WISHLIST: Modern Ships Deckplan Style

DaltonSpence

When it comes to designing deckplans, CC3+ seems to go directly from wooden sailing ships to Cosmographer. I'd like a drawing style with symbols and tools that could be used for deckplans of ocean going vessels between those two extremes. Something that could handle 19th century steamboats or 21st century nuclear submarines and anything in between. (I'm currently trying to draw up deckplans for "The Cetacean" from the 1977 TV series "Man from Atlantis". I've got the hulls and decks done but aside from one cutaway portrait showing half of the two center spheres I have no idea of the internals.)

Loopysue

Are there any plans of the internal layout online?

DaltonSpence

I've checked and the most I can find is exteriors created by a model maker who was working from screenshots. I had to measure this picture to get the dimensions. The series was cancelled in the U.S. before the end of its first season and while it did better internationally it never had a big fan base.

Loopysue

That's unfortunate.

But it does mean that you can be inventive without the risk of people shouting at you that it wasn't like this, or that.

DaltonSpence

Which is why I would like a collection of symbols appropriate for a late 20th century nuclear submarine. Cosmographer symbols are nice but a little too advanced for that era. 

Loopysue

I was hoping for a starting point at least, but I'm as lost as you are with this one.

jslayton

Good starting terms for "modern" ships are "age of sail" and "age of steam ships", the two of which will take you from about 1800 to about WW1. Components include masts (with and without sails, giant masts from age of sail to the things that pretty much are to hang flags from, too many configurations to list), sails, lifeboats, paddlewheels (both side and stern), funnels, vents, cargo nets, rigging, loading hatches, and deck guns. Later on, you'll get more in the way of things like radomes and electronic gear, but those really aren't particularly interesting to look at. A few examples of wakes for various speeds of ship would be nice, but I don't know that it would be reasonable to even practical to attempt to do such things.

A lot of the characteristic parts of various ship eras aren't necessarily distinctive from an overhead perspective (for example, it may be hard to give a good impression for what those silly boxes on the side of a sidewheeler are for), so they will be useful for a wide range of time periods. Interestingly, the amount of visible stuff on deck gets somewhat less over time, to the point where larger modern ships tend to have not much to see at all (propulsion is all internal and under the waterline, for example). The configuration of some kinds of fishing boats, for example, has changed radically with both time and size (a giant trawler doesn't have anything like the boom configuration of a small fisher), while other have stayed pretty much the same (a dinghy with two guys fishing using lines looks more or less the same for the last few thousand years).

As with all things, I am not an expert.