Cam Systems News

The SENER engineering and technology Group has signed a contract with the company Hin Lee Shipyard Co., Ltd. in Zhuhai, China, for the implementation of the shipbuilding CAD/CAM System FORAN, developed by SENER. After the evaluation of different ship design CAD/CAM systems, the shipyard has finally selected FORAN because its excellent functionalities, which cover all design stages from conceptual design to production design. The scope of the contract includes the installation of the FORAN System, including the Hull Forms, General Arrangement & Naval Architecture, Hull Structure, Automatic Nesting, Machinery & Outfitting, Electrical Design, Build Strategy and Drafting.

Atlantec Enterprise Solutions has received an SBIR award from the U.S. Office of Naval Research for its proposal entitled "Connector Architecture for CAD and CAM Systems." In this project Atlantec-es will work with Electric Boat Corporation, Groton, CT and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Germany to develop an open connector architecture that decouples CAD and CAM software applications. The solution promises to dramatically reduce implementation costs and provide greater flexibility when selecting best of breed CAD and CAM systems. It will also simplify and streamline the information infrastructure typically required to support shipyard production processes.

Aker Yards Germany and Atlantec Enterprise Solutions announce the implementation of Topgallant Plate Production software at the Aker shipyards in Wismar and Warnemunde. The Aker Topgallant solution integrates production at both shipyards and also provides the yards with long term flexibility in migrating to new versions of CAD and CAM systems with a minimum disruption to their operations. Based on industry standards such as LDAP, STEP, and XML, Topgallant stores information in a neutral format and connects to legacy or new software applications using special adapters. This solution is designed to eliminate process disruptions normally associated with system upgrades or replacements because only the specialized adapter needs to be modified by Atlantec-es.

Over the past 25 years CAD and CAM have become a vital part of shipbuilding. The individual tools have evolved into highly capable products of today. This has included the change from 2-D to 3-D CAD, a dramatic increase in the level of usability (example: from batch mode to fancy 3-D GUI's) and increased functionality within the tools themselves. With the development of these tools has also come improved integration of the CAD and CAM data. While 2-D CAD drawings were originally entered into the CAM system manually, it has now become commonplace to utilize a fully integrated product model environment from vendors such as Dassault Systems (Catia), Intergraph (ISDP), Nupas-Cadmatic, Sener (Foran) and Tribon Solutions (Tribon M1).

Over the past 25 years CAD and CAM have become a vital part of shipbuilding. The individual tools have evolved into highly capable products of today. This has included the change from 2-D to 3-D CAD, a dramatic increase in the level of usability (example: from batch mode to fancy 3-D GUI's) and increased functionality within the tools themselves. With the development of these tools has also come improved integration of the CAD and CAM data. While 2-D CAD drawings were originally entered into the CAM system manually, it has now become commonplace to utilize a fully integrated product model environment from vendors such as Dassault Systems (Catia), Intergraph (ISDP), Nupas-Cadmatic, Sener (Foran) and Tribon Solutions (Tribon M1).

Tribon Solutions will promote the standardization of the shipbuilding CAD/CAM data exchange using XML (Extensible Markup Language) to become a de facto standard within the shipbuilding industry. Historically there have for many years been difficulties with the data exchange between various CAD/CAM systems because they all have unique data formats. There have partly been some practical data exchanges using standard data formats like IGES and DXF. These formats are based on geometry information and primarily used by the "general purpose CAD systems" for data exchange regarding drawings and solid models. Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (Class NK) and Tribon Solutions have together made intense research investigations using XML.

E-business means doing business on the Internet. This can include any business process - to include buying and selling, which is known as E-commerce. The arranging for transport by sea or the buying and selling of things needed for ships that sail from port to port are among the world's oldest professions. Many ship owners, operators or managers still conduct business the old-fashioned way, building and maintaining close and longstanding relationships with suppliers or customers. While the dot-com craze of a few years ago has passed, E-business is revolutionizing several important business processes in the maritime industry. Computers can aid in the design and construction of vessels, and the Internet can be used to transmit design information and changes instantaneously.

the Office of Naval Research. $850,000. processes. contracts. applications. developed by Sandia. module for shipbuilding. Miller, President of Atlantec. source of early stage R&D funding in the U.S. companies. defense and commercial applications.