Chapter 8

Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study

An example of integrated computer aided design and manufacture

of ship hulls is given by a program called ShipCAM. The description
given below illustrates the capabilities of integrated design and
adjustment (lofting and fairing of a hull form until it is suitable for
manufacture), and subsequent definition of the manufacturing processes
including the programming of CNC flame-cutting machines. The flat
sheet plates which are cut on the CNC flame-cutting machines are
subsequently bent (but not stretched or formed to generate compound
curvature) and welded on the frame structure to form the hull shape.
The assembly process is like constructing a large three-dimensional jig-
saw and it is critical that the bent sheet plates fit together accurately.
ShipCAM, which is based on the approaches and programs given in
Chapter 6, is installed in a number of shipyards in Canada and the USA
and has been used to manufacture many production vessels. An example
of a 12-m tugboat, lofted and manufactured entirely using ShipCAM, is
given in Figures 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3.

Figure 8.1 View of a 12-m tugboat under construction

224 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8

Figure 8.2 Front view of a 12-m tugboat

Figure 8.3 Rear view of a 12-m tugboat

 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study 225
At the heart of the ShipCAM program are the parametric B-spline
routines outlined in Section 6.2. The G-code generation is handled as
shown in Section 6.6. Other routines, such as the developable surface
module, for example, are handled as sets of suitable density vertex data
as shown in Sections 6.3 and 6.4. A flowchart of ShipCAM is given in
Figure 8.4.

Figure 8.4 Flowchart of ShipCAM

226 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8

Although ShipCAM has been designed as an easy-to-use,

Macintosh-style, program for ship manufacture, it nevertheless can be
used to rapidly design and adjust any kind of three-dimensional surface
shape and establish and orient the vertex grid ready for CNC milling.
The initial menu of ShipCAM is shown in Figure 8.5 and a description of
the subsequent menu options given in the following sections.

Figure 8.5 ShipCAM start-up screen

8.1 Data Input

The shipbuilder usually starts with a table of offsets that represent
the sparse, and irregular, design data from the naval architect. This
tabular data and associated small-scale orthogonal cross-section
drawings (known as waterlines, stationlines and buttocklines) do not
define the ship in sufficient detail for construction. It is the
shipbuilder's task to establish the hull shape for manufacture. A
spreadsheet-type data input is implemented within ShipCAM, as shown
in Figure 8.6. The input module, and all other modules, supports four
different data formats widely used in ship construction, namely meters,
decimal feet, feet inches eighths and feet inches sixteenths. The input
module is capable of automatic data recalculation for station locations.
Sec 8.2] Line Fairing 227
!

Figure 8.6 Spreadsheet-like data input screen

8.2 Line Fairing

Input data is faired a line at a time, as shown in Figure 8.7. The
plan and profile views of a parametric B-spline approximation to any
line, or lines, in the data base are displayed on the screen together with
line slope or curvature. Using keyboard keys, any line vertex can be
readily addressed and interactively adjusted in three-dimensional space.
The effect of adjustments on line curvature can be observed during this
adjustment process and acts as a means of magnifying the smallest
irregularities in the line smoothness. B-spline curve control vertices can
be added or deleted. The information window at the lower part of the
screen is used to display the magnitude of differences between the input
vertices and the adjusted line. Reference lines of different types (straight
lines, circles and B-splines) can also be inserted on the screen to provide
guides for adjustment. A zoom function allows more accurate
adjustment of critical regions. When the adjusted B-splines lines are
sufficiently smooth, they are saved as a set of data vertices (of selectable
resolution). The resolution depends very much on the size and
complexity of the ship hull.
228 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8

Figure 8.7 Fairing using fourth order B-spline curves

8.3 Surface Generation

Two types of surfaces may be defined within ShipCAM, namely B-
spline surfaces and developable surfaces. A B-spline surface is normally
fit through a series of previously smoothed lines. Any surface
adjustment is accomplished through additional adjustment of the
individual lines and a refitting of the full surface; for practical reasons,
no direct adjustment of the surface is undertaken. Developable surfaces
can be produced, to some predefined accuracy, between any two identified
boundary lines. Portions of the surface that are not developable are
identified on the screen. In this case the boundary lines may be refaired
and a new developable surface fitted. The hull defined through the
developable surface module may be subsequently opened out to define
flat sheet plate shapes; i.e. developable surfaces allow simpler and more
cost-effective manufacture of the hull but do not always provide the
vessel with the desired performance and economical operation.
Developable surfaces are used, for example, for tug boats which need
pulling strength but not speed, while compound curved surfaces may be
found on larger ocean-going vessels and are especially visible on bulbous
bows of supertankers.

8.3.1 Compound Curve Surface Fitting

The screen display of a fitted surface showing three orthogonal
views is given in Figure 8.8. The user interactively selects the modified
data lines that are required to define the surface. Parametric B-spline
approximation and B-spline interpolation surfaces may be selected. B-
spline approximations, which fall within the hull of the enclosing
polygon, have a smoothing effect (however the surface does not pass
through the input vertices) while B-spline interpolations force the
surface through all the data vertices but may introduce
Sec 8.3] Surface Generation 229
unwanted surface oscillations. The surface is eventually stored as a
matrix of data vertices as discussed in Chapter 6. The vertex resolution
of the final surface may be interactively selected to meet the needs of the
manufacturing process.

Figure 8.8 Fourth order B-spline surface fitting module

8.3.2 Developable Surface Fitting

The screen display of a developable surface, showing three
orthogonal views is given in Figure 8.9. The user interactively selects two
faired boundary lines from the data base. A developable surface, if it
exists, is then fitted and displayed. A developable surface is one in
which vertices on the two boundary lines may be connected by straight
lines in three-dimensional space with the surface normal vectors of the
boundary vertices lying in the same planes - a cone formed from bent
paper is an example of a developable surface. These straight lines
connectors are called generators.
The program iteratively checks, to a definable resolution, for the
condition of developability along the boundary lines. In general, two fair
B-spline boundary lines may contain developable and non-developable
regions (areas of compound curvature). Within the module, generator
lines are defined for the developable regions and ruled surfaces are
defined for the non-developable regions. The use of ruled surface regions
make the surface continuous and are important in later stages of the
lofting process when the geometry of the internal structure of the ship
hull has to be calculated. They have also proved to be useful as
approximate templates for plating the compound curvature areas of the
hull.
230 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8

Figure 8.9 Developable surface module

8.4 Plate Expansion

As shown in Figure 8.10, the plate expansion module is used to
expand (or unwrap) three-dimensional developable surfaces into flat
plate shapes by applying triangulation methods. The defined surface may
contain any number of nondevelopable patches. For ease of plating,
generator lines may be marked and available as plate roll-lines and frame
position marks can be added as plate location points. The expanded
vertex polygon is also available data for development of G-code files for
the CNC flame cutting machines.

Figure 8.10 Plate expansion module

Sec 8.5] Internal Structure 231
8.5 Internal Structure
A ship structure that supports outer hull plating consists of a
series of frames, longitudinals, bulkheads, etc. The geometrical shapes
of these support structures are determined from the final developable
and/or compound surface hull patches. The hull/structure intersection
lines can be exported to standard CAD package for general two-
dimensional and three-dimensional operations on non-curved surface
parts.
As shown in Figure 8.11, the module displays the frame shapes,
and also intersection marks, which assist in accurate frame assembly.
Marking can also be provided for the intersection of longitudinals with
frames. Waterlines and buttocklines are created for hydrodynamic
purposes.

Figure 8.11 Internal structure module

Waterlines, buttocklines and stationlines for a 10-m tugboat,

derived from developable [Link] are shown in Figure 8.12.
232 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8

Figure 8.12 Waterlines, buttocklines and frame lines

8.6 Automatic Cutout Insertion

Where frames and longitudinal stiffeners intersect, cutouts or
notches have to be provided so that one of the structural members can
pass through the other. Since a single ship hull can easily have many
hundreds of these cutouts, an automatic cutout insertion module is
provided, as shown in Figure 8.13. The cutout shape is designed within
a standard CAD program, transported into ShipCAM and inserted at all
of the previously automatically generated intersection markings (see
Figure 8.11).
 !
Sec 8.7] Data Export to CAD Programs 233

Figure 8.13 Automatic insertion of cutout shapes

8.7 Data Export to CAD Programs

Standard CAD packages, such as AutoCAD, are readily available
and have excellent means of defining and generating geometric entities,
such as lines, arcs and circles. It is therefore advantageous to be able to
interchange data between ShipCAM and these general purpose CAD
packages. As shown in Figure 8.14, once the geometry of the ship hull,
with its internal structure, has been created, the data format can be
converted to formats that standard CAD programs understand. Within
ShipCAM two-dimensional and three-dimensional data transfer is
!
possible.

Figure 8.14 CAD interface module

234 Integrated CAD/CAM for Shipyards: Case Study [Ch.8]
8.8 G-code Generation
Expanded plate shapes are exported to AutoCAD, positioned
(called nesting) on a standard size, rectangular sheet of material, and a
logical flame-cutting order established for the parts. The drawings are
then saved in DXF format and transferred back to ShipCAM for G-code
generation. The G-code generation module of ShipCAM, shown in Figure
8.15, interprets the DXF file and automatically creates accurate and
error-free instructions for CNC flame-cutting machines.
!

Figure 8.15 G-code generator