That's a good guess, Marin. Yes, I did. Sure wish I could have Photoshopped out the mistakes though.
While certainly not normally worth the huge cost and effort when designing or modifying a recreational cruiser, there is a brilliant computer program called DELMIA from the Dassault folks in France who also created CATIA, the design program we use to design aircraft. DELMIA takes the designs from CATIA, integrates them, and then shows all the places where things won't fit or will have assembly or interference problems during assembly.
It even has the capability of placing a digitally defined human with the tool(s) necessary to do a particular job in the plane where the job is to be performed. Fully animated, you can define the size of the human (fat, thin, short, tall, male, female) and then see in real time if the person can actually do the job required. Can they access the area, reach around and position the tool, can they operate the tool, can they remove and replace the part, and so on.
So long before any parts are made or any material cut or formed, we know if they will fit together correctly in assembly, and if down the line a mechanic will be able to access an area and remove and replace a component for maintenance. If problems show up--- and believe me, plenty of them do--- the problem can be designed out long before any manufacturing or assembly work begins.
I suppose it's just a matter of time before these kinds of capabilities start trickling down into the lower-tech industries and perhaps even into the realm of the DIY folks.
Going another route, a project like yours could be done--- probably not cost effectively right now--- with 3D printing. Simply design the two transom doors, complete with the mating beveled surfaces, and when you were sure the designs were dimensionally correct, feed them to a 3D printer of the correct size and voila-- a pair of perfectly fitting doors.
The college-age son of a co-worker is going down this career path. He started out building a 3D printer from scratch as a summer project last summer. He then used it to make a bunch of little parts we needed for the boat we have in this area. He's now interning with one of the top 3D printing labs in this area designing stuff like car doors and whatnot for mass production 3D printing.
Even your use of CGI for your door project is light years beyond how the same project would have been handled just 10 or 15 years ago.
The door caprail has stingers underneath and straddles the door . Figuring this one out made my head hurt enough .
Great job on the door!
