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Bob Davis

Bob Davis from Ellsworth, Maine, is one of the first AeroHydro customers and also one of the most experienced and imaginative MultiSurf users. If you have spent any time at the AeroHydro website or visited our trade show booths, you have probably already seen numerous images made from Bob Davis’ designs. (On this page, click on thumbnails to see full-size images.)

Back in 1980, Bob started doing computer-aided design with Fairline/1. Subsequently, he followed all the iterations of AeroHydro surface design software and today he is well versed in all the ins and outs of MultiSurf. He likes to push the program and explore its wide range of possibilities. And he certainly gets MultiSurf to do wonderful things for him.

Bob spent many of his younger years operating vessels in the finfish, shrimp, scallop and lobster fisheries. He also worked as a boat builder, constructing steel vessels. This background serves him well when he designs boats—he has firsthand knowledge of what is required from a good design when it comes to building and using the final product. His designs are primarily for commercial boats of steel and aluminum—tugboats, barges, and lobster boats—mostly with chines. Many of his hulls are made with developable surfaces, and they are wonderful examples of the fact that you don’t have to compromise aesthetics for the sake of simplified construction. Bob’s lobster boats have elegantly-curved tumblehome, yet they are easy to fabricate since they are made from developable surfaces.

But Bob’s love of drawing and designing is not limited to boats. One of his hobbies is airplanes, and he models airplanes with MultiSurf as well. Just like his marine designs, his airplanes are complete with intricate details. Here is his complete Nieuport Delage 29 Vittese 1922 model.

When Bob sees an interesting drawing in a book or a magazine he would like to explore further, he scans the drawing, traces the lines in AutoCAD, converts the .dxf file into a MultiSurf model (using MultiSurf’s DXF2MSF utility), and refines the model in MultiSurf. Did you know that you can build castles with MultiSurf? This one is called "Castle in the Clouds", but it seems very real indeed.

Bob likes MultiSurf’s rich array of features and takes full advantage of them to construct complex models. He makes extensive use of the component feature to do repetitive tasks in his designs. And the relational characteristics of the program let him change his mind as often as he needs to get everything just right!

As for us, a new Bob Davis design always creates a stir at AeroHydro. We are very pleased to see MultiSurf used in such creative ways by this gifted designer.

Bob Davis
Pea Ridge Marine
Ellsworth, ME 04605
207-664-0127
mrdavis@downeast.net