Hull Planking Calculator

[MintGum]

Hello,

In the interest of aiding in the creation and printing of tick strips and planking templates for wooden model ship hulls, I have created a hull planking calculator.

View attachment 570598

This is free (as in beer) desktop software for the Windows OS, created simply out of curiosity and research into model wooden ship hull planking.

If you are interested in checking it out or testing it please download the latest release from GitHub using the download link below.

There is no install just an .exe that can be placed where desired. I usually keep it on my desktop.

Download and unzip to your desired location. You may be asked by Windows to allow the .exe to run on your machine.

Repository: GitHub - mintgum/HullPlankingCalculator: A calculator to print tick strips and plank templates for wooden model ship hulls.

Download: https://github.com/mintgum/HullPlan...s/download/Release/HullPlankingCalculator.zip

Please read the included help text by clicking the large (?) icon on the right side of the form.

Any feedback is welcome and I will do my best to answer any questions.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[MintGum]

Here's an example hull and the generated tick strip and planking templates with ribs numbered from Bow (B) to Stern (S). These templates can be printed on any standard home printer (Letter or A4 size paper):



Tick Strip Page:



First Page of the plank template:



Second Page of the plank template:



Third Page of the plank template:

 

[AllanKP69]

Thank you very much for posting this. What a great tooll!!!!

One thing I do not understand. What does this triangle represent? (See below) The planks do get wider aft but it would still be a single piece except for the one or two stealers that might be needed.

Thanks again

Allan

 

[MintGum]

Hello AllanKP69,

Each of the plank template pages are aligned and taped together.

The "triangular area" that you've referenced would be cut away leaving the actual plank shape.

In other words, the lower part of the curve (or plank) is being cut away.

Hope that makes sense. A more detailed explanation is included in the help dialog within the program.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[johnv]

Very useful and well arranged tool. Thankyou! (do read the help info.)

 

[Rob444]

Here's an example hull and the generated tick strip and planking templates with ribs numbered from Bow (B) to Stern (S). These templates can be printed on any standard home printer (Letter or A4 size paper):

View attachment 570599

Tick Strip Page:

View attachment 570600

First Page of the plank template:

View attachment 570601

Second Page of the plank template:

View attachment 570602

Third Page of the plank template:

View attachment 570603

A wonderful application. Any possibility of making this into an Excel program or an ap for a Apple computer?

Thanks
Rob

 

[Heinrich]

Dear SOS Members. For your own safety and security, please be careful when prompted to click and download items via outside links which have not been verified. We are obviously not suggesting that this applies to @MintGum 's posting, but it warrants mentioning.

 

[MintGum]

Hello Rob444,

RE: Macintosh Port

The short answer is that the application is written in C# and is heavily dependent on the Windows printing API. Behind the scenes it is a very technical application.

Unfortunately Microsoft's cross platform .NET Maui doesn't support the printing API's on Mac and Linux platforms.

One option would be to use native printing code on each platform but that would be an extensive project.

Unfortunately Excel doesn't support the necessary graphics and printing API's.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[AllanKP69]

The "triangular area" that you've referenced would be cut away leaving the actual plank shape.

Hi Mint, Thanks again for your post on making tick strips

Why would there be material to cutaway both fore and aft? More than half of the strakes of planks are typically broader aft rather than more narrow. I realize they taper to a smaller breadth forward as they approach the bow, but not on half or more of the strakes at the stern. Note the lower strakes on these contemporary planking expansion drawings. It is the similar on all the planking expansion drawings on the RMG site that I could find.

Allan

 

[MintGum]

Hi Allan,

There may or may not be material to trim fore and aft.

It would depend on the plank width, the shape of the hull, the fairing of the strake lanes, the number of ribs/frames being considered, etc...

This tool mainly addresses kits with narrow planks but may also be useful for wider planking.

Planking with wide enough planks would allow a model ship to be planked akin to reality by scribing (with a compass) and literally cutting out the plank, using drop planks, etc...

The help dialog in the application gives a more detailed explanation.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[Jack Sparrow]

Hi Mint, Thanks again for your post on making tick strips

Why would there be material to cutaway both fore and aft? More than half of the strakes of planks are typically broader aft rather than more narrow. I realize they taper to a smaller breadth forward as they approach the bow, but not on half or more of the strakes at the stern. Note the lower strakes on these contemporary planking expansion drawings. It is the similar on all the planking expansion drawings on the RMG site that I could find.

Allan

so does that mean that the strakes below the water line are actually curving downwards on the stem side of the boat:

 

[AllanKP69]

so does that mean that the strakes below the water line are actually curving downwards on the stem side of the boat:

No, it is my understanding that the planking expansion drawings show the shape of the planks if they were all flattened out, pretty much like the laser cut spiled planks found in the higher quality kits seen in the build logs here at SoS. The garboard strake will parallel the keel but then the strakes begin to rise slightly. For practical purposes, spiling or pre-edge bending straight pre-trapered strips with moisture and heat work for our scales.

 

[sorbus]

Hello,

In the interest of aiding in the creation and printing of tick strips and planking templates for wooden model ship hulls, I have created a hull planking calculator.

View attachment 570598

This is free (as in beer) desktop software for the Windows OS, created simply out of curiosity and research into model wooden ship hull planking.

If you are interested in checking it out or testing it please download the latest release from GitHub using the download link below.

There is no install just an .exe that can be placed where desired. I usually keep it on my desktop.

Download and unzip to your desired location. You may be asked by Windows to allow the .exe to run on your machine.

Repository: GitHub - mintgum/HullPlankingCalculator: A calculator to print tick strips and plank templates for wooden model ship hulls.

Download: https://github.com/mintgum/HullPlan...s/download/Release/HullPlankingCalculator.zip

Please read the included help text by clicking the large (?) icon on the right side of the form.

Any feedback is welcome and I will do my best to answer any questions.

Thanks,
Mint

Any chance of making the source code available on GitHub?

 

[Lukawaz]

Many thanks for this marvelous application!

 

[Kimosubby]

Hello Mint, and well done.
Unfortunately I am a Mac user, I understand that your exe will not produce printable end product as such.
Question, can it just do the calculation and spew out the tick strip numbers as in page 1 image, with the widths at each frame?

I am of the school of planking where we divide the hull longitudinally into strips approximately 5 or 6 plank widths at the longest mid frame lengths. Then do exactly as your exe file does, within each section, measure each width at each frame spiling the width required to each plank as we proceed, one plank at a time. The plank shape is identical to yours as shown in the pages 2 to 4, with tapers at each end.

Doing the numbers with calibers is fine, but these days if a computer can ease that work I'm all for it.

Kimmo

 

[MintGum]

Version 1.3.0.0 is live and can be downloaded from the link in the first post.

1/18/2026

• Added support for exporting CSV files - exports both metric and standard - calculated tick strip widths for each frame
• Added support for exporting DXF files - exports a DXF file of the plank for use in CAD/CAM software and CNC/Laser milling operations
• Updated documentation.

Comments:

You'll find the export buttons on the print preview screen at the top:



Feedback is always welcome.

 

[MintGum]

Hello Mint, and well done.
Unfortunately I am a Mac user, I understand that your exe will not produce printable end product as such.
Question, can it just do the calculation and spew out the tick strip numbers as in page 1 image, with the widths at each frame?

I am of the school of planking where we divide the hull longitudinally into strips approximately 5 or 6 plank widths at the longest mid frame lengths. Then do exactly as your exe file does, within each section, measure each width at each frame spiling the width required to each plank as we proceed, one plank at a time. The plank shape is identical to yours as shown in the pages 2 to 4, with tapers at each end.

Doing the numbers with calibers is fine, but these days if a computer can ease that work I'm all for it.

Kimmo

Hi Kimmo,

Mac users might consider Boot Camp Assistant or Parallels to run Windows under MacOS. I can't vouch for these solutions but they seem feasible.

v1.3.0.0 will export a CSV with the plank widths at each frame as listed on the printed tick strips.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[MintGum]

Any chance of making the source code available on GitHub?

Hi sorbus,

Perhaps in the future as the application matures.

Thanks,
Mint

 

[Kimosubby]

Hi Mint, thanks for taking time to answer.
Yes, I'll try running Windows on a virtual and see if it will be able to read the data being exported as a csv as these files are readable on Mac on text edit, numbers or excel. There's a lot of advice available.
Kim

I'll keep you informed