scratch and come up with a set of working modeling plans.
Dave F also makes a good point
a master shipwright draws a plan and note there are no parts in these plans just an overview of a ship it is up to the yard foreman to "build" it. He may take an inventory of timbers in the yard and decide how to frame the hull.
in model ship building we would tend to keep everything even a 5mm thick frame and a 3mm space another 5mm frame and another 3mm space. Real ships were build with random frames and spacing depending on timber in the yard and the shifting of timbers to accommodate different features of the ship. different countries built different ways, shipwrights built different from on another. Before you draw the first line you need an understanding of what you drawing.
