Definition and Outcome

Space Management

A functional arrangement is created by several operations, dividing, merging, adding or subtracting. Typically, a larger volume is subdivided by surface or grid elements and then further refined by adding or subtracting of other volumetric elements.

All these operations (and the order of them) represent the definition data of the arrangement. The actual arrangement that is displayed in a canvas is the geometrical outcome of the definitions. A change of an arrangement is made by changing the definition or by changing the underlying elements that are referenced by the definition data. If a underlying surface, used as definition data in one or several arrangements, is changed then a new updated arrangement can be presented by a simple recreate operation.

Hull Design

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.