Input for Manufacturing Curved Plates (Plate Jigs)

Input to the program is based on the general selection tool and this input is normally generated automatically when activating this function through any of the interactive hull applications via a production program interface. This interface and the selection possibilities are described in Manufacturing, General About the Production Program Interface.

If a curved panel has been selected (if many, only the first one will be taken care of), this will be the one that the program will create plate jigs for. If no curved panel has been selected, the system returns to the Production interface form.

In case of a selected curved panel, the following form will be displayed:

The name of the selected panel is provided within the Panel name field.

Configuration

1. Select the Jig Row Position dropdown to define the position of the plane of the plate jigs.

   

   X means that the intersection line between the plate jig plane and the assembly plane is to be parallel to a frame plane. Z means that the intersection line is to be parallel to a waterline plane.

2. Select the Def. Ass. Plane dropdown to control how the assembly plane is defined.

   

   The defining options are as follows:

   • Default means that the assembly plane will be calculated so that the corner points of the panel will be as horizontal as possible.

   • Y means that the assembly plane will be parallel to a vertical plane.

   • Z means that the assembly plane will be parallel to a waterline plane.

   • 3 Points means that you have to provide three points that together defines the assembly plane. The points must not be co-linear. By selecting 3 Points followed by Next or Return, the following form will be displayed.

     

     In the X-fields frame, expressions (frame terms) might be used as well as LP-terms for the Y- and Z-fields.

     By filling in the different coordinate fields followed by Next or Return, the program controls the validity of the given terms. Should an invalid term be used, a message notifies you and the form is displayed with the correct terms displayed while the incorrect ones are empty.

     Example

     

     

     The fields for X3 and Y3 are blanks because of incorrectly given terms, FE instead of FR for the X-value and an invalid long position reference. By providing valid terms also for these two, followed by Next or Return, the program proceeds.

3. The next step is to indicate the seam from which contour lengths along seams to the nearest jig row are calculated. The following message is shown: Indicate seam from which distances will be calculated. You can either indicate an existing seam in a current drawing or, by selecting Options, manually key in the total name of the seam, see picture below.

   

4. Now it is time to define the different jig planes. The planes are defined by existing seams and a distance to these seams. The following message is shown: Indicate seam for the jig row position. As for the previous step, you can either indicate an existing seam in a current drawing or, by selecting Options, manually key in the total name of the seam. The distance has to be manually keyed in a form shown below.

   

   The definition of jig planes is repeated until Operation complete or Return is chosen. The seams and the distances define the jig planes in the following way. If the distance is equal to 0.0, the distance from the jig plane to the starting point of the seam is equal to that to the end point (apart from the sign). If the distance > 0.0, then the jig plane is positioned at the stem or the top side of the seam and with its shortest distance from the seam equal to the distance. A negative distance means that the jig plane should be positioned at the stern or bottom side of the seam and with its shortest distance from the seam equal to the negative given distance. See the figure below.

   

   When Next is selected, an input scheme is created and the file will be assigned to the program via the logical variable SB_INPUT1. The contents of the file will be explained in the following chapter.