General Method of Operation

At the commencement of a new design you are required to identify those application process areas that he anticipates invoking, as discussed in Creating a New Design, although he can subsequently expand or reduce the scope of the application and report creation activities at any time. This enables Calc to set-up an application process tree and which is presented in the left-hand side of the screen. A typical full Application Tree is shown in .

Figure 3:2. Typical Application Tree.

The Application Tree consists of coloured icons that represent application task areas and black icons that represent the corresponding report pages that are produced. There are four types of nodes, namely root nodes, section nodes, calculation nodes, and report nodes.

This tree can be graphically expanded to show sub-tasks and the resulting report pages, or alternatively graphically collapsed, by cursor-selecting the appropriate node symbol. The report pages contain both the input data and the results of any associated analyzes that have been made with the input data. you can only view these pages, following the direct page icon selection, and cannot edit them in any manner whilst in this mode.

The application scope of the tree can be extended from the initial selection, by adding nodes, to contain any additional task or sub-task that is within the full capabilities of Calc. When a new child node is created its function is related to that of its parent. The tree can also be extended by simply duplicating nodes in order to repeat various tasks, for example to allow for various deadweight loading conditions. you can control the name of each node in the tree in order to ensure that, such as, duplicated capabilities, branches, are not confused, for example, for different deadweight loading conditions. you can also add the capability to create additional informative notes within any task area, by establishing corresponding nodes at any location, and that will subsequently appear as pages in the final report. Similarly the application scope of the tree can be constrained, by removing nodes, in order to limit the activities to very specific tasks, for example form calculations to create hydrostatic data. When a node is deleted any associated children nodes are also deleted.

Thus a user can set-up the precise scope of a design to match the contents of the target report that is to be eventually produced.

Most user activities are undertaken through the User first right-hand button selecting the required application icon from within the tree and then selecting the required operation from the sub-menu that Calc then presents on the screen. This sub-menu provides the commands:

• Copy.

• Paste.

• New node.

• Delete node.

• Calculate.

• Edit.

• Print.

• Print preview.

The purpose of each of these commands is described in detail in a following section.

All input is made or viewed and, if required, modified, through the Edit command. Calc ensures that data from the input geometry model, including principal particulars and compartment identification, is made common to all application activities. Similarly any new input is also made common to all application activities as and where required, and does not need to be repeated. Each application area contains its own unique input dialog box or boxes.

Completing the input of new data and information, or the revision of existing data and information, does not cause the system to automatically undertake the relevant calculations and create the corresponding report pages. This requires that you selects the calculate facility within the sub-menu. Following your selection of calculate, the system will undertake and/or repeat all calculations of the applications at and below that node point in the tree, that is including any children nodes, assuming that the data set is complete for an individual task and with all data being treated as current. If new nodes are subsequently added in order to extend the capabilities or scope of the tree, then the calculate request will need to be repeated at that node level.

The results of calculations, together with the associated current input data, can be viewed through selecting the appropriate report page icon. The input data and the calculation results, as given on these report pages, are always compatible. It is to be noted that you cannot edit any of the data and information given on the report pages and can only make data changes through the previously reviewed sub-menu Edit command. The subsequent modification of any input data, through the Edit command, is not reflected on the report pages until the Calculate command is given again and then, and only then, are the report pages updated both with results and input data.

The above features provide you with considerable flexibility in controlling the overall scope, arrangement and running of Calc. The following sections review the various analysis and evaluation activity areas that are catered for within Calc. These are described in the general sequence in which a naval architect/designer would typically utilize them in progressively evolving and evaluating a design from concept level through to, essentially, final documentation.