3D Hull Engineering is the core of the Nupas-Cadmatic Hull system. It is used for 3D modeling of the hull structure from the basic design up to the detailed and production engineering of hull blocks, assemblies, panels and parts.

The 3D Hull Engineering module distinguishes itself from other CAD/CAE/CAM systems in that it is extremely fast and easy to use. The intuitive user interface guides the hull designer with maximum assistance while creating structural components like decks, bulkheads, stiffeners, shell frames, girders, flanges, brackets etc.

Hull structures are stored topologically, meaning that relations between structural components and relations with the hull shape allow fast and easy modifications. The effects of modifications on a topological structure are automatically carried through to the related structural components allowing fast and easy re-use of information without doing rework. Rule based engineering is another strong feature that assists the engineer e.g. in picking the correct bracket sizes (flanged or not) automatically according to specific Class Rules

The module also supports a hull library mechanism to retrieve and store any kind of structures including their topological properties. Piping and outfitting components can be made visible during the 3D modeling of the hull structure.

The 3D Hull Engineering module includes powerful copy functions, parametric definition of yard standards and many automatic mechanisms like part and panel numbering, marking lines, standard bracket selection, part coding etc. taking away many of the hull designer's daily worries and routine tasks.

The project library used by the 3D Hull Engineering module consists of a collection of all necessary yard standards for cut outs, profile end shapes, stiffener types, brackets, holes and other structural entities. Besides the yard related standards, software settings and project specific parameters are also stored and maintained in the project library.

Besides 3D modeling the 3D Hull Engineering module contains full 2D drafting functionality to complete the views of the 3D model, create details and any kind of sheet drawing (see also module 2D Drafting).

For production engineering a fully equipped set of work preparation tools is embedded in the 3D Hull Engineering module.

This ensures that production receives all necessary information such as welding details, part lists, weight and CoG, profile lists, profile nesting, profile sketches, shell frame bending information, part geometry for nesting etc. The information is directly derived from the 3D model with the built-in Report Generator. The user is able to define his own report layout and to perform "Action on Reports" to query the 3D model for various production and logistic data.

When used together with the Hull Work Preparation Manager (see separate description) 3D work breakdown sketches and 2D+3D combination sketches can be generated automatically for use at the workshop floor.

The Hull Work Preparation Manager streamlines the information flow between, engineering, planning, work preparation and the workshop. Hull WPM speeds up the process of work preparation significantly, and thus shortens the throughput of the ships' several assembly stages. The WPM functionality is embedded in the 3D Hull Engineering module.

WPM provides a set of unique tools for automatic detecting and assigning numbers to assemblies, subassemblies, panels and parts. Parts like profiles, brackets and collar plates are automatically assigned to the correct panel. With this functionality the complete work breakdown structure of a hull block can therefore be determined automatically by the software. The depth of the work breakdown structure can be freely defined up to sixteen levels.

In addition, each individual part can automatically receive a workshop 'process code' and 'job number', based on the part's properties and work process, such as flanging, cutting, bending, beveling etc. All these features give the shipyard very flexible possibilities for generating the desired work breakdown structure automatically.

With the Hull Work Preparation Manager the user is able to control the complete work breakdown structure of an hull block easily and quickly. The use of the Hull WPM is very simple and straightforward. Once the work breakdown structure has been generated by the software, the user can easily manipulate its structure by dragging and dropping items on the computer screen, rename assemblies, panels and parts and also create new ones. The Hull WPM is operated like Windows Explorer and offers 3D assembly animation features.

Hull WPM is available as integrated part of the 3D Hull Engineering module (Hull Viewer) and as a standalone module, the so called Hull Viewer Work Preparation Manager. The manipulation of the work breakdown structure with the integrated Hull Viewer is directly processed by the 3D Hull database. The standalone version of the Hull WPM has the advantage that it does not require a full Nupas-Cadmatic Hull license. It is intended to be used between project partners, such as engineering offices and shipyards, or between the engineering and work preparation department at the shipyard.

A practical example of using the Hull Work Preparation Manager is where the work preparation department determines the actual work breakdown structure based on the 3D Hull model. The modified logistic information in the 3D model is returned to the engineering office and merged into the Hull database, after which the engineering office delivers the production information in the desired format to the shipyard's production.

The Hull Viewer is a unique tool for fast 3D hull model inspection with fly trough, orbit and spinning visualization. The user can query the model for structural details like material, thickness, weights, size, logistic data etc. One-click "filter" buttons can be used to detect anomalies in hull structural thickness, material and orientation. Advanced colour and lighting features are available to create photo realistic images of the ship. The free version of the Hull Viewer can be downloaded from the download page.

The licensed version of the Hull Viewer includes the Work Preparation Manager, see the description of the Hull WPM for details of the specific work breakdown features.

With this module a wide range of structural drawings can be produced varying from classification drawings, construction plans, section drawings up to the workshop drawings.

The drawings are linked to the 3D model and updated according to any changes automatically thereby offering the highest level of consistency. The module offers flexible tools like Snap, Insert, Select, Trim, Extend, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Properties and manipulate functions like: shift, rotate, resize, mirror, duplicate and move. This all to have full control over the drafting entities: Line, Arc, Ellipse, Rectangle, Spline, Hatch, Dash, Symbols, Fonts, Dimension and Annotations. The drafting method is modern, AutoCAD^® alike and uses Dynamic Input, popup menus, hotkeys, function keys, function dependent options and recently used functions.

Plantek is an add-on module on 3D Hull Engineering or 2D Drafting and offers a specific and dedicated 2D drafting functionality to create and maintain general drawings and plans such as general arrangement, main section, construction plan, safety plan, manholes and doors plan as well as 2D accommodation drawings.

A drawing produced by the Plantek module

With Plantek the user has access to a full library driven interface for adding user-defined symbols to the drawing and automatically generate piece part lists on the drawing. It offers a complete user definable 2D library structure to create, store and retrieve 2D symbols. The library can be created according to the end user's definition of categories and sub-categories.

Plantek offers an automated 'List Generator', a smart feature that enables the engineer to generate an inventory list of the applied Plantek symbols on the drawing automatically and quickly. Plantek is an ideal feature for generating safety plans (multi lingual) and i.e. deck layout drawings.

The Nupas-Cadmatic Nesting module is used to nest part geometries and to optimize the use of raw plate material to minimize material waste.

Nesting module in action on the computer screen

Nupas-Cadmatic Plate Nesting can be used in an interactive mode, in basic automatic nesting mode or a combination of both. The basic automatic nesting mode nests the parts fully automatically for 1 plate according to user definable settings. The nesting module processes the Nupas-Cadmatic Hull part geometries directly but also accepts part geometries from other systems in standard DXF file format. The Plate Nesting module offers functionality for creating/modifying part geometries, remnant handling, automatic cutting path creation and generating the NC code for cutting machines.

Features like bridges, lead-in and lead-out, start holes, (powder) marking, text, contour optimization, net. weights, cutting length, rapid movement and time estimates are all included. The module outputs nesting sketches and nesting reports for the workshop.

Plate Nesting module supports flame, plasma and laser cutting machines and is delivered with 2 standard post processors. Optional features available for this module are Advanced Autonesting, Bevel-3: bevel cutting with a 3-torch flame cutting head, Bevel-1: bevel cutting with a single torch plasma head and Text Marking: marking text with inkjet and similar devices.

Additional to the basic plate nesting module, an enhanced automatic nesting feature 'Advanced Autonesting' including Buffer Nesting is available as an add-on.

This advanced feature can be used for fully automatic plate nesting or in conjunction with the interactive nesting options. Buffer Nesting offers the user the ability to maximize the use of automatic nesting by defining a set of available (stock) plates and a set of piece parts that have to be nested (including the automatic generation of the NC cutting files) in a batch oriented way. This feature gives a completely new meaning to automatic nesting and is specially beneficial for shipyards processing large amounts of parts in an efficient way.

With this module the hull designer can produce 2D shell expansion drawings in four different views.

The module generates the view according to the "Area" (box) of that part of the ship that he wants to see. The view includes all available seams and butts together with the existing hull structure in the 3D hull model such as decks, girders, frames, etc. The views that can be generated are aft, side, top and spatial views.

After the view is generated from the 3D hull model the hull designer can determine various kinds of information and add this as attributes to the view. The module also offers several functions for dimensioning, positioning stiffener information and adding 2D construction lines in case all information is not available in the 3D hull model yet. The shell (expansion) view is stored and treated in the same flexible way as inserting views in a drawing with the other Nupas-Cadmatic Hull modules.

With the Seams & Butts module the user has the possibility to add and modify seams and butts to the hull shape database.

The user projects the lines, which are defined in one of the three views (top, aft and side) on the ship's hull shape. Besides the projection of the lines, the seams and butts can also be interpolated on the ship's hull shape database. The module offers various copy, paste and move functions for flexible working. The Seams & Butts module requires the Shell Views module.

Nupas-Cadmatic Shell Plate Development is a unique module for developing shell plates extremely accurately.

After adding seams and butts to the hull shape database, this module takes care of the development of the shell plates which is suitable for both cold forming and line heating processes. The module mathematically calculates double curved plates into a flat pattern, taking care of the required elongation/shrink caused by the double curvature. Due to the accurate computation shell plates can be developed without green/extra length. Marking lines of i.e. inner structures (incl. position numbers) and hull lines like frames and stringers are projected on the plate.

The (longitudinal) templates for bending are automatically generated by the system during the plate development process. The bending information for each plate is also available in tabular form for use in the workshop. Elongation list, template coordinate list, 2D sketches of shell plate and templates are examples of possible output formats.

All logistic shell plate data is stored in the same 3D hull model as the inner hull structure and can therefore be obtained in lists in the same way as the inner structure. Shell plate geometry and bending template geometry is generated in the same format as other hull parts and can therefore be processed in the same way for nesting as inner structure parts.

The module includes a 3D shell plate viewer to visualize the curvature and position of the bending templates. The Shell Plate Development module requires the Shell Views and Seams & Butts modules.

The Pin Jig module creates the pin jig information automatically from the 3D model for the larger shell plate panels and calculates the optimized position of the pin jig.

The module generates a pin jig drawing with the calculated height of the pins, marking lines and the shell plate part numbers. Besides the pin jig drawing the module also produces a pin jig listing in tabular form. Another useful feature is the ability to measure the real frame length from marking line to marking line along the hull. The user is able to configure parameters like the distance between the pins and the user is able to move and rotate the plane of the pin jig for minor adjustments. The Pin Jig module requires the Shell View module.

With the Hullshape Import Manager it is possible to import surface based hull shape models directly into Nupas-Cadmatic, based on different independent file formats. Existing features, such as instant access to a NAPA shape database or importing wire frame data, are also available. The module supports the import of the following file formats : IGES (*.igs, *.iges), Rhino 3DM (*.3dm), NAPA (*.db), ACIS (*.sat) and AutoCAD^® (polygons only) (*.dxf ).

The imported surfaces and curves are divided into hull groups (or layers, they have a one-to-one relationship). Depending on the imported file format the layer assignment is (semi) automatic. After the surfaces and curves are assigned to the proper hull groups, the user defines the frame (coordinate) list.

The hull shape is stored in the default Nupas-Cadmatic Hull DataBase format which has the *.hdb extension. Other supported formats to store the shape data are IGES (*.igs, *.iges), ACIS (*.sat), 3D Dump (*.3dd), eBrowser Model (*.ebm) and Hull Viewer Model (*.hvm).

The hull database is related to the inner construction (via so called topology). When a revision of the hull shape database is loaded and activated, the modelled construction is recalculated according to the new hull shape. Merging additional surfaces and curves (in an existing hull database) is possible from different file formats. This, for instance, allows the shape of hull and superstructure to be modelled with different software.