AN AUTOMATED APPROACH TO 3D PARAMETRIC SHIP DESIGN

Abstract

Digital design tools are commonplace in modern design processes. 3D CAD software helps designers and engineers work with new concepts more easily and conduct efficient simulations. However, this is not always the case when it comes to ship design, where 3D designs are still combined with 2D drawings in conceptual stage. Designing a ship from scratch in full 3D is too complex for a shipbuilder's purposes and would require too much rework if changes were made later on- which is why this is not preferred approach.

However, 3D CAD model can potentially be a good starting point in conceptual design as it helps better visualize the project and helps designer explore more design options, especially when it comes to designing new models. These would be an ideal option for designers if they weren't associated with tedious manual updates every time a design parameter is changed. This brings us to the question- how can we implement 3D models to work as a starting point in conceptual design without having to worry about manually reworking it constantly. In this report, we will be answering this question and how this can be practically achieved on commercial design software.

This report explores the possibility of automating the conceptual ship design process in an effort to reduce cost and time during ship design process. This is done by automating tedious tasks like hull form generation, scantling calculation, weight estimation, performance prediction and initial stability calculations—all of which take a lot of man hours if done manually. The basic idea being that the program would be able to perform repetitive tasks in conceptual ship design that requires minimal supervision or interference, so that human effort can be focused more on the design aspect.

Digital design tools are commonplace in modern design processes. 3D CAD software helps designers and engineers work with new concepts more easily and conduct efficient simulations. However, this is not always the case when it comes to ship design, where 3D designs are still combined with 2D drawings in conceptual stage. Designing a ship from scratch in full 3D is too complex for a shipbuilder's purposes and would require too much rework if changes were made later on- which is why this is not preferred approach.

However, 3D CAD model can potentially be a good starting point in conceptual design as it helps better visualize the project and helps designer explore more design options, especially when it comes to designing new models. These would be an ideal option for designers if they weren't associated with tedious manual updates every time a design parameter is changed. This brings us to the question- how can we implement 3D models to work as a starting point in conceptual design without having to worry about manually reworking it constantly. In this report, we will be answering this question and how this can be practically achieved on commercial design software.

This report explores the possibility of automating the conceptual ship design process in an effort to reduce cost and time during ship design process. This is done by automating tedious tasks like hull form generation, scantling calculation, weight estimation, performance prediction and initial stability calculations—all of which take a lot of man hours if done manually. The basic idea being that the program would be able to perform repetitive tasks in conceptual ship design that requires minimal supervision or interference, so that human effort can be focused more on the design aspect.