Open Software News

Kalmar has announced Kalmar Key, the terminal industry's first automation platform with open interfaces. Kalmar Key provides a common system architecture for building an end-to-end, customised automation platform using Kalmar Terminal Logistics System (TLS) as a basis. The product opens the application-independent core software components of the Kalmar terminal automation system for use by developers, enabling terminal operators to extend their automation systems with any brand of equipment. By providing open application interfaces to the core functionality of the automation system, Kalmar aims to facilitate the adoption of container terminal automation and support the development of the entire industry.

From the design loft to loftier designs and better-built ships, software has changed the face, and build, of nautical vessels. The far-reaching impact of ship design and construction software on the marine industry cannot be overstated, especially in an era of increasing regulation, bigger, sometimes more complex ships, and razor-thin margins. With shipyards and fleet owners alike, the end goal is the same – cutting costs without compromising safety and reliability. And to hear ship designers…

Raytheon Anschütz announced the recent contract award for its SMARTBLUE maritime situational awareness system on board two vessels being built in South Korea for a major oil and gas company. The two vessels will operate on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. For each vessel, Raytheon Anschütz will provide two 12ft X-band radars integrated with AIS to a SMARTBLUE sensor management pack. The pack will correlate the incoming data from the sensors and provide information locally through an operator workstation located in the vessel’s central control room.

ChartWorld launched its new ChartBrowser 2.0. This tool supports all official ENC formats from UKHO, Primar and IC-ENC as well as the ACES (S)ENC format for eGlobe, S-ECDIS and Imtech ECDIS. In addition, ordering of ARCS and paper charts is supported too. ChartBrowser is a free of charge plug and play solution for the officers on board. It guarantees an always adequate, safe, up-to-date and cost effective ENC inventory on board of ECDIS fitted vessels. It can be used in combination…

Metizoft AS and Polarcus has a close cooperation. For Polarcus two new buildings at Ulstein Shipyard,  Metizoft deliver "Completion" to both of them. "Completion" is a document management platform and contains all the documentation for new buildings from the handover of the ship until scrapping of the vessel far in the future. Metizoft`s role in addition to being the supplier of the database is the collection, categorization and review of the documentation. According to Marketing Director in Metizoft…

Scheduled for a September 2003 release, the next major revision of the 3-D product modeling software for shipbuilding and offshore platforms from Albacore Research Ltd., ShipConstructor2004, will include a full Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning module (HVAC). HVAC is a fully integrated member of the ShipConstructor suite of Structure, Automatic and Manual Nest, NC Code generation, Outfit, Pipe, Fairing, and Lofting tools. To facilitate automatic report generation, HVAC makes full use of ShipConstructor's SQL Server product database. As with all ShipConstructor modules, HVAC is a full 3-D modeling package; this reduces drafting errors and time-to-production. With ShipConstructor, HVAC ducts are full-featured AutoCAD entities.