Definition and Outcome

All hull steel definitions are made in panels, a suitable type of data container defined by the user, that holds all definitions of physical components (for example brackets and stiffeners) as well as definitions to make the model ready for production (for example shrinkage). All definitions and their topological connections represent the definition data for this specific part of the design. The panel that is displayed in a canvas is the geometrical outcome of these definitions. A change of a hull component is made by changing the definition or by changing the underlying elements that are referenced by the definition data (for example an underlying surface). The new outcome of the panel, the geometrical representation, is then generated by a simple recreate operation. Although changes are made to definition data, the application functions allow a user to interact with the outcome model, updating the definition data behind the scene and automatically recreates for a new outcome.

The definition of hull components is preferably made in groups, that is hull components that share the same properties. The update made to one of the instances is then affecting all the instances within this group. If this is not wanted, for example when one of the stiffeners in a group shall be defined with a different profile type and dimension, then the specific instance needs to be broken out from the group using the Regroup function.