Background

When generating, it is normal to refer to the surrounding structure when creating a new panel. It is very usual that these references include references to stiffeners on an adjacent panel (for example, in setting cutouts) and/or on the current panel (for example, in generating stiffeners and brackets).

These references can take place via the stiffener numbers which are related to the numbers of the attributes in which the stiffeners are stored. A severe disadvantage of this method is that the stiffener numbers are normally not stable, that means, as a panel is changed, the stiffener numbers may change. This requires corresponding changes in the input schemes of dependent panels. If the original change is made, for example, on a deck or a bulkhead, which is referred to from many other panels, this might cause considerable problems.

To overcome this, Planar Hull Modelling has been given the facility of referring to stiffeners via "tags", which are stable and, for instance, are defined by the position of the stiffeners.

The tag need not be unique for a certain stiffener, but Planar Hull Modelling will automatically, from a given tag, search for the corresponding stiffener. This searching is performed in a way very similar to the one when a shell profile part is searched for, defined by a longitudinal/transversal number.