Designed for distributed project design work

Distributed design and part outsourcing have become common elements of project design work in contemporary shipbuilding. Outsourcing was initially introduced by shipyards to create extra design capacity while some yards and marine design offices have always relied on outsourcing for areas of their design work. The use of external design work has however increased greatly in recent times. This is partly due to varying workloads at the yards and design offices but is especially the result of an increase in outsourcing the design of complete turn-key areas of vessels.

Nupas-Cadmatic has reacted to this major change by further developing its 3D design software for machinery, piping and outfitting in such a way as to facilitate project distribution. Version 5, the latest version of the popular design software, features new project data handling structures and database architecture that lays a solid foundation for distributed project design work and further development.

The new Nupas-Cadmatic Object Storage (COS) database centric architecture, with built-in support for concurrent and remotely distributed project work, ensures that system usage and administration is easier and more effective.

Transferring design work between several participating designers is now efficient and safe. The database centric client-server system enables controlled and concurrent design by multiple users in different locations. Shared data such as the common component library, project set-up, and project data (3D model and documents), is now stored in databases hosted by a database server. The database architecture has been optimized for managing 3D design data. In big ship design projects it is crucial that several designers can work in the same areas concurrently, thereby shortening the design process and expediting the production of drawings.

Database replication and other technical details are handled "under the hood" by the CoDesigner module. This makes it possible to add new design offices to a project with a few clicks. All object data is accessed via a check in/check out procedure that guarantees that only one designer can modify the same object (ship area) at any given time. The data is updated via a direct database connection or via a file exchange. A new project site is easily set up via interactive set-up tools.

The work is no longer tied to a specific workstation. It is as a result much easier to divide design work among several designers and the updated design and drawings are available for everyone.

Project work files can be sent from a remote site to the main design office using compressed files in a batch process and as such a high bandwidth connection is not necessarily needed.

System administration of distributed projects at remote design sites is also minimized. The eBrowser application allows easy sharing of 3D project information between designers, project management, ship owners and subcontractors and is also a useful tool in production planning.

In distributed environments information security is an important issue.

The system supports customizable user profiles with different levels of access to databases and system configurations. Deletions are now controlled in a way that makes it impossible to accidentally remove any library data that is being used in projects. All client-server and server-server communication is conducted via a proprietary protocol that is less vulnerable to attacks than more common protocols.