Development of a simple model for batch and boundary information updation for a similar ship’s block model

Abstract

In early 2000, large domestic shipyards introduced shipbuilding 3D computer-aided design (CAD) to the hull production design process to define manufacturing and assembly information. The production design process accounts for most of the man-hours (M/H) of the entire design process and is closely connected to yard production because designs must take into account the production schedule of the shipyard, the current state of the dock needed to mount the ship’s block, and supply information. Therefore, many shipyards are investigating the complete automation of the production design process to reduce the M/H for designers. However, these problems are still currently unresolved, and a clear direction is needed for research on the automatic design base of manufacturing rules, batches reflecting changed building specifications, batch updates of boundary information for hull members, and management of the hull model change history to automate the production design process. In this study, a process was developed to aid production design engineers in designing a new ship’s hull block model from that of a similar ship previously built, based on AVEVA Marine. An automation system that uses the similar ship’s hull block model is proposed to reduce M/H and human errors by the production design engineer. First, scheme files holding important information were constructed in a database to automatically update hull block model modifications. Second, for batch updates, the database’s table, including building specifications and the referential integrity of a relational database were compared. In particular, this study focused on reflecting the frequent modification of building specifications and regeneration of boundary information of the adjacent panel due to changes in a specific panel. Third, the rollback function is proposed in which the database (DB) is used to return to the previously designed panels.