| COMPLEMENTARY
COMPANIES PROVIDE DESIGN SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
Ship &
Boat International - October 1998 Issue
DS&T
COMPANY FOCUS
Design
Systems & Technologies and Intersection
Design are two separate but complementary companies dedicated to
providing design software system solutions to the naval architecture
and marine engineering business as well as offering a ship engineering
production service to naval architects and builders. The business
has evolved over ten years from mainly a design practice to one
concentrating on the supply and support of specialist software.
Situated in the South of France’s Antibes/Sofia Antipolis district
(where companies such as Digital, Amadeus and Air France set up
in the 1980s to attract and retain good staff) the two companies
share open-plan offices overlooking the Mediterranean.
Founded by 40-year-old
Italian Nick Danese in 1988, Intersection Design was mainly involved
in large yacht design in the early years (Danese had previously
worked on sail and power projects with Bruce Farr and Martin Francis).
Soon, through its extensive use and knowledge of software, it found
itself offering information and software to other practices. FastShip,
at that time produced by Design Systems & Services in the USA,
was the main product and resulted in the trading name of Design
Systems Europe to maintain worldwide brand recognition and this
name was retained as GHS, Maestro and other programs were added
to their portfolio.
By 1994 software sales and consultancy represented the majority
of the company’s turnover and at this time Danese’s vision
was that "the future of marine software was in the PC environment.
In those days everything was self-contained workstation systems.
Hardware costs alone for PC systems are about a sixth of say a UNIX
system". So, in 1995, in order to provide the most comprehensive
service possible to the end user, a close cooperative relationship
was formed with Albacore of Canada and NautiCAD of Italy. These
companies still do most of the technical software development, all
of which is then thoroughly tested by Design Systems on real commercial
projects and debugged before being introduced into the marketplace.
By 1996 there were two PC ship production systems: Albacore’s
‘Ship Constructor’ based around AutoCAD and NautiCAD’s
‘NauSHIP’ running inside Microstation. The drive behind
these PC-based products was to make them interface with existing
naval architecture products and benefit from the fact that 75% of
people working in this field would have used AutoCAD or Microstation,
saving on training costs. Danese states "We do not have to
worry about common CAD features such as parametric drafting tools
and rendering but we can concentrate on ship specific requirements.
The big self-contained, stand-alone systems do have to worry about
all aspects of CAD making their development relatively cumbersome".
Parallel to these developments over the past two years Danese took
the decision in 1996 to move into the ship production service market.
This was to ensure that "we are not ‘box shifters’
and to secure a long-term relationship and understanding of our
clients we must have hands-on practical experience of our own".
Two ship projects, 70m and 95m ferries, for Rodriquez Engineering
of Genoa, allowed the software systems to be ‘road-tested’
in the worst-case scenario - with inexperienced users recruited
straight out of college - while also generating a core software
support team who would have been through the learning curve from
scratch.
During these projects every single piece of steel for the ships
was modelled in three dimensions and it could be determined on screen
whether or not an individual item could be fabricated. For example,
if the plastic deformation was too great for a piece of plating
then it could be modified before being cut. The advantages of preparing
everything with the CAD system are to ensure that everything will
fit together and optimise various criteria. The balance of minimising
steel wastage, through efficient nesting, against the extra labour
involved with fabricating more components (necessary to obtain efficient
nesting) and the knock-on effects of this extra time on the whole
project can be accurately weighed up. Avoiding mistakes during construction
is probably the strongest reason to invest in thorough ship production
modelling (typically costing one per cent of construction costs)
before commencing build. As Danese points out, "One error in
the building process might well cost more than the total ship production
service fees".
With these 70m and 95m ships successfully behind them, the decision
was taken to keep one or two service jobs on the go at all times
to allow continuous testing of software developments and keeping
ahead of requirements. A passenger ship refit was recently completed
and current projects include a 40m tuna seiner and a 114m, 44-knot
car ferry for Cantieri Navali Rodriquez (see S&B July/Aug 1998).
To improve management and distinguish between activities, Design
Systems & Technologies was formed
early in 1998, dedicated to the software marketing and development
consulting, while Intersection Design provides both the ongoing
support and training to software users and a full ship production
service to naval architects and builders.
PC-BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS
Design
Systems & Technologies’ PC-based
software can be categorised in three groups: Design and Analysis,
Ship Production and Ship Operation. Compatibility between systems
and the ability to add programs to a practice as projects demand
them is one of the key attractions.
Design and Analysis:
FastShip, GHS, NavCad™, ShipMO, Maestro and Esti-MATE are used
for preliminary design and analysis.
FastShip (Proteus Engineering Inc) is a hullform design and surface
modelling program that can also be used for superstructures and
appendages. It has intact hydrostatic and stability calculations
and interfaces with many stability, structures and hydrodynamics
programs. First released in 1983, FastShip is now onto version 5
and includes parametric and Wizard modules to help in automatically
producing new hulls from a set of parameters, such as ship type,
overall dimensions, displacement, LCB location, form coefficients
etc. Hulls can also be designed from scratch, derived from library
hulls or by importing offsets. Easily learnt, FastShip includes
industry-standard interfaces IDF, IGES and DXF.
GHS/Win (Creative Systems Inc) is a General Hydrostatics and Stability
package. The most powerful stability calculator in the microcomputer
world, GHS goes beyond static stability calculations and checks
for positive stability in all conditions. It supports variable density
cargo, staggered heel/flotation plane conditions as well as compartment
damage combinations.
NavCad™ (HydroComp Inc) is a parametric resistance and propulsion
prediction system and models can include hull, appendages, propeller
and engine (resistance, power, thrust and torque) as well as ‘non-ship’
effects such as waves, wind, shallow water blockage and towed/pushed
bodies. NavCad™ also has facilities for correlated alignment
calculations (to towing tank data, other experimental sources, proprietary
databases etc).
ShipMo PC/Win (Sable Maritime Ltd) is a ship motions prediction
package, applying an evolved version of strip theory to calculate
ship motions response amplitude operators in six degrees of freedom.
Validated for Froude numbers as high as 0.42 on medium speed craft,
ShipMo also supports wave spectra such as Breight-Schneider, Jonswap
and user defined waves.
Maestro (Optimum Structural Design Inc) is a finite element analysis
based structural optimization package which, thanks to its fundamental
coarse mesh approac, is uniquely suitable for the study of reinforced
shells such as ship and submarine hulls and superstructures, offshore
rigs, semi-submersibles etc. Selected areas can be evaluated using
a fine mesh.
Esti-MATE (SPAR Technologies) is used by small and large organizations
to predict and manage the cost of shipbuilding. It uses parametric
and database technology to integrate constantly changing information
as well as an item-by-item approach. Interfaced to ship production
programs such as ShipCAM and CAD-Link it is fully customizable and
suitable for newbuilding or refit/repair jobs.
Ship Production:
Of most interest to CAD users who are already familiar with AutoCAD
or Microstation are the PC-based ship production software packages,
especially ShipCAM 97, NauSHIP and CAD-Link 98. Compatible with
Microsoft Office for producing documentation, or importing into
databases and spreadsheets for calculations, the ship production
programs offered by DS&T
allow for every piece of the steelwork (for example) to be given
attributes. These may vary from post-processing codes for shipyard
teams to which grade of steel the part is to be cut from. Classification
Society approval drawings are generated from the 3D model, making
any necessary modifications running throughout the design relatively
painless. Danese has scrutinised the time sheets and figures for
projects they have worked on and is confident that a third of the
design and production time is saved in the concurrent process, compared
to the traditional stage-by-stage method of working.
ShipCAM 97 (Albacore Ltd)
focuses on the fast and accurate production of shell-related fabrication
data. Unmatched in plate development (surface-based as opposed to
traditional frame-based methods), inverse frame bending calculations
(transverse and longitudinal), automatic cut-out placement capabilities,
ShipCAM also offers all traditional shipbuilding functions such
as shell expansion, template forming, pin-jigs, weights and CG calculations.
Double curvature plate deformation is quantified exactly and plate
formability can be checked on screen, interactively, thus allowing
plate size optimisation. ShipCAM supports most industry data exchange
formats and database links integrate it with steel production modelling
programs such as NauSHIP and CAD-Link:
NauSHIP (NautiCAD srl) exploits the Microstation graphical engine
and was the first ship production modelling product to run on microcomputers.
Designed to be used through the complete structural modelling process,
from preparation of class drawings to NC cutting, using NauSHIP
in the early stages of concept design saves considerable time and
effort at later stages. The graphical interface is easy for classically
trained draughtsmen and naval architects to learn. Fully three dimensional
and with logical attributes used for displaying, nesting and other
database type operations it was demonstrated to S&B to be very
efficient in composing bill of materials and assembly instruction
type data. Profile end treatments, assembly and production drawings,
welding/processing specs and Classification Society approval drawings
are easily generated. Supporting most industry standard interfaces
(DXF, IGES, IDF etc), it is designed for use in both the stand-alone
and networked environment. Microstation’s powerful rendering
capabilities make for impressive three dimensional client presentation
images when the occasion demands it.
CAD-Link 98 (Albacore Ltd) is an AutoCAD-based steel production
modelling PC program expressly developed for the small to medium
shipyard. It has database links, CAD assisted nesting, structural
modelling, basic piping and NC cutting interfaces and in its 3D
solid element structural element approach is an industry leader.
CAD-Link provides the tools to make 3D modelling as easy as 2D drafting
and, having been thoroughly tested with ShipCAM users worldwide,
it is established as an effective tool for all stages of ship production
engineering.
Shaft-Kit (Sable Maritime Ltd) brings finite element vibration analysis
of propeller shafts to the desktop. It supports modelling of shaft
elements, lumped masses, springs, dampened and rigid supports, bearings
etc and both torsional and normal vibrations are computed. Designed
for low-end computers it lends itself to on-board inspection and
analysis work.
Perception (SPAR Associates Inc) is the leading tool for planning,
scheduling and controlling the many elements involved in the production
process of ship manufacture. Based on client-server tecnology it
is a completely modular package, easily customizable to specific
shipyard requirements. The system comprises Esti-MATE, mentioned
earlier, Work-Pac, for tracking cost and work performance, Mat-Pac,
to manage stock, purchasing and delivery and Pert-Pac which dynamically
maintains resource allocation and scheduling, including automatic
re-assignments at tagged event occurences.
PropCad (HydroComp and Design
Systems & Technologies sarl) allows
the user to define a propeller in detail and to produce both a fully
dimensioned construction drawing and a complete offset table suitable
for the construction of a foundry plug. It includes several parametric
propeller libraries or can define arbitrary shapes or a combination
of the two. Class strength rule calculations are supported.
Ship Operation:
Onboard operations/monitoring programs offered by DS&T
include Smart Engine and GHS LM while PropExpert aids with the choice
of a proprietary propeller:
PropExpert (HydroComp
Inc) is a Windows 95 software tool for the selection and analysis
of propeller systems for workboats and yachts. Developed for the
engine/propeller manufacturer and dealer market it allows te user
to select and match engines and propellers for a given hull type
and operating profile.
Smart Engine (HydroComp and Design
Systems & Technologies sarl) is
a performance, display voyage analysis and propulsion management
software tool designed for onboard or onshore use. It addresses
both strategic and tactical issues from real-time course and throttle
settings to layup scheduling and a complete operating database is
generated for comparative analysis.
GHS LM (Creative Systems
Inc). General Load Monitor is an onboard stability monitoring system
for use by the vessel operators and is a special configuration of
the aforementioned GHS. Using true ship geometry for real-time calculations,
including wind heeling, cargo shifting, damage and grounding situations
GHS LM can assess longitudinal strength in any condition Installed
on dozens of ships and easily translated into any language it is
perfectly suited for preloading and unloading calculations and real-time
operations management.
SUMMARY
Having spent some hours interviewing a yacht design and naval architectural
practice in the UK before visiting Design
Systems & Technologies, it became
evident that both were thinking along the same lines. Jerry Turner
of Lymington-based Dubois Naval Architects (mainly on AutoCAD) explained
how - now that the technology is available to them - they believe
that it will be preferable to take on the extra workload and properly
model up all elements in three dimensions. Presently most small
craft designers pass on typical two dimensional drawings of sections
showing frame sizes and stringer spacings, together with a lines
plan, to the ship production service companies who, in turn, prepare
precise details for the metal cutting and shopfloor welders to refer
to.
By bringing the ship production
preparation in-house - and effectively operating a concurrent engineering
method - the savings in communications time are put at 70% by Nick
Danese. Eliminating the possibility of misinterpretation of details
is virtually assured and those late stage "let’s add a
couple of metres length" requests from the client are incorporated
without major redrawing repercussions. With the increasing numbers
of large yachts being ordered - and the majority of yacht designers
either using AutoCAD or Microstation - it would appear that, complementing
the commercial small ships market, the yachting industry could be
the next that DS&T
tap into to supply software. |
