General

In large ships a considerable portion of the main structure, both internally and in the deck(s) and shell, consists of big flat plate areas, stiffened with profiles. Examples are the flat bottom and side, flat decks, platforms, bulkheads, In normal shipbuilding terminology these structures are called panels. Such panels are in major yards produced in specialized production facilities, so called panel lines. The purpose of this document is to describe, partly on an overall level, a module developed to support the operation of panel lines.

The use of the word panel in this context is not quite in line with the standard concept "panel". Even if a panel may be identical to a production panel for the panel line it may also be larger, for example, be built up by several production panels. To keep the two concepts apart this document will use the name assembly part for the production unit and thus the concept "panel" will be reserved for the model objects of the Hull application. The only exception is the concept "panel line" in this document and in references to it.

In order not to create confusion and to differentiate them from assembly parts the ordinary individual plate parts are in this document called piece parts.