AVEVA (UK) released a package of enhancements for the Tribon M3 ship design and construction system that will significantly improve the usefulness of the software application for the ship basic design. This new concept for definition of parametric hull structure will facilitate generation of a preliminary steel structure from parameter values in a matter of a few hours allowing analyzing several different alternative design and dimensioning approaches for steel weights, surface areas, section modulus, etc.

The enhancements include further development of the already existing Reference Surface Objects (RSOs) to which information about plating and stiffening can now be added. This information is in the form of parameters that form a “recipe” for how steel panels will be automatically generated from the RSOs. The “recipes” can be created via the user interface of the Surface/Compartment or Basic Design applications, or in batch mode via csv-files (i.e. Excel files). 2D views can now be converted into RSOs and thus oriented into 3D space. The elements of the drawing view can then be used as backdrop references for modelling of 3D steel structures, placing of equipment, routing of pipes etc. In this way a general arrangement drawing can be imported from any 2D based drafting system, converted into a Tribon drawing view (using DXF) and then used as a backdrop for modelling.

Another important addition is the new XML based export functions for 2D cross sections of ship’s structures. A series of 2D sections can be requested from the 3D model and the system will create an XML file with all necessary data about the longitudinal members to satisfy rules check and strength calculation software packages from classification societies. Together with the previously released 3D based export format the new 2D cross section based features presents a full set of open export facilities for hull steel structures.