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@domer1322 This might help a bit. This video shows a sphere with a circle behind it. Note when the displacement map is applied how the sphere grows in "all directions". This is what is likely happening with your map as it has shading in it. Now Shading can be used to get great effects, but it is not what you want for this.

@Jeff PrinceJeff, can I get back to you, there is some serious work to do first.....thanks in advance.

@domer1322 There is another thread going at the moment on Standing Seam. There is a short video that explains in "simple terms".

So summarize @Jeff Prince the map is behaving badly.

It appears displacement mapping is the theme of the day. You could build a displacement texture very quickly to suit your needs in Vectorworks. You can do it with four polygons. What is not shown here, is that you need to export two images, the image map and the bump map, then bring them back in as the texture. The short video below shows this method.

Hi Domer, The map is behaving badly, but I think it is the image quality of the texture. The displacement map should be largely B&W for best results. A light grey or tan color, which these appear to be would be a difficult choice to work with. Also, the reflective map is giving a different look. If you put in a direction light, the map changes. In general this displacement is "not working". I put an image below to help explain what a displacement map can do if it is set too high. Note the bottom image, This probably wasn't very helpful, but you seem to know what you need to do, so I think you will work it out, but work on the images.

Can you post these files? What is happening is likely what is supposed to. in CAD, displacement works well if the grey scale values are much tighter (B&W). But....post the files so we can have a look.

@alva I was busy with boats yesterday, or I would have done this sooner. I ran up a path/railing scene and animated it for discussion. Is this the type of thing you eventually want to do?

@DB_yachts Hi DB, I hope you are getting all this and it's not too confusing??

@Jeff Prince Do you have something to contribute to boat design.

Nice finds. Where did you come up with these.😀

Steve. Did you see what I had to work with. Very small, low res cross sections. I extracted them very quickly and produced his boat so we had something to work with. I made this boat Sunday morning with my morning coffee. The Zebra thing. Even this boat which I know was flawed, will print just fine. There may be multiple reasons for distortion, the first being this boat was imported into another program. Also, I know the cross sections were flawed. But the main reason is there are three sections a side, two are lofted smooth and one is not, this will reflect in the Zebra striping.

Since coming to the forum, many of the problems users have in 3D is because of Polyline>Convert to NURBS. If you are just starting with 3D, this is often the go to and it produces control point issues. You know how to use it, I know how to use it, but novices don't, so to eliminate these issues, I always tell new users to build there curves from scratch using interpolation mode. Das Boat. This type of hull is different than a power boat hull. If the keel was straight like most power boats the loft surfaces function would work fairly well. For this hull. I used his cross sections only except for one extra to complete the bow. The process -create hull curves using interpolation mode and cut in half -rebuild all curves to equal number of points Now this is the important part to get the smooth hull. -"Duplicate Along Path" to position each cross section properly, -rescale to match the cross sections to the keel and top of the boat -Loft Surface. This does not completely explain it, but a framework.

The design below barely pushes VW's capabilities. I must point something out though, as I thought you were going to go at this now and corrections could be made incrementally as you stumbled upon them. The best way to learn is by making mistakes which you are going to, but it is good to start with the best odds of making things work. You are not going to make this the way it was laid out for you. There was a clue in the Vectorworks image above. Boats, planes and cars are symmetrical. It is much easier to work with the sections cut in half and then mirror over after you have one side done. Things to stay away from: Never use poly lines unless they are for 2D construction purposes. The temptation to convert polylines to NURBS is a show stopper. Convert to NURBS is a good tool.....if you know how to use it, but it can also be a show stopper.

Hi Alva, I took your model and reduced the polygon count by 90 percent in CINEMA 4D. That model is enclosed. Bought it back into VW's and separated the parts. See the Video below. In the video you can see the section of interest is isolated so it can be worked on by standard tools much easier. Having said that, the NURBS tools come into play at an advanced level. MOUNTAIN REDUCED_2_FORUM.vwx I don't know if BIM is applicable to the NURBS tools. I am happy to help you going forward with NURBS tools.