Business Benefits

• Save time and man-hours
  Powerful tools allow the rapid creation of the structural model for classification documents. The same structural model can be used at an early stage in outfitting design.
• Concurrent working
  Detailed design can start before the structural design is approved and be continuously updated in a controlled manner.
• Reuse designs
  Earlier production designs can be converted to new structural designs, saving time and cost.

Key Features

A whole ship model

• Better design quality
  Optimise production costs by easily exploring design alternatives and block divisions for the project.

• Integration with AVEVA Marine range
  

  The preliminary structural definition developed with Hull Structural Design can be used in other AVEVA applications for detailed design and the preparation of production information. This is made possible by the advanced block splitting function, which transforms the basic design structure into production blocks.

• Seamless transition to detailed design
  

  Cutting steel must sometimes start even before final classification approval has been obtained. The structural engineers must work in parallel with the detailed designers responsible for individual hull blocks. AVEVA Hull Structural Design and Hull Detailed Design maintain two parallel views of the model database: a design view for the structural engineers and a production view for the detailed designers. The production panels are created from the design panels using the automatic block splitting facilities. The two views of the steel structural model are kept synchronised; any change to a design panel will automatically affect the corresponding production panel.

• Fast parametric modelling
  

  AVEVA Hull Structural Design has parametric modelling functions for hull structures containing plating, holes and stiffeners. Modelling is carried out by adding information to surfaces defined in the database. This parametric information forms a 'recipe' for how steel panels will be automatically generated on the surfaces.

• Alternatives for modelling internal surfaces
  

  Surfaces can be created in three different ways: as a major compartment boundary in AVEVA Initial Design, by direct input in AVEVA Hull Structural Design, or as an imported 2D drawing view placed in 3D space in the model.

• Importing 2D drawing views as 3D surfaces
  

  A General Arrangement drawing can be imported from any 2D-based drafting system using DXF, converted into a drawing view, and then used as a backdrop for modelling. 2D views can be converted into surfaces and oriented in 3D space. The elements of the drawing view can then be used as references for the modelling of 3D steel structures, the placing of equipment, the routing of pipes, and so on.

Importing 2D views as surfaces in the 3D model

• Calculating section modulus
  

  Once the main longitudinal elements have been modelled, the section modulus can be calculated.

• Analysis of alternative designs
  

  A preliminary ship structure can be generated from parameter values in a few hours, and different alternative design and dimensioning approaches analysed for details such as steel weights, surface areas or section modulus.

• Links to FEM-based strength analysis
  

  AVEVA Hull Structural Design has powerful interfaces to standard FEM-based software packages and classification societies' software for rule checking and strength calculations.

• Classification drawings
  

  Built-in drafting functions are closely integrated with the 3D modelling for efficient creation of classification drawings.

• Block division
  

  Block division functions allow the overall basic hull design to be divided, along customer-defined block seams, into detailed design blocks and panels, which can be further refined in the Hull Detailed Design application.

Block splitting

• Efficient analysis tools
  

  AVEVA Hull Structural Design has two major features for early estimation of work content and costs.

  • Weld lengths for blocks or assemblies can easily be calculated from a preliminary steel model, and all individual weld lengths can be reported.
  • Preliminary block weights, paint areas and centres of gravity can be quickly obtained for any selected part of the model. Alternative block divisions can be analysed quickly, to determine the best final divisions.

• Flexible production location
  

  Shipyards frequently need flexible choice of production facilities and the costs of moving a design between them can be high. AVEVA Marine allows alternative block and assembly definitions to be created from the same design, using the block-splitting function. The choice of production facility can be postponed until late in the process and the work involved in creating the manufacturing information is minimised.

• Reuse of existing and legacy designs
  

  An existing model database containing production panels can be 'reverse engineered' to create design panels through an intelligent merging of production panels. These newly-obtained design panels can then be split to suit alternative production sites. This process can also be applied to old Tribon model databases converted to Hull Structural Design.

A midship section model