Deck Plans Vs. Tonnage

[Geesuv]

I'm looking to start making deckplans for my own ship designs. But I'm unsure of how big to make them.
Whats a good ratio of squares Vs the tonnage of the ship being designed? Or, indeed, other good rule-of-thumbs for ship designing?

 

[DFW]

Two deck square to the ton. In 3 dimensions it's 3m long X 1.5m wide X 3m height. Each square being 1.5 meters

 

[zero]

Supposedly its two 1.5 m squares per dton of ship, however, they usually show up in the Core book designs as being two squares tall, so a stateroom (at 4dtons) is made up of an 8 square cube on the deckplans.

Also theres an unwritten rule for adding/taking up to 20% of the dtonnage in squares for corridors and areas not covered in the ships costs (like common areas, labs, sickbays).

My 200 dton custom ship for example, has around 40 dtons added on the deckplan for the corridors and such (again 40 3m tall squares on the map).

EDIT - Sorry DFW, you got there before me

 

[Sturn]

Many also consider passages, airlocks, etc a portion of the alloted tonnage. A.i. 10 tons to a Power Plant isn't just 20 squares of machinery, but a few squares of a passage running down the center, a computer station, and a tools locker (for example).

 

[DFW]

Many also consider passages, airlocks, etc a portion of the alloted tonnage. A.i. 10 tons to a Power Plant isn't just 20 squares of machinery, but a few squares of a passage running down the center, a computer station, and a tools locker (for example).

Yep, it isn't 20 squares of solid machinery. You need 20 squares of allocated space to install and have room for crew, controls, space to change out replacement components, workspace, etc., etc.

 

[hdan]

Right, and the same is generally true of staterooms - you add up all rooms in the "Crew compartment" (there can be more than one if for example you want a separate compartment for passengers) and allocate enough squares to cover that tonnage. Then put in the staterooms themselves, a common area, etc.

Many old plans allocate all 8 squares to a stateroom and fudge the rest.

Many plans I see these days give each room 4 squares, and use the other four squares in aggregate with the other staterooms to provide a common area and maybe a hallway.

BTW, another common trick is to split the bridge tonnage up into the bridge proper and "avionics" tonnage that you can allocate elsewhere on the map to make the ship's deck plan work for you better. Many people also consider the ship's locker and airlocks to be part of the bridge tonnage making it more of a "command section" tonnage than an actual bridge.

You can also have "half height" areas (often in wings for a streamlined ship) that are four squares per ton. People often put fuel in there.

 

[AndrewW]

Mongoose plans usually have the staterooms at 6 squares, leaving 2 squares for corridor space / common areas.

Fighters are usually done at half height, so 4 squares to the ton.

Other areas aren't always at the 3m height. Cargo areas being the most common to be higher (usually 6m), sometimes fuel.

Then there's items that don't usually show up on deckplans such as armour.

 

[PFVA63]

Although I don't have a copy of the Mongoose rules with me, I know that in previous versions of Traveller a dtonwas defined as 14 cubic meters, but that two deck squares 1.5m x 1.5m and 3m tall is only 13.5 cubic meters (or about 3.6% less).

As such, in laying out deck plans I tend to assume that if you are over by less than 7 squares (?) per 100dtons you are still OK, which can be very useful for adding ion the little odds and ends not always addressed in the rulebook.

Regards

PF

 

[middenface]

I stick with the 1t = 2 squares..though I will add a little for access.. as long as it looks ok.

A thing I learn't is that in Sketchup you can draw a square for example and it will tell you the area (I use meters for for scaling)
Then divide by 2.25 to find how many squares on in there. Very useful for tankage and odd shaped areas...like the bridge

 

[Galadrion]

Although I don't have a copy of the Mongoose rules with me, I know that in previous versions of Traveller a dtonwas defined as 14 cubic meters, but that two deck squares 1.5m x 1.5m and 3m tall is only 13.5 cubic meters (or about 3.6% less).

Actually, in MT, TNE, and T4, 1 dT was 13.5 cubic meters. This actually accords better with the defined measurement, as well (volume of one metric ton of liquid hydrogen).

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

SketchUp 8 does volumes.

 

[atpollard]

Although I don't have a copy of the Mongoose rules with me, I know that in previous versions of Traveller a dtonwas defined as 14 cubic meters, but that two deck squares 1.5m x 1.5m and 3m tall is only 13.5 cubic meters (or about 3.6% less).

Actually, in MT, TNE, and T4, 1 dT was 13.5 cubic meters. This actually accords better with the defined measurement, as well (volume of one metric ton of liquid hydrogen).

MT is 13.5, but CT,TNE and MGT = 14 (I don't have T4).

 

[far-trader]

SketchUp 8 does volumes.

Pro or free? And if free where please That function would be immensely helpful. I just downloaded it the other night so I'm still discovering new features. I'm hoping you mean for any contained shape and not just simple ones. I downloaded a volume calculator app for an older version but haven't tried it yet.

 

[BP]

far-trader, the new version (8 ) has added volume support (calc was 'there' before)

Both versions of SketchUp 8 (free and Pro) can make Solids and display their volumes in the Entity Info dialog box.

Not sure this information is correct though - another site said 'solids' feature was PRO only... however, I have used the volume calculation feature before (not sure how accurate or all inclusive it is) in the free version.

 

[rinku]

Classic Traveller *officially* allowed a 10-20% leeway between design and final deckplans.

Worth noting that fuel tonnage is often omitted from the "walk around" deckplans (i.e. the original Gazelle plans included a half-height fuel deck between the other two which they didn't bother to show, and the Merc Cruiser plans don't show the outer hull and fuel, just the inner core decks).