Victoria, BC, Canada, Wednesday 27th April 2005
Albacore Research Ltd. (ARL) and Universal Marine
Systems (UMS) today announced a new integrated workflow
for Japanese customers who want to use EasyStruct for
structural design and ShipConstructor for piping and
penetrations.
ShipConstructor, developed by ARL, is the
AutoCAD-based 3D product modeling system for the design
and fabrication of ships and offshore structures.
ShipConstructor users have the benefit of a single
integrated solution for the engineering of shell plate,
structure, piping, HVAC, and equipment.
EasyStruct, developed by UMS, is an AutoCAD-based 2D
design and 3D structural modeling system widely used by
shipbuilders and other manufacturers. EasyStruct users
have long been in need of a way to augment their current
structural design process with an effective solution for
piping and penetrations. With the new ShipConstructor/EasyStruct
integrated workflow, they now have this solution.
Final touches were made during a visit
of Universal Marine Systems at ARL’s premises in January 2005 (From
left to right: Mr. Takehiro Haruno, Group Leader Universal
MS Japan, Mr. Kunihiko Shishida, General Manager Engineering
Universal MS Japan, Mr. Rolf G. Oetter, President and CEO
Albacore Research Ltd. Canada, Mr.
Denis Morais, Software
Developer Albacore Research Ltd. Canada).
Engineers can now easily convert their structural
design created within EasyStruct to a ShipConstructor 3D
model. ShipConstructor is then used to place outfit
items and run pipe through the EasyStruct structural
model. Penetrations are then automatically created from
the library of approved penetrations. Using a
sophisticated transfer mechanism, penetrations are
easily transferred from ShipConstructor into the
EasyStruct drawings. The database transfer mechanism
even deals with changes to existing penetrations or
deletions. This results in significant time-savings and
improved accuracy that facilitate early outfitting and
generate the potential for automation.
"The fact that shipbuilders can use EasyStruct for
structure and ShipConstructor for piping, equipment and
penetrations represents a major productivity improvement
for Japanese shipyards," said Mr. Kunihiko Shishida,
General Manager Engineering of UMS. "ShipConstructor has
such a great reputation as a time-saving and quality
improvement tool. We’re very pleased that EasyStruct
customers can now make use of ShipConstructor’s easy to
use piping, equipment, and penetrations capabilities."
Making this project a success required the close
collaboration of ARL and UMS. Developers at both
companies have been working together not only to enable
the transfer of data between applications, but to make
the dataflow as simple and robust as possible.
"We had met with UMS staff several times over the
years and made initial arrangements for cooperation
during Sea Japan 2004," said Mr.
Rolf G. Oetter, President
and CEO of ARL, "Since then, UMS and ARL have been in
constant contact as we have enhanced our two products to
enable the connection between the two."
"We have learned so much about Japan’s unique
approach to shipbuilding and have grown to admire their
pursuit of efficiency and precision," added
Mr. Oetter.
Over the past year, ARL has increasingly focused
development efforts on the specific needs of the
Japanese shipbuilding industry. A recently released
update of ShipConstructor includes, among other
features, a feature for easily creating Accuracy Control
Marks, a practice common in Japan for accurately
aligning stiffeners on plates and aligning plates for
welding.
"ARL’s efforts to develop features based on Japanese
shipbuilding practices are making ShipConstructor
increasingly attractive to Japanese shipyards," said
Mr. Fumiyoshi Kato, President of Yakushiji
Industry Ltd.,
Japan, ARL’s regional representative. "Accuracy Control
Marks and the new integrated dataflow for EasyStruct and
ShipConstructor are helping to improve the productivity
of the Japanese shipbuilding industry."
"In addition, many experienced designers and
engineers in Japan are retiring," added
Mr. Kato, "so
shipyards are faced with training a new generation of
workers. With manual drafting or 2D-based CAD systems,
this initial training period could take three years, but
with an easy-to-use 3D CAD system like ShipConstructor,
new designers and engineers can become proficient in a
much shorter time period."
The new ShipConstructor/EasyStruct integrated flow
will be available to ShipConstructor and EasyStruct
customers in forthcoming updates of ShipConstructor and
EasyStruct.
For further information regarding
Universal Marine Systems go to
www.U-MS.co.jp.
For further information regarding
Yakushiji Industry Ltd. go to
www.ShipConstructor.jp.
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