Tutorial Shipcon PDF

ShipConstructor
By ARL - Albacore Research Ltd.

Albacore Research Ltd. License Agreement ShipConstructor Team
This is a legal agreement between the end-user and Albacore Rolf Oetter
Research Ltd. By opening this package the user agrees to be bound Doug Dark
by the terms of this agreement. If the user does not agree to the terms Jason Paterson
he should promptly return this package including all accompanying Chris Phillips
items to the place where it was obtained for a full refund. Darren Larkins
Walter Langer
Eric Heemskerk
1. Grant of License: The licensee receives a license for unlimited Silke Sommerfeld
use on a single user system. Christian Zuger
Adam Chernenkoff
2. Copyright: The program remains the exclusive property of
Terry Fiddler
Albacore Research Ltd. and is protected by copyright laws. You
Lorne Trudeau
may make copies of the software for back-up purposes or for
Barinder Basi
transfer to hard disks, provided that one copy is only used at any
David Claus
time. You may not copy the written material accompanying the
Lyndon Crossman
software.
James DeGreef
3. Limited Warranty: Albacore Research Ltd. warrants that the Brian Oraas
software will perform substantially in accordance with the Shawn Stapleton
accompanying written materials for a period of 90 days from date Sue Stevens
of receipt. In some countries the warranty period may be different. Kevin Van Donkersgoed
Vlad Vukomanovic
Mike Werner
ALTHOUGH THE SOFTWARE HAS BEEN TESTED AND THE
DOCUMENTATION HAS BEEN REVIEWED, ALBACORE
RESEARCH LTD. MAKES NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE, ITS
QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS SOFTWARE IS SOLD “AS IS”
AND YOU, THE PURCHASER, ARE ASSUMING THE ENTIRE
RISK AS TO ITS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE.
IN NO EVENT WILL ALBACORE RESEARCH LTD. BE

LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING,
WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS 4196 Kashtan Place
PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS Victoria, BC
INFORMATION OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS, DAMAGES
Canada V8X 4L7
TO EQUIPMENT, MATERIAL AND PERSONS) ARISING OUT
OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE
PRODUCT. Toll Free: 1-888-210-7420
Phone: 1-250-479-3638
Fax: 1-250-479-0868
THE WARRANTY SET ABOVE IS IN LIEU OF ALL OTHERS,
ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
info@ShipConstructor.com
support@ShipConstructor.com
sales@ShipConstructor.com
November 01 www.ShipConstructor.com
Contents
Tutorial 1
Overview....................................................................................................................................1
Exploring 3
Overview....................................................................................................................................3
3D Product Model......................................................................................................................4
Generating a 3D Product Model ..................................................................................4
Group Technology .......................................................................................................5
Build Strategy ..............................................................................................................5
Work Group Areas.......................................................................................................6
Organizing Your Work and Data ...............................................................................................6
Projects ........................................................................................................................7
Units.............................................................................................................................7
Planar Group Drawings ...............................................................................................8
Parts .............................................................................................................................8
Other Drawings............................................................................................................8
Terminology...............................................................................................................................9
Starting ShipConstructor ............................................................................................................9
Toolbar Problems.........................................................................................................9
Checking Your System Font ......................................................................................10
Changing Your System Font......................................................................................11
Exploring the Supplied Data ....................................................................................................12
The Unit Drawing ......................................................................................................12
Register a 3D Unit .....................................................................................................13
The Navigator ............................................................................................................16
Viewing the 3D Unit..................................................................................................24
Viewing a Planar Group Drawing..............................................................................33
Viewing a Pipe Drawing............................................................................................40
Viewing a Nest Drawing............................................................................................41
Virtual Reality ...........................................................................................................41
Creating Export Drawings .........................................................................................41
Structure Tutorial 45
Overview..................................................................................................................................45
Structural Unit..........................................................................................................................46
Longitudinal Members...............................................................................................46
Planar Group Toolbars...............................................................................................46
Designing Frames ....................................................................................................................49
Overview....................................................................................................................49
Opening a Frame Drawing.........................................................................................49
Marking Intersections with Structure.........................................................................50
Scallops......................................................................................................................52
Manager Profiles & Plates Library ............................................................................56
ShipConstructor Tutorial Contents • i

Cutout and Profile Insertion.......................................................................................57
Replicate Entities to Other Groups ............................................................................58
Toolpath.....................................................................................................................61
Manager Process Color Setup ....................................................................................62
Inserting the Manholes...............................................................................................62
View Progress in the 3D Unit ....................................................................................64
Plate Solids ................................................................................................................65
Creating Stiffeners from Flat Bar Stock ....................................................................67
Defining Stiffener Parts .............................................................................................70
Part List Dialog..........................................................................................................75
Stiffener Marking Lines.............................................................................................75
Part Orientation Icon..................................................................................................77
Weld Shrinkage..........................................................................................................78
Defining the Plate Part...............................................................................................79
Adding Entities to an Existing Part............................................................................82
Frame Deck Girder with Faceplate ............................................................................83
2D Group XREF ........................................................................................................85
Finding the Inside End of the Faceplate.....................................................................86
Finding the Outside End of the Faceplate ..................................................................88
Faceplate for Deck Girder..........................................................................................89
Defining the Faceplate Part........................................................................................91
Flanged Margin Plate.................................................................................................93
Correcting the Gap.....................................................................................................93
Margin Bracket Toolpath...........................................................................................95
Margin Bracket Solid.................................................................................................97
Margin Bracket Mark Far Side ................................................................................100
Frame Profile ...........................................................................................................101
Checking Group Drawings ......................................................................................104
Creating the Mirror Parts .........................................................................................105
Review .....................................................................................................................107
Designing the Center Girder ..................................................................................................107
Faceplates ................................................................................................................107
Double Bottom Girder Part Definition.....................................................................112
Using Standards 113

Overview................................................................................................................................113
Exploring an Existing Standard..............................................................................................113
Inserting Standard Brackets in the Aft Bulkhead ...................................................................114
Creating an Out of Plane UCS ...............................................................................................114
Constructing the Bracket Insertion Point at the Top End of Stiffener....................................115
Inserting a Standard Bracket at Top End of Stiffener ............................................................117
Copying Brackets at Top End of Stiffener .............................................................................119
Checking the unit 121

Overview................................................................................................................................121
Check the Unit Drawing.........................................................................................................121
Check all Group Drawings.....................................................................................................122
Interference Checking 125

Overview................................................................................................................................125
Create the Interference Drawing ............................................................................................125
Calculating Interferences .......................................................................................................127
ii • ShipConstructor Tutorial
Nesting 131
Overview................................................................................................................................131
Nesting Toolbar .......................................................................................................132
Nesting Preparation................................................................................................................132
Manager Nesting Settings ........................................................................................133
Nesting Colors and Name Prefix .............................................................................133
Nest Production Settings..........................................................................................133
Organizing Nesting ..................................................................................................135
Nesting Terminology .............................................................................................................135
Nest Drawing ...........................................................................................................135
Nests ........................................................................................................................135
Nest Templates ........................................................................................................135
Starting to Nest.......................................................................................................................136
Opening a Nest Drawing..........................................................................................136
Adding a New Nest..................................................................................................137
Inserting Parts into the Nest Drawing ......................................................................138
Inserting Parts (ShipConstructor).............................................................................138
Align Function .........................................................................................................140
Snap Function ..........................................................................................................141
Slide Part Function...................................................................................................143
Move & Rotate Function .........................................................................................145
Automatic Nesting .................................................................................................................147
Assigning Parts to Nest ..........................................................................................................148
Checking Nests and Creating BOMs......................................................................................149
Preparing the Nest BOM..........................................................................................149
Running Nest Check ................................................................................................150
Investigating the Nest Header ................................................................................................151
Nest BOM Count Standards...................................................................................................152
Checking for Overlap .............................................................................................................154
Checking for Un-nested Parts ................................................................................................155
Plotting Nests .........................................................................................................................156
Bridging .................................................................................................................................157
Exporting to NC-Pyros...........................................................................................................158
Remnant Control ....................................................................................................................159
Creating a Remnant .................................................................................................159
Assembly Drawings 163

Overview................................................................................................................................163
Assembly Drawing Steps .......................................................................................................164
Preparing Assembly Templates..............................................................................................164
Assigning Assembly Templates and BOMs...........................................................................165
Build Strategy and Checking Correct Assembly Assignments ..............................................166
Creating the Keymap Drawing...............................................................................................170
Creating Assembly Drawings.................................................................................................171
Annotating Assembly Drawings ............................................................................................174
Assembly Drawing Annotation................................................................................175
Annotating Plate Parts using Specific UCSs............................................................176
Annotating Stiffeners ...............................................................................................178
Quick Annotation.....................................................................................................179
Copy Annotations ....................................................................................................180
Annotating using Orient to View Direction .............................................................181
Inserting CG Position.............................................................................................................182
Quality Control Matrix...........................................................................................................183
Rotating for Assembly Position .............................................................................................184
ShipConstructor Tutorial Contents • iii

Annotating Higher Assembly Levels .....................................................................................185
Plotting Assembly Drawings..................................................................................................187
Profile Plots 189

Overview................................................................................................................................189
Creating a Stiffener Plot Drawing ..........................................................................................189
Inserting Stiffener Plots..........................................................................................................192
Structure Reports 197

Overview................................................................................................................................197
PWBS Reports .......................................................................................................................197
PWBS Build Strategy Report - Summary Style.......................................................199
PWBS Report - Detailed Format .............................................................................199
Profile Report.........................................................................................................................200
Standard Parts Reports ...........................................................................................................202
Nest Reports...........................................................................................................................203
Nests Dialog.............................................................................................................203
Condensed Nest Reports ..........................................................................................204
Detailed Nest Reports ..............................................................................................206
Pipe Tutorial 209

Overview................................................................................................................................209
Pipe 3D Modeling 211

Overview................................................................................................................................211
Placing Pipes and Fittings ......................................................................................................211
Overview..................................................................................................................211
Opening a Pipe drawing...........................................................................................212
SC Pipe Menu ..........................................................................................................217
Pipe Toolbar.............................................................................................................217
Working in Pipe Drawings.......................................................................................218
Setting Default Systems, Specs and Stocks .............................................................220
Placing Pipes and Fittings........................................................................................224
Routing a Bent Pipe .................................................................................................233
Joining the Genset to the Heat Exchanger ...............................................................235
Connecting Two Pipes .............................................................................................239
Saddle Stitches.........................................................................................................240
Adding a Valve ........................................................................................................249
Finishing Placement of Pipes Between the Heat Exchanger and Genset .................250
Importing Pipes........................................................................................................251
Replacing Pipes/Fittings ..........................................................................................256
Creating a Valve ......................................................................................................259
Placing a Valve ........................................................................................................263
Penetrations............................................................................................................................266
Penetration Definition..............................................................................................273
Spooling 275
Overview................................................................................................................................275
Spool info layout ....................................................................................................................275
Overview..................................................................................................................275
Viewing Currently Generated Spool Drawings .......................................................275
Setting up Spools ...................................................................................................................277
iv • ShipConstructor Tutorial
Overview..................................................................................................................277
Opening the Model to Prepare for Spooling ............................................................277
Creating a Spool Naming Convention .....................................................................278
Breaking the System Into Logical Spools................................................................281
Spool Properties.......................................................................................................286
Renaming Spools .....................................................................................................287
Locking the Spools ..................................................................................................290
Generating Spools ..................................................................................................................291
Overview..................................................................................................................291
Viewing Spools in the Navigator .............................................................................291
Checking the Spool BOM........................................................................................291
Checking the Spool Template ..................................................................................292
Generating Spool Drawings .....................................................................................293
Adjusting a Spool Drawing......................................................................................297
Outfit Tutorial 303

Overview................................................................................................................................303
Outfit Menu .............................................................................................................303
Terminology ............................................................................................................303
Placement of an Outfit Standard ............................................................................................304
Overview..................................................................................................................304
Creating an outfit drawing .......................................................................................304
Placing an Outfit Standard .......................................................................................305
Creating an Outfit Standard .....................................................................................312
Index 319
ShipConstructor Tutorial ContentsTutorial • v

Tutorial
Overview
We have prepared a partially finished ShipConstructor demo project for this tutorial. The project consists of one unit
called U12. One of the most time-consuming parts of the production preparation process is the detail drafting and
definition of all individual parts. For the purpose of this demo we have finished most of the parts to allow you to
carry out all further steps, even if you decide not to spend time to detail any more parts. However, we suggest that
you work through all portions of the tutorial in order to get a good understanding of the program.
The tutorial is divided into the following main sections:
• Structure:
• Pipe
• Outfit
Each of the sections above will take several hours to complete.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Tutorial • 1

Exploring
Overview
ShipConstructor consists of several program modules, which can be purchased separately. This tutorial covers all
program modules that are integrated into AutoCAD and the Manager module, which provides an interface to the
SQL database data of the project. The program modules covered in this tutorial are:
• Structure - Provides structural 3D modeling of the ship structure, assembly drawing generation, profile plots
and more.
• Nesting - Provides manual and automatic nesting.
• Pipe - Provides 3D modeling of pipes, generation of spool drawings, and creating and editing of Pipe catalogs.
• Outfit - Provides definition of outfit items and 3D modeling of outfit drawings.
• Manager - Provides an interface to the SQL data of the project.
During the Exploring chapter you will explore the supplied demo files and:
• Investigate different display options of a 3D unit drawing.
• Learn about planar group drawings.
• Learn about parts.
• Have a quick look at a nest drawing.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 3

3D Product Model
Generating a 3D Product Model

Using ShipConstructor any shipyard or engineering company, small or large, can implement product modeling
economically using PC’s and familiar off-the-shelf software, such as AutoCAD and SQL Server. AutoCAD
proficient people are abundant, and a company can utilize the knowledge of existing staff. There is no need to invest
in exotic hardware or expensive training.
A common misconception is that it takes longer to generate a 3D model than drawing the conventional 2D way. All
of our customers have proven that it is faster to model in 3D than to draft in 2D. Using ShipConstructor’s advanced
techniques 3D modeling is not only faster than drafting in 2D, you will also save time in production, prevent re-
work and improve the quality of you product.
ShipConstructor provides many functions to automate repetitive drafting tasks. 3D modeling also allows you to
produce much more sophisticated production documentation than ever before. This includes:
• 3D assembly drawings with BOMs
• Stiffener plots
• Nest plots with BOMs
• Structural reports
• Profile cut list reports
• Nest reports
• 3D Arrangement drawings
4 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

• Spool drawings
• Outfit drawings
Group Technology
Achieving savings in production requires you to utilize ShipConstructor’s advanced production documentation to
implement Group Technology (GT) in production. To put it simply, using GT you group together identical or similar
tasks into small work packages. This allows you to perform similar or identical work on a group of production items.
A single person or small group carries out the tasks described in the work package. It is a common misconception
that large investments into robot assembly or panel lines are required to achieve significant savings during assembly.
Simple, but thoughtful reorganization of work contents, work areas, tools and good planning will achieve significant
savings and improved product quality without investing large sums of money. Of course, in the next step you might
choose to automate some of the production processes.
Build Strategy
At some point during the detailing process, you have to plan your build strategy. The build strategy is the sequence
of steps that have to be carried out to go from a single part through several assembly levels to a complete product.
This process is usually done top down, meaning that you start with the ship and break it down into units. Each unit is
then further broken down into assemblies and panels.
ShipConstructor helps you simplify this task by giving you full flexibility of the number of assembly levels and the
names you give each level. Using each of the assembly levels an assembly tree is easily designed. A designer or
planner can then assign each of the CAD parts to any of the assembly tree items to build a complete logical product
model. All that is left to do is work out a time schedule for each item in the assembly tree.

Work Group Areas
Next, you should think about work areas and the necessary tools to improve productivity. A good example is
producing stiffeners for a panel.
Don’t Do It The Old Way!

Many shipyards still provide traditional 2D workshop drawings to production with several frames, decks, and
bulkheads on each large size drawing. The drawings also contain a lot of dimensions, references to details, and
more. A worker reads the drawing, drags an uncut profile from the storage area to the setup area, puts it into place,
marks up the length, drags it back to a cutting place, cuts it to length, looks up the drawing again to see what endcuts
to use, applies the endcuts and then drags the stiffener back to the setup area to fit it into place.
Work Package Save Time and Money

Using ShipConstructor you create a work package consisting of a booklet (20 pages or less) of small size (11x17 or
A3 or smaller) 3D assembly drawings, stiffener plots and cut lists for just the current stage of production. The
stiffener plots and stiffener cut lists provide all information required to produce the stiffeners for the given assembly
or a few assemblies. Thus it is easy to get the right tools and gadgets in place, pull the required raw stock, cut
several profiles to length, apply the endcuts and place them in a little transport container neatly arranged. When all
stiffeners have been created for the assembly the container is moved to the panel area for easy assembly.
Using simple techniques like these resulted in some of our customers to save up to 50% in assembly hours.
Organizing Your Work and Data

In this section, we will explain how ShipConstructor stores all the data. This is done for your information only. You
do not have to know the detailed information given here, since ShipConstructor keeps track of all files and folders
automatically. However, you might be exploring the content of your hard drive and wonder what all these files are
doing on it.
Construction projects generally involve several designers, engineers, planners and drafters. Most companies use a
PC network with a file server and several workstations to perform the many tasks involved in completing a project.

It is good practice to place all project-related files on a server hard drive, which contains a folder called “Projects”
or “Jobs”.
Projects
ShipConstructor follows this standard production practice. The work within a yard is usually organized in projects or
jobs. For example, Project 301, 302 or Job 101, 102. ShipConstructor uses the term Project. The ShipConstructor
installation program creates a folder named Projects at the location of your choice.
To organize the data further, ShipConstructor creates sub-folders for each construction unit and several other project
related data. ShipConstructor automatically manages all access to the data files.
Warning: Do NOT move, rename, or delete any of the folders or files manually. You might loose access to the
project. However, you may move complete project folders to other drives or folders.
Within the Project folder, you will find only one file, the Project File with the extension, “.PRO”. This is a text file
that lists:
• Where the database data for this project resides (name of the SQL server computer).
• What the database is called within the SQL server storage.
Units
A job is generally divided into production units or blocks. ShipConstructor uses the term unit. The size of a unit is
often determined by the maximum weight the yard can handle.
All files belonging to a unit are stored within the unit folder. Within the unit folder, you will find only one file: the
unit drawing. The name of the unit drawing file is the same as the name of the unit with the extension DWG. For
example, unit U05 will be located in the folder U05 in which you will find the file “U05.DWG”.
The unit drawing is the place where you start populating your product model within ShipConstructor. The general
approach involves importing sectional data for frames, decks and longitudinal girders into the unit drawing. The
sectional data may come from ShipCAM or any hull fairing software capable of exporting 3D sections to an
AutoCAD drawing.

Planar Group Drawings
In general, one starts with sections cut through the hull surfaces to set up the structural modeling data. The sections
(frames, decks, longitudinal bulkheads, etc.) are loaded into an empty unit drawing and the “2D planar groups” are
created from these sections.
In general, each major structural planar entity will be in one individual planar group drawing. A planar group
drawing could be a frame, a deck, a bulkhead, a face on the deckhouse, etc. All planar group drawings are
automatically linked by ShipConstructor to the 3D Unit drawing. In each planar group drawing, any designer can
work as if drafting in 2D.
Parts
Each structural planar group drawing contains one or more parts. Each part consists of:
• Production geometry - regular CAD drafted geometry for NC-cutting.

• A solid of the part, for visual representation, weight & CG calculation, and interference checking.
• A link to the database data. ShipConstructor stores all non-graphical information such as part name, part
type, stock type, processing type, thickness, throw, weight & CG, nesting information, and revision history in a
SQL database.
All drawings and the database are updated automatically anytime a change occurs. There is no need to handle
drawing revisions.
Other Drawings
ShipConstructor utilizes many types of drawings. Don’t worry, ShipConstructor provides an exceptional tool, called
the Navigator, which lets you navigate through all drawings quickly and with comfort. Simply select the “TAB”
for the general portion of the project you wish to work on: 3D Unit, 2D Planar Groups, Nests, Stiffener Plot,
Assembly drawings, Standards, Interference drawings, Outfit, Pipe, Workshop drawings, Templates, or Export
drawings.
Simply select the drawing you require and open it to perform other functions, such as displaying properties,
unlinking it, and more. All these functions are explained in detail in the tutorial and the command reference sections.

Terminology
• 3D Unit - An AutoCAD drawing linking all planar group drawings in a unit to a 3D product model.
• Planar Group - An AutoCAD drawing containing all parts in the same plane, such as a frame, bulkhead,
girder or deck.
• Part - An AutoCAD block within a planar group drawing consisting of production geometry, the solid, and a
link to the data record in the ShipConstructor database.
• Part Data - Data relevant to the part stored in the ShipConstructor database.
Starting ShipConstructor
The installation program created menus in the Programs menu to start any of the ShipConstructor program modules.
1. Click the Start menu button and locate Program Files / ShipConstructor2001 / ShipConstructor2001.
Do not use the regular AutoCAD shortcut!
2. Please verify that the menu now shows the ShipConstructor menus called ShipConstructor and Planar and
that the ShipConstructor toolbars are displayed on the left side. You might have to arrange the toolbars
differently if your screen size is too small. See Troubleshooting if any item is not loaded or any toolbar button
looks like .
Tip: Arrange the ShipConstructor toolbars on the left side of the AutoCAD application window as shown in the
figure. This way you keep them separate from any other toolbars you have loaded, which prevents confusing the
ShipConstructor buttons with any standard AutoCAD buttons or buttons from other AutoCAD applications you
might have. All screen shots in this tutorial will show the ShipConstructor buttons at this position.
Toolbar Problems
Under normal conditions, ShipConstructor will load all required toolbars into AutoCAD upon start-up. However, in
many cases the user of a computer (Windows2000 Windows NT) does not have administrator privileges to install

software. In these cases an administrator logs onto the computer, installs the software, then logs off and the user
logs on again. In such a situation, the ShipConstructor installation cannot create a ShipConstructor profile for the
user. You will have to load the toolbars manually:
1. From the AutoCAD menu, select Tools / Customize / Toolbars…
2. In the Customize dialog select the Toolbars tab.

3. In the Menu Group list, select ShipConstructor.
4. In the Toolbars list, check the items as shown in the figure above. These are the main toolbars. All toolbars
that are not checked are fly-out toolbars.
5. Click Close.
6. Arrange the toolbars as described before.
7. Close AutoCAD and restart it to verify that all toolbars are loaded correctly.
Checking Your System Font

ShipConstructor uses many dialogs to access all drawings and data conveniently. All dialogs are designed to run
with the small system font. The system font is commonly used to display the text in menus and dialogs. You may be
using a different system font. Some of ShipConstructor's dialogs will not display properly with a large system font.
Let’s find out if your settings are compatible with ShipConstructor. We will test it with the dialog that suffers the
most from a large system font: the Select View dialog.
1. Select ShipConstructor / Project / View… from the menu and choose the 3D tab. The dialog is displayed
as shown below. The first dialog shows it with the small system font. We show the bitmap of a ship in 3D and
display radio buttons at all corners of the ship to indicate the view direction. As you can see, all radio buttons
are aligned with the underlying bitmap.

2. The second screen shot below shows the same dialog, this time with the large system font installed. You can see
here that the radio buttons are not aligned with the underlying bitmap.
Changing Your System Font

1. From the Windows Start menu select Settings / Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, double click on the Display icon.
3. In the display properties dialog select the Settings tab.
4. From the Font Size drop down list select Small Fonts.
5. In many cases you will have to reboot the computer. You might also need the installation CD ready if the small
fonts are not yet loaded on your hard drive. Just follow the on screen instructions.
6. Then use the instruction as before to test that the ShipConstructor dialogs will work properly.
7. If the text is too small for you to read, then use a lower screen resolution. In the Display Properties dialog
select a lesser Desktop Area. For example, if you are currently using 1280 by 1024, use 1024 by 768 instead.
Do not use less than 1024 by 768 if possible.

Exploring the Supplied Data
The Unit Drawing

We will now open the supplied 3D unit drawing and explore it. Remember that the 3D unit drawing is a link of
several planar group drawings showing a 3 dimensional view. Here we go!
The ShipConstructor Toolbar

The ShipConstructor toolbar, shown below, provides four buttons. We will be using two of the buttons extensively.
The Navigator button displays a dialog that enables you to register a unit and access any drawings
associated with the unit.
The Manager button starts the Manager module, which opens the SQL database associated with the project.
Navigator
XREF drawings
New Planar Group
Manager
Lock Files

Register a 3D Unit
The 3D unit is the main drawing; it shows an assembled view of all planar group drawings in the construction unit.
You have to register the 3D unit drawing at the beginning of a session. The unit remains registered until you shut
down AutoCAD or register another unit drawing.
1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click .
2. In the navigator dialog select the 3D Unit tab and click the Register button.
3. The Register Unit dialog is split in two sections. With the upper section you select the project.
ShipConstructor actually stores several of your recently used projects. You can select any one of them from the
drop-down dialog. If the project line is empty, or the project you want is not listed, then click the Change
Project button.
4. With the Select Project File dialog browse for the project file you want. In our case it is located in the folder
where the ShipConstructor project demo files are installed. Click Open.

5. In the lower part of the dialog select the unit you wish to register. In the demo project we only have one unit
called U12. Click OK.
6. ShipConstructor prompts you to enter a password for the user called DEMO. Use the password “demo” and
click OK.
7. The licensing dialog is displayed. The licensing has changed compared to earlier versions. ShipConstructor can
now be purchased in several different modules and several different levels. As you may have a combination of
one or more local locks on you computer, plus one or more network locks on the network, the licenses that you
require can be acquired as a mix of local and network locks.

With local lock. Without local lock.
• Search - Sets the options which locks to search. It may take several seconds to find licenses on a network lock.
Thus you may want to limit the search to your local lock, if that is all you need.
• Automatically get all available licenses - Gets all licenses from the local lock. This is a good default
option, unless you need to get some licenses from the network lock.
• Network lock - Check this option if you also want to search for licenses on the network lock.
• Network Settings - Displays the Network License Settings dialog . Search for lock will search the network
for ShipConstructor network locks. If you network is large you may want to limit the search to a single IP
address of the computer that has the network lock attached to it.
• Module - The available module name on the lock.

• Parts - The number of parts relating to that module in the ShipConstructor Manager database.
• Level - The level of license for the module available on the lock. ShipConstructor modules can be purchased in
levels 1 through 5 and unlimited.
• For Structure, Nest and Automatic Nest the number of parts per level is 500. This means level 3 allows
you to work on projects with a maximum of 1500 structural parts.
• For Pipe the number of parts per level is 250. This means level 3 allows you to work on projects with a
maximum of 750 structural parts.
• For Outfit the number of parts per level is 50. This means level 3 allows you to work on projects with a
• For Strategy and Rebis the number of parts is not applicable.
• Lic Total - The total number of license the lock is licensed for.

• Lock Info - General information about the lock.
• License - The name of the lock. Usually the company the lock is licensed for.
• Lock Expiry date - The date when the lock expires.
• Days Left - How many days until the lock expires.
• Show this window during Project Register - Turn this option off, if you always check out the same
licenses or only use a local lock. Use the menu item ShipConstructor / License to display this dialog.
If no locks are selected, you will be prompted to run entirely in demo mode:
Press Yes.
8. ShipConstructor registers the unit drawing. The drawing is not actually opened. ShipConstructor simply
determines which files belong to the unit. It also establishes a link to the associated SQL database.
9. The Navigator dialog is displayed again. Click the Open button to load the 3D unit drawing. This will take a
short while. Watch the command line display at the bottom of the AutoCAD window. You will see that
AutoCAD is loading several XREFs into the 3D unit drawing - one for each planar group drawing. You might
get a different display depending on what layers are active.
The Navigator
The Navigator provides access to all project drawings from one convenient location. The individual areas of a
project are accessed using the different tabs on the Navigator. This makes file access quick and easy. After a while
you will wonder how you were previously able to find all the drawings associated with a project without a
Navigator.

1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click to open the Navigator again.
Here is an overview of the tabs and function available in the Navigator.
3D Unit Tab
To register a unit, open the unit drawing, and reload the database file if required.
2D Group Tab
Displays all 2D planar group drawings in a convenient tree dialog. You can open any of the drawings, create new
ones, change the properties, mirror a group, such as a longitudinal bulkhead, unlink (delete) it, or activate the
UCS of it when in the 3D unit drawing.

Nest Tab
To open any one of the nest drawings, create new ones, and display a list of un-nested parts.
Profiles Tab
To open stiffener plot drawings or create new ones.

Assembly Tab
To open assembly drawings, create new ones, update the keymap drawing, and create build strategy
drawings. Assembly drawings show all parts belonging to a specific assembly. One drawing for each assembly is
created.

Standard Tab
To open or create new standard drawings, structural or outfit. Each standard drawing contains exactly one reusable
standard.
Interference Tab
To open or create new interference drawings. An interference drawing allows you to calculate collisions between
ShipConstructor, Pipe, outfit and any other solids that you might import from other AutoCAD drawings.

Outfit Tab
To open or create new outfit drawings. An outfit drawing contains Outfit parts such as pumps, pressure vessels,
and grates. You can have as many outfit drawings per project as you like. Outfit is still under development; look for
new features in the near future.
Pipe Tab
The Pipe tab deals with Pipe, spool and arrangement drawings. You can:
• Open, create, and delete Pipe drawings.
• Open, create, and delete Arrangement drawings.
• Open Spool drawings.
• Set up the Spool BOM layout.
• Set up the Spool Naming conventions.
See the Pipe manual for more details on this subject.

Workshop Tab
To open or create new workshop drawings. A workshop drawing shows several group drawings in traditional 2D
fashion. For example, several frames are displayed beside a deck and a longitudinal girder. We do not recommend
you use this old fashioned type of information for production. You should use assembly drawings instead.
Tip: Use these functions to produce 2D general arrangement and class approval drawings form the 3D
model.

Template Tab
To open or create new template drawings. Template drawings can be created for assembly and nest drawings.
There are also templates for a part direction. You can create as many user icons to be used as you like. These, for
example, could be weld symbols and symbols for edge preparation.

Export Tab
To open or create new export drawings. During export, ShipConstructor converts all custom ShipConstructor
objects to regular AutoCAD entities. Thus, anyone can view this type of drawing. However, the “intelligence” of the
objects is lost.
Viewing the 3D Unit

The unit drawing displays all of the planar group drawings and, optionally, outfit drawings and Pipe drawings. Each
group drawing can be edited by a different user at the same time. The 3D unit drawing always shows the up-to-date
state of all drawings involved.
Several ShipConstructor functions have been specifically designed to enable you to view the unit from all sides and
to control the visibility settings of the unit and/or individual groups.
The Visibility Toolbar

Some of the most commonly used viewing functions are accessed with buttons from the ShipConstructor visibility
toolbar.
View Point
Production Layers
Solid Layers
Production & Solid Layers
Layer Off
Layer Visibility
Shade

Layers
ShipConstructor implements two main layers in each structural group drawing, the solid (_SLD) and the production
(_PRD) layer. As the names imply, the solid layer holds the solids of the structural parts, while the production layer
holds the NC production geometry of the parts.
The unit drawing should start with the production layer visible.
1. While in the unit drawing, click the Production Layers button. Now the drawing should look similar to
the screen shot below. Make sure you have the View shade mode set to 2D wireframe.
2. Click the Solid Layers button. The drawing should change as shown below.

Views
ShipConstructor provides a dialog to set any viewpoint conveniently, using terms familiar to ship designers and
builders, such as body, plan and profile view.
1. On the toolbar click the Select View button.

2. In the dialog, make sure the 3D tab is selected.
3. Select the view BODY LOOKING AFT by clicking on the radio button in front of the ship symbol. In the top
left you will see the description display BODY LOOKING AFT.
4. Click OK. The screen is redrawn with the desired view.
Practice: Select different views to get a feel for the dialog, such as PLAN LOOKING DOWN or PROFILE STBD
TO PORT. You can also enter viewpoint positions in the data fields at the top right of the dialog.
Please be sure to select FWD STBD UP as the viewpoint when you are done.
Shading the 3D Unit

A 3D wire frame model is often very confusing to the human eye. You have to perform hidden line removal or
shading to get a clearer image of the unit.
Tip: AutoCAD shading time depends greatly on the available memory in your system. You should have at least 64
MB RAM for decent shading results, better still 128 MB or more. If you are running Windows NT you can use the
Task Manager to check the use of memory in your system. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and start the Task Manager.
Click on the performance tab. You can see how much RAM your system has (Physical Memory) and how much
AutoCAD is using (MEM usage and Commit Charge). In the Physical Memory group box find the total installed
memory (392612 in this dialog). In this case 384MB = 392612 kilobytes. Find the Total value in the Commit
Charge group box. If the value gets close or is larger than the physical memory, then you would gain significantly
from installing more RAM. Watch the total commit charge value when you issue a SHADE command later on in
this tutorial.

The unit drawing should have started with the production layer visible.
1. Click the Solid Layers button to make sure the solid layer is active.
2. Click the SHADE button. The Shade dialog is displayed.
3. Set the values as shown in the dialog and click OK.

4. (Watch the Task Manager if you have it open and see how AutoCAD starts using more memory). The first time
you run the SHADE command, AutoCAD builds a visualization model. This uses a great deal of memory and
takes a long time. Further shade commands on the same drawing will run faster.
5. The shaded image should look like this:

Tip: Use the REGEN command to enable picking the window again. You cannot select entities in a shaded view.
Using 3D Orbit
AutoCAD2000 and later versions feature another nice tool to show the 3D unit drawing in an easy to understand
way. This function is called 3D Orbit. The Orbit function allows you to view a shaded model dynamically. Please
refer to your AutoCAD manual to learn about 3D Orbit.
We have found the following procedures to be helpful when view a 3D unit drawing:
• Use Shading Modes / Gouraud Shaded. This appears to give the best results.
• Use More / Zoom Extents before rotating. Otherwise, you drawing may move off-screen.
Tip: After exiting 3D Orbit the drawing is left in a 3D view state identified by the 3D Orbit UCS icon instead of the
regular UCS icon. You have to select View / Shade / 2D Wireframe to return to the regular display mode. This

is a long way to go if you use it as often as we do. We modified our AutoCAD toolbars and inserted the 2D
Wireframe right beside the 3D Orbit button.
To add the 2D Wireframe button on your toolbar:

1. Select the Tools / Customize / Toolbars…
2. Select the Commands tab.
3. In the Categories list, select View.

4. In the Commands list, select 2D Wireframe and drag it to your toolbar.
5. Click Close.
Arrange the 3D Orbit and 2D Wireframe icons side by side . The 3D Orbit mode is easily identified by
the UCS being displayed as , while the 2D Wireframe mode is displayed with a line style UCS icon
. You are now ready to switch between the 3D Orbit and 2D Wireframe modes conveniently.
1. Select View 3D Orbit or click to start the Orbit command.

2. Now right-click in the display window to bring up the Orbit menu.

3. Select Shading Modes / Gouraud Shaded. It will take a few seconds for the picture to build.
4. Right click again and select More / Zoom Extents. It is important to set the rotation point within the
displayed image. Without this the image might rotate about a point far outside the screen and the image will
jump outside the display area when using the orbit functions.
5. You can now spin the model around by simply holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse
around. It is easy to get confused though, so please read the AutoCAD manual or refer to the Help under 3D
Orbit.
6. Select Select View / Shade / 2D Wireframe or 2D Wireframe to return to a regular display.
Group Visibility
This function allows you to set which layer of each 2D group is visible in the 3D unit drawing. A complete
structural model of a unit tends to become quite complex. Often it becomes necessary to switch items off because
the drawing simply gets too busy. The Visibility Tree dialog provides a convenient way to set the visibility for
each planar group drawing in the unit drawing.

For example, in the previous shaded image the main-deck and the tank-top hide the details of the frames and the
longitudinal girder below. We will now create a shaded image that allows you to see the underlying unit.
1. On the toolbar, click the Select View button. Select the view From FWD STBD UP.
2. On the toolbar, click the Layer Visibility button. The Visibility dialog is displayed.
3. A tree dialog displays all planar groups. Beside each drawing are “light bulbs” for the production PRD, solid
SLD and revision REV layers. A lit light bulb indicates that the layer is visible; an off light bulb indicates it is
not visible.
4. Click the light bulbs off for the solid layer of U12MDCK (Unit 12 Main Deck), and U12TTOP (Unit 12
Tanktop) as shown above.
5. Click OK
6. Shade the drawing.

7. The figure above shows the view shaded and slightly zoomed in.
8. This shaded view shows clearly that the unit is missing two frames. We will be designing these frames during
the tutorial.
Group DWG Off

ShipConstructor also provides a function that lets you switch any group drawing off simply by selecting any entity
of it on the screen. We want to switch some of the forward frames off now to make more of the horizontal girder
visible. Instead of selecting the visibility from the tree dialog, we will switch the frames off by clicking on them in
the unit drawing.
1. Type REGEN at the command prompt to remove the shading if it is still there.
2. On the toolbar click the Group DWG Off button.

3. Select the most forward frame and the bottom shell by clicking on any entity belonging to them. You can also
use a crossing window. Just make sure you do not inadvertently select any other planar groups. You can, of
course, undo any of these commands.
4. Press ENTER.
6. Be sure to use the toolbar buttons Production Layers Solid Layers .

Viewing a Planar Group Drawing
The unit drawing is assembled from several linked individual planar group drawings, which are sorted by their
structural main function - frames, longitudinals, and decks. Another group is curved plate, which represents the shell
plating. Shell plating can be imported from our ShipCAM. The last group type is called arbitrary, which covers
oddly skewed members, such as those found in deckhouse plating.
ShipConstructor provides a sophisticated dialog to give you convenient access to the unit drawings and all linked
planar group drawings.

2. Select the 2D Group tab.
3. In the tree dialog click on U12F107. The Preview window displays a bitmap of the last saved drawing state.
4. Click the Open button. Tip: You can also double click on the planar group name in the tree view to open the
drawing.
5. The planar group drawing is opened.
Working in 2D on a planar group drawing greatly simplifies drafting, compared to working in 3D unit drawing. All
detailing in a planar group drawing is carried out as if working in 2D. Each planar group drawing can be detailed by
another draftsman in parallel, allowing your team to work on many drawings at the same time. Anytime someone
opens the 3D unit drawing it will show the latest revision state of each planar group drawing.

Activate Layers
The objective in planar group drawings is to define parts for production, visualization, checking, and provide all data
required for production reports and production planning purposes. Each part is represented by:
• A Solid - The solid is used for shaded or rendered views and virtual reality walk-through animations. The solid
also provides ShipConstructor with information about CG, volume, surface area and extents. The solid of a part
is always assigned to the solid (_SLD) layer.
• A Piecemark - The piecemark consists of the name of the part as AutoCAD text and a “bubble” around it. The
piecemark is always assigned to the production (_PRD) layer.
• Production Geometry - This is standard AutoCAD geometry, such as lines, arcs, circles, and polylines,
required for producing the part. In the case of a plate part it consists of the outside, and, if present, inside
toolpaths plus any markings. In the case of a stiffener or faceplate there is no production geometry, just a
piecemark.
1. Make sure you are still in drawing U12F107.
2. Click the toolbar buttons for Production Layers and Solid Layers alternately several times.
Observe the differences between the representations on the production and solid layers.
3. SHADE the drawing while the SLD layer is active.

Parts
A part is a combination of AutoCAD geometry and SQL data. Each part is represented in the CAD drawing by a
block. The block name is the same as the piecemark of the part.
ShipConstructor supports 3 general structural part types:
• Plate Parts - Plate parts are made from plate stock and are generally flat. Plate parts can also be flanged.
• Stiffener Parts - Stiffener parts are made from profiles or flat bars. Most stiffeners are straight, but in some
cases are curved, such as for frames that are built up from profiles.

• Faceplate Parts - Faceplates are made from flat bar. They run, generally, along the face of a plate part and
are curved or bent.
Plate Parts
Plate parts have to be nested, as they will be NC-cut or manually cut from plate stock. To produce the NC-code for
a plate part we need:
• One and only one closed outside toolpath.
• One closed inside toolpath for each hole.
• Marking lines for any markings that the automatic marking unit on the NC machine has to mark on the plate.
Examples are: stiffener or bracket locations, or an icon to show the part orientation in the unit.
• Text if you want to place the part name and any other text information on the part.

1. Please zoom into the lower area of the frame drawing as shown in the next screen shot.
2. Alternate between the PRD and SLD layers.

3. On the PRD layer the plate part is represented by:
• Outside Toolpath - This is a RED closed polyline. It will be used by NC-Pyros to create the NC
instructions for the cutting machine to cut the part out of plate stock with a gas, plasma or laser cutter.
• Inside Toolpath - There are two blue manholes inside the part as closed polylines. They will be used by
NC-Pyros to create the NC instructions for the cutting machine to cut the manholes into the part with a gas,
plasma or laser cutter.
• Part Piecemark - There is a large piecemark “U12F107-P01”. NC-Pyros will later on create NC
instructions to mark the piecemark onto the part with a marking or scribing tool.
• Marking Lines - Several stiffener marking lines with throw indicators at the end. In this case intermittent
marking is used. Only the ends of the stiffeners are marked by short lines.
• Stiffener Piecemarks - Each stiffener on the plate part is identified by a smaller piecemark.

Stiffener Markings
Stiffener Piecemark
Inside Toolpath
Outside Toolpath
Part Piecemark
• The actual plate part consists of all the production geometry blocked together. The name of the block is
created by ShipConstructor and is used to link it to the SQL record.
Stiffener Parts
To simplify drafting, ShipConstructor creates automatically a UCS in the plane of the frame. To the user it appears
that he is working in 2D. In reality, all parts on the frame are drawn in 3D.
Part U12F107-P01 is stiffened by several flat bars. In order to see the flat bars we have to set a 3D view point.
1. Click the Select View and select a viewpoint FROM FWD STBD UP.
2. Activate the solid layer.
3. Zoom into the lower right part of the frame and SHADE it.

4. REGEN the drawing.
5. Toggle between SLD and PRD layers. You will see several vertical flat bars on the plate part. Each flat bar has
an end cut where it connects to the longitudinal stiffeners on the shell and tanktop plating.
Faceplate Parts
Faceplate parts are made from flat bar stock. They are commonly used inside of through holes, such as manholes, or
on a free side of a plate part to stiffen that edge.
1. To see a faceplate on this frame click the Select View button. In the viewpoint fields on the top of the
dialog enter X=1 Y=-25 Z=1.
2. Zoom to the upper portion of the frame as shown in the next figure.
3. SHADE the view.

Viewing a Pipe Drawing
2. Select the Pipe tab.
3. Select the desired Pipe drawing and click Open.

4. The Pipe drawing is displayed.
Viewing a Nest Drawing

To open a nest drawing, use the same navigator dialog that you previously used to open the 3D model drawing and
the 2D group drawings.

2. Select the Nest tab.
3. Select the drawing PL10 and click Open.
4. The nest drawing is displayed.

Please feel free to investigate the drawing. Pay attention to the BOMs and the headers in each template. All variable
data such as nest name, plate size, weights, cutting lengths and estimated cutting time are calculated and updated
automatically by ShipConstructor.
Virtual Reality
There are several inexpensive 3D virtual reality programs on the market now to view solid drawings and generate a
fly through. These are very valuable tools to check the use of the right material (color-coded by ShipConstructor),
parts that do not match up in 3D, access to tight spaces, or to find any detailing mistakes that might have been
overlooked.
You can also use 3D animation tools such as 3D Studio Viz or Max to create digital assembly movies.
Creating Export Drawings

ShipConstructor makes extensive use of custom objects. Regular AutoCAD, as well as virtual reality viewers cannot
display these objects. You must use a ShipConstructor function to convert ShipConstructor custom objects to
standard AutoCAD objects.

2. Select the Export tab.
3. Click New.
4. In the New Export Drawing dialog select the drawings that you want to include in the export drawing. All
drawings with a check mark will be included in the export drawing.
5. Click OK.
6. In the New Drawing dialog enter a drawing name.
7. Click OK.

8. The resulting drawing contains only standard AutoCAD entities. All of ShipConstructor’s custom entities have
been converted to standard AutoCAD entities to allow other users without ShipConstructor to use the drawing.
This drawing can be found using the Navigator Export Tab.
9. Open the drawing and set up a 3D viewpoint and investigate the drawing.

Structure Tutorial
Overview
The tutorial consists of several sections. It will take several hours to complete the part detailing section. However, it
is not necessary to complete it in order to continue with later sections. You can simply choose to read it through and
continue with any of the next sections.
Within this section you will create several parts. In some cases we have prepared the geometry and all you must do
is the actual part definition. In other cases you will detail the parts from scratch. In particular, you will define frames
112 and 113 from scratch.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Structure Tutorial • 45

Structural Unit
Let us now discuss the general design of this demo unit. Several aspects of the design of this unit were chosen
purely for teaching purposes. We wanted to ensure that we did not miss any important features you might use during
your daily work. On the other hand, we wanted to keep it simple enough to fit the purpose of a demo.
Longitudinal Members
Center Girder - Along the center of the unit runs a longitudinal girder that penetrates all frames, except bulkhead
106 at the aft of the unit. The thickness of the plate is on both sides of the vessel.
Margin Plate - Near the bilge area is another longitudinal girder called the margin plate. It also penetrates all
frames, except F106. The margin plate is oriented approximately vertical to the shell plating in body view. The half-
breadth of the margin plate changes at each frame; it is double skewed.
Tanktop - The tanktop plate is horizontal. It is limited on both sides by the margin plate.
Main Deck - The main deck is horizontal and flat.
Horizontal Girder - At approximately half height runs a flanged girder plate. It contains cutouts where the frame
or stiffener profiles penetrate.
Planar Group Toolbars

We will use ShipConstructor toolbar buttons on a regular basis. Shown below is the Planar Group toolbar. Please
take a moment to familiarize yourself with the buttons or print a copy of the figure to place beside your computer.
46 • Structure Tutorial ShipConstructor Tutorial

Planar Group Toolbar
This is the main toolbar you will use during detailing. The horizontal rows of buttons beside the main column of
buttons are called flyout toolbars. You can show the flyout toolbars by holding down the left mouse button over the
toolbar button that contains the flyout.
Stiffener Flyout
These buttons are used for creating and editing stiffeners and editing and placing down their corresponding cutouts.
Their functionality will be discussed later in the tutorial.
Faceplate Flyout
These buttons are used for creating and editing faceplates. Their functionality will be discussed later in the tutorial.
Detailing Flyout
These buttons are used mainly during the detailing phase. We will discuss their use later in the tutorial.

Define Part Flyout
These buttons are used to define and undefine parts. We will discuss them later in the tutorial.
Edit Part
Reactivate Part
Deactivate Part
Undefine Part
Define Part
Standard Part Flyout

These buttons are used to define and insert standard parts such as brackets, and Outfit parts such as pumps and
fireboxes.
Layer Flyout
These buttons are used to shift geometry to all the different ShipConstructor layers and to toggle layers on and off.

Designing Frames
Overview
In the first part of the tutorial we will detail frames F112 and F113 as shown in the next figure. All parts in the frame
are symmetrical. We will detail the port side and later create the starboard part by mirroring.
Double Bottom Panel - Each frame has a double bottom panel. This panel consists of a plate part with stiffener
cutouts and two manholes. The panel is bordered below by the shell plating, at the center by the longitudinal center
girder, on top by the tanktop, and to the right by the margin plate. It is stiffened by several flat bars that lap onto the
longitudinal stiffeners running longitudinally on the shell plating and the tanktop plate.
Faceplate
Deck girder panel
Side profile
Flanged margin bracket
Double bottom Panel

with manholes and
flatbar stiffeners
Flanged Margin Bracket - This is a flanged plate part with a lightening hole. It is welded to the longitudinal
margin plate and lapped with the side profile.
Side Profile - The profile is made from a 240x12 bulb flat that is shaped to fit the hull surface. Both ends are
treated with lapped endcuts.
Deck Girder Panel - This is a plate part with cutouts for the longitudinal stiffeners on the underside of the deck
plating. It is stiffened by a faceplate on the underside. The plate part ties into the center girder and is lapped with the
side profile.
Opening a Frame Drawing

We will now start detailing frame F112.

2. Select the 2D Group tab.
3. Select U12F112 from the tree listing on the left, and click Open. The frame drawing is displayed as shown in
the next figure.
4. Click Production Layers to ensure that you are working on the production layer.
At present, the frame consists only of the hull trace. In the lower section, cutouts have been inserted into the hull
trace. The frame was imported from ShipCAM in this form, and is based on sections cut through a 3D surface
model. ShipCAM can automatically insert cutouts into frames.
Marking Intersections with Structure

The frame is intersected by the tanktop, the main deck, the center bulkhead, and the margin plate. All intersections,
with the exception of the margin plate, are orthogonal, and therefore could be obtained from typical frame drawings
provided by the design department. The margin plate is intersecting under a skewed angle and it would be complex

to calculate the exact intersection location and intersection thickness at each frame. ShipConstructor provides a
function to create marking lines at locations where other structures intersect.
1. Select the toolbar flyout as shown in the figure and click the Mark Group Intersections button.
2. The Mark Group Intersections dialog is displayed. Enter the values as shown.
• Available Planar Groups - The list on the left of the dialog shows all planar groups that intersect the frame.
You can select the groups that you want to mark. By default all planar groups are selected.
• Throw Symbols - Check this option to create a throw symbol as shown in the figure below. The symbol
indicates the throw direction from the marking lines. The small vertical lines on the side of the symbol indicate
the thickness of the intersecting group. This value is corrected for the intersection angle in case of a skewed
(non-perpendicular) intersection. The Size box allows you to set the height to the top of the symbol.
Throw Symbol
Marking Line
• Throw Lines - Checking this option creates a thickness throw line as shown in the next figure.
Thickness Line
• Group Text - Checking this option creates text, to label the line with the name of the group. The Size box is
the size of the text that will be created. You also have the option to Strip Unit Prefix.

Unit prefix removed
Unit prefix not removed
3. Once all values are entered in the dialog as shown, click OK. The markings are created as shown in the next
figure. All lines are 10% longer than the current extents of the drawing. You will need to trim the lines later to
their appropriate sizes using standard AutoCAD trimming.
Scallops
Note: Before we start the scallop command, please make sure that AutoCAD has the same OSNAP options as
shown in the next dialog. During many of our training sessions, we have noticed that users have disabled some of
the new features in AutoCad2000. This is mostly an attempt by the user to make AutoCad2000 act the same as R12.
ShipConstructor relies heavily on new AutoCad2000 features.
1. From the AutoCAD menu, select Tools / Options. In the dialog click the Drafting tab. Make sure that all
check boxes in the AutoSnap section are checked as shown.

We are now ready to start detailing the bottom panel in this frame. The next figure shows the fully detailed panel.
Scallop Scallop
Scallop Scallop
Scallops, mouse holes or rat holes are often used in the detailing process. ShipConstructor provides a function to
draw these quickly and conveniently. The standard scallop size we will use is 30mm. This part requires four scallops
as indicated in the figure above.
1. Zoom to the lower left area of the current drawing as shown, where the frame trace meets centerline. We need
two 30mm scallops where the frame part meets the center girder.
Scallop required
Tanktop Marking
Center girder marking
Frame trace on hull
Scallop required

2. Click the Scallop button. If no radius was set previously, you will be prompted to enter a default radius.
Current radius = 30.000 mm
Radius/Lines/<Select Center>:
3. Enter R to choose Radius and press ENTER.

Scallop radius:
4. Enter 30 at the prompt and press ENTER.

Radius/Lines/<Select Center>:
5. The default setting is to select the center of the scallop. Press ENTER to select the Select Center option.
ShipConstructor automatically changes the OSNAP to INTERSECTION and END.
Pick corner to scallop:
6. Click the intersection between the hull frame trace and the port side longitudinal girder marking line.
Pick direction of scallop:
7. In this case, the desired direction is to the top-right, so click anywhere above and to the right of the
intersection.
8. The scallop is drawn as shown in the next figure.
9. Press ENTER to start the scallop command again.

10. Make another scallop, at the intersection of the tanktop and the center girder.
11. We recommend a clean up after work such as this. Please erase the starboard side vertical line indicating the
far side of the center girder. Also erase the upper tanktop marking line, and the small line near the
bottom scallop left over from the scallop command.
12. The result should look like this.

13. Pan to the right until you arrive at the intersection with the margin plate.
Tank top marking
Margin plate marking
Frame hull trace
14. Create two scallops at the intersections of the frame hull trace with the margin plate and the tanktop with the
margin plate.
15. To clean up, erase the trimmed portions of the margin plate marking line. Be sure to leave the thickness
line of the margin plate alone.
16. The result should look like the following figure.

Manager Profiles & Plates Library
In the next step we will insert cutouts at the locations where the stiffeners under the tanktop intersect the frame. The
shapes of the cutouts have been previously defined in an AutoCAD drawing, and set up in Manager in the Stocks
Library.
The Manager database contains pre-defined stock profiles. ShipConstructor is delivered with two ready-made
templates with many pre-defined profiles, flat bars and plates. One of the templates is for metric dimensions, the
other for imperial dimensions.
For this demo we started with the supplied metric database and removed all stocks that are not used in the demo. We
will now take a brief look at the stocks defined in the database file.
New! - Manager has been updated significantly.
1. Click the Activate Manager button. Manager will start as shown.
2. Select Libraries / Stock button to display the Stock Library dialog, then select Angles in the tree control on
the left.
3. In the list of Angles on the right highlight the stock BF160X09 and observe the data for it.
In the center of the dialog, find the details of the stock:

• Stock - The name of the stock.

• Color - This is the color that the solid will use when you create a stiffener with this profile. Planning colors
carefully can help you detect incorrect stock selection in a group or unit drawing before production
packages are issued.
• Material - The material the stock uses. The particulars of each material are set up in the Materials
Library.
• Manufacturer. - The manufacturer number field is optional. You can enter your internal manufacturer or
stock number here. It can later be listed in Bills of Materials.
• Description - This field is also optional and contains a user-defined description of the stock currently
selected.
• Web Neutral Axis - Distance of the neutral axis from the foot point for bending in the web plane.
• Flange Neutral Axis - Distance of the neutral axis from the foot point for bending in the flange plane.
• Web Thickness - Thickness of the web. Used to draw the hidden lines in the profile plots.
• Flange Thickness - Thickness of the flange. Used to draw the hidden lines in the profile plots.
• X-Section Drawing - This contains the name of an AutoCAD drawing. The drawing contains the cross
section of the profile, as found in the supplier’s catalog. The cross section is a single closed polyline. The
profile cross-section files are stored in the standards/profile folder inside the project directory.
• Tight Cutout / Non-Tight Cutout - These fields are optional. They point to drawings containing the
appropriate cutouts for the profile. The cutouts are open polylines. They are located in the standards/cutout
folder.
4. Return to ShipConstructor now. Remember you do not need to close Manager. Just use Window’s task bar
buttons to switch back to ShipConstructor.
Cutout and Profile Insertion

New! - ShipConstructor2001 can now insert and trim cutouts automatically!
The tanktop plate has stiffeners on the underside. The stiffeners align with those on the external shell plating. They
are made from BF160X09 stock. This stock is defined in the Manager database.
Cutouts
We will now insert outlines of the profiles and the related cutouts.
1. Select SC Structure / Detailing / Insert Stiffener Cutouts From Group or click , found on the
detailing fly out. The next dialog is shown.

2. ShipConstructor automatically detects Stiffeners, Faceplates and Twisted Stiffeners intersecting with the current
2D Group and inserts correctly oriented and scaled cutouts. Currently we just want to insert Cutouts from the
U12TTOP, so select U12TTOP from the list and choose Profile and Non-tight cutout as your insertion
options. Click OK then zoom to the drawing extents.
3. ShipConstructor automatically inserts the cutouts and trims them to the line representing tanktop under side.
4. Zoom your view so that you can see the lower part of the frame. Your drawing should look like this:
Replicate Entities to Other Groups

Some of the work we have done so far can be used in other frames. In our case frames 112 and 113 remain to be
finished. Normally we could replicate a portion of what we draft in one frame to all the other frames. So far, only the
cutouts and the trimmed lines we just drew are the same for F112 and F113.
1. Set your view as shown in the figure.

2. Select SC Structure / Detailing / Replicate Entities to Other Groups.
3. At the prompt, rag a selection window (see figure) to select the six new profiles and cutouts we created
and the line segments between them, as shown in the box in the above figure. After selecting these objects, the
following dialog will be displayed:
4. In the dialog select only U12F113, as this is the only other frame that is not yet finished. A message will
inform you when the copying is finished. Ignore the To Other Units button.
5. We want to confirm now that the replicate command did the job correctly. Click Attach XREF.

6. Select U12F113 click OK. U12F113 will be inserted into the drawing of frame 112.
7. Set up a 3D viewpoint by clicking and selecting a FWD STBD UP viewpoint.
8. The drawing should look like this. Frame 113 now contains the cutouts under the tanktop as does frame 112.
9. Click again and click Uncheck All to unselect the attached frame 113. Then click OK.

10. Click again and set a body view viewpoint.
Toolpath
In order for ShipConstructor to be able create a toolpath, and NC-Pyros to create NC-Code, the outside of the part
has to be a closed 2D polyline (which AutoCAD calls a lightweight polyline, or simply a polyline). ShipConstructor
provides a command to test a toolpath.
1. In drawing U12F112 zoom to the lower portion of the frame. Ensure that the complete area of the structure
below the tanktop between the center girder and the margin plate is visible.
Click here first
2. Click Toolpath from the toolbar.

3. Select the lower hull trace only as shown in the figure by clicking on it. We now have one portion of the
toolpath selected.
4. Now select all entities of the outside toolpath by dragging a window as shown in the figure above. It does not
matter if you select entities that are not part of the toolpath. The command will only connect entities with no
gaps or a gap less than the tolerance specified in Manager. Small gaps will be closed if they do not exceed the
value specified in Manager. You can find the Snap tolerance in Settings / Misc tab. This value should be kept
small. For example, set to 0.5mm if working in metric or 1/32” if working in imperial units.
5. Press ENTER.
6. The dialog shows the result of the operation. In this case the toolpath has been generated from 22 entities. One
entity was invalid. The window selection included a text entity, which cannot be part of a toolpath. Click OK.

7. The Process dialog sets the NC processing type for the toolpath. The processing type is important for NC-
code generation using NC-Pyros. The process type in ShipConstructor is determined by color. The following
NC processing types are supported:
• Outside Cut - Has to be a closed toolpath. This path will be cut with a gas, plasma, laser or water-jet
cutter. NC-Pyros will instruct the cutting machine to move the cutter on the outside of the line using the
kerf (offset from the actual path) set in the NC cutting machine. Thus, the cut part will be the correct size.
• Inside Cut - Has to be a closed toolpath. This will be cut with a gas, plasma, laser or water-jet cutter. NC-
Pyros will instruct the cutting machine to move the cutter on the inside of the line. Thus, the cut hole will
be the correct size.
• Marking - Can be a closed or open path or text. These entities will be processed with a marking tool, such
as a zinc-powder marker, a scriber, or an ink-jet print head. NC-Pyros will instruct the marker to travel
directly on the path.
• No Process - Can be closed, open or text. These entities will be ignored by NC-Pyros. No code is
generated. However, you can choose to show these entities in the nest as additional or clarifying
information for the user.
8. Select Outside Cut and click OK.
9. The toolpath is now colored in the outside cut color.
Manager Process Color Setup

The process colors that you just saw are set in Manager for the project. You can decide which colors you want to use
at the start of a new project. Let us look into Manager now and see where the color setup is located.
1. Switch to Manager now.
2. Select the main dialog as shown.
3. Select Project / Settings and select the Colors tab. It shows the colors used for this project. You can select
any colors you like at the start of the project. Do not change the process colors in the middle of a project, as
you would have to update all drawings with the new colors manually.
Inserting the Manholes

The double bottom part has two manholes for access. The size is 500mm by 366mm with 100mm corner radius.

1. Make sure you are in drawing U12F112 and the production layer is active.
2. Draft a manhole as shown in the figure using regular CAD drafting. Draw lines at the dimensioned positions
and fillet the corner using a 100mm radius.
3. Use the toolpath command to connect the entities of the manhole to a toolpath.
4. Use the Inside cut process color.
5. Now copy this manhole to create the second one. The distance between the two manholes is 1800mm.
6. The manholes are the same for frame 113. We will replicate the manholes from U12F112 to U12F113. Select
SC Structure / Detailing / Replicate Entities to Other Groups.
7. Select the two manholes.
8. In the dialog select F113 only and click OK.

9. The manholes are replicated to the drawing U12F113.
10. Save the changes.
View Progress in the 3D Unit

We have made good progress in our two frame drawings. We will check the unit drawing to make sure that
everything is in the right position.
1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click . In the dialog click on the 3D tab and then click the
Open button to open the 3D Unit drawing of U12.
5. The unit drawing opens. You may see already that the Unit drawing has been updated automatically. You might
also have changed settings in the 3D Unit drawing. In order to stay synchronized with this tutorial, please
perform the following steps.
6. Click the Production Layers button to switch the production layer on. Also, select View / Shade 2D
Wireframe or click to make sure a regular view is established.

7. Click the 3D View button and set the viewpoint to FROM FWD STBD UP.
8. The drawing is much too busy to allow us to get a clear view of our drafting. We will hide some of the
structure. Click the Layer Visibility button. The Visibility dialog is displayed.
9. Set the visibility as shown in the dialog by clicking on the light bulbs. Click the All Off button. Then click ON
the light bulbs as shown. We only want to see frames F112 and F113.
10. Click the 3D View button and select different views to investigate your progress from different view
directions.
Plate Solids
It is now time to create your first plate solid. As you may know already, it is hard to visualize a 3D wire model. It is
much easier to view a drawing with solids, which enables hidden lines removal and even shading and rendering.
Also solids allow us to:

• Find the CG position.
• Find the solid volume and with the specific density of the material we can calculate the weight.
• Perform interference checks between structural parts and with Pipe or Outfit parts.
1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click and open the group drawing U12F112.
2. Zoom to the outside toolpath of the floor with the manholes on which we have been working.
3. Click the Plate Solid button.

4. Select the Outside toolpath and the two manholes. The outside toolpath will create a positive solid,
while the manholes (inside toolpath color) will create two negative solids that will be subtracted from the main
solid. Do not select any objects other than those three.
5. The Plate Solid dialog allows you to select the plate stock to use for the plate solid. We want to use a 10mm
plate stock and the thickness of the plate is throwing Aft.
6. Make sure you select the PL10 stock and set the Plate Throw Dir to Aft. Click OK. The solid is created in the
color specified by the Manager database.
7. Click the Shade button to shade the frame drawing. It should look the same as in the next figure.
8. Type REGEN when finished to exit the shaded view.

Creating Stiffeners from Flat Bar Stock
The double bottom plate, for which we just created the solid, has to be stiffened by several flat bars. The flat bars
overlap the longitudinal stiffeners by 50mm. The figure below shows a cross section reference of a longitudinal
stiffener under the tanktop.
ShipConstructor creates stiffeners, in this case made from the flat bar, by extruding the cross section along an
extrusion path. The extrusion path will be represented by a straight line from the lower profile to the upper profile.
Creating the Stiffener Extrusion Lines
1. Click the Production Layers button to switch the production layer on.
2. Make sure OSNAP END is on. It is easiest to pick the correct position if this is the only OSNAP on.
3. Hide the outside toolpath temporarily, to avoid snapping problems.

4. Zoom close enough to allow proper snapping to the lower and upper profile representations.
5. Draw a line from the upper outside point of the lower profile (see figure above) to the lower outside point of
the upper profile.
6. Repeat for all profiles. See figure below.
7. Unhide the outside toolpath.

Generating the Flat Bar Stiffeners
You are now ready to create flat bar stiffeners along each line.
1. Zoom to see all extrusion lines. (See above).
2. Click the Stiffener Solid button. The prompt reads:

Select lines or 2D polylines to extrude stiffener along:
3. Select all vertical extrusion lines. The prompt reads:

Select plate solid:
4. ShipConstructor switches from the production layer to the solid layer. Select the plate solid to which the
stiffeners attach. From the plate solid, ShipConstructor looks up the orientation, thickness and the throw
direction to calculate the prompts for the next dialog, such as stiffener throw direction port or starboard.
5. In the dialog select:
• Stock: FB100x12
• Attach to: Fwd Side
• Toe Direction: Port
• Endcuts: At Start and At End LAP075
• Trim Start & Trim End: None
• Lengthen Shorten Ends: Set this to 50 to achieve an overlap of 50mm of the vertical flat bars with the
longitudinal stiffeners.

6. Click OK.
7. In order to verify the correctness of our work, let us view the shaded result together with the tanktop from a
different angle.
8. Click to XREF.
9. In the dialog check the tanktop U12TTP drawing and click OK. The tanktop drawing is loaded.
10. Click the Solid Layer _SLD button.
11. Click the 3D View button and select view FROM FWD PORT DOWN.
12. Zoom to the plate part with the stiffeners.
13. Shade the drawing or use the 3D Orbit function. It should look similar to the figure:

11. Remove the tanktop by clicking the XREF button and clicking Uncheck All and OK.
Defining Stiffener Parts

We will now define the parts for the flat bar stiffeners on the bottom plate in F112. Until now we have only created
CAD geometry. ShipConstructor is very powerful in this respect because it gives each part a name which allows it to
track the part through the complete design and change process. A ShipConstructor part consists of CAD geometry
and data in Manager.
1. In the U12F112 drawing, click the 3D View button and select the Plan tab.
2. Select the body view Body Forward to Aft. Click OK.
3. The 3D view changes to a Body Forward to Aft view. We will define our parts in this view.
4. Zoom to the inboard stiffener as shown.

5. Click the Define Part button. The prompt reads:
Select solid:
6. Click on the inboard stiffener solid.

7. The Select Paint dialog is displayed. This dialog is only displayed the first time you create a part to ensure
that the right default paint will be used for this part. During later part creations the same paint will be suggested
for each part. Select NO from the list and click OK.
8. The part properties dialog is displayed as shown. Most data is grayed as it cannot be changed. Only a few items
are user selectable. These are as follows:

• Part Name: At the top left is the part name displayed.
Many different conventions are used to create part names. ShipConstructor can support many of them. In
general, a part name is constructed of a part name body, an extension and a suffix. In this case we are
not using the suffix option; the field for it is grayed. In most cases ShipConstructor can create the body, the
extension and the suffix automatically. In this case the body is the name of the group drawing
(U12F112-). Use the Manager settings to change how the body of the part name is created. Several
different extension conventions are commonly used. We will use a letter such as ‘S’ for stiffener, ‘P’
for plate and ‘F’ for faceplate to indicate the stock type. The extension is followed by a number. It is
good practice to use leading zeros (‘001’, ‘002’, etc.) to ensure proper alphabetic sorting in lists. The
Next# button can be used to find the next available extension of the same type. ShipConstructor detects
duplicate part names and rejects them.
• Assembly: This tree dialog displays the assembly to which the part belongs. It is up to the user to define
how the unit will be assembled. In this case we attach the part to a panel called F112 inside the
Assembly called DB (double bottom) which belongs to Unit U12. You may need to expand the tree to
select F112.
• Show Parts: If checked, shows all parts in the assembly tree. This option can slow down displaying the
tree if you have thousands of parts and is therefore optional.
• Part Block: This is the only completely unique identifier of a part. In some cases, 2 or more parts may
share the same name if they are exact copies of each other. The Part Block is comprised of the letter ‘A’
followed by the part’s Part ID which is always unique. This field will remain “Undefined” until this process
is complete.
• Type: Type of stock used. In this case, it is a faceplate or flat bar stock.
• Stock: This is the stock name used to make the solid.
• Material: A36 as defined by the stock in Manager.
• Paint: No. This part will not be painted before assembly.
• LCG, TCG, VCG: Center of gravity.

• Weight: The weight in mt. You can set the weight units in Manager to pounds, short tons, long tons,
kilograms, or metric tons. You can change this at any time. The weight is always calculated on the fly when
needed. If you need a report in pounds, just change the setting in Manager and view the report.
• Length: Length of the stiffener in meters. In Manager you can set inches, feet (also as fractions),
millimeters, centimeters, and meters.
• Throw: This field describes the thickness throw of a part and can have one of six values: Up, Down, Port,
Starboard, Forward, or Aft.
• Descriptions: Each part can have two descriptions. It is up to the user to add the description.
• Profile End Treatments: This describes both the Start and End Endcuts of the stiffener along with
information on the angles of the trims applied to both the web and flange of each end. Information will be
displayed here only for stiffener parts.
• Part Side: The part side is automatically decided by the value of the transverse center of gravity. A
positive TCG indicates a port side part; a negative TCG indicates a starboard side part.
All this information will be added to Manager and can be recalled at anytime.
9. Enter the settings as shown in the screen shot above. Click OK.
10. The Annotation dialog allows you to set:

• Piecemark Size: Enter 25 in this case. It is the text height to be used for the piecemark.
• Leader Line: Check this if you want your piecemark to a have a flyout leader line attached to it.
• Osnap Settings: Lets you set Osnap options for creating the piecemark.
11. Use the settings as shown in the dialog. Click OK. The prompt reads:
Select position of piece-mark
12. A small pick indicator circle is placed by ShipConstructor at the position where you picked the solid. This
is useful when you have many parts close together, as you may not remember which one you picked.
13. The piecemark is displayed parallel to the stiffener. Select a position near the stiffener. You can now rotate the
piecemark by moving the cursor or just press ENTER to accept the vertical position. Choose that vertical
position as shown.

Congratulations! You have just created your first part. Now we need to create parts for the rest of the stiffeners.
1. Click the Define Part button again.

2. Select next stiffener solid.
3. The Part Properties dialog is shown for this part. The part extension is automatically incremented to
S002. You just need to click OK.
4. Create the piecemark as before.
5. Repeat the previous steps for all other stiffeners. The result looks like this:

Part List Dialog
The part list dialog displays all parts within one drawing. It is a convenient way to check the major settings of all
parts and make modifications to any one of the parts. This dialog is modeless, which means that while the dialog is
displayed you can still access the drawing and use any AutoCAD or ShipConstructor command.
1. Click the Part List button. The part list dialog is displayed as shown.
2. The dialog lists all parts with all properties that are user selectable.
3. The dialog has a pop-up menu. Right-click on any part in the list. A menu pops up.
4. Select Properties from the menu. The Part Properties dialog, as used during part creation, is displayed.
You can now change any parameter that might have been wrongly assigned. Click OK or Cancel to close the
dialog.
5. Close the Part List dialog by clicking on the X in the upper right corner of the dialog.
Stiffener Marking Lines

The production geometry of a part will be used for nesting and NC cutting. Thus, we have to create the geometry in
the same way that we want the NC-cutting machine to cut the part from plate stock, including any marking. Most
companies mark plate parts where stiffeners or brackets attach. We want to create stiffener markings as shown in the
figure. The marking line is 100mm long. It has a gap of 25mm to the profile. The throw line is pointing outboard and
is 25mm long.

1. Click the Production Layers button to switch the production layer on.
2. Zoom such that you can see all vertical stiffener marking lines.
3. Click the Process Color button.

4. Select Marking and leave the Far Side option unchecked. Click OK.
5. Select all vertical stiffener extrusion lines. Press ENTER to change their process colors to Marking.
6. Click the Thickness Throw Lines button, found on the detailing flyout.
7. Select the all stiffener lines.
8. In the Saved Throw Line Styles select STIFFENERS. Click OK.
9. The prompt reads:

Pick side to throw:
10. Click to the outboard side of the outermost stiffener line to indicate an outboard throw direction. The stiffener
markings are created as shown in the next figure.

11. The command is still active. Press ENTER or ESC to cancel it.
Part Orientation Icon

A part orientation icon simplifies assembly and prevents potential errors. ShipConstructor can create a part
orientation icon automatically with the appropriate text from a template. The template can be modified to suit your
personal needs. We will simply use the supplied template, which will look like the following figure when used on a
frame. The actual wording changes, depending on the orientation of the part.
1. Zoom to the left side of the double bottom plate part.
2. Click the Part Orientation Icon button.

3. In the dialog you can choose the template icon to use, if you have several defined. You can also choose the size
of the icon. Choose an Icon Scale of 1.

4. The prompt asks for a location of the icon. Click anywhere inside the part. You will choose the final location
later. Make sure that the click point is on the port side, otherwise you will get a reversed icon pointing to
starboard.
5. You can now adjust the final position. A good location is shown in the next figure.
Weld Shrinkage
ShipConstructor can now handle weld shrinkage. Weld shrinkage is the amount a material will shrink when items
such as stiffeners are welded onto the part. Weld shrinkage will differ depending on the type of material, parameters
of welding, start temperature of the part to weld (summer or winter) and more. The welding process has to be
repeated exactly to repeat the same weld shrinkage. Most time weld shrinkage is considered based on statistical test
data when using panel lines. In many cases companies perform test welds and obtain the shrinkage data or base the
values on accuracy control data from previous projects. A good starting point for large vessel steel construction is
1mm of shrinkage per one item of continuous weld. We will use this value in our part definition.
1. Click the Weld Shrinkage button in the detailing flyout toolbar.

2. In the dialog select the settings as shown. Click OK.

3. Select the position and orientation for the weld shrinkage icon as shown in the figure below.
During nesting ShipConstructor will oversize the plate part in each direction of the weld shrinkage icon by the value
given. In this case, 6mm in the horizontal axis and 0mm in the vertical axis. The icon can be rotated in any direction
to accommodate weld shrinkage depending on the direction of the welding.
Defining the Plate Part

The bottom plate part can now be defined. Remember that the part definition is used for nesting. All entities that we
want to be processed need to be in the appropriate color.
1. Make sure that all longitudinal stiffener cross-sections are using the No Process color. We will include
them in the part, thus they will be nested. However, because they are in the No Process color, the NC-Pyros will
ignore them.
2. Zoom such that you can see the bottom plate part.
3. You can erase the thickness throw icon above the part (see figures)
4. Move the TTOP, the LBHC, and the MRGN text inside of the part as shown. Reduce the text size to 50mm if
not done so already.

5. Click the Define Part button. The command switches to the solid layer.
6. Click on the plate solid.
7. The command switches to the production layer. Select the outside toolpath and all entities inside of it,
including all profile cross-sections and all stiffener piecemarks. Press ENTER.
8. The first time you create a part you will be prompted to select a default paint setting for it. On later parts this
dialog will be skipped. However, you can use the Part dialog to change the paint settings.
9. The Part dialog is displayed. Enter all settings as shown below.

• Part Name: Set the part name extension to P001 as this is the first plate part. Click OK.
10. Set the Piecemark Size to 50. We want to emphasize the plate part piecemark over the stiffener piecemarks,
which are 25mm.

11. Place the piecemark in a prominent position in the part. See figure. We now have a plate part that is stiffened by
several flat bar stiffeners.
12. Zoom closely into one of the stiffener piecemarks. You will see that the piecemark text is displayed twice.
One is offset a little from the other, and the colors are different. Remember that parts are AutoCAD blocks. We
set up ShipConstructor to include the text of all attached stiffeners into the plate part. To achieve this, the text
has to be duplicated, as we need it once for the actual stiffener part, and once inside the plate part
block for nesting.
13. Save the drawing.
Practice: Check the progress so far in the unit drawing. Please follow the steps earlier in this chapter on opening
the unit drawing, changing the visibility of individual groups and shading the unit drawing. The result should look
like the figure below.

Adding Entities to an Existing Part
Sometimes you will find that you forget to include a marking line or similar when defining a plate part. You can add
entities later on by using the Add Objects function.
To practice this we will add a marking line to the newly created plate part in F112, for instance to attach a bracket or
something similar.
1. In drawing U12F112.
2. Draw a vertical line on the part. Choose a convenient location. Place some text, size 25, angle 90, beside the
line, such as “BRACKET”.
3. Set the process color of the text and the line to Marking. You will get an error message if you do not assign
specific colors.

4. Select SC Structure / Part / Add Objects.
5. Select the plate part. You can click anywhere on the plate part to select it.
6. Press ENTER to continue.
7. Select the line and the text. Press ENTER. The two entities are added to the part.
Frame Deck Girder with Faceplate

The deck girder is made up of a plate part 500mm deep and a faceplate at the lower side. The plate has cutouts for
the stiffeners under the main deck at the same half-breadth locations as the double bottom part. All corners require
scallops.
Many of the commands used in this part have been used before. We hope that you remember them from the previous
sections. Whenever we use a command used in the previous section, then we will describe its use in an abbreviated
form.
1. In U12F112.DWG, Insert cutouts for the stiffeners running under the main deck. Refer to the previous
sections when we inserted the stiffeners for the tanktop.
2. Trim the deck line to the cutouts.
3. Draw a horizontal line 500mm below the main deck.
4. Zoom to the outside portion of the deck beam as shown.
5. A short portion of the outside hull trace of the frame is needed for the deck girder, but it is also needed for the
profile that makes up the side of the frame. We will make a copy of it onto the revision layer for later. Thus
we can trim it up for our use now and use the copy later on.
6. Click on the Copy Geometry to Layer button.

7. Click on the outside frame trace. Press ENTER. The Copy Geometry to Layer dialog is displayed.

8. Highlight the layer REV and click OK.
9. Now trim the outside of the toolpath and insert the scallops. See figure.
10. Now finish the portion of the plate that ties into the center girder. Remember to use the port side marking of the
center girder. Use the Mark Group Intersections function to draw the lines of the center girder on the
frame again.
7.5mm off center
11. Create a toolpath for the outside of this plate part now.
12. Create a plate solid for the part using 10mm stock, thickness throw aft.

2D Group XREF
First we will clean up the drawing a little. Erase all help lines and marking lines that we do not need, such as the
marking lines for HGRDR. You can also trim the MRGN line to the tanktop and the hull. Also, please erase the left
over piece of the hull trace. We will later recover it from the copy that we made to the revision layer. The result
should look like this:
In some cases it is very helpful to see the crossing structure from other group drawings. In our case we will load the
longitudinal girder U12LBHC into the frame drawing U12F112. We need to find where the faceplates of the center
girder and the frame tie into each other. We could calculate the location, but errors are easily made.
long. deck girder
frame deck girder
faceplate connection location
1. In U12F112 set the viewpoint FWD PRT UP.
2. Click .
3. In the dialog check U12LBHC and click OK.

4. Zoom to the deck girder intersection between the frame and the longitudinal girder.
5. Activate the production and the solid layers.
6. SHADE the drawing. See figure.
Finding the Inside End of the Faceplate

We want to find the transverse position of the faceplate under the center girder. We will draw a short vertical line on
the frame to mark that position.
1. Switch the drawing shade mode back to 2D wireframe View / Shade / 2D Wireframe.
2. Click to activate the production _PRD and solid _SLD layers.

3. We need to use point filters to draw this line. If you are not familiar with point filters, you might want to read
up on them in the AutoCAD documentation.
4. Start the LINE command. At the prompt type “.XY” and press ENTER. Make sure to enter the dot in front of
the XY. We are telling AutoCAD only to use the X and Y coordinates of the pick point.
5. Select OSNAP SNAP TO NEAREST.

6. Place the cursor over one of the two lines indicating the near edge of the faceplate on the longitudinal girder and
wait until the SNAPTIP is displayed. Press the mouse button to get the coordinates. The command line reads:
LINE From point: .XY of (need Z):
7. Type 0 at the command prompt, press ENTER.

8. With ORTHO on, draw a short vertical line to mark the position.
9. Click .
10. From the dialog uncheck U12LBHC and click OK.

11. Set a body view.
12. Activate the production layer only.
13. Zoom to the deck girder inboard side.
14. Trim the vertical line to the lower edge of the plate part if required.
15. ID one of the end points on the marking line. It should have an X coordinate of 75mm.

75mm off center
Finding the Outside End of the Faceplate

The next figure shows the situation at the connection of the faceplate outboard with the BF240X12 profile running
down the shell plating side of the hull. We have not created the outside stiffener solid yet. We will do that later. We
need to draw a vertical marking line for the outside end of the faceplate.
1. Zoom to the outside end of the frame deck girder.
2. Click the Activate Layer button and select REV to activate the revision layer.
3. Click the Copy Geometry to Layer button and make a copy of the outside hull trace to the production
PRD layer.

4. Activate the production _PRD layer.
5. Offset the hull trace 240mm inboard.
6. Draw a line 20mm (thickness of the flat bar for the faceplate) below the lower edge of the deck girder.
7. Draw a line from the intersection of the two new lines vertically upwards.
8. Trim the vertical line at the underside of the girder. See figure.
9. Erase all helping lines except for the vertical line marking the end of the faceplate. This is the outside
endpoint of the faceplate.
Faceplate for Deck Girder

We are now ready to create the faceplate.
1. Zoom so that you can see the deck girder web plate in total.
2. Click the Faceplate Solid button.

Select faceplate path:
Select Line, Arc, or Polyline for Faceplate creation:
3. Select the outside toolpath of the deck girder web plate.

4. The command activates the solid layer and prompts:
Select solid:
5. Click on the plate solid of the girder. ShipConstructor looks up the stock, throw direction and thickness, in
order to be able to calculate the faceplate position.
6. Set the parameters in the next dialog as shown in the figure. These are the options:
• Stock Name: Stock to be used. We use FB150X20. The dialog lists all the particulars of the flat bar stock.
• Endcuts: Used to define both the start and end endcuts of the faceplate.
• Plate Data: The particulars of the plate stock of the girder to which the faceplate will be attached.
• Path: Closed or open. We will make an open faceplate. Closed faceplates are normally used for manholes.
• Make start and end symbols: If checked, ShipConstructor will create symbols to mark the start and the
end of the faceplate on the plate stock. You can NC mark these to enhance assembly accuracy.
• Lengthen Shorten: Allows you to make the faceplate longer or shorter than the actually selected
segment length.
Start symbol end symbol
• Position: There are several predefined positions of the faceplate, plus an option for a user defined
position.
7. Click OK when the settings are done.
Select the start point of the faceplate:
8. Click the start point on the marking line that we drew near the center girder.
Select the end point of the faceplate:
9. Click the end point on the marking line that we drew near the outside.
Select segment for faceplate:
10. ShipConstructor has now divided the outside toolpath of the deck girder web plate into two segments: pick the
segment (OSNAP NEAR is on) for which we want to make the faceplate.

Pick Face Plate Thickness direction
11. Pick anywhere below the girder to indicate on which side of the line the faceplate has to be made.
12. ShipConstructor creates the faceplate and the start and end symbols.
13. Set the viewpoint to FROM FWD STBD UP.
14. Zoom to the inboard portion of the deck girder and shade it.
Start Symbol
15. Zoom to the outboard portion of the deck girder and shade it.
End Symbol
16. Set viewpoint to Body.

17. Activate the production layer.
18. Erase the two marking lines we made to pick the start and end of the faceplate.
Defining the Faceplate Part

We can now define the part for the faceplate. The piecemark for the faceplate will be placed on the web part of the
girder. This way the piecemark will be later marked on the nested part. Assembly will be easy, as the web plate part
has start and end positions as well as the name of the faceplate marked automatically onto it.

Practice: Define the faceplate part as shown in the figure. Make sure you use the following parameters:
• Piecemark name extension: F001

• Assembly: MDK - main deck. The faceplate, together with the girder portion, will be assembled to the
main deck assembly, not the double bottom. When we make assembly drawings this part will be
automatically shown in the deck assembly.
Practice: Place a part orientation icon in the left portion of the girder part.
Practice: Define the deck girder part. For the piecemark use the extension P03, as this will be the third plate
part. P02 will be the flanged margin bracket. Make sure you select all entities for this part that are inside the girder
toolpath.
Practice: Create the same parts for frame 113.

Flanged Margin Plate
The figure below shows a shaded view of a finished flanged margin plate, as we will now create one. The viewpoint
is set to AFT STBD UP. This part has a few special features:
• It is flanged. We will learn how to make a flanged part.
• It intersects with a skewed longitudinal. The gap between the double bottom plate of the frame and the margin
plate has to be larger than the thickness of the longitudinal because of its skewed orientation.
Correcting the Gap

The margin bracket has to be corrected where it connects to the longitudinal margin plate. The margin plate is 15mm
thick. If you measure the distance between the two marking lines that ShipConstructor created (you used the inside
one to create the double bottom part), you will find that it is 15.2956mm.
This dimension is the opening gap on the construction UCS. We have to increase this value. To find out by how
much, we need to know where the outside of the margin plate is at the aft thickness of the bracket. See figure below.
Double bottom
Margin bracket
Thickness UCS
Construction UCS
Construction UCS opening
Skewed longitudinal
ShipConstructor creates two UCSs in every group drawing: the construction and the thickness UCS.
The construction UCS is at the plane where the planar group is defined; for a frame it is the longitudinal location.

The thickness UCS is at the other side of the specified main thickness of the plating in this group drawing. During
creation of the group drawing ShipConstructor asks you to enter the thickness of the planar group and the throw
direction. For this frame the main thickness is 10mm and the throw direction is aft.
The longitudinal margin plate is 15mm thick and the throw direction is outboard. If we activate the thickness throw
UCS of the frame and then create the marking lines for the margin plate, we will get the outboard intersection as
shown in the figure above.
1. Zoom to the area where the margin bracket ties to the double bottom panel.
2. Click the Activate UCS button.

3. In the dialog select the UCS U12F112_T. The _T indicates the thickness throw UCS. Click Activate.
4. Click the Mark Group Intersections button. A warning will be displayed. Click OK.
5. In the next dialog check only Throw Lines and click OK.
6. The command creates two marking lines: one for the inside and one for the outside of the margin plate.
7. Click the Activate UCS button and activate the construction UCS U12F112_C.
8. Click the 3D to 2D button and click on the two newly created marking lines. The marking lines were
created on the thickness throw UCS and therefore had a Z value of -10 relative to the construction UCS. We
would not be able to use them for a toolpath.
9. Zoom closely into the lower right scallop of the double bottom part as shown.

Outside on construction UCS
Outside on construction UCS
Dist. 1.9951
Inside on construction UCS
Inside on thickness UCS
10. You can measure the extra gap width required by obtaining the distance perpendicular from one corner of
the double bottom panel scallop outside marking line. It is 17.2907.
11. Erase all inside marking lines except the one most port.
Margin Bracket Toolpath

We will now define the toolpath for the flanged margin bracket.
1. Zoom to the margin bracket area.

2. You may need to get a copy of the original frame trace from the revision _REV layer before you can proceed.
3. Draw a line at 1750mm height as shown.
4. Offset the hull trace 500mm inboard. You should now have a screen similar to the one shown in the figure
above.
5. Draw a line from the intersection of the horizontal tanktop marking with the margin plate intersection
marking to the intersection of the line at 1750 with the polyline 500 inside the hull trace.
6. Erase the inside hull trace.
7. Trim the remaining lines as shown in the next figure.
8. Create scallops at the connection of the margin bracket to the margin plate.

9. Create a toolpath for the outside of the margin bracket.
10. You might get an error message as shown below. ShipConstructor detected that a gap is produced by an
AutoCAD trimming error. The distance is 0.7264mm. Although it is a small distance, it will still cause the NC
code generation to fail or the part may be damaged due to erratic torch movements.
11. There is an AutoCAD trimming problem. In many cases AutoCAD trims only the segment of the polyline that
you picked. In this case there is a problem at the top right corner of the margin bracket.
12. Click on the Create End Circles button.
13. Select Outside Cut for the Process Color. Click OK.
14. ShipConstructor creates circles of the specified diameter around the two open ends of the polyline.
Not trimmed properly
15. To fix the problem you need to trim the small portion.
16. Create a toolpath again. This time it should work.

Margin Bracket Solid
So far, we have ignored the fact that the margin bracket will be flanged. All that we are drawing at the moment is
what will be visible in body view. The flange will be created after we make the solid for the flat plate without the
flange.
1. Draw a lightening hole circle of 150mm radius at a convenient position inside of the margin bracket.
2. Set the process color to Inside Cut.
3. Create a plate solid for the margin bracket in the regular way. Use PL10 stock and throw direction Aft. Use
the outside toolpath and the lightening hole when creating the solid.
4. Click the Flanged Plate button.

Select polyline segment to flange
5. Click on the segment of the margin bracket outside toolpath that will be flanged. It is the straight line
segment running under an angle of about 45 degrees. See figure.
Select the direction of the flange:
6. Click to the above inboard side of the flange line segment, to indicate the direction of the expanded flange.
The function activates the solid layer.
Select plate solid:
7. Click on the plate solid for the margin plate. The next dialogs control the appearance of the flange.
8. Manager has several prepared flanges. You can also set up your own. We are using a flange called
FLG100S45, a 100mm flange with 45-degree snipes on both ends and no relief radii. Click OK when
done.
• Flange Size: The size of the flange after folding.

• Flange Correction: The plate material stretches during flanging. For most flanging operations up to
about 15mm or ¾ inch a correction of 1 times the plate thickness creates flanges of the right size. You can
obtain the correction parameters by flanging rectangular plates of different thicknesses. Then measure the
web and flange size. The change of web and flange size divided by the thickness of the plate stock gives
you the correction factors.
• Fold Line Correction: Similar to the flange correction, this factor corrects the fold line due to plate
material stretching.
• Plate Thickness: Thickness of the plate solid selected.
• 1st and 2nd Relief Radius: Radii at the end of the fold line.
• 1st and 2nd Angle: Snipe angles for the flange.
9. The Flange Options dialog appears. Set the parameters as shown in the figure. The text on the nested plate
part will read FLANGE UP 90 for the flanging operator. The flanging line will be 50mm shorter than the actual
flange.
10. The Flange Direction dialog controls the appearance of the solid flange. Set the direction to Aft. This will
create a solid of the flange toward the aft direction. Click OK.
11. Set a viewpoint of 1, -2, 1 and zoom into the flanged part.
12. Shade the drawing. The result should look like this:

The solid of the margin bracket is now ready. We simply need to fix up the expanded flange.
13. Set a view Body Fwd to Aft again.
14. Activate the production layer _PRD.
15. Zoom to the inside area of the flange as shown.
16. You will see a small gap between the flange snipe and the scallop. This results from the correction for the fold
line due to expected stretching of the web during expansion. You can select a method that best fits your needs
to close this gap. We recommend that you stretch the endpoint of the flange snipe line and snap to the end of the
arc.
17. Zoom to the outside area of the flange and correct the gap in a similar fashion.
18. The resulting drawing is shown in the next figure.
Note: The flange consists of several marking segments. Each segment and the caret symbols are displayed in a
dashed line style. You might have to change the LTSCALE for example to 30 to be able to see this. The text
FLG UP 90 is also dashed, but a dashed line style is not visible for text. Dashed indicates to ShipConstructor that the
marking is on the far side of the plate part. ShipConstructor will later automatically set the MARK FARSIDE flag
for the part. This will result in the part being nested to be mirrored, as if looking from the aft side. Thus the flange
information will be visible to the person at the flange press.

19. Connect the outside to a toolpath.
Margin Bracket Mark Far Side

We are looking at the margin bracket from forward to aft. The flange is towards the aft. If we NC-cut the part in this
form, then the flange information will be on the down side in the press brake when flanging. This would cause
difficulties as the operator would not see the marking information, and the flange would probably be the wrong size.
In order to have the marking on the other side we need to nest the part mirrored. ShipConstructor can take care of
this automatically if you change the marking line to the far side. Far side marking lines are displayed dashed. Adjust
the LTSCALE if the dashing is not visible. This setting can also be found in Manager in the user settings on the
Symbols tab.
1. Insert a Part Orientation Icon on the margin bracket.
2. Define the part for the margin bracket in the usual way. There will be a warning regarding the marking
lines. The flange line, and carets are dashed, while the part orientation icon is for mark near side (continuous).

3. Select All mark far side and click OK.
4. Observe that the Mark Far Side checkbox is automatically checked, as the marking lines had all been
changed to the far side setting. Assign the part to the main deck MDK, piecemark P02.
Practice: Create a margin bracket the same way for frame 113.
Frame Profile
The outside frame is made up of a BF240X12 curved profile. The profile cross section is defined as a stock in
Manager. We need to prepare the extrusion path. It has to be the exact length and shape of the outside of the profile
in body view. We made a copy of the outside hull trace to the revision _REV layer earlier. We will now retrieve it to
make the extrusion path.
The stiffener has an overlap of 250mm with the deck girder and the margin bracket. We have to trim the hull trace to
these positions to make the exact extrusion path.

1. Make sure you are in drawing U12F112 and the drawing is in body view.
2. Activate the revision layer _REV.
3. Copy the hull frame trace to the production layer _PRD.
5. Trim the frame trace such that it overlaps 250mm with the margin bracket and with the web of the deck girder
as shown.
Tip: Draw the trim lines, and then hide the deck girder and margin bracket. Unhide them after trimming. Do this by
selecting SC Structure / Hide and then selecting the parts to hide them. Select SC Structure / Unhide All to
bring them back.
6. Set a 3D View FROM FWD STBD UP and zoom to the upper end of the extrusion path.
7. Click the Stiffener Solid button.

8. Select the extrusion path, which is the trimmed hull trace of the frame.
9. Do not pick a plate solid, simply press ENTER. The outside profile is not attached to a specific plate solid.

10. Select the stock BF240X12, use the LAP250 endcuts for start and end, Web Direction is Starboard and
Toe Direction is Fwd. Click OK.
11. Define a part for the frame profile.
12. Activate the production layer and delete the polyline that was used for the frame profile generation and the two
trim lines. Clean up the drawing often.
13. Set a view point as shown in the figure above and shade the drawing to confirm the correctness of our work.
Shade the drawing. It should look like the above figure.
14. REGEN the drawing.

Checking Group Drawings
It is good practice to check a planar group drawing when all parts are defined. The checking command checks for
dozens of potential errors in the group drawing. After the command finishes a list dialog will show all unused
geometry on the production or the solid layer.
Entities that are on the production layer and are not blocks (parts are blocks) are potential errors. In addition, solids
that are not assigned to a part are potential errors. It is quite easy to forget to include marking, such as the part
orientation icon, into the part when you define it. You should either include all entities on the production layer into
parts or move them to the revision layer.
1. Select SC Structure / Check Group DWG…. Some errors can be fixed without user intervention, while
others cannot. The dialog is divided into three sections. Please read the dialog carefully to understand what the
command will perform.
2. Click OK.
3. Make sure both checkboxes are checked. Click OK.

4. The command creates a file called RepairGroup.txt and loads it in the Windows Notepad. There should be
no errors reported. You should print the file if there are any errors and try to resolve them.
5. Close Notepad.
6. The Unused Geometry dialog is now visible. You want to move it to one side of the screen. It should list 3
items. These are the trim line for the frame profile and the two trim lines. If you have more items, then you
probably did not clean up properly or you missed items when defining parts. Such items have to be added to the
part. After determining that an entity belongs to a part use the Add to Part button and select the part to add the
item to. Note: If you have many unused items, then you might not have created all parts. Close the dialog and
check this first. Then run the check again.
7. To erase items follow these steps. Highlight the first item in the list and click View.

8. The command zooms to the entity and highlights it. Zoom Out and in to identify the item.
9. Make sure it should be erased. Click the ERASE button to remove it.
10. Highlight the remaining item. Click View. This is the same hull trace on the other side. Erase this one as
well.
11. Click Close.
Note: If you have any solids listed, then you most likely forgot to create parts for them or an aborted command left
one around. Decide if such a solid should be converted to a part or if it should be erased by investigating the solid
and production layers.
Practice: Do the same with U12FR113.
Creating the Mirror Parts

All the parts we have defined need to be mirrored symmetrically on the starboard side. ShipConstructor allows you
to mirror parts. It will automatically assign new names to the parts and enter them into Manager.
Important: Do not use the AutoCAD MIRROR function, as it will not work correctly on ShipConstructor parts!
1. Zoom Extents to see all parts.

2. Activate the production layer. It should look like this.

3. Select SC Structure / Part / Mirror Part.
4. Select all entities on the production layer. Press ENTER.
5. The Mirror Part dialog is displayed. Plate parts usually contain a part orientation icon. The icon can make use
of two text indicators such as PORT and OUTBOARD or STARBOARD and OUTBOARD. These words are
user customizable. You can instruct ShipConstructor to replace these words automatically when mirroring parts.
In our case we want to replace PORT with STBD.
6. Check the Apply to All option, so you will not be prompted for each part. Click OK.
7. The parts will be mirrored to the starboard side. All mirrored parts have been assigned new names
automatically. Manager is updated as well with the new parts. The word PORT will be replaced with STBD in
the starboard versions of the parts.
Practice: Using what you have learned, create the stiffeners and the plate part on F113. Some of the geometry has
already been copied, so it should go a little faster.

Review
This portion has taken quite some time. As you gain expertise the part detailing will become much faster. The
construction unit, as you see in this example, took about 40 man-hours to define using standard design drawings, 4
man-hours to nest, and 20 man-hours to create assembly drawings.
You have now learned the main commands of part definition. In the next chapter we will handle different cases of
part creation, such as:
• Parts with faceplates
• Flanged parts
• Identical stiffeners that can be copied
• Standard brackets
You can continue working through the following chapters or jump directly to the chapter on nesting.
Designing the Center Girder
Faceplates
The longitudinal girder drawing U12LBHC is almost finished. You just have to complete the double bottom girder.
All the geometry for the plate part itself is finished too, but the lightening holes have to be enforced with faceplates.
We will practice two new procedures in this drawing:
• Creating faceplates that form closed rings.
• Copying a defined part to many new locations.
Double bottom girder
Defining the Faceplate Part

We will now define the faceplates for the man-holes in the longitudinal double bottom girder. The girder is partially
finished. The production information for the plate part is complete and the plate solid has also been created.

The lightening hole will be reinforced by a closed faceplate, meaning that the ends touch. The faceplate will be bent
from straight flat bar stock. A minimum distance of the ends from any radius is required for bending. We will place
the ends at the center of the top horizontal segment of the lightening hole.

2. Select the 2D Group tab and open LngBhd / U12LBHC.
3. Zoom to the lightening hole in the bottom girder panel farthest to the left.
4. Click the Faceplate button.

5. Select the lightening hole toolpath as the path for the faceplate.
6. Select the plate solid.
7. Select the faceplate stock FB150X20. Check Make start and end symbols. Select Position Centered.
Select Path Closed. Click OK.

8. For the start point select the mid point of the top segment of the lightning hole. Use MID OSNAP.
9. The OSNAP is automatically set to NEAR. Pick on the top horizontal segment near the mid point in
forward direction to indicate in which direction we want the faceplate to proceed from the start point. The
production report will later contain all bending information for this faceplate part. The direction in which the
faceplate proceeds from the start point is important.
10. Pick towards the inside of the toolpath to indicate on which side of the faceplate path the faceplate is to be
located.
11. The faceplate is created. Change to a 3D viewpoint and shade the drawing to verify the correctness of the
faceplate.
12. Switch back to a profile view.

13. Zoom to the top horizontal segment of the faceplate.
15. A small triangle in Marking Color indicates the start point and the direction of the faceplate. It will be
marked during NC cutting the part. Thus, it will be easy to position the faceplate correctly.

16. Zoom to the size of the faceplate.
17. Define a part for the faceplate. A correct unused part name is automatically proposed. Assign the part to the
assembly Demo-U12-DB-CTRGRDR.
18. Use a piecemark text size of 25mm. Place the piecemark vertically on the plate at the forward vertical segment
of the lightening hole.

Copying Parts
All lightening holes and respective faceplates in the double bottom center girder are the same size. We can save time
by copying the part and the triangular start-direction symbol at the top. We use the AutoCAD COPY command to
copy parts. ShipConstructor intercepts the copy command and makes the appropriate Manager entries. Identical
parts have the same names. However, ShipConstructor internally keeps track of the links to the appropriate records
in the database. The triangular start-direction symbol is not part of the faceplate part, and needs to be selected in
addition to the part.
Important: When copying parts, always select only the piecemark - do not select the solid, as it will be
copied automatically by ShipConstructor. For stiffeners and faceplate the only entity on the production layer
is the piecemark. For plate parts any production entity, such as toolpath, marking holes may also be picked to
identify the part(s) to copy. It is a good idea to activate the production layer before copying parts to avoid picking
any solids in error.
1. Zoom out somewhat to see about 3 or 4 lightening holes. If you have a high-resolution display, you can
probably zoom to see all the lightening holes.
3. Set OSNAP to END only.
4. Start the COPY command normally, and select the piecemark of the faceplate to copy and the direction
symbol.
5. Use the Multiple option of the COPY command to make all the copies at once.
6. Snap to any endpoint on the lightning-hole toolpath, for example the top left arc endpoint.
7. For the new position select the appropriate points on the other lightning-holes
Tip: Use the scroll bars or the mouse center button PAN to proceed to the other lightening holes when
picking the Second point of displacement.
8. Press ENTER or ESC when done.
Note: ShipConstructor knows when a part has identical copies. When you change one of the parts, ShipConstructor
will ask you:
• If you want to change all other parts in the same manner, in which case all piecemarks remain the same,
and all part are automatically updated.
• If only this one part is to be changed, in which case this part receives a new name and piecemark.

Double Bottom Girder Part Definition
We can now define the girder plate part. As usual, we want to include the piecemarks of the attached faceplates into
the part.
Practice: Define the double bottom girder plate part. Use a piecemark text size of 50mm.
Practice: Run a check on the group drawing. There should be no unused geometry left.

Using Standards
Overview
ShipConstructor allows you to define standards such as brackets. You can then use the standard in any group
drawing. We will use a pre-defined standard bracket on the aft bulkhead.
Exploring an Existing Standard

We will now look at a standard bracket.
Note: In the 98 version the piecemarks for standard part were created in a specific way: by including $$$ at the end
of the part name. This was used to create individually name parts for each use of the standard part. The 99 and 2000
versions of ShipConstructor now handle identical and standard parts such that identical names are allowed.
ShipConstructor keeps the links to the unique database records internally.
2. Click the Standard tab.

3. Under Structural Standards click on BKT101 and click Open.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Using Standards • 113

4. The bracket drawing is displayed. The bracket is created just like any other plate part would be.
Inserting Standard Brackets in the Aft Bulkhead

Several of these standard brackets are already in use in the drawing of bulkhead 106 to connect the vertical stiffener
on the bulkhead to the ones under the deck. We will now insert the missing ones.
1. Open group drawing U12F106.
2. Set a 3D View FROM FWD STBD UP.
4. Zoom to the upper edge of the bulkhead near the centerline of the bulkhead as shown.
There are already several brackets along the top edge of the bulkhead. The outboard brackets are already in place.
However, three inboard brackets are missing.
Creating an Out of Plane UCS

This group drawing is a frame, thus the standard UCS is in transverse direction. However, the brackets are not in the
plane of the frame, but perpendicular to it. A plate part can only exist in a UCS plane in order to work as in 2D.
Without a UCS, ShipConstructor cannot convert the part to true 2D for nesting.
We need to create what we call an out of plane UCS at the location where the bracket is to be inserted. The
brackets tie stiffeners on the bulkhead to a longitudinal stiffener below the main deck. ShipConstructor provides
commands to create and activate out of plane UCSs easily. We will now create an out of plane UCS at the top end of
one vertical stiffener.
114 • Using Standards ShipConstructor Tutorial

2. The dialog lists all available UCSs. In the list you will find the familiar construction UCS (U12F106_C), the
thickness UCS (U12F106_T), and the WORLD UCS. There are also several UCS that are named “OPnnn”.
OP stands for Out of Plane, and nnn is a sequential number. You do not have to remember the OP UCS
names; ShipConstructor will keep track of them for you and you usually activate them by clicking on an entity
in that UCS.
3. Make sure U12F106_C is the currently active UCS. The active UCS will be highlighted when the dialog
comes up. If it is not active, select it from the list and click Activate. Press ENTER to start this command again.
4. In the dialog click New Out of Plane.

Select origin.
5. The function sets OSNAP END and NEAR. Click on the upper end of the first vertical stiffener marking
inboard of the most inboard bracket (see figure below).
Select point on axis.
6. The function sets OSNAP NEAR. Pick any other point on the same vertical marking line.
Locate third point in plane or ENTER for perpendicular to UCS:
7. Press ENTER to create a UCS perpendicular to bulkhead 106. The out of plane UCS is created as
indicated by the UCS icon. We can now use it to insert the standard bracket.
Constructing the Bracket Insertion Point at the Top

End of Stiffener
We need to insert the bracket such that it overlaps with the vertical stiffener on the bulkhead and the longitudinal
stiffener under the main deck by 50mm. It is a little tricky to find the right insertion point. The bracket is drawn in
the standard drawing with the origin outside the lower left snipe.
We will draw a help line in our new UCS to indicate the insertion point. To make it easier to locate the insertion
point, we will insert the main deck group drawing into the bulkhead drawing. The bracket has to overlap both
stiffeners by 500mm.
1. Make sure the production layer is active.

2. Click .
3. In the dialog check U12MDCK to insert the main deck. Click OK.
4. Activate both the production and solid layers. You will see the stiffener solids.
Draw lines from here
5. Zoom in closely to the stiffener ends in the plane of the current UCS.
6. Draw a horizontal line from the aft lower end of the deck stiffener towards forward. Make sure that
ORTHO is on.
7. Draw a vertical line from the top forward end of the vertical stiffener up.
8. Activate the production layer only.
9. Offset the horizontal line 50mm up and the vertical line 50mm aft. Extend these lines until they intersect.
The intersection of these two lines is the insertion point of the bracket.
10. Draw a line from the intersection of the two offset lines diagonally (ORTHO off) up and aft.
11. Erase the previously drawn lines, except for the diagonal line.
12. Activate the production and solid layers. Compare what you have drawn to the next figure.

Bracket help line
Bracket insertion
point
13. Click . Select Uncheck All to unload the previously inserted main deck drawing.
14. In the dialog click Uncheck All and then click OK.
Inserting a Standard Bracket at Top End of Stiffener

We are now ready to insert the standard bracket at the specified location on the OP UCS.
2. On the toolbar click the Insert Standard Part button.

3. In the dialog select BRKT101.DWG and click OK.
4. For the insertion location, choose the lower right end point of the diagonal help line.
5. The command now allows you to rotate the bracket. Make sure ORTHO is on. Rotate the bracket as shown in
the figure.

Mirror part? Yes, <No>
6. Press ENTER to select the default option, No.
7. In the dialog, set Throw direction to Port. Click OK. The stiffeners throw towards the starboard side.
8. The part properties dialog is displayed exactly the same as when defining a part earlier in this chapter. Only
the part name is not changeable. Assign the bracket to Assembly Demo-U12-B106. Click OK.
9. Erase the diagonal help line we just created.

It is now time to verify that we inserted the bracket at the right position.
1. Click .

2. XREF the U12MDCK drawing again.
3. Set the 3D View to FROM FWD PORT DOWN.
4. Activate the solid layer.
5. Zoom to the bracket.
6. Shade the drawing to verify correctness.
7. Click .
8. Click Uncheck All, then click OK.
Copying Brackets at Top End of Stiffener

We need the same bracket at the other two stiffeners towards the centerline. You can insert the standard bracket
using the same procedure. However, we can save time by copying the brackets relative to the endpoint of the
stiffener marking lines.
1. Return to the same view and zoom that we used when inserting the bracket.
3. Zoom such that you can see the newly inserted bracket and the marking lines of the two stiffeners towards the
centerline with the missing brackets. We only copy the missing brackets on the port side of the vessel. The
brackets on the other side will be mirrored.
4. Type COPY.
5. Select the newly inserted bracket.
6. Choose the Multiple option to make more than one copy.
7. For the base point pick the upper end of the stiffener marking line next to the bracket.
8. For the copy point select the upper end of the next stiffener marking line towards inboard.
9. Make the next copy one more time inboard. Do not copy this part to centerline or any stiffener on the
starboard side.
10. Activate the solid and production layer.
11. Shade the drawing. See figure.

Practice: Mirror all the brackets from the port side to the starboard side. Remember to use the command SC
Structure / Part / Mirror Part. Do not use the AutoCAD mirror command.

Checking the unit
Overview
We have now defined all parts and can prepare the unit for:
• Nesting
• Assembly drawings
It is good practice to check the unit before proceeding to the next steps. The checking includes:
• Check the unit drawing
• Check all group drawings
• Check for interferences
Check the Unit Drawing

The unit drawing consists of XREFs of all group drawings. For each group drawing there is a construction and a
thickness throw UCS in the 3D unit drawing. The check function ensures that all group drawings are properly
recorded in Manager. Also, there should be no entities in the unit drawing, with the exception of the XREFs of the
group drawings.
This function is very powerful. It will even repair a unit drawing from nothing. For example, if your unit drawing
becomes corrupted and unreadable to AutoCAD, simply create a new empty unit drawing in the unit directory and
call it the same as the unit. Then run the check function. The unit drawing will be completely rebuilt from
information in Manager and the individual group drawings.
1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click . Open the 3D unit drawing.

2. Select ShipConstructor / Check / 3D Unit Drawing. The function goes through all group drawings and
compares the information in them with the unit drawing and information stored in Manager. It will attempt to
fix any problems and report anything that might have gone astray.
3. The log file should report no errors.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Checking the unit • 121

4. Close Notepad.
5. The Unused Geometry list should be empty. If not, clean up the drawings that still have unused entities on the
production layer or make sure that all solids are assigned to parts or erased.
We are now sure that we can proceed to the next step.
Check all Group Drawings

This command operates similar to checking an individual group drawing. We have done this each time we finished a
group drawing. In this case ShipConstructor checks all group drawings at once.
1. Open the 3D unit drawing if it is not yet open.
2. Make sure that none of the group drawings are open, either by yourself with a second AutoCAD session
(you could be running two instances of AutoCAD) or by another person on the network.
3. Select ShipConstructor / Check / Planar Group DWGs. The dialog displays which criteria will be
checked for each group drawing. You would check Update piecemark process color from Manager if
you changed your mind in the middle of the detailing process. For example, if an NC machine with text
marking capability breaks down.
6. Click OK to start. This command opens each planar group drawing individually, so it may take a while.
122 • Checking the unit ShipConstructor Tutorial

7. The log file should report no errors.
8. Close Notepad.
9. The Unused Geometry list should be empty. If not investigate what needs to be fixed. Unused geometry is
anything that is not a part or a solid that is not assigned to a part.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Checking the unit • 123

Interference Checking
Overview
The interference checking function detects all collisions of parts. You can also import solids from other programs,
such as Pipe, cabling or Outfit software, and check the interferences.
Common mistakes are:
• Forgetting that another group part is passing through a part, such as a longitudinal girder passing through
frames.
• Incorrect throw direction for connecting brackets on stiffeners.
• Skewed intersections such as the margin plate through the frames. Forgetting to consider wider gap due to the
skewed intersection angle.
Create the Interference Drawing

First we have to create an interference drawing from the unit drawing. The unit drawing actually displays only the
groups as XREFs, but the interference drawing will have all the information in it.
1. Open the unit drawing.
2. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator and choose the Interference tab and press the New button.
3. In the dialog select the group drawings and any other drawing (Pipe, Outfit) that you want to include in the
interference check.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Interference Checking • 125

4. Enter a name for the interference drawing. Click OK.
5. The resulting drawing should look like this:
126 • Interference Checking ShipConstructor Tutorial

Calculating Interferences
New! - Interference checking has been updated to allow for checking not only of structure, but also various options
for Pipe. This has been done in order to let you focus on certain portions of the unit.
An interference is the collision of two or more solids. Since we expect that everything is correct, for this example we
will force some interferences on purpose. To simulate interferences, move one or two parts a little way in a
transverse direction. For example, grab the floor portion of the most forward frame and move it a small distance
inboard.
Note: ShipConstructor cannot detect interference with shell plating, as AutoCAD does not currently provide
interference checking between solids and surfaces. Shell plating is represented as a surface.
1. Move one or more parts as explained above to force some interferences.

2. Select ShipConstructor / Check Interferences. The following dialog box appears and should be empty.
3. New! - In the bottom right of the dialog you find the interference checking options. Select Struct-Struct to just
check structural interference at this time.
4. Click the Run Check button.
5. First the function first runs a quick pre-check to find any pair of solids that might intersect to reduce the time of
the interference calculations. ShipConstructor informs you how many possible interferences it has detected. A
Minimum Interference Volume lets you filter out very small interferences that might be due to computer
rounding errors, or that are so small that they would not be noticed during construction. The default Minimum
Interference Volume value is stored in Manager. Click OK to confirm.
6. The calculation will take a while. As a reference, it takes 50 seconds on a PII-400.

7. Some intentional interferences are generated to show you sample results. The data is displayed in the
interference List Dialog shown below.

8. Some interference data is immediately available such as:
• Names of the two interfering parts.
• The suggested solution as noted by the drafter/designer.
9. More information can be obtained by right clicking on an interference and selecting Solution to bring up the
following dialog. This dialog shows you the physical properties of the interference and allows the user to enter a
solution.
10. The solutions and detail information can be exported to a text file and be printed by pressing the Report button,
which displays a dialog asking the user to enter a name of the resulting text file and what information to display.
11. Notepad file - This form is good for printing. It allows you to check through all drawings and fix your errors.

12. You can resize the Interference List dialog. You can also continue using AutoCAD and ShipConstructor
functions without closing it. For example, you might want to change the viewpoint while the dialog is open.
You can also close the dialog and open it again using the menu.
13. You can use the controls on the right hand side of the dialog, and those on the right click menu to check the
details of the interference problem.
14. In the dialog highlight the first interference.

15. Check the Center option.
16. Click right click and select View. The command hides all solids except for the two involved in the collision and
the interference solid.
17. Click on the ‘+’ plus button to zoom in, and the ‘-’ minus button to zoom out.

18. Click in the Interference dialog. Make sure the same interference is still highlighted.
19. Click the Show / All radio button. ShipConstructor now displays all solids.
Practice: Correct any problems you might find. Create a new interference drawing. Check for any remaining
interferences.

Nesting
Overview
Nesting is the process of arranging parts on stock plates or remnants in preparation for NC-processing and NC-
cutting. ShipConstructor provides several functions that allow quick and accurate manual placement of parts on the
plate, with automatic spacing between parts and to the plate edge. You can also use and automatic nesting option to
speed up the nesting process.
Nesting parts for shipbuilding is a complex procedure. Many factors have to be considered when nesting a specific
part on a specific stock plate. An experienced person can only make certain decisions. Often decisions depend on the
current state of the production progress. Here are a few points to consider when nesting:
ShipConstructor Tutorial Nesting • 131

• Plate stock used - ShipConstructor assigns automatically.
• Surface treatment, i.e. raw plate, blasted, primed, - ShipConstructor assigns automatically.
• P/S parts & like / mirror plates - ShipConstructor detects automatically.
• Assembly sequence, when is the part needed - to be determined by the user.
• Best plate utilization under above restriction - to be determined by the user.
• Revision tracking - ShipConstructor detects automatically.
It is common that revisions occur while nesting is progressing. ShipConstructor gives you full flexibility to change a
nest at any stage. A check function detects revised parts and parts that have been placed on hold. Parts found to have
changed since being initially nested can be automatically re-nested at the same position.
Nesting Toolbar
The nesting toolbar provides access to the most commonly used nesting functions. We will discuss the use of each of
them in this chapter.
Insert Parts
Snap & Gap
Slide
Align
Move & Rotate
Assign to Nest
Nest Layers
Bridging
Nesting Preparation
ShipConstructor uses many settings that are stored in Manager. These settings are the same for several users working
on the same project. ShipConstructor loads these settings every time they are required from the central Manager
database.
132 • Nesting ShipConstructor Tutorial

Manager Nesting Settings
All project-wide nesting settings are stored in Manager. Please follow along as we look at the nest settings for this
project.
Nesting Colors and Name Prefix

There are two stages during the nesting. Stage one - parts are inserted in the nest drawing, but not assigned to the
final nest. Quite often, you have to juggle parts between nests to get the best compromise. During this stage, the
parts are colored differently from the original colors. Stage two -parts are assigned to a nest and you can proceed to
generate nest reports and NC-programming. The nest color settings are available on the Settings / Nesting tab.
Use colors that make it easy for you to distinguish between parts in stage one and stage two.
ShipConstructor automatically names the nests. The nest name consist of two parts; the prefix - you can instruct
ShipConstructor which prefix type to use, and a number - ShipConstructor ensures that the next available is used.
1. Start Manager.
2. Select Project / Settings.
3. Select the Nesting Tab.
• Nesting colors - During detailing, outside cut, inside cut, marking, and no-process entities were given
specific colors. You can insert any number of parts into a nest drawing and decide during the nesting
process which plate the part will finally be nested on. Only then will the part be assigned to a specific plate.
In the meantime the part is unassigned. The unassigned state is represented by a different coloring scheme.
When a part is initially inserted into a nest drawing the colors indicating the NC-process are change to the
Nesting colors. Once the part is assigned to the final plate the colors are changed back.
• Nest Name Prefix - The prefix that ShipConstructor will generate automatically for creating nest names.
• Drawing Name - Uses the name of the nest drawing plus a running number for the rest of the nest
name. Example: PL10-001.
• Unit Name - Uses the unit name as the base of the nest drawing name with an extension after that.
• Custom - Lets you define the nest drawing name.
4. Close the Settings dialog.
Nest Production Settings

The nest production settings are accessible through another dialog.
1. In Manager, select Libraries / Stocks.
2. Select the Plates option in the tree control on the left of the dialog.

3. The right of the dialog lists all plate stocks and their pertinent data, including the data required for nesting and
NC-cutting.
4. Select the PL10 plate stock and click the Edit button.
5. The Edit Stock dialog lets you set up and change the plate stock data including the data relevant to nesting and
NC-cutting.
All settings are per stock. This enables different settings for each stock type. For example, you can set a different
cutting machine for each material. All steel up to a certain thickness might be cut with a plasma burner, above that
thickness all steel is to be cut with another Oxy-fuel cutter, while all aluminum and non-metal material is to be cut
with a high speed router. The settings are:
• Pierce Time - Time it takes to pierce a hole. This is used by NC-Pyros to estimate actual processing time.
• Cut Feed - The feed rate for cutting. Either in mm/min or inches/min.
• Bridge Width - Size of bridges. ShipConstructor can bridge parts to keep them together, to minimize piercing,
and avoid the loss of small parts into the cutting bed.
• Part Gap - Distance that ShipConstructor will leave between any two parts.
• Plate Margin - Distance that ShipConstructor will leave between parts and the plate edge.
• NC-Machine - The NC-cutting machine to use. NC-Pyros, our NC-cutting software stores all settings for each
machine in Manager under that same name. This ensures that NC-Pyros will automatically generate the code for
the correct machine.
• Length & Width - This lists the plate size available for this particular stock.
Note: Mark Feed and Fast Feed are independent of the plate properties and are set up for the machine in the NC-
Machine library.

Organizing Nesting
All structural work is carried out on a unit basis. However, nesting might not be carried on a unit-by-unit basis. You
might be building more than one unit at a time. Nesting just one unit could also create too much unused plate space.
The unused space can be treated as a remnant or drop. A remnant is the unused portion of a stock plate.
ShipConstructor keeps track of remnants for you. You can later on use remnants for nesting new parts.
Nesting Terminology
Nest Drawing
A nest drawing contains one or more nests of the same stock, but each nest may use a different plate size or
remnant. Many companies decide to use the stock name as the drawing name. Often the unit to which most or all of
the parts on the nest belong is integrated as well into the drawing name. For example: U12PL10.DWG contains parts
for U12 on PL10 stock plate.
Nests
Each nest drawing can have one or more nests. New nests are always based on a nest template. The nest consists
of the actual nest plate, automatically generated BOM, and header fields with automatically updated pertinent
information, such as plate size, material, utilization, cutting time estimate and more.
Nest Templates
The first figure in the chapter shows a finished nest drawing. The border of the nest, the text and the BOM are all
created automatically by ShipConstructor. In order to accomplish this task a template is used for the nest when it
is initially created. The templates are regular AutoCAD drawings. ShipConstructor comes with a ready-made nest
template. You can customize the nest template to suit your needs. We will look at the supplied template now.
5. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click . Select the Template tab.

6. Select Nest / Nest01. This is the ready-made template drawing. Click Open.
7. The nest template drawing is opened as shown. Compare the large figure at the beginning of this chapter.

The border of the template is a key element in the nest and should not be deleted. ShipConstructor uses it to
determine which elements belong to this nest, which is important when you have many nests in the same drawing.
The top of the drawing has entries prepared for the project name the nest name and more. To the right of each field
name is a KEYWORD (all in green), for example <PROJECT>. Each keyword is inside of “< >”. Keywords are
later automatically replaced by actual data. You can move keywords around, change size or color, or delete
them if do not require the information.
At the bottom left you will find the keyword <NSTINSERTSTOCK>. The stock plate will be inserted at his
position. The aspect ratio of this nest template has been set to utilize an 8.5x11 or A4 sheet when plotted in
landscape mode. ShipConstructor provides an automatic plotting function that lets you plot many nests with one
command.
Starting to Nest
Opening a Nest Drawing

1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click . Select the Nest tab. Select the file PL10.DWG and click
Open.
2. The drawing should look just like in the figure. There are 4 nests in this drawing. Each nest is based on the
template that we just looked at.
3. Zoom to the lower left nest to see the nested parts a little closer.
4. Pan to the upper area of the same nest. Here you find all information about the nest, including who
processed it and when. You will also find utilization, weight, and an estimated time for processing.

5. Zoom to the list on the left. This is the automatically generated BOM. The items in the BOM are fully
customizable. Use Manager to customize the contents of the BOM.
Adding a New Nest

Each drawing can have many nests of the same plate stock. Only the plate size can vary within one nest drawing!
Manager stores the purchased plate sizes and makes them available to ShipConstructor.
1. Make sure you are in nest drawing PL10.DWG.
2. Zoom or pan such that you can see the right edge of the lower right nest. We want to attach the new nest
to it.
3. Make sure ORTHO is OFF.
4. Select SC Nesting / Nest / New. The New Nest dialog is displayed.
5. ShipConstructor creates a default name for the new nest. It should be PL10-05.DWG. Leave the name as is.
6. At the bottom are the available nest templates with a preview. You can have several different templates.
7. The upper right of the dialog shows the Plate Stock used in this nest drawing. It cannot be changed.
8. From the drop down list you can select a different plate sizes as defined in Manager. In this case we have three
plate sizes available. Select the 12.000m x 3.000m plate size.
9. Click OK.
10. Select OSNAP END.
11. Attach the new nest to the lower right corner of the bottom right nest already in the drawing left of the current
stock plate. See figure.

Inserting Parts into the Nest Drawing
In the next step we will add parts to this nest drawing.
• Case1: You elected to design all or some parts of frames F112 and F113. The plate parts are made from PL10
stock and can be nested on this plate. Continue at Inserting Parts.
• Case 2: You did not create any parts for the frames. In this case we just remove all parts from nest PL10-04.
We can then re-nest them. PL10-04 is the upper right nest. To remove the parts follow these steps:
• Zoom to nest PL10-04 in the upper right corner.
• Simply erase all parts. Be careful not to erase any part of the nest template or the outline of the nest plate.
ShipConstructor intercepts the standard AutoCAD erase command and updates Manager for each erased
part.
• Press ENTER.
• You can now follow along the nesting. Just be aware that the parts will be different from the ones that will
be shown in the figures and dialogs.
Inserting Parts (ShipConstructor)

ShipConstructor provides a sophisticated nest dialog that allows you to select just the parts that you want to nest
right now.
1. Zoom to nest PL10-05 on the lower right.
2. Click the Insert Parts button. The Nesting Filter dialog is displayed.
3. The top right displays the stock properties used in this nest drawing. In this case we are using PL10 stock.
4. On the right side of the dialog are the controls for the filter function. Only parts that match the selected
options will be available for nesting. In this case we have the following settings:
• Same as stock plate - Only parts made from PL10 stock can be nested. Un-check this only if you want
to “cross-nest”. That is, you want to nest, for example, 8mm brackets onto 10mm stock.
• Not nested - If un-checked the filter will display also parts that are already nested for reference.
• Paint - If checked it allows you to select a paint option. For example, you might have some primed plate
and only want to nest parts on these that are to be cut from primed plate.

• Side - You can select the side of the vessel the parts are on. In our case we want to nest only PS designated
parts. This allows us to do Like & Mirror cutting. A Like & Mirror plate will only be processed once, but
cut twice. Many cutting machines can do this at the same time, reducing processing time by half.
• Current Unit - Only parts from the current unit are displayed.
5. The left side of the dialog displays the assembly tree with all parts that match the filter setting. The assembly
tree makes it easy to nest by construction unit or any other assembly. Click the check box that is in front of the
U12 name and all sub-assemblies and parts.
6. The bottom of the dialog confirms the number of parts selected for nesting and allows you to choose between
Manual nesting and Automatic. Automatic requires that you have installed either the full or demo version
of Radan Systems’ AutoNest software, please see the installation manual for instructions on how to install the
demo version. For the moment we shall use the Manual nesting option, so make sure it is selected.
7. Click OK.
8. In the next dialog select Insert Parts Individually or choose Array Parts.
Note: The general procedures for inserting parts into a nest drawing are as follows:
Option 1: Insert Parts Individually:

• All parts are sorted by size, with the largest part inserted first.
• Parts are inserted at the mouse position, automatically rotated to the smallest horizontal rectangle, with the
move command active.
• Move the mouse to move the part.
• You can change the rotation using the function keys F5 and F6. Use the ‘+’ plus and ‘-’ minus keys to
increase or decrease the rotation steps.
• Be sure to set the OSNAP OFF and ORTHO OFF. Otherwise you might not see the part at all.
New! - Option 2: Array Parts:
• All parts are sorted by size, with the largest part inserted first.
• The first is inserted at the mouse position, automatically rotated to the smallest horizontal rectangle, with
the move command active.
• All other parts are inserted automatically. The first row is filled with the number of parts specified.
• The next rows are filled with parts, such that the last part in that row does not exceed the right extent of the last
part in the first row. Since the first parts are the largest, it is usually good to choose a small number of parts for
the first row.
9. The first part is displayed at the mouse position. ShipConstructor automatically rotates the part to the best
horizontal position. The command prompt reads:

Inserting U12F112-P04: (1 of 12)
Rotate F5/F6, Increment +/- <15>
10. Do not rotate any of the parts at this point. Place them approximately as shown in the figure.
Align Function
This function aligns one side of the part with the horizontal or vertical axis. In our case the parts are already
horizontal, but we need to rotate some of them by 180 degrees. You could do this using the regular rotate function.
However, the align function is handy if the edge that you want to align is on a slope.
You should have 4 slender deck beams in the lower left corner of nest 5.
Two of the beams have the square corner on the left while the two others have the sloping side on the left. We make
better use of the nest plate if the square corners are all on the left against the edge of the plate. See next figure.
1. Click the Align button. The prompt displays:

Select part(s):
2. Select the 2 parts that have the sloped edge on the left. The prompt displays:

Select alignment point:
3. Click anywhere on the edges of one part. OSNAP NEAREST and END are automatically on. The prompt
displays:
Select align direction point:
4. Click any other point on the same edge of the same part. The two points indicate the direction that we want
to align with the vertical or horizontal axis.
Rotate part:
5. Move the mouse until the parts are rotated 180 degrees.
6. Use the MOVE command and move both parts into the empty space in the lower left corner of the plate again,
such that they are approximately in the right position. See figure above.
Snap Function
The snap function allows simple part placement against the edge of the plate or another part. The function spaces the
part using the “Gap between parts” or “Plate edge margin” settings set in Manager.
We will use the snap function again to nest three of the slender parts in the lower left area of the nest plate.
1. Click the Snap button.

Select part(s):
2. Select lower deck beam part. Press ENTER to finish selecting part. You could also use this function to SNAP
several parts at once.
Snap point:
3. At this point ShipConstructor activates OSNAP CENTER, INTERSECTION, and END. Move the mouse
over the lower left scallop of the part. Make sure the CENTER snap tip is on (indicated by a circle). If you
have problems, click the CENTER OSNAP button to force a CENTER snap only. Click to select the center of
the scallop. The prompt displays:
Snap to:
4. Select the lower left corner of the plate. The part snaps to the plate corner.
Click direction:
5. The function expects you to pick in the approximate direction to which you want to offset the part from the snap
point. In our case we want to move it by the value to the right and up. The function will snap to the closest 45
degrees direction that you pick. Click approximately 45 degrees to the right and up.
6. The part moves by the value set in Manager to the right and up. This keeps the part the perfect distance from the
plate edge. See figure.

We will use the same function now to SNAP two of the other deck beams to the just nested part. The fourth one will
not fit if we still want to nest the deeper double bottom part.

2. Select the slender part above the one just nested.
3. Select the center of the lower left scallop radius.
4. Select the center of the upper left scallop radius of the part just nested.
5. The part already has the gap to the left plate edge. It only needs to be spaced vertically up. Select a gap direction
straight up.
6. Repeat the same for the third deck beam part. The result should look like this.
We will now snap the double bottom part that is near the upper left plate corner.
1. Zoom to the upper left corner of the nest plate.

3. Click on the part.
4. Click to select the center of the upper left scallop.
5. Select the upper left corner of the nest plate edge. The part snaps right to the plate edge.
6. Click towards the lower right to indicate the direction to gap the part from the corner. See figure.

Practice: Position the remaining three bottom panels in the right area of the nest plate. Snap the upper two parts
starting in the top right corner. The lower part has to be rotated 180 degrees before snapping it to the lower right
corner. See figure:
Slide Part Function

Your nest should look similar to the one shown in the next figure. We will now nest some of the smaller flanged
margin bracket parts.
The slide function allows you to slide one part along the plate edge or any number of other parts. On the part to slide
you have to select two points. The first point is the slide point the second point indicates a tangent direction.
The tangent direction will be aligned with the outside of the other part or the plate edge. A ghost image is displayed
around the sliding part to indicate the gap.

Slide point
Tangent point
Part to slide
along
Part to slide
We want to slide the margin bracket shown in the figure into the gap between the two parts shown. The upper edge
will be sliding along the upper part.
1. Move one margin bracket into a position similar to the one shown in the figure above.
2. Click the Slide button.

Select part to slide:
3. Click on the margin bracket.

Select slide point:
4. Select as the slide point a point on the upper edge of the margin bracket. OSNAP END and NEAR are on.
Select tangent point:
5. Select a tangent point to the right on the same upper edge of the margin bracket.
Select part(s) to slide along:
6. Select the parts above and below the margin bracket.

7. Move the mouse. The bracket part will follow the mouse pointer. The margin bracket will rotate such that it will
be tangential to the part that it is sliding along. The part keeps automatically distance set in Manager from the
nearest part. The distance is indicated by the ghost line around the part.
8. The prompt displays:

F5 - toggle orient mode; F6 - Rotate 180 deg.:
<Tangent mode>
9. Press function key F6, if the part is on the wrong side of the part to slide along. (Sliding inside the other part
instead of along the outside) This will toggle the side the part is on. Next figure.

The slide function supports three slide modes. Press the function key F5 to activate these modes:
• Tangent mode - In this mode the sliding part will be aligned tangentially on the part sliding along.
• Two point mode - The two selected points on the sliding part will be on the outside or inside toolpath of
the part sliding along. This mode is valuable when placing smaller parts inside of holes.
• No rotate mode - The rotation of the part does not change the direction as it slides along. Practice all
three modes. Press the F5 key to toggle the mode. Move the mouse to see the effect of the three different
modes.
10. Make sure to be in the tangent mode. If not, press F5 until the command line displays tangent mode.
11. Move the mouse. Watch the ghost of the sliding part as you slide it. Achieve a position as shown in the next
figure and click the mouse to place the part here. Make sure that the ghost outline does not intersect with the
part on the other side.
Practice: Nest one other margin bracket at the top of the nest plate using the slide function as shown in the figure.
Move & Rotate Function

In some cases it is easier to just move and rotate the part around until it fits an empty space. We want to fit one of the
margin brackets now into the empty space shown in the figure below.

1. Click the Move & Rotate button.
2. Click on one un-nested margin bracket.
3. Select a base point anywhere inside the margin bracket.
4. Move the bracket with the mouse.
Rotate F5/F6, Increment +/- < 5>
5. You can use the F5 & F6 function keys to rotate the part. Each press of the function key rotates the part by
the angle indicated in brackets ‘<5>’ on the command line. Use the ‘+’ plus and ‘-’ minus keys to increase
or decrease the increments.
6. Obtain a position similar to the one shown in the next figure.
Practice: Nest the last margin bracket in the space in the lower center of the nest. When finished the completed nest
should look like in the figure below.
Practice: Notice that one deck beam part remains un-nested. There is space for it in the lower left corner of the
upper left nest PL10-02 for this part. Use the snap function to nest this part.
Practice: Three small brackets remain un-nested. You can nest them on the lower left nest called ‘PL10-01’ with all
the other small brackets.
Practice: Assign all newly nested parts to their respective nests.

Automatic Nesting
ShipConstructor provides an interface to Radan Systems’ AutoNest automatic nesting software. This software can be
purchased through Albacore Research Ltd. at a discount price along with ShipConstructor or it can be purchased
separately. If you have the full version of AutoNest or you have installed the demo version off of the
ShipConstructor CD then you can use AutoNest to nest all the previous parts.
1. If you have already gone through the ShipConstructor nesting tutorial then erase all the parts from PL10-05 nest
plate.
2. Click the Insert Parts button. The Nesting Filter dialog is displayed. Configure the dialog as is done
for Inserting Parts (ShipConstructor) except this time choose the AutoNest option.
3. Click OK.
4. Next ShipConstructor wants to know how many of which type of plate to use and what priority to give each
size. For the purpose of this tutorial will use 12000x3000 mm size stock, and we will supply 4 to AutoNest.
AutoNest will use the minimum number of plates that it can but we will supply more than it needs so it doesn’t
run out. Click OK to continue.
5. Once the AutoNest progress bar has finished processing the New Stock Plate dialog comes up allowing you
to choose the template to be used for new Nests. Click OK.

6. ShipConstructor will ask you to choose how the Nests will be inserted. For the purposes of the tutorial choose
Tile horizontally and Limit of nests per row of five. Click OK to proceed. ShipConstructor will then ask
you to choose the insertion point for the first nest to be inserted. Once you have chosen a location,
ShipConstructor will place down the nests and parts as in the positions specified by AutoNest.
7. As you can see above AutoNest has nested the parts, your results may vary depending on the number and size of
your parts and the size of the stock plates onto which they are nested. If you wish to tweak the part placement
and position you can use all the ShipConstructor nesting tools mentioned in the previous section.
Assigning Parts to Nest

All parts have to be manually assigned to a specific nest. This records the parts in Manager. Look closely at the nest
drawing. You will see that the parts that we just nested have a different color from all other parts. Parts that are not
assigned to a nest plate are displayed in not-assigned colors. We will now assign all parts to the plates.
1. Click the Assign to Nest button.

Select nest and parts:
2. Using the window or crossing selection to select the nest plate and all parts for that nest. It does not matter
if you pick any other entities. ShipConstructor will only consider parts and nest plates.
3. The color of all parts changes.
4. Repeat the same for the nest plate onto which we nested the remaining slender deck beam part and the small
brackets.
Checking Nests and Creating BOMs

Before any nest can be issued for processing, the nest has to be checked. ShipConstructor is a multi-user system.
While you are nesting, some else might be revising parts. ShipConstructor will check about a dozen criteria for each
nest and each part. This includes:
• Has the part been changed since nesting it?
• Is the part assigned to the right drawing and the right nest? Someone could have moved a part to a different nest
but not re-assigned it.
• Is the part actually in the database (could be corrupted)?
• If the nest is LIKE / MIRROR, ensure only port / starboard parts are on it.
• Is the nest properly recorded in the database?
• Are there parts not nested that should be?
• And more.
Preparing the Nest BOM

Changed! -
This tutorial comes with a pre-made BOM for nesting. You typically set up a specific BOM configuration for nesting
once when starting new project to suit the requirements of production. We will just show you here where the data is
stored and how you can change it. The type of information included in the BOM can be customized in Manager. We
will check the settings now.
1. Click the Activate Manager button. Manager starts.

2. Select Bill of Materials / Edit BOM.
3. Select the BOM NEST01 and click OK.

You can set the following options for the BOM.
• AutoNumber Rows - Creates running row number in front of every row in the BOM.
• Include Sub-Assembly Parts - Not used for nesting, only for assembly drawings.
• Standard Parts By Quantity - Adds up all standard parts and gives a total. If not checked, each standard
part is listed individually.
• Standard Quantities By Assembly - Counts standard parts by individual assembly. For example, you
might have 100 identical standard brackets on one nest. However, 70 brackets are required for one assembly
that is welded up in one area of the yard, while the remaining 30 brackets are required at a different
location. Using this option it is easy to distribute the right number of brackets to the individual assembly
sites.
We will do two runs of the nest check and creation of BOMs to clarify some of the options. For the first run use
these settings:
• AutoNumber Rows - ON
• Include Sub-Assembly Parts - OFF
• Standard parts By Quantity - OFF
• Standard Quantities By Assembly - OFF
4. Close the dialog to post any changes to Manager.
Running Nest Check

During this run of nest check we will create the BOM without counting the standard brackets. Each bracket will be
listed individually.
Important: Always run a nest check before issuing a nest for NC-processing. The check function checks for
many errors and reports them to a log file. The BOMs are updated automatically at the same time.
1. Select SC Nesting / Check Nests.

2. In the dialog select All Nests and make sure Update BOMs is checked. Select the NEST01 BOM.

3. Click OK.
4. This process will take a while. Watch the progress indicator at the bottom of the AutoCAD window.
5. In the Log File dialog check View log file and click OK. This starts notepad with the log file open.
6. No errors should be reported. See figure.
7. Zoom to nest PL10-01 In the lower left of the drawing. Zoom to the top of this nest. We will now investigate in
detail the contents of the nest header.
Investigating the Nest Header

During the nest check ShipConstructor updates the BOM and the keywords in the header of the nest template.
The next figure displays the results of nest PL10-01. There are four main areas in the nest template.
Area 1: Contains general information about the nest, such as the names of the project, the drawing file and the nest.
The cut type indicates if the plate will be cut as Like or Like & Mirror. Below this are the operator names and dates
for nesting, NC-processing (with NC-Pyros) and cutting. The process and cut information is not entered yet as these
are still to be done.
Area 2: This area contains the nest information, such as plate size, thickness, stock, material, area, and utilization.
Area 3: This area contains the NC-processing information, such as the length of cutting, marking and rapid travel,
the feed rates, and the projected cutting time. These values will only be available after the plate has been processed
by NC-Pyros.
Area 4: This area shows the weight of the plate, weight of the parts, weight of the remnants if used, and the weight
of the scrap.
Area 5: This area contains the Bill of Material. As shown before, the BOM can be configured using Manager. In
this case the BOM lists every standard bracket individually. This takes too much space.

1
2 3
4
Nest BOM Count Standards

We will now change the settings such that the standard brackets will be listed with quantities instead of individually.
1. Click the Activate Manager toolbar button. Manager starts.

2. Select Bill of Materials / Edit.
3. Select the BOM NEST01 and click OK.
4. Set the options as shown below.

• AutoNumber Rows - ON
• Include Sub-Assembly Parts - OFF
• Standard Parts By Quantity - ON
• Standard Quantities By Assembly - ON
5. Close the dialog to post the changes to the Manager database.
6. Select SC Nesting / Update BOM. This will only update the BOM without running through all the checks.
7. Select nest PL10-01 by clicking on the plate border or the nest border.
8. Select NEST01 in the dialog. Click OK.
9. The new BOM now shows the standard parts at the end of the list. The quantity for each standard is shown in
brackets.

Checking for Overlap
This new function checks to see if parts are spaced too close together or if they collide. This is a very helpful
function to avoid costly surprises later during NC-cutting.
1. Select SC Nesting / Nest Collision Check.
2. Type All.
3. A double progress indicator displays how far the program has checked. It will take about one minute to check
the nests.
4. The problems in the nest file will be listed in the dialog shown below.
5. This dialog lists each pair of problem parts and the type of problem or status. There are five different Status
levels the two parts can have.
• Hard - The boundaries of these two parts actually intersect.
• Soft - These two parts don’t intersect but they are closer together than the desired Plate Gap set for this
plate stock in Manager.
• Inside - One of these parts is completely inside of the other part.
• Fixed - The detected problem has been fixed.
• Ignored - User specifies that they want to ignore this problem.
6. There are several functions available by right clicking a selected overlap.
• Zoom to Part - Zooms to the part currently under the cursor.
• Zoom to Collision - Zooms to the collision of the two parts.
• Check Collision - Checks the currently selected collision to see if the problems have been fixed. Note: if
you have moved these parts around it may detect new problems with other parts, they will then be added to
the bottom of the list.
• Ignore - Tells ShipConstructor that you wish to ignore this problem.
7. Additionally, when you select a collision in the list box it will highlight the two parts involved and draw circles
around the intersection points of the collision to better illustrate the problem.

8. Correct the collision using any of the nesting methods or plain AutoCAD move commands.
9. Run the check again.
Checking for Un-nested Parts

As a last step, you want to check if there are any parts that have not been nested. If you created all parts, then the
double bottom center girder part should be found.
You can do this check in two ways. First you can use the menu item SC Nesting / Part / List un-nested parts.
Second you can run a check on all nests. This will do two things - it will report any errors and update all BOMs, and
it will list all un-nested parts.
1. Select SC Nesting / Check Nests and BOM. In the dialog check All nests in all drawings and list
parts not nested.
2. The function opens all nest drawings and checks all parts. Any parts that might have changed since nesting
will be reported. In our case we did not nest one part defined for the central girder. The log file gives exact
information on all nests.

Practice: Open nest PL15.DWG and nest part U12LBHC-P04. There is just enough space on nest PL15-05 in the
lower right of the drawing. Assign the part to the nest. Update the BOM for nest PL15-05.
Plotting Nests
Nests are usually plotted individually on small sheets, such as 11x17 or A3 paper, and then combined with other
drawings in a work package. In order for this function to work automatically, you have to set the printer you want to
plot to as the default printer. Then set for this printer the desired default paper size and orientation. You should plot
one nest first using the regular AutoCAD plot function to check all settings. To plot nests follow the steps below.
1. With the Navigator open nest PL10.
2. Select SC Nesting / Nest / Plot.
3. In the dialog select the nests you want to plot. Alternatively you can also click the Pick Nests… button and
select the nests on screen. The picked nests will then be highlighted in the list.
4. Click OK to start plotting.

Bridging
ShipConstructor now supports bridging. A bridge connects two parts together for the purpose of NC-cutting only.
There are several reasons why you might want to bridge parts together:
• Reduce piercing - For each part a hole has to be pierce into the plate at the start of cutting. This costs time,
especially for thick material and it can also wear out the cutting tool.
• Lost parts - Small parts may fall through the grid plate they rest on and never be found.
• Minimize warping - Small, slender parts may warp while being cut. Bridges help maintain the shape.
• Keep all parts together for transport.
ShipConstructor bridges are intelligent! We implemented bridges as custom objects. This means that they are
displayed only as placeholders. The actual toolpath will only get changed when exporting to NC-Pyros. Thus the
parts in the nest drawing remain unchanged even after inserting bridges. This allows parts to be updated in the nest
drawing after bridges have been inserted. For example, this might happen when Pipe penetrations are added to parts.
Should a part’s outside get changed then the conversion function will report an error when converting the bridge.
The figure below shows a somewhat extreme bridge before and after execution.
Note: In general two parts will only be connected by one bridge. However, there might be cases where two or more
bridges between two parts are required. This will create toolpaths of the outside of the parts which have to be treated
as if they were holes. ShipConstructor is smart enough to detect this and perform the required layer or color changes.
The nest figure shows two parts joined by two bridges. The resulting hole has been detected by ShipConstructor and
colored blue.
Inserting bridges
1. From the nesting toolbar select the “Golden Gate Bridge” icon .

2. The OSNAP is automatically set to NEAREST.
3. Select a position on a part for the start of the bridge.
4. The OSNAP is now set to PERPENDICULAR.
5. Select a position on the other part for the end of the bridge.
6. The bridge is drawn.
ShipConstructor performs several checks to ensure that the bridge can be implemented. You might encounter dialogs
such as these:
Select ZoomIn and try again.
The parts are too far apart to be bridged.
The bridge would violate a condition. For example, this might happen if one end of the bridge is too close to a sharp
corner of one of the parts.
Exporting to NC-Pyros
The final step of nesting is the export to NC-Pyros for NC-Processing. NC-Pyros can not read AutoCAD drawings
directly, so the drawing file must be converted to a DXF file format. ShipConstructor provides a function to perform
this automatically. At the same time Manager is updated to log the export time.
1. Select SC Nesting / NC-Pyros Export. In the dialog highlight the plates you want to export. Click OK.

2. Click the Options button. Set the options as shown. Click OK.
3. The program exports all nests with all parts inside the plate border to an individual drawing. The DWG files
are then converted to DXF files.
4. A log file displays the result of the process. See figure.
The nests can now be processed with NC-Pyros. See the NC-Pyros manual for details.
Remnant Control
Remnants are unused portions of a nest plate. In most cases you can use remnants later on in a project.
ShipConstructor allows you to create a nest from a full size nest plate or a remnant nest plate.
Creating a Remnant
1. Open nest drawing PL12.

2. Zoom to nest lower right nest. This nest already has a remnant. We will erase the remnant, and then generate a
new one to show the process.
3. Use ERASE and click anywhere on the remnant. You can only delete a remnant if it is not used for another nest
already. Remnants are stored in Manager for later use.
4. To create a new remnant we have to draw the border of it first. Draw a closed polyline for the remnant
outline. Make sure to use CLOSE for the last leg of the polyline (observe the thick polyline in the figure
below).
5. Select SC Nesting / Remnant / New.

Select remnant polyline.
6. Click on the remnant polyline.

7. ShipConstructor now needs to know which portion of the remnant shape will be used to cut off the remnant
from the nest plate. This portion has to be exported to NC-Pyros. NC-Pyros will then instruct the cutting
machine to cut the remnant off the plate. You have to pick the start and end point of the cut line.
Select remnant cut line start point:
8. Select where the remnant edge meets the outside of the full plate.
Select remnant cut line start end:
9. Select the other point where the remnant edge meets the outside of the full plate.
Select cut line to use (Red/Blue):
10. Select the portion (blue or red) that will be the used to trim off the remnant from the plate.
11. The new remnant dialog requests the remnant name. A name for the mirrored remnant must be separately given
when the plate is a like/mirror cut. The two remnants may later be used for a like/mirror nest again or
individually for like nests only. Click OK.

12. Select the keywords to use for the remnant marking and set the text size in the next dialog. Click OK.
13. Select the position and orientation for the remnant text.
14. The remnant is now hatched and Manager keeps track of it and makes it available when creating new nests
using the same stock.
It is now possible to use the remnant for a new nest.

Assembly Drawings
Overview
It cannot be emphasized enough: assembly drawings are the key to accurate and fast assembly and to realize
substantial savings in production. Assembly drawings show all parts in 3D so there will be no misunderstanding on
how the parts fit together, or long investigation of several drawings to figure out how things work. Everything is
plain and simple.
Another important note - dimension the assembly drawings sparingly. Only dimensions for quality control should be
given, and these usually using a quality control matrix, which is a new feature in ShipConstructor.
The basic assembly drawings with BOMs are created automatically by ShipConstructor. The look and layout of
the assembly drawings is controlled through user definable template drawings with multiple viewports and
keywords. The user simply has to annotate the drawings.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Assembly Drawings • 163

Assembly Drawing Steps
Creating assembly drawings consists of these general steps:
1. Prepare the assembly templates.
2. Assign assembly templates and BOMs to individual assembly levels using Manager.
3. Create an Assembly Check drawing.
4. Check for correct assignment of parts to assemblies.
5. Create assembly drawings automatically.
6. Annotate assembly drawings to suit the yard’s requirements.
7. Plot the assembly drawings.
Preparing Assembly Templates

ShipConstructor comes with one prepared assembly template. You can use this one as is, modify it, or create new
ones. We will now investigate the supplied assembly template.

2. Click the Template tab. Select Assembly / Assembly ISO1.DWG. The template drawing opens.
3. Make sure the drawing is in paper space.
2 3
4. There are 3 viewports in the template, as indicated by the numbers in the figure. The large viewport is used
for the actual assembly, while viewports 2 and 3 are used for the keymap. The keymap shows where in the unit
this assembly is located. In the keymap, the unit will be displayed as a wire frame model, while the assembly
will be displayed as a solid model. Thus highlighting the assembly during plotting with the hidden lines
removed.
5. All keywords are displayed in a color other than white (black) in this template. Zoom to the text in the upper
center of the drawing. You find several keywords here. These will be automatically replaced by
ShipConstructor.
6. Pan to the right to find the keyword <BOM> for the Bill of Material. The columns in the BOM are controlled
by settings in Manager.
7. Pan down the right border of the template drawing. Here you find more keywords.
8. At the bottom right hand corner are the two small viewports for the keymap.
164 • Assembly Drawings ShipConstructor Tutorial

Assigning Assembly Templates and BOMs
Each assembly level (i.e. Project, Unit, Assembly, Panel, etc.) can be assigned different assembly template drawings
and BOM configurations. You assign the templates and BOMs using Manager.
1. Start Manager.
2. Select Bill of Materials / Assign BOMs Manager.
3. Click in the template-drawing column in the field for the UNIT.
4. Click on the down arrow. For the purpose of this tutorial we have supplied one template, ASMBLY 1
ISO.DWG. The other template drawing (SPOOL.DWG) is used for spool drawings in the Pipe tutorial. Do not
choose it for assembly drawings. You could have more than one template and choose to use a different template
for each PWBS level.
5. You can similarly change the BOM assigned to be used within an assembly drawing.
6. Click Close.
The BOM assigned in the previous step can be configured. We will now show how this can be done:
1. Select Bill of Materials / Edit BOM.
2. Select the ASSEMBL01 and click OK.

3. Configure the ASSEMBLY01 BOM to your needs. Please refer to the previous sections in this tutorial called
“Checking Nests and Creating BOMs” for details on the individual settings available in this dialog.
Build Strategy and Checking Correct Assembly

Assignments
Hundreds of parts have been defined in this unit. Each time a part is defined it is assigned to a specific assembly. It
is easy to make mistakes and we must have a means to find and correct them. Build Strategy drawings allow the user
to do this. You can also use these drawings to rapidly implement planned changes to the assembly structure.
In order to check the correct assignment of all parts and assemblies we need a drawing that contains all parts,
including the starboard versions of parts that are defined as P/S. It is possible to create multiple Build Strategy
drawings each containing some or all of the Group, Pipe and Outfit drawings. For the entire unit the resulting
drawing will be several MB in size.

2. Click the Assembly tab.

3. Select the Build Strategy root folder and then click New.
4. We wish to include all the drawings in the unit, click OK to continue and enter a name in the next dialog. This
function will take a minute or two, as the full Build Strategy Drawing is about 12 MB in size.
5. Click No to not include production information.

6. The Build Strategy Drawing is created and opened.
7. Set a 3D view point.
ShipConstructor lets you check the correct assignment of parts to assemblies before creating assembly drawings. It
is quite common to find parts that are assigned to the wrong assembly.
1. Select SC Build Strategy / Develop Build Strategy. The Build Strategy dialog displays the assembly tree
for the project.
Note: While this dialog is active you can still access AutoCAD directly to issue commands using the command line,
the menus, or the toolbars. Be sure to click the AutoCAD window first before issuing a command. AutoCAD is
active when the window title bar is blue. The Build Strategy dialog is active when its window title bar is blue.
2. SHADE the drawing or use 3D Orbit in order to improve the visual appearance of the assemblies.
3. Click the light bulb off in front of the Demo. This turns all entities off.
4. Click the light bulb on in front of B106. This turns the parts for aft bulkhead on. See figure.

Checking the build strategy requires you to check each individual assembly by setting the visibility. A part assigned
to the wrong assembly can usually be easily identified. We will simulate the result of a part assigned to the wrong
assembly by following these steps.
1. Click B106 off.
2. Click F112 on. Use F110 to follow along if you did not create the parts for F112 during the earlier part of this
tutorial.

3. In the build strategy drawing or in the Build Strategy dialog select a few parts from the assembly F112. In the
Build Strategy the parts inside of F112 are now visible. The parts selected in the drawing are highlighted in the
build strategy tree of F112.
4. In the Build Strategy dialog drag the selected parts to assembly F111.
5. Switch the light bulb in front of F111 on and then off. It is now easily visible that parts are missing in assembly
F112.
6. In the Build Strategy dialog click off F112 and click on F111. See figure.

Practice: Correct the errors we just introduced into the assembly structures of F107 and F112.
Creating the Keymap Drawing

A keymap is a means of providing an overview of a unit and highlighting the actual assembly within the unit. The
keymap drawing consists of only the outside and inside toolpath of all plate parts. All other entities are removed.
Thus we have a see-through wire-frame drawing of the complete unit. This drawing can then be used to be inserted
into the keymap viewports in each assembly drawing.

In general, one or more small viewports are reserved to be keymap viewports, as shown in the figure below. In our
assembly template, we have two small keymap viewports in the lower right area of the drawing. Into this viewport
ShipConstructor also inserts the solids of the actual assembly. Using the hide option for these viewports during
plotting, the assembly stands out in the plot and the user can easily identify where in the unit this assembly fits.
The process of creating a keymap is time consuming, as the program has to collect all plate parts from all drawings
and then extracts just the toolpaths from each part. Thus, you are required to create the keymap drawing before
running the assembly drawing creation. The keymap drawing is an external reference in each assembly drawing,
thus if the keymap changes it will be updated anytime you open an assembly drawing.
You can open the Keymap drawing using the Navigator Assembly tab and selecting Assembly / Keymap.
You can then make custom changes and they will be used in each assembly drawing automatically. For example, in
this case we have removed the outlines of the expanded shell plating, as they confuse the picture.
Creating Assembly Drawings

We can now create individual assembly drawings.

3. Select the Assembly root folder and click Create Assembly.
4. Click Yes to add Keymap information.
5. Select Use templates and BOMs defined in ShipReport.

6. Click Next.
7. In the next dialog check the box in front of DB. All sub assemblies of DB are checked as well. We will create
the assembly drawings for all these assemblies now.
8. Click Finish.

Note: This operation takes some time and also uses a lot of memory. If you have at least a PII 266 with 128 MB
RAM you can click on assembly U12 to create 15 assembly drawings in just a few minutes. Otherwise, you might
want to limit yourself to the assembly DB, the double bottom.
One drawing is automatically created for each assembly. Watch closely to see how the views are generated and the
keywords replaced.
We will now investigate one of the assembly drawings.

3. Select drawing DemoU12DBF111. Click Open. The drawing is opened as shown below.

4. The drawing should be in paper space.
5. Investigate the drawing while in paper space. Zoom to the keywords in the top center.
6. Pan to the right to the BOM.
7. Pan to the bottom to the keymap layers. The keymap will become clearer when the drawing is shaded or hidden
lines are removed.
Annotating Assembly Drawings

Assembly drawings have to be annotated to be useful for assembly purposes. In many cases you want to indicate
levels of assembly, such as panels and sub-assemblies. ShipConstructor provides functions that simplify the
annotation process.

These are the types of assembly annotations you might want to perform:
• Part Names - Generally provided as flyouts.
• Assembly Names - Flyouts indicate assembly names, such as MDK (main deck), or DB (double bottom).
• Symbols - Such as symbols for welding or throw direction.
• Dimensioning - Dimensioning should be kept to a minimum when using structural modeling and assembly
drawings. Using manual techniques required checking dimensions at many stages during production. However,
using structural modeling with all its error checking produces parts that are almost 100% correct. Dimensions
should only be given to check overall dimensions of complex assemblies.
• Quality Matrix - This is a very useful tool to apply dimensions to an assembly drawing. The most common use
for this matrix is to provide dimensional check options on the assembly drawing.
Assembly Drawing Annotation

New & Changed
Smart Labels
The annotation of assembly drawings has been improved. All annotations are now carried out using our newly
designed Smart Labels. Smart Labels simplify and speed up annotating assembly drawings tremendously. Smart
Labels also provide a function unique to ShipConstructor - they can be set to always “look” at you, even if you
change your view position.
The properties of the Smart Labels can be changed using the AutoCAD Property Manager. The properties
specific to our custom annotations are listed under the Label Properties section (see figure) in the AutoCAD
properties dialog. You can also change the bubble style using the properties and use grip points to change the
position and rotation of the annotation.
There are now two distinctly different ways to annotate the assembly drawings. You might know the first one from
the previous version of ShipConstructor; this one places the annotations in a specific UCS. For this type of
annotation you first set a UCS and then annotate the parts. The second type of annotation is new. This new type does
not require you to set up a UCS. The annotation will always be facing towards the viewer. You can even
dynamically rotate the drawing, while watching all annotations automatically rotating to face you at all times.

Annotating Plate Parts using Specific UCSs
1. While still in paper space in drawing DEMOU12DBF111, zoom to the large viewport.
2. Switch to Model Space.
3. Click in the large viewport to activate it. A thick border around the viewport indicates that it is the active one.
4. At the command line type UCSICON and press ENTER.
Enter an option [ON/OFF/All/Noorigin/ORigin/Properties] <ON>: OR
5. Then type OR for origin and press ENTER. This will move the UCS icon to the origin, if the origin is within
the visible area of the drawing. Since the world UCS is currently active, the UCS icon will remain in the lower
left corner, as the world origin is about 7200 mm aft of this frame. During the later stage though, the UCS origin
will be in the plane of this frame, and our changes will be more visible to us.
7. In the UCS dialog click Activate from Object.

8. Click on one of the large plate parts in the viewport. This will automatically create a UCS in the plane of the
plate parts with the origin at the centerline. Thus we can now annotate the plate parts with the annotations in the
same plane. The next two figures show the AutoCAD UCS icon before and after activating the UCS of one of
the large plate parts.
9. Click the Annotate Part button.

Select Part:
10. Click the starboard plate part.

11. The Annotation dialog displays the PWBS branches from the project level down to the selected part. The
proposed text for the annotation is always the name of the picked part. However, you can choose any PWBS
level (i.e. F111, DB, U12, or Demo) as the annotation text. You can also type your own text in the text box.
12. Set the dialog options as shown below.

13. Set Text / Size to 100.
14. Check the Text / Bubble option.
15. Un-check Text / Rotate manually and make sure to use an angle of 0 degrees (horizontal).
16. Un-check Text / Orient to View Direction.
17. Check the Leader Line / Create Option.
18. Set Leader line / Segments to 1.
19. Check the Leader line / Last segment inline with text option.
20. Un-check all OSnap Settings.
21. Click OK.
Base point:
22. Click inside the plate parts as shown in the next figure.
23. With ORTHO ON, drag vertically up and click when at the desired position. See next figure.
Practice: Repeat the same steps for the port side part. ShipConstructor retains the same settings. Just click OK in
the dialog.

Annotating Stiffeners
For the stiffeners we want a UCS that lies in the plane of the stiffener.
1. Zoom to the left most stiffener.
2. Click the Activate UCS button. In the dialog click Activate from Object.
3. Click on the left most flat bar, the one outboard on the starboard side.
4. In the dialog select the option as shown. For a stiffener you can choose one of four UCSs.
5. The UCS icon should appear as shown in the figure above. Since the Z-axis is pointing away from us, the text
of the annotation would be in mirror image. We have to flip the UCS in order to make the annotation readable
from our side.
6. Click the Flip UCS button to ensure the Z-axis is pointing towards us.

8. Pick the stiffener for which you just created the UCS.
9. Click OK.
10. Select the lower edge point of the stiffener for the base point.
11. Drag the leader line downwards. You don’t need to worry about the length, as it will be set to 300mm.
Quick Annotation
Use the quick annotation function once you have set your parameters for the annotation. We will create the same
annotations for the next stiffeners until we come to the centerline using the quick annotation option.
Note: You do not have to create a new UCS for the other stiffeners. ShipConstructor will automatically use the
same UCS settings as set up for the first stiffener, and will shift the origin automatically to the plane of the other
picked part.
1. Click the Quick Annotate Part button.

2. Click on the next stiffener. No dialog is displayed.
3. Create the annotation the same as before for all remaining stiffeners on starboard of the center line. Do not do
the stiffeners on the port side yet.

Copy Annotations
You can even save more time by copying annotations. The new annotations will retain the same characteristics, but
the text will reflect the part name you clicked on.
1. Pan to the port side of the frame.
2. Click the Copy Annotation button.

Select annotation.
3. Click on the stiffener annotation that was created last near the center line.
Select base point:
4. Select the connection point of the leader line to the stiffener.

Select part:
5. Click the next stiffener.

Select point:
6. Click on the lower corner of the stiffener. The annotation is created for this part with the same settings as the
one copied.
7. Continue selecting further stiffeners until all are annotated. See figure.

Annotating using Orient to View Direction
New - This is a new option
We will now annotate assembly F110 using the new Orient to View Direction annotation option. This option
lets you place annotations and later on decide on different viewpoint. The annotation text will always be facing you.
This saves you time when changing your mind about the best view direction for the final plot of the assembly
drawing.
1. Use the Navigator to open assembly drawing Demo12DBF110.
2. Switch to model space and activate the large viewport with the double bottom panel.

Select Part:
4. Click the starboard plate part.

5. Set the dialog options as shown below.
6. Select the Orient to View Direction. This will automatically orient the annotation text to be facing the
viewer. The annotation will update its direction every time you change the viewpoint of the drawing. It will
even update dynamically when using 3DORBIT to rotate the drawing.
7. Click OK.
8. Create the annotation to your liking.
9. The annotation is created such that the text is facing you.
10. Set different viewpoints and observe that the annotation will always face you, not matter what view direction
you are setting.
11. Use the 3D Orbit to rotate the panel dynamically. Watch the annotation face you as you rotate the panel.

Inserting CG Position
ShipConstructor provides a function to mark the CG position. This can be important for lifting documentation or
plans to move heavy assemblies.
1. Click the Activate UCS button. In the dialog click Activate from Object.
2. Click on one of the two plate parts to create a UCS in the plane of the frame.
3. Select SC Assembly / Icons / CG Point. The function inserts an AutoCAD POINT at the CG position.

Quality Control Matrix
The Quality Control Matrix is a very powerful tool to get the quality of your ships under control. Using this function
it is very easy to add a quality control matrix to any drawing, including assembly drawings. You can use this
function in any type of ShipConstructor drawing. However, the most common use is within an assembly drawing.
This is how to create a Quality Control Matrix.
1. Make sure to be in model space with the main viewport active.

2. Select a UCS that will display the markers in a convenient direct. If you are measuring in one single plane, then
the UCS should be in that plane. Use Activate UCS / From Object and click on one of the two large
plate parts. This sets the UCS to be in the plane of the frame.
3. Select SC Structure / Utilities / Create Quality Matrix.
4. In the next dialog set the parameters similar to the ones shown. The options Points in 3D and Points in 2D
require explaining. In our example we want to check the size of the panels. However, it is cumbersome picking,
say, the forward side of the plate solid, as we would have to zoom in very closely. Setting the option Points in
2D will ignore all Z co-ordinates after the first point has been picked. Thus only distance in the UCS will be
considered.
5. Pick the points you want to check. Pick points on one plate part to get the quality control matrix for that panel.
In our example, we inserted two matrices, one for the port and one for the starboard panel. The dimensions are
the same, but we wanted to have the opportunity to enter the actually built values into the drawing. For

example, we can start statistical analysis of our weld shrinkage and any fit up problems that might be reported
later on in assembly. It might be that the two panels shrank very dissimilar due to welding variations.
Rotating for Assembly Position

The double bottom will be assembled upside down. It is best to show the each assembly in the actual assembly
orientation.

3. Open assembly drawing DEMOU12DB.DWG.
4. Switch to model space.

5. Activate the large viewport by clicking in it.
6. Insert the CG position icon. We have to insert it before we rotate the assembly to get the correct position.
7. Type ROTATE3D at the command prompt.
8. Type ALL and press ENTER, and again ENTER.
Axis by Object/Last/View/Xaxis/Yaxis/Zaxis/<2points>: x
9. Type “X” and ENTER for a rotation about the X-axis.

10. Accept the default 0, 0, 0 by pressing ENTER.
11. Type 180 for the rotation angle. Press ENTER.
12. Activate each of the small viewports and zoom extents.

13. Activate the large viewport again.
The double bottom assembly is now rotated up-side-down.
Annotating Higher Assembly Levels

All PWBS systems consist of several levels. In our demo project the structural levels are from top to bottom:
• Project
• Unit
• Assembly
• Panel
The double bottom “DB” is in the Level of Assembly. It contains 10 lower level assemblies of the level Panel.
1. Switch to paper space.
2. Zoom to the BOM in the upper right corner of the drawing. This assembly consists of numerous panels plus
one plate part for the margin plate.
We want to make annotations for each panel in the double bottom. Each annotation shall be in the plane of the
frame.
1. Zoom back to the main view port.
2. Switch to model space.
3. Click the Activate UCS button. Click Activate from object.

4. Click on a plate part of the aft most frame. The UCS in the plane of the frame is activated.

6. Click on the aft most frame. Select the settings as shown below.
7. In the tree dialog click on panel F107. This changes the annotation text in the top left corner of the dialog.
Click OK.
8. Click to select a position on the frame and the positions for the leader lines. The result should look like in the
figure below.
9. Repeat for all other frames. The result should look like this.
Practice: Annotate the tanktop panel and the center girder panel in the same fashion. You might want to create
UCSs in the appropriate planes.
Note: In some cases the annotation text might appear in mirror writing. Use the Flip UCS button to change
the X-axis of the UCS. Create the annotation again to obtain a readable text.

Plotting Assembly Drawings
AutoCAD cannot create a shaded or rendered plot directly from a drawing. However, you can instruct AutoCAD to
create a hidden line removed plot. You have to instruct AutoCAD of which viewports you want to create a plot. To
hide lines during plotting:
1. Make sure you are in paper space. Only the currently active viewport will be plotted if you are in model
space.
2. At the command line type MVIEW and ENTER.
ON/OFF/Hideplot/Fit/2/3/4/Restore/<First Point>:
3. Enter Hideplot and press ENTER.

ON/OFF:
4. Enter ON and press ENTER.

Select Objects:
5. Now pick the viewport or viewports for which you want to hide lines. Click on all three viewports.
6. PLOT the drawing now.

Profile Plots
Overview
The stiffener plot functions handle the creation, manipulation and plotting of stiffener plots, simplifying this task
significantly. Many companies do not even consider generating these plots because the effort involved in generating
them. ShipConstructor makes it economical to provide fully detailed plots for each stiffener.
Stiffener plots are generated automatically by using the assembly structure of the vessel to group and select the
stiffeners. As usual, user configurable templates are used to simplify customization of the look and feel of the plots.
In fact, a two level template system plus additional options give you powerful control over the stiffener plots. There
is one template for the large plot sheet and sub templates for each stiffener. Each large sheet can contain several
smaller individual stiffener plots. Any number of large sheets can be within a single drawing. It is advisable to give
some thought to how you want to organize your stiffener plots.
For example, you could have one drawing for each major assembly. Within the drawing you create the plots for all
stiffeners in that assembly. You can then group the stiffener types in rows of plots and sheets within the drawing.
Creating a Stiffener Plot Drawing

We will now create a stiffener plot drawing for stiffeners of the double bottom using the provided templates. We
will later explain how the templates are customized.

2. Select the Profiles Tab and click New.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Profile Plots • 189

3. Create a new drawing with the name DB. Click OK.
4. A new, empty drawing is created.

5. We will now set the dimension style Standard such that it fits our requirements.
6. Start the dimension style dialog and make sure that Standard is the current dimension style.
7. Click the Modify button.

8. Select the Lines and Arrows tab. In the dialog, select the settings as shown below.
190 • Profile Plots ShipConstructor Tutorial

9. Select the Text tab. In the dialog, select the settings as shown below.
10. Select the Primary Units tab. In the dialog, select the settings as shown below.

11. Click the OK button.
Inserting Stiffener Plots

We will now create profile plots for the curved stiffeners in the MDK assembly. These profiles look like the brown
one shown in the next figure. These are curved BF240x12 profiles with endcuts on both ends.
1. Select SC Profile Plots / Insert Profile Plots. The following dialog is displayed.

2. Click the Filter button, and set the options as shown. This will limit the display of the Profile Plot Setup to
curved profiles and angles only. BF240x12 are setup as angles in the profile library.
3. Click the check box in front of MDK and un-check the box in front of DKP.

4. Click the Options button and make sure to use the settings shown in the next dialog.
• Plot Template - The large template drawing is set up to hold the individual SubPlots. In our case one template
will hold two SubPlots. See figure. Customize this template to fit your needs.

• SubPlot - A template designed to display one profile and all the related data. Customize this template to fit
your needs.
• Dimension Style - Sets up specific parameters for the dimensions.
• Style to Copy - Every time you add plots to a drawing, ShipConstructor has to create a dimension style
depending on how the profiles will fit inside the templates (a scaling factor for example). In general you
will first adjust a dimension style of your choice and then tell ShipConstructor to use the settings of that
style as a basis for the new style.
• Dimension Text Size - Sets the text size independent of the dimension style selected.
• Dimension Spacing - Sets the spacing of the dimension form the object.
• Forming Offsets - Settings that control the options for the offsets for curved profiles.
• Bend from Start - Sets the start of the profile horizontal and lets the profile curve up or down from there.
This can result in a very tall plot.
• Bend at Best Point - This will rotate the profile such that it will fit into a rectangle of minimum height.
5. Click OK. The stiffener plots are created.

6. Select SC Profile Plots / Zoom. Select Sheet-001 and click OK. The function zooms to Sheet-001.

7. Select SC Profile Plots / Zoom again, and select U12107-S01 and click OK. The function zooms to the sub-
sheet of the selected stiffener. This makes is very easy to find a specific plot.

Structure Reports
Overview
New! - Manager (previously ShipReport) has been completely re-written. The user interface and many of the
functions have changed. Be sure to read this section even if you have used Manager before.
Important: Report supports two report layouts; one printing to large size paper (A3 or 11x17), and a second one
printing to small size paper (A4 or 8 ½ x 11). If your printer does not support the large report paper size, then the
report will be broken up to fit the smaller pages. Be sure to select a printer that supports the paper size you wish to
use through the Printer Control Panel of your operating system.
Manager stores all non-graphical data in Manager database. The database consists of over 100 tables, and more than
one thousand relationships between the tables, making this the most powerful database used in shipbuilding.
ShipConstructor features three general types of Reports:
• PWBS Reports (Product Work Breakdown Structure) - These reports are generated for a specific
Product Work Breakdown Structure (PWBS) such as a unit. It is further divided into five specific reports. These
are:
• Build Strategy Reports - This report displays the build strategy including all assembly levels and
individual parts. All properties are listed for each item.
• Profile Reports - For profile production. This report type lists only profiles in the selected PWBS item.
• Standard Parts Reports - List only the standard parts in the PWBS item.
• Pipe Stock Report - List all individual pipe stocks within the selected PWBS item.
• Pipe Penetration Reports - Lists all penetrations in the selected PWBS item.
• SWBS Reports (System Work Breakdown Structure) - These reports are generated for a specific
System Work Breakdown Structure (SWBS) such as the Fresh Water system. These are:
• Pipe Stock Reports - Lists all the pipe items used for specific system.
• Pipe Penetration - Lists all penetrations generated by the system.
PWBS Reports
All PWBS reports are accessed through the SWBS and PWBS dialog.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Structure Reports • 197

PWBS reports organize all parts (structural, Outfit, and Pipe) in the fashion in which they will be assembled. The
general rule for structural parts is that plates and stiffeners are assembled to Panels; several Panels are assembled to
3D-Assemblies; several 3D-Assemblies may form a Unit; Several Units form a Ship or Project.
SWBS reports organize all parts (structural, Outfit, and Pipe) in the fashion in which they fulfill a function. For
example several Pipes make a Branch, several Branches plus Outfit items (pumps, strainers, tanks) make a System;
several Systems make a Project.
PWBS Reports include:
• Build Strategy
• Profile
• Standard Parts
• Pipe Stock
• Pipe Penetrations
Reports can be created for any assembly in the ship or the complete ship. In general you will be creating reports for
a unit or smaller assembly. You then bundle the report with assembly drawings, nest plots, nest reports, and NC
tapes to a work order.
All calculations, such as those for weight and CG are performed on-the-fly during the report generation. You can be
sure that the output is up to date.
198 • Structure Reports ShipConstructor Tutorial

PWBS Build Strategy Report - Summary Style
The summary style report just lists the names of the assemblies and the names of the parts. All detail information is
omitted. Use this report for quick overviews of the Build Strategy.
1. Start Manager.
2. Select Reports / PWBS and SWBS.
3. In the Ship PWBS and SWBS dialog highlight DB in the Tree pane on the left.
4. Click the Reports button.
5. In the Report dialog set the settings as shown in the figure.
6. Click Preview.
7. The report displays all assemblies and parts of the double bottom DB assembly and all sub-assemblies in the
double bottom.
8. Inspect the summary report.
PWBS Report - Detailed Format

We will now create a detailed report for Unit U12.
1. Close the preview window if still open.
2. Highlight U12 in the tree pane.

3. Click Reports.
4. Select Build Strategy.
5. Set the options as shown below.
• Group Identical parts - Lists parts that are copies of each other by quantity.
• Group Standard parts - Lists standard parts by quantity.
• Group Paint - Lists identical and standard parts by quantity for each paint type. For example, if there are
10 brackets and 4 of them are to be primed and 6 are not, then they are listed as 4 and 6, not as 10.
6. Use the settings as shown. Click Preview.

7. Flip through the pages of the report.
8. Close the preview window if still open.
Profile Report
This report lists all profiles in the selected assemblies. The profiles are sorted by the manufacturing processes
required. You may have the same flat bar stock used for curved profiles on the shell plating, straight stiffeners
on some panels, and for faceplates to re-enforce some man-holes. The profiles will be listed in three individual
sections of the report.
1. In the PWBS and SWBS dialog select U12.

2. Click the Report button.
3. In the reports dialog select Profile, Sort by Assembly.

4. Click Preview.
5. Use the page buttons at the top of the Report window to switch between pages.
6. The first page is a cover page.
7. Go to the next page.
8. This page is the Profile Summary page, listing the profile stocks and total lengths required to manufacture the
profiles for this assembly.
9. Go to the next page. It lists the profiles for the first profile size in the list on the summary page. Observe the
multiple listing of 8 for profiles ...S01 and ...S05.

10. Move to the page that list the profile flat bars FB150x20. Locate assembly Demo-U12-MDK. This page lists the
manufacturing details for the faceplates that are bent. Faceplates are reported with all bending information.
These include distance from start of profile to the tangent point of bending radii, bending radius and bending
angel. The faceplates can be perfectly shaped without a drawing. It would be a simple matter to enter the
information into a bending machine and create the faceplates automatically.
Standard Parts Reports

This report contains a list of all standard parts, such as brackets, used in the selected assembly. For each standard
part the quantity is reported.

Nest Reports
It is essential to have good nest reports in order to know exactly where your parts are and to be able to distribute
each part to the right assembly area. NC-cutting operators are usually supplied with:
• Nest plots
• NC code produced by NC-Pyros
• Nest reports
Nests Dialog
The Nests dialog gives you access to the nest reports. It also displays a list of all nests. For each nest all parts are
displayed in a convenient list with all important parameters.
1. In Manager, select Reports / Nesting.
2. Highlight a nest in the list on the left. The dialog displays important information about the selected nest.

This dialog is only used to look up some information quickly. Use the reporting functions to obtain full reports.
Condensed Nest Reports

Condensed nest reports are used for overview purposes of nests for a unit or the whole ship. Only the most essential
information is displayed in the condensed reports and formatted for convenient reading.
1. In the Nests dialog click the Report button.
2. The Nest Reports dialog is displayed. Here you can choose between Condensed and Detailed reports. You
can also choose to create the Report for an individual nest, nest in a selected unit or all nests in the ship.
3. Select All Nests, and Condensed Report. Click Preview.

4. Investigate on screen or print the report for further inspection.
5. Just as all reports this one starts with a cover page with some overview information, such as for example overall
plate utilization.
6. The next page(s) contain the overview information for all nests.

7. Close the Preview.
Detailed Nest Reports

Detailed nest reports give you all the information required for successful NC-cutting and distribution of parts to
assemblies.
1. Select Reports / Nests.
2. In the Nests dialog click the Report button.
3. The Nest Reports dialog is displayed.

4. Select All Nests and Detailed Report. Click Preview.
5. Investigate the report on screen or print it.
6. Observe that this nest has been processed by NC-Pyros, which has entered the cutting travels.
7. Close the Preview.

Pipe Tutorial
Overview
The Pipe tutorial makes use of the structure of the demo unit U12. Several Pipe drawings are included in the project
and will be utilized in various sections of the tutorials.
The pipe tutorial is divided into the following main sections:
• Pipe 3D Modeling. This includes:
• Placing pipes/fittings and Outfit parts
• Using the Catalog Stock Editor to create Size Definitions, End Treatments, fittings, and
Connections.
• Importing stocks from another database.
• Creating pipe penetrations
• Spooling:
• Tour of pre generated spools
• Preparation of Pipe drawings for spooling.
• Generation of spool drawings from completed Pipe drawings.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Pipe Tutorial • 209

Pipe 3D Modeling
Overview
It will take several hours to complete the pipe 3D modeling section, however, it is not necessary to complete it in
order to continue with the later sections, Spooling, and Arrangement drawings.
Within this section you will place various Pipe components and Outfit parts in partially completed Pipe drawings.
Additionally, you will use the Catalog Stock Editor to create a valve and import a stock from another database.
Finally a penetration will be added where a pipe run passes through part of the ship structure.
Placing Pipes and Fittings
Overview
This portion of the exercise requires that you log into the U12 module of the ShipConstructor2001Demo. Once
logged into the project you will be able to open the partially completed Pipe drawing, “TUTORIAL_BASE.dwg”.
We will be working almost exclusively within this drawing for the duration of this tutorial section.
To view the completed tutorial drawing, open the drawing “TUTORIAL_COMPLETE.dwg”.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Pipe 3D Modeling • 211

Opening a Pipe drawing
2. Press the Register button in the 3D Unit tab of the Navigator.
212 • Pipe 3D Modeling ShipConstructor Tutorial

3. ShipConstructor remembers the last five projects that you’ve logged in to. However, if this is the first time that
ShipConstructor is run, you will need to locate the project file included with the demo.
In the Register Unit Dialog, select Change Project. Locate the ShipConstructor2001Demo.pro file (this
should be in your “Projects\ShipConstructor2001Demo” folder). The Units included in the project will be listed.

4. Select the unit U12 and press OK. The active project is now ShipConstructor2001Demo.
5. Next select the user Logon name DEMO. Enter demo (all lower case) for the password.
6. Press the OK button.

7. The licensing dialog is displayed. The licensing has changed compared to earlier versions. ShipConstructor can
now be purchased in several different modules and several different levels. As you may have a combination of
one or more local locks on you computer, plus one or more network locks on the network, the licenses that you
require can be acquired as a mix of local and network locks.
With local lock. Without local lock.

• Search - Sets the options for which locks to search. It may take several seconds to find licenses on a network
lock. Thus you may want to limit the search to your local lock, if that is all you need.
• Automatically get all available licenses - Gets all licenses from the local lock. This is a good default
option, unless you need to get some licenses from the network lock.
• Network lock - Check this option if you also want to search for licenses on the network lock.
• Network Settings - Displays the Network License Settings dialog. Search for lock will search the network for
ShipConstructor network locks. If your network is large you may want to limit the search to a single IP address
of the computer that has the network lock attached to it.
• Module - The available module name on the lock.

• Parts - The number of parts relating to that module in the ShipConstructor Manager database.
• Level - The level of license for the module available on the lock. ShipConstructor modules can be purchased in
levels 1 through 5 and unlimited.
• For Structure, Nest and Automatic Nest the number of parts per level is 500. This means level 3 allows
you to work on projects with a maximum of 1500 structural parts.
• For Pipe the number of parts per level is 250. This means level 3 allows you to work on projects with a
• For Outfit the number of parts per level is 50. This means level 3 allows you to work on projects with a
• For Strategy and Rebis the number of parts is not applicable.
• Lic Left. - The number of licenses left on the lock. This number will always be 1 for local locks, or 0 if the
locks does is not licensed for a specific module. On a network lock there may be any number of licenses for a
specific module available.
• Lic Total - The total number of license the lock is licensed for.
• Lock Info - General information about the lock.
• License - The name of the lock. Usually the company the lock is licensed for.
• Lock Expiry date - The date when the lock expires.
• Days Left - How many days until the lock expires.
• Show this window during Project Register - Turn this option off, if you always check out the same
licenses or only use a local lock. Use the menu item ShipConstructor / License to display this dialog.
If no locks are selected, you will be prompted to run entirely in demo mode:

Press Yes.
8. Notice that all the Navigator tabs are now activated.
9. Switch to the Pipe tab.
10. Open the Pipe drawing, TUTORIAL_BASE.

SC Pipe Menu
Pipe Toolbar
Straight Pipe
Elbow
Tee
Flange Connector
Valve
Reducer
Cap
Cross Pipe
Wye Pipe
Bent Pipe
Outfit Part
Default Stocks
Pipe options
Database interface

Working in Pipe Drawings
The drawing TUTORIAL_BASE consists of several XREF’d structural components, pre placed Outfit parts, and
pipes. Since Pipe is largely placed around existing structure or machinery you will likely make use of XREF’d
drawings when working in Pipe drawings.
We will start by unloading the XREF’d frame U12F114.
1. Press ShipConstructor / Xref groups… or press the button in the ShipConstructor toolbar.
2. Uncheck the frame U12F114.
3. Press OK.
4. For easiest viewing of the structure and pipes make sure you are using AutoCAD’s shademode (Gourad looks
best for pipes). However, with many pipes loaded in a drawing, you will find the best performance (3D Orbit)
by utilizing a combination of Pipe display options and AutoCAD display options.
5. Click in the Pipe toolbar. In the Display tab select 3D Mesh then click OK. Select AutoCAD’s 2D
Wireframe shademode to get the best speed.

6. Set the options as shown above to get the same screen display in the next steps.
7. Select SC Structure / Hide or click and hide the aft most frame, U12F106.
8. Now turn on the layer “Construction”. This will activate some pre placed construction lines used for modeling
the pipes.

9. The start point, as well as the path that the pipes will follow, is now displayed (Green Lines).
We are now almost ready to start placing some pipe components, but before this happens, a few necessary measures
should be taken to ensure that the pipes belong to the correct system (also referred to as SWBS).
Setting Default Systems, Specs and Stocks

1. In ShipConstructor – Pipe, all pipes must belong to a system or SWBS level. Set the default system by opening
the Pipe Options dialog. Press in the Pipe toolbar.
2. Press the Default System button to open the Set System dialog. Highlight the freshwater cooling system, FW
COOLING and press OK.

3. ShipConstructor – Pipe stores the last used, or default, stock used for each type of pipe/fitting. You can specify
which stock, for each type, is to be the default before placement.
Press the Specs and Stocks button.
Specs, or specifications, stipulate specific details for design, fabrication, and construction. In ShipConstructor –
Pipe, Specs allow for grouping of catalog stocks that conform to a particular design specification (spec).
Use the specs to the advantage of your company. An example scenario is to create a spec for each system.
Grouping pipes in this manner allows the pipe designers to easily select pipes and fittings for placement when
working in a particular system. The following figure shows the above scenario.

For this tutorial a spec called FW COOLING has been created. To this spec, suitable stocks have been added
that will be used for remainder of the tutorial.
4. Select the spec FW COOLING in the Specs and Stocks dialog.
The Stocks list will be updated to show only the stocks included in this spec.
5. Select the pipe, PIP-SM-CS-6_SCH80, from the stock list. This pipe will now be the default pipe used when
placing straight and bent pipes.
Note: We will be using OSNAPS, both AutoCAD’s and ShipConstructor’s, repeatedly through the tutorial. A
convenient way to access these is to press Shift + Mouse Right Click.

From this menu you can immediately select a specific Osnap or change your running Osnaps by selecting
Osnap Settings…. From the Object Snap tab you can set AutoCAD’s Osnaps
and from the ShipCon Snap tab you can set ShipConstructor’s Osnaps.

Notice the Snap to Free Pipe Ends option. We will make extensive use of it later.
Placing Pipes and Fittings

1. Locate the point labeled “Start” in the drawing. Move the UCS to this point.
2. Select SC Structure / Activate UCS or click .

3. Click the Move Z button.
4. Click the Pick button.

5. Click on the end of the construction line next to the word START.
6. We will start by placing a Straight pipe. Ensure that you have the Pipe toolbar visible, and then press the
Straight Pipe button.

PIP-SM-CS-6_SCH80, FW COOLING, ASME-B36.10-80, PL, PL
Specify First Point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:
The stock Name, Spec, Schedule, and End Treatment Types is displayed on the command line. The next line
offers options for placement. We will use the default option, first Point.
7. Locate the point labeled “Start” in the drawing and click there. This is the first end of the straight pipe.
8. For the second point, use the Near Osnap and click somewhere on the first line (see figure).

or
The pipe should look somewhat like the one in the pictures above. The figure on the right shows the same pipe
with a different Pipe Display option active. The figure on the left uses the “3D Mesh Mode” option whereas
the figure on the right uses “Dbl Ln Mode + Hide” (Notice the blue centerline and arrows). The arrows on the
ends of the pipe indicate that the pipe has “free” pipe ends. “Free” pipe ends mean that the ends are not
connected to another pipe. More will be discussed on this topic later.
9. Set the Pipe display option so that the pipe looks like the figure on the right.
a) Click on the Pipe toolbar.

b) Select the 3D Mesh Mode option.
c) Press OK.
10. Now an elbow will be added to the pipe.
a) Click to start the elbow command.

b) Snap to the Free Pipe end on the left of the pipe.

c) Press P for Port. Oops, this is not the direction that the elbow should point but fortunately this is easily
rectified. We will simply reorient the outlet using grips and the mouse.
d) Select the elbow and using the free end’s grip point, rotate the elbow 180°.
Before Rotation

During Rotation
After Rotation
Now the elbow points in the right direction but the pipe is too short. The outlet axis of the elbow should lie
on the second line. We will drag the elbow’s outlet so that is lies on the construction line going off towards
starboard direction.
e) Select the elbow.
f) Select the free end grip point.
g) Using OSNAP NEAREST drag the free outlet to the construction line going towards starboard.

h) Notice that the straight pipe stretched along with the elbow! That is what smart pipes and connections do for
you! You, the user, define connections. You tell the program, ShipConstructor – Pipe, which End Treatments
are allowed to “connect”, and also, how they will connect. This issue will be looked at in more detail later.
11. Continuing with the pipe run, a reducer will be added to the elbow
a) Begin by hiding the tank top deck so it will not interfere with our Osnap selection. Press and the then
click the tank top.

b) Start the Reducer command by clicking .
c) Type “S” to change the Stock. In the Specs and Stocks dialog, select the reducer named RED-CON-CS-
6X4_XS, under the FW COOLING spec.
d) Snap to the free end of the elbow.
The reducer automatically aligns itself to the elbow since it has “connected” itself to the elbow.
12. We will run a bent pipe from the reducer to the lower port of the heat exchanger. But first let’s mate a slip-on
Flange to the heat exchanger’s flange so that we can run the bent pipe directly into it.
a) Zoom out and locate the heat exchanger.

b) Click the Flange/Connector button.
c) It is good practice to press F3 to switch any OSNAPS temporarily off anytime you want to connect to a pipe.
This leaves only the ShipConstructor specific OSNAP PipeEnd on, which ensures that the flange will be
attached to the heat exchanger pipe connections, and not to any line or similar other entity.
d) Check the command line and note that the current stock is incorrect.
Command: '_CONNECTORPIPE
FL-SO-FF-CS-3_CLS150, FW COOLING, ANSI-B16.5-150LB, FL: 150LB, FF, SOF: SLP, 150LB, FF,
Specify first point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:
The flange should be the 4” size.

e) Even though the stock is not correct, try attaching it to the heat exchanger’s flange. You will be notified that
there is no connection defined between the two End Treatments that are attempting to be connected. Pipe
automatically searches for stocks will connect to the selected end (in this case the heat exchanger’s flange).
f) Pick Yes. The Specs and Stocks Dialog will open with only the stock, FL-SO-CS-4_CLS150 listed. Why is
it that only the one stock is listed? Well, the reason is that after selecting the heat exchanger’s flange,
ShipConstructor – Pipe searches the database for stocks of the type “Flange/Connector” that have End
Treatments that will connect to the flange.
g) Select the stock FL-SO-CS-4_CLS150 and press OK.
h) Press F3 to switch your OSNAP settings back on.

Now you may be wondering what an End Treatment is and how it is related to a Connection. Read the following
for an explanation.
End Treatments and Connections

Every Connection is composed of two End Treatments. End Treatments are a physical description of the ends of
pipes or fittings. The following is a brief explanation of End Treatments and Connections. For a more detailed
explanation, see the section titled Catalog Stock Editor in the Pipe Reference Guide.
End Treatments
End Treatments are incorporated in every pipe / fitting in ShipConstructor – Pipe. They are defined using the
Catalog Stock Editor, and later assigned to the ends of pipes or fittings. Every end or port of a pipe / fitting is
defined by the End Treatment assigned to it. The following figure shows what properties make up an End
Treatment.
Once an End Treatment has been created you can assign it to an end of an entity. For example, a slip-on flange
requires two End Treatments since it will be mated to two components (another flange and the pipe it will slip onto).
One End Treatment would be defined and added to allow connection to the Flange and the other to allow for a
connection to the socket.

Connections
Beyond defining which End Treatments can connect, Connections also define how End Treatments connect. For
example gaps would likely be included in a butt-welded connection whereas a slip-on connection would require an
overlap.
Not to be overlooked in connections are accessories. Accessories in the usual sense are any components such as
bolts and gaskets that would normally be included in a connection. You can however, also relate a work procedure
to a connection as an Accessory.
Routing a Bent Pipe

Continuing from the previous section, we will run a Bent Pipe between the flange and the reducer along a
predetermined path.
1. Start the Bent Pipe command by clicking .

2. Change the stock to PIP-SM-CS-4_SCH80 either by typing “S” for the stock option or simply by clicking the
Reducer’s free end and selecting it from the list.

3. After selecting the free end of the reducer you will be asked to select which connection to use. Any time more
than one Connection exists that contains both the End Treatments that are being connected, in this case 4” Plain
and 4” Buttweld, you will be required to specify which connection to use.
In this case select PL-BW.

4. Enter “R” to set the bend radius and change to 150.
5. Continue picking the points in the order shown in the following figure.
6. At point 4 a message will appear informing you that the maximum stock length is about to be exceeded.
Choose No. This will continue the routing of the Bent Pipe without breaking the pipe according to its stock
length. We will break it later.
7. Press F3 to switch OSNAP off to force a connection to the end of the flange. Finish by connecting to point 5, on
the flange. Do not click to the end point of the construction line, as this would not connect the bent pipe
logically to the flange.

8. Press F3 to switch OSNAP back on.
9. The model should now look like the one in the following figure. If not revisit the appropriate sections above and
complete the model.
Joining the Genset to the Heat Exchanger

We will finish, temporarily, the placement of pipes by joining the genset to the heat exchanger. This will include the
placement of an Outfit part that has pipe End Treatments embedded in it.
1. Start by connecting a short section of straight pipe to the right most flange on the genset (see next figure). Using
the methods described above, start the Straight Pipe command. Click the Free Pipe End on the cooling water
flange. Accept the default 3” suggested by Pipe. Click the start point again and the stock will use its minimum
allowable length.
2. Add a 3”, 90° elbow to the section of pipe placed in step 1 and have it pointing downward.
3. Add another minimum length straight section to the elbow.
4. Next add a 3” Flange to the straight section placed in step 3. It should now look like the following figure.

Adding an Outfit Part
We will now add an Outfit part to the flange added in the previous step.
5. Outfit components do not automatically connect to pipe ends during placement. This means that we must we
must manually “connect” one pipe end to the straight pipe placed in step 4. To simplify the process, move and
rotate the UCS using the ShipConstructor UCS command.
a) Click the UCS button in the ShipConstructor Planar toolbar.
b) Select Activate from Object.

c) Select the flex connector already in place beside the pipe run we just started..
d) In the Specify Plane Dialog select Frame and Pipe Aligned.

e) Press OK. The UCS will now be aligned with the Outfit part.
6. Click the Outfit part button.

7. The Insert Outfit dialog will appear. Outfit Standards are parts that are usually modeled beforehand or even
imported from other previous projects. Parts such as engines, pumps, and grates modeled in any 3D package can
be turned into an outfit part. In our example the genset, operator’s console, and flex connector were created in
Rhino. Outfit parts can have pipe End Treatments embedded in them so that pipes can be connected logically.
8. Select the COUPLING standard, 3 INCH GEN SET FLEX HOSE and press OK.
9. For the first point, select the midpoint of the vertical construction line below the flange as shown in the figure.
10. Press ENTER for no rotation.

11. Before completing placement of the Outfit, several properties must be specified in the Part dialog.
a) The Outfit must be assigned to the Assembly tree (PWBS). In this case, use the default level U12.
b) A Paint/finish must be specified for the Outfit. Select NO.
12. The Outfit part is now inserted but not connected.

Connecting Two Pipes
Using the SC Pipe menu command, Connect Pipes, we will join the Outfit part’s flange to the flange added in
step 4 above.
1. In the SC Pipe menu pick Connect Pipes.
The command requires that you select two free end points with the same orientation. The function will move
components during the join process using the following functionality:
• The first end point should belong to the pipe/fitting that will remain stationary.
• The second end point should belong to the entity to be moved.
2. For the first point, select the free end of the flange placed in step 4 (F3 to turn OSNAP off except Pipe end).
3. Next, select the free end of the Outfit flange.
4. The Outfit part will be moved and connected to the flange and should look like the following figure. Notice the
color of the flanges changing from RED (unconnected) to GREEN (connected).

Saddle Stitches
In the next section we will tap into a previously placed bent pipe using a ShipConstructor – Pipe function, known as
a Saddle Stitch.
Saddle stitches are fabricated connections to existing pipe runs. They may be added to straight pipes, bent pipes, and
elbows. Any pipe type may connect to a saddle stitch as long as a connection has been defined in the catalog
between the saddle stitch End Treatment and the current stocks End Treatment.
What you are really doing in the program when you add a saddle stitch is to create another endpoint on a pipe
segment, to which other pipe entities may attach. For example, a straight pipe normally has only two ends to which a
pipe may be connected. By adding a saddle stitch connection, you have the ability to tap into that pipe at any
intermediate location. The following figure shows a plain-ended pipe connected with a saddle stitch to produce an
angled branch of pipe.
The following figure shows a straight pipe with two saddle stitches. The saddle stitch on the left has a er section of
pipe attached, whereas the saddle stitch on the right does not. Later, another pipe/fitting may attach to it as long as a
Connection is defined that includes the Saddle Stitch End Treatment and the connecting pipe/fitting[s] End
Treatment.

Adding a Saddle Stitch
We will add a Saddle Stitch to the Bent pipe section, creating a perpendicular branch (stub-in) that leads from the
heat exchanger (figure).
1. Start the Straight pipe command.

2. Press “S” and change the stock to PIP-SM-CS-3_SCH80.
3. Type “A” to choose the Saddle Stitch option.

Specify First Point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:A
4. Select somewhere on the upper Bent pipe that is joined to the upper right flange of the heat exchanger.
Select a Pipe to add Saddle To:

5. After selecting the pipe that the saddle stitch will “tap” into, you must specify the End Treatment for the end
point. The end point you are adding requires an End Treatment with the IsSaddle flag set to Yes since only End
Treatments with the IsSaddle flag set to Yes can be selected from the following dialog:
The above dialog requires a three step procedure to select the End Treatment:
I. Select the End Treatment Type. Once the Type is chosen, the Nominal Sizes will be updated to
reflect only the sizes of End Treatments defined for that Type.
II. Select the Nominal Size. Once the Nominal Size is chosen, the main list is updated to show the
available saddle stitch End Treatments of the size chosen.
III. Select the End Treatment by selecting from the main list (End Treatments without any extended data
will appear as “<Regular>” )
6. Select the End Treatment Type “SAD”.
7. Drop down the Nominal size list. Notice that the list does not contain a 3” size.
8. Since a 3 inch SAD End Treatment does not exist, one must be created. Press Cancel to abort the function.
Creating a Saddle Stitch End Treatment Using the Catalog Stock Editor
1. Select SC Piping / Catalog Editor or .

2. Switch to the End Treatment tab.
3. From the Show list select SAD and verify that only 2.5 inch and 4 inch End Treatments exist.
4. Edit Types… and verify in the EndTreatment Types that SAD has the IsSaddle set to Yes.
5. Click Cancel to close the dialog.
6. Select the Imperial radio button.
7. Click Edit at the bottom center of the dialog.

8. From the Available Nom Sizes list, select the size 3 inch and then press New End Treatment.
9. A New End Treatment is created. Change the type to SAD.

Note: Alternatively you could have highlighted one of the existing End Treatments and then pressed the New End
Treatments button. This copies the information from the highlighted End Treatment, only replacing the size.
10. Press Save. You have now created an End Treatment.

A 3” SAD End Treatment now exists but nothing will be able to connect to it unless we create a connection between
the End Treatment of the stock and the new, 3” SAD, End Treatment.
What End Treatment does the 3” pipe that we are attempting to connect have?
1. Switch to the Spec tab to check.
2. From the Spec list in the Show frame, select FW COOLING, thereby filtering out all other Specs.

3. Select the Pipe checkbox so that only pipe types will be displayed in the stock list.
4. Sort the List by clicking the Name column header.
5. The list currently does not show the End Treatments of the pipes. Switch to the Configure Columns mode by
selecting the Configure Columns radio button.
6. Notice that the End Type 1 and End Type 2 boxes are unchecked. Check them.
7. Observe that the End Treatments for PIP-SM-CS-3-SCH80 are PL-3 in.
Creating a Connection Using the Catalog Stock Editor

We now know that we require a connection including a 3inch PL End Treatment and a 3 inch SAD End Treatment.
1. Switch to the Connections tab.

2. By default all Connections are shown. Filter the list to check if any Connections include the End Treatments of
interest.
a) Select Treatment Types: PL and SAD from the lower filter list.
b) Sort the list by Name and observe that two Connections exist that mate PL and SAD but they are different
sizes than needed. Also note that both their names are SAD-PL. We can further filter the list to show only
Connections named SAD-PL.
c) Under Show / Connections check the Connection SAD-PL .

d) The list should now contain only two entries. Select the 2.5 inch size entry.
3. Click Edit and then New Next Size. A new 3” entry should have been automatically created for you.
4. Accept the copied properties: LineMode Icon, Gap, and Display Treatments and Press Save Changes.
5. This completes the addition of a Connection. Press Done to close the Catalog Stock Editor.
Completing the Saddle Stitch

1. Repeat steps from the Adding a Saddle Stitch section above and this time select the 3 inch size.

2. Choose <Regular> and then press OK.
3. The origin of the saddle stitch always lies on the centerline of the selected pipe. Select the end point of the
construction line as shown in the following figure. Use OSNAP END.
4. For the direction of the saddle stitch (the direction that the pipe will protrude) choose Up.
Pick Saddle Direction [pERp/taN/Angle/Fwd/AFt/Port/Stbd/Up/Down]:U
5. Enter the distance from the centerline that the attaching pipe should be. In this case enter 0. This will make the
pipe appear to be seamlessly attached.
Enter distance from Centerline [Enter for surface]:0
6. At this point of the Straight Pipe command, the saddle stitch has been added and connected to the first point of
the Straight Pipe. Look at the command line and its history.

PIP-SM-CS-3_SCH80, FW COOLING, ASME-B36.10-80, PL, PL
Conn = SAD-PL
Use SAD-PL,
Adding a PIP-SM-CS-3_SCH80 to a PIP-SM-CS-4_SCH80
The above lines, representing the command line history, show the information of the Straight Pipe being placed,
Connection being used, and the name of the pipe being placed as well as the name of the pipe/fitting it is
attaching to.
7. All that remains is to specify the second end point of the Straight Pipe. This can be done with the mouse, or
through keyboard entry.
Specify second point or [Length]:
Enter 100 mm.

8. The model should now look like the following figure:
Adding a Valve
The following six steps add a simple shut-off valve to the stub-in created in the above sections.
1. Place a 3” flat-faced flange on the end of the stub-in. Use FL-SO-FF-CS-3_CLS150.
2. Click the Valve button in the Pipe toolbar or type VALVEPIPE.

3. Ensure that the current valve is VAL-GAT-FL-DI-3_CLS150 from the FW COOLING spec. If not type “S”,
and change the stock.
4. Attach the valve to the flange placed in step 1.
5. The valve we are adding has a long shutoff handle so we must specify the direction it will point. Choose “S” for
Starboard.
Valve Orientation or [Fwd/Aft/Port/Stbd]:S
6. Compare your model with the figure below:
Finishing Placement of Pipes Between the Heat Exchanger and

Genset
Finalize the pipe run between the heat exchanger and genset by placing a Flange at each end and then route a Bent
Pipe between them.
1. Place a 3” flat-faced flange on the free end of the valve placed in the above section. Use FL-SO-FF-CS-
3_CLS150.

2. Place a 3” flat-faced flange on the free end of the Flex Connector outfit part. Again, use FL-SO-FF-CS-
3_CLS150.
3. Using the Bent Pipe command, route a pipe between the flanges placed in steps 1 and 2. Use the stock PIP-SM-
CS-3_SCH80 and place it in the same manner described in the section titled: Routing a Bent Pipe above.
Importing Pipes
The model above is nearly finished; however, some editing will be done to further explore other Pipe functions.
Zoom out on the drawing and look at the portion of Pipe near the start point, specifically the elbow.

We will import a Tee from another database, disconnect the elbow from the existing pipes, insert the Tee, and
finally create a Valve stock to attach to the Tee.
1. Select SC Piping / Catalog Editor or click to start the catalog editor..

2. Switch to the Import tab.
3. The first step is to select the database that contains the Pipe stocks that are to be imported. Press the Select
button.
4. You must specify the server name and the database hosted by the server.

How you select the Server name depends on what type of operating system you are running the demo on. Two
scenarios are possible:
a) Windows 98/ME machines require that the Server name be typed in. If the server is installed on the same
machine that you are running the demo from, enter local for the server name. If the server is not run from
your local machine, contact your system administrator to determine the server name.
Once the name is entered, the database list will be refreshed to display the databases available in the server.
Look for the database named SC2001 PIPE CATALOG.
b) Windows NT/2000/XP machines will list all servers available in the local machine’s Domain. Simply select
the Server from the drop list.
Once the name is selected, the database list will be refreshed to display the databases available in the server.
Look for the database named SC2001 PIPE CATALOG.
5. Once you are connected to the database, the remaining controls on the page will be activated.
The filter options should be familiar to you as they are identical to those in the Spec tab.
6. Note that we are now accessing data contained within another database and not the database containing the
stocks that you have been working with up to now. The Specs, Catalogs, materials, standards, etc. may all be
different but in our case the Spec FW Cooling also exists in the import database.
7. Select Ballast from the Spec drop list.

8. Select the Tee checkbox to show only the Tees in the Spec.
9. Sort by name and then select the Tee, TEE-RED-CS-6X6X4_XS.

10. Press the Import! button. The process may take a few seconds depending on the number of stocks being
imported.
All required structural components, including Nominal Sizes, End Treatments, materials, manufactures,
Penetration objects, and Catalogs, are automatically imported.
11. Switch to the Spec tab so that we can add the imported stock to the FW COOLING Spec.
12. Again set the filter options to show only the Tee’s. This time leave the Catalog and Spec drop lists set to show
All. We don’t want to filter by spec since the Tee has not yet been added to a spec.
13. Select the stock imported (TEE-RED-CS-6X6X4_XS).
14. Now assign it to the FW COOLING spec.

a) Press Assign to Spec….
b) From the list of available specs, choose “FW COOLING”.
c) Press OK.
15. Click Done to exit the Catalog Editor.
16. The tee can now be inserted in the drawing.
Replacing Pipes/Fittings
Changing stocks in a drawing is a fairly simple task as can be seen in the following section.
1. Select the elbow as shown in the following figure and then delete it.
2. Also Delete the 6” – 4” Reducer.
3. Start the Tee command by clicking in the Pipe toolbar.

4. Select the Tee “TEE-RED-CS-6X6X4_XS” from the FW COOLING spec. Note that End Type 1 and End
Type 2 are the 6-inch outlets and End Type 3 is the 4-inch outlet.

5. Press OK.
6. By default, the end corresponding to End Type 1 is the first end to be connected. We are going to connect to
the 4” pipe so we want the end corresponding to End Type 3.
7. Select the 4” pipe going off to starboard.. The program will determine that only end has a valid Connection
defined and automatically connect the 4” ends.
8. Two Connections exist that can join a 4” BW to a 4” PL. Choose PL-BW.
9. Complete the placement of the Tee by specifying the outlet orientation. Use the Aft option by entering “A”.
Outlet orientation or [Connection/Fwd/Aft/Up/Down]:A
10. Now we can drag the Tee, which at the same time lengthens the pipe, so that the Tee is inline with the 6” pipe.
a) Select the Tee and grab the center grip point

b) Drag it to the corner of the construction line.
11. Finally, connect the Straight Pipe to the Tee. Do so by selecting the pipe and using its end grip point to drag it
to the outlet of the Tee. The Tee and Straight Pipe are connected automatically.

Creating a Valve
Using the Catalog Stock Editor, a custom handled valve will be created. The following steps outline the basic steps
required to create a Valve. For a full description see the Catalog Editor section titled “To Copy/Create a Valve”.
1. Start the Catalog Stock Editor by clicking in the Pipe toolbar or by typing SCCATALOGEDITOR.
2. Switch to the Create/Edit Pipe tab.
3. Select the Valve check box to see what valves already exist in the database.

4. We will use an existing valve for the starting point of our new valve. Therefore select the Valve named VAL-
GLB-FL-DI-5_CLS150.
5. Press New Valve. The Create New Pipe – Valve dialog will open:

6. Change the following Values (While you are changing the values notice that the preview window updates as the
values are changed. In the preview window you can Pan, Rotate, and Zoom as you would in AutoCAD using
ORBIT.
a) The Name value to VAL-GLB-FL-DI-6_CLS150. Observe how the changed name changes to a red color.
Any item you change is indicated by the color change to allow you a convenient check.
b) The Weight to 151
c) For End1 Type drop down the End Treatment browser tree and double-click the End Treatment: FL 6 in
150LB ff.
d) Do the same for End 2-Type.
e) Change the values for End 1-Length and End 2-Length to 7.

f) Change the value for the handle position to 7.
g) Drop down the Handle list and note that the handle GLB (SPACE)-6 does not exist. Therefore we must
create it.
7. Press Edit Valve Handles >>.

8. The Handle GLB (SPACE)-5 is already highlighted as this was the handle for the 5 inch valve. Leave it selected
and press the New button, thereby copying the data.
9. The Handle Name is changed simply by the 1 added to the end but all other values remain as copied. Change
the new handle data as follows (watch the preview change as you change the values):
10. Press OK to return to the previous dialog.

11. The handle just created is now available for selection in the handle drop list. Select the new Handle from the
drop down now.
12. Press Done to close the Valve Edit dialog.

13. The Valve has been created, but it still must be added to the FW COOLING spec. Switch to the Spec tab.
14. Choose to show only products from the Ductile Iron Catalog.
15. Select the checkbox to display only Valves.
16. From the stock list select the Valve VAL-GLB-FL-DI-6_CLS150.
17. Press the Assign to Spec… and choose the FW COOLING spec. Press OK.
A connection already exists that allows for joining the Valves End Treatment, FL-6 in-150LB FF, to another of
the same type and size. Therefore we do not need to create a connection before using this Valve.
18. Press Done to close the Catalog Stock Editor. The Valve can now be placed in the drawing.
Placing a Valve
The valve created in the previous section will be placed to complete the Pipe model.

1. Since the valve is flanged, add a flange to the end of the Tee so that we can connect the Valve. Start the
Flange/Connector command by clicking .

2. Type “S” and press ENTER to change the stock.
Specify first point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:s
3. From the stock list, select the flange FL-SO-FF-CS-6_CLS150. Press OK.
4. For the first point, select the free end of the Tee.
Specify first point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:
The flange will be automatically oriented.

5. Now to the free end of the Flange add the 6” valve created in the previous section. Start the Valve command by
pressing the button.

6. Type “S” to change the stock.
Specify first point or [eXchange ends/Stock/sAddle stitch]:s
7. From the stock list, select the flange VAL-GLB-FL-DI-6_CLS150. Press OK.

8. For the first point, select the free end of the flange.
9. The valve will automatically align itself with the flange but the handle direction still needs to be specified.
Choose the Up option by typing “U” and pressing Enter.
10. The valve and model should like the following figures.

Penetrations
The Pipe model is now complete but there is one glaring error. The straight pipe running from the start point has no
penetration to allow for its passing through the frame U12F106. We will use ShipConstructor’s interference
checking and Pipe’s penetration functions to illustrate how penetrations are managed. For more information on Pipe
Penetrations, see the section “SC Pipe – Penetration List” in the Pipe Reference Guide.
This section assumes that you have completed the tutorial sections referencing drawing TUTORIAL_BASE. Use the
drawing TUTORIAL_COMPLETE instead, which is a completed piping drawing.
1. Click to start the Navigator dialog..

2. Switch to the Interference tab.
3. Press New to create a new interference-check drawing.

4. An Interference drawing is always based on any number of structure, outfit, and pipe drawings. ShipConstructor
copies all parts from the selected drawings into the interference drawing without interrupting the work of other
people that might be working on anyone of the selected drawings. Select the drawings as shown below. You
may choose to select the …BASE alternative drawings if you followed all the steps to create these drawings.
Press OK.

5. Enter the name INTERFERE1for the drawing name. Press OK. The interference drawing is create using the
latest state of these drawings, which is important when several people work on the same project.
6. Select a viewpoint as shown.

8. Select ShipConstructor / Check Interferences….
9. The Interference List dialog opens with no items in the list. Since we are interested in the interferences between
pipes and structure select StraightPipe-Struct and OtherPipe-Stuct.
10. Press Run Check.

11. Accept the default Minimum Interference Volume 1e-007. This prevents minute interference of being
suppressed. These are usually caused by floating point errors rather than real interferences.

12. The list is updated and should contain 10 interferences. Make sure to set the options a shown in de dialog
below.
13. Select the first list item and the two interfering parts are highlighted.
14. Double-Click the first select or right-click and select View. Click the “+” sign until you can clearly make
out the interference. The screen should look as shown.
15. Press the Add Pipe Pen button. This brings up the global penetrations list of all penetrations added to the unit.
The list should so far contain one entry.

16. Change the Cutout as shown. We use a Water Tight cutout for all penetrations through U12F106 since it is a
tight bulkhead.
17. Click Save.
18. Repeat the same steps for all other penetrations. Use WT penetrations for U12F106, and NT type penetrations
for all other drawings. At the end your penetration list should look as shown below. We now have 9
penetrations of two different type for several sizes of pipes in several different drawings ready to be
implemented.
19. Press the Apply Pens button.
20. ShipConstructor:
• Automatically finds the structural drawings that need to have penetrations added to any structural parts.
• Opens each drawing in the background.
• Inserts the penetration(s) into the structural parts.
• Updates the database with new weight and CG data for all penetrated structural parts.
• Adds revisions to the structural parts.

• Penetrations that are not required anymore because of moved or changed pipe are removed from the
structural parts and the database is updated.
• Penetrations are move to different locations if a pipe moved and the database is updated
• Generates a log file informing you which penetrations were added, moved or removed.
21. Press Close in the Pipe Penetration List dialog.

22. Close the Interference List dialog and save the drawing.
23. We will now open a structural drawing to confirm that for example the aft bulkhead U12F106 has been updated.
24. Open the Navigator. Switch to the 2D Groups tab. Open U12F106.
25. Select Edit Part , click on the lower plate part in the drawing (switch to the
production layer and to an appropriate view if required) and press ENTER..
26. In the part dialog press Revisions.

27. In the Revisions dialog observe that the last 3 entries are the three pipe penetrations that have been added
within seconds of each other. At the same time the weight and CG has been updated. A Nest operator running a
nest-check function would be alerted to re-nest the part, since it changed after it had been nested the day before.
28. Close all dialogs.
29. We will now investigate the penetrations in one of our piping drawings.
30. Open the ShipConstructor Navigator. Switch to the Pipe tab and open the drawing
TUTORIAL_COMPLETE (…BASE if you chose to complete the drawing).
31. Select Attach XREF and select the drawings as shown below.

32. Activate the Solid layer .
33. Set up a 3D-viewpoint, shade the drawing and use Orbit to investigate some of the penetrations.
34. Zoom in the location where the straight pipe passes through the frame U12F109. Notice that a cutout has been
created to accommodate the pipe.
Penetration Definition
Where does the information required to create the cutout come from? It is defined in the Catalog Stock Editor under
the Create/Edit Pipe tab.

1. Open the Catalog Stock Editor and switch to the Create/Edit Pipe tab. Click the Penetrations button at the
bottom right of the tab.
2. The dialog that opens by default lists all straight stocks contained in the database. Select the stock PIP-SM-CS-
6_SCH80. This was the pipe used to create the cutout in the frame above. The Pipe Penetrations list in the
bottom right of the dialog is updated to display all the penetrations created for this stock. Note the dimensions
and shape of the cutout.

Spooling
Overview
The spooling tutorial consists of three sections:
• Spool info layout,
• Setting up Spools, and
• Generating Spools.
You would start using the drawing BALLAST_BASE and go through all the step preparing the 3D pipe model
drawing for a single system for spooling. At the end you will have:
• BALLAST_BASE converted to the same state as BALLAST_COMPLETE.
• Created a new spool naming convention, and
• Defined a new spool setting style.
You may wish to skip the first two steps, if you are just interested in seeing how the spool drawings are
automatically created. Go to the section titled “Generating Spools” and use drawing
BALLAST_COMPLETE.DWG” instead of BALLAST_BASE.DWG”. Also use the already existing spool naming
convention and spool setting style, instead of the ones mentioned in the text..
Spool info layout
Overview
This portion assumes that you have logged into the demo project by registering into unit U12, and have at least a
passing familiarity with the modeling portion of the tutorial. We will begin with a tour of some already generated
spool drawings. We will then go into more detail on how to setup to create new spools..
Viewing Currently Generated Spool Drawings

1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click to start the Navigator.
2. Switch to the Pipe tab.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Spooling • 275

3. There are four Pipe drawings in the demo project, of which only two will be used in the Spool Tutorial. Only
the drawing BALLAST_COMPLETE currently has spools defined, which is indicated by the “+-sign” in
front of the name. Expand the tree to see a list of all the spools defined for this drawing.
4. The icon in front of the five spools indicates that the spool drawings are not only defined but also generated.
The possible icons are:
• Defined - This icon indicates that the spool has been defined in the model, but
the spool drawing hasn’t been generated yet.
• Defined and locked - This icon indicates the spool is defined, is not generated, and is
locked. You will not be able to change any of the in this spool.
• Drawing Generated - This icon indicates that a spool drawing exists.
• Drawing Generated - This icon indicates the spool drawing exists and the spool has been
locked.
276 • Spooling ShipConstructor Tutorial

5. Let’s take a look at a finished spool drawing. Double click on the spool “JOB1001-BALLAST_COMPLETE-
003” which will open the spool drawing in AutoCAD and close the Navigator.
6. This spool drawing was created automatically by ShipConstructor and then modified to the client’s
specifications. ShipConstructor provides three methods of customizing the spool drawings.
i. Template Drawings - Similar to Structural Assemblies, spools can be customized through the use of
template drawings. The templates can be fully configured by the user to so that all spool drawings
have a uniform appearance, additionally keywords (such as weight, cg, system) can be added which are
replaced by ShipConstructor at the time of generation. This will be covered in a later section of the
tutorial.
ii. Spool Style Settings - Numerous settings such as bubble size, flange width and dimension offset
can be customized and saved to the database, later to be applied each time a spool is generated. This
will be covered in a later section of the tutorial
iii. Manual Editing - Due to the diversity of spool formats it may be necessary to use regular AutoCAD
functions to tweak the spool drawing to a specific dimensioning style or specification.
Setting up Spools
Overview
This section covers breaking the ballast system for unit U12 system into logical spools, assigning a custom naming
convention and using it to name the spools.
Opening the Model to Prepare for Spooling

Next we are going to go through the steps that were used to create the spools in the demo project. For this we are
going to use model BALLAST_BASE that is identical to BALLAST_COMPLETE in every way except that it has
not been spooled yet.
1. Start the ShipConstructor Navigator by selecting ShipConstructor / Navigator or click .

2. Go to the Pipe Tab and open the BALLAST_BASE drawing.
3. We need to adjust some of the display settings so click on the Pipe Options button and make sure the
Display tab is selected.
4. Make sure that both the Spool Break Indicators and Pipe Status symbols are turned on and set to 250
mm. Select a color that will be easily visible against the pipes.
5. Close the dialog.
Creating a Spool Naming Convention

Before we can begin breaking the system into logical spools we first want to create a custom spool naming
convention. Spool naming conventions allow you to customize the automatic generation of the spool names to suit
your personal needs.
1. Bring up the Navigator, select the Pipe tab.
2. Press the “+”-sign in from of BALLAST_COMPLETE to expand it. It shows alrady generated spool drawing.
3. Press the Spool Naming button. The Edit Name Components dialog will appear.

4. This dialog allows you to create, modify and remove spool-naming conventions. There is currently one name
style created, Demo Style. Select the Style Demo Style in the list box to display its elements in the List
marked Elements. The spool naming setup has been designed with maximum flexibility to support the
multitude of varying conventions employed by different shipyards and designers. The current style is made of
four elements.
5. In this example:
• The first element is a static string, which can contain any collection of characters, and numbers the user
desires. In this case “JOB1001-” indicates the job number of the project.
• The second element is the name of the drawing the spool came from.
• The third element is another static string, this time it is just a separator “-” between the previous
element and the next.

• The fourth element is an auto number, this is very important and should be included in every spool
naming convention, without it ShipConstructor will not be able to create sufficiently unique spool names.
6. To make our new naming conventions we are going to copy the existing “Demo Style”. Make sure the style is
selected in the Names Styles list and click the Copy button. A new style will have been created called
“Demo Style1”.
7. Click twice on the new Style in the List Box until you are able to edit the name. Change the name to “Spl
Naming”.
8. Once you have renamed the style, select it in the list box so that is Elements are displayed on the right hand
side. As you can see it has had all its elements copied from the “Demo Style”. For our new style we want to
have the name of the drawing displayed first. To do this select the Drawing element (item 2) in the list and
click the Move Up button once. The drawing name is now first.
9. In order to see what our new naming convention will look like press the Test button to generate a random
sample name. Something similar to “BALLAST_COMPLETEJOB1001—001” should appear below the test
button. This name is hard to read, as there is no separator between the drawing name and the job number.
10. To fix this select “JOB1001-” from the element list (item 2), which will cause the details for this element to be
displayed below it in the Details box.
11. The first row, Type, displays the type of element to be used. The possible options are Static (unchanging
string that remains the same for all spools), DB Item (information gathered from the database depending on the
spool being generated) and AutoNumber (an automatically generated number used to ensure that each spool
has a unique name). In this case it is set to Static. The String is currently set to “JOB1001-”. We want to edit
the string to say “-JOB1001” as the separator is now in the wrong location. Click on JOB1001- twice and edit it
to look like this: “-JOB1001”,
12. Press the Test button again and the name should now look something like this “BALLAST_COMPLETE-
JOB1001-001”. This is better, however for this example we’ve decided our spool numbering is going to start at
050. To change this select “AutoNumber” (item 4) in the Elements list. The current AutoNumber settings
appear in the details as listed below.

13. The current settings are:
a. Width 3 - When generating an auto number leading zeros will be added to expand the number to
take up to 3 characters (at least). Therefore the number ‘1’ would appear ‘001’, ‘34’ would appear
‘034’ or ‘4245’ would remain unchanged as it is greater than 3 characters in length already
(selecting auto will use the number “as is”, adding no leading zeros).
b. Start Value 1 - The initial value to use when numbering. Basically this is the first number that
will be generated, and all other number will be generated from there. Numbers must be 1 or
greater. It is currently set to 1. Change the value to 50, so the first spool name generated will have
the number ‘050’.
c. Increment Value 1 - Amount to increment between auto numbers, in most situations this will be
1, it represents how much the auto number will be incremented each time a new one is generated.
d. Max Range 1 - The maximum number that will be generated. Note: Currently not supported.
14. Select the cell next to Start Value and change it from 1 to 50. Next click the Test button; the name generated
should look something like “BALLAST_COMPLETE-JOB1001-050”.
15. Now that we have configured the spool naming convention to our liking we must change the global settings to
use our new style as opposed to the old one. Close by clicking on Done in the Edit Name Components
dialog and then close the Navigator.
Note: Our naming convention is relatively simple, but it serves to demonstrate how spool names are fully
customizable. See the reference section for more information.
16. Open the Pipe Options dialog by pressing on the Pipe Options button on the toolbar. Switch to the
Defaults tab.
17. Currently the “Demo Style” naming convention is set as the default. Select “Spl Naming” as the new Spool
Naming Convention Style.
18. Click OK to close the dialog. We are now ready to go about the process of defining spools.
Breaking the System Into Logical Spools

The spools are set in the 3D pipe model drawings. A spool manager simplifies this complex task greatly.

1. Use the Navigator to open the drawing BALLAST_BASE.
.
2. Make sure you have the view centered on the system. All the spool managing is done from one dialog called the
Spool Manager. Launch this dialog now from SC Pipe / Spool Manager.
3. The Spool Manager is designed as a Modeless dialog, meaning that you can access AutoCAD while the
dialog is up. Move the dialog to the upper left hand corner of the screen so you can see both the dialog and the
entire system at the same time.

4. Once you have the dialog positioned to expand the Undefined collection on the tree by clicking on the + next
to the folder icon.
5. As you can see all 23 pipes/fittings are grouped into one spool collection by default. Uncheck the Center check
box so that the view will not be changed as you select spools in the Spool Manager tree. Before defining the
spools and giving them names we want to divide them into smaller collections as the system is too large to be
spool together.
6. The first step to splitting up the spools is to set any pipes/fittings, which are not going to be included in a spool
as being Free. To do this, choose Free-Set from the right side of the dialog.
7. The dialog will stay up while allowing you to choose multiple pipes in the background to set to No Spool.
Select pipes to free.
Select objects:
8. Choose the Ball valve in the upper right corner of the drawing and hit enter. Focus is set back to
the Spool Manager dialog and the tree is disabled as the information there is no longer up-to-date as you have
changed the configuration of the system. The tree will remain disabled until the Refresh Info button is
pressed; this allows you to make numerous changes to the configuration of the system without having to wait for

the Manager to rebuild the tree each time. In the screen shot below you can see the valve has been marked with
a large cross symbol to indicate that its valve is now set to No-Spool.
9. Back in the Spool Manager, click the Refresh Info button to update the tree to reflect these changes.
Expanding the Tree should show two undefined spools. Setting the valve to No-Spool divided the ballast system
into 2 undefined spools.
10. Double clicking on the larger collection (Undefined 1) will highlight all items belonging to it in the drawing.
Double clicking on the smaller collection (Undefined 2) will highlight everything above the free valve. The
smaller collection is ok for production, however the large one is still too big and must be further broken down.
We are going to add three spool breaks to break up the remaining pipes into convenient sizes for production.
11. Click on the Spool Breaks - Add button to start adding break points. The Spool Manager dialog will
disappear the following will appear on the command line.
Pick pipe near connection to break at:
12. The Spool Breaks - Add command allows you to place multiple break points at once. Click on the pipes in
the following three locations as close to the connection as is possible, once you have successfully added the
break points hit ESC to finish and bring up the Spool Manager again.
Note: If you accidentally add break points to the wrong location you can use the Spool breaks - Remove
command to remove them.
13. You should then see circular discs around the connections that have had break points. The size and color of the
symbols is set in the Pipe Options - Display. Please refer to the reference manual for more information on
these settings.

14. Once the Spool Manager dialog has returned you must click on the Refresh Info button to rebuild the tree
information.
15. Double clicking on each collection will highlight it in the drawing. As you can see the system is broken up in a
much more logical manner, it is time to define the spools.

16. We want to define the spools in the order shown above. To do this, right click on the Undefined folder and
select Choose Order from the drop down menu.
17. Since you are creating new spools, ShipConstructor needs to gather some information about the properties of
the spools. To do this it brings up the Spool Properties dialog.
18. All spools will be assigned to a PWBS assembly item. The default is to assign them to the current Unit (Demo-
U12). This is fine, however make sure that Paint has been set to NO and the IsGalvanized option has been
checked. When these settings have been adjusted, click OK to continue with spool definition.
19. Next the Spool Manager dialog disappears and the command prompt displays.
Choose spool:
20. Click on the spools in the order shown previously, the command line will continue prompting until all the spools
have been chosen or the command is canceled (if canceled before all spools have been chosen then some of the
spools will be left undefined). If you choose an invalid pipe or a spool that has already been chosen then the
command line will inform you that an invalid choice has been made and ask you to choose again.
21. Once you are finished the Spool-Manager dialog will reappear containing the spools you have now defined.
Notice how they have used the naming convention previously defined!
22. If you didn’t define the spools in the correct order or missed one, don’t worry we’ll cover how to modified
already defined spools in the next section.
Spool Properties
1. First off let’s look at the properties of one of our newly created spools, right click on BALLAST_BASE-
JOB1001-053 and select Edit Properties from the drop down menu.

2. This will bring up the Edit Properties dialog box.
3. The Spool history lists only one entry, the definition of the spool. This lists all the major changes and events that
have happened to the spool since it was created. To see this in action, uncheck the Galvanization option and
the click OK.
4. Open the Edit Properties dialog for BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-053 again.
5. As you can see there was a “Properties Changed” item added to the history recording that the galvanization
changed. The history also records which user made this change, making it easy to find out who changed the
spool and when.
Renaming Spools
Now let’s say we accidentally mixed up spool 053 and 054 and we want to switch them around. First we will clear
the definition of spool 053 (this will make it undefined) and then rename 054 to 053 (we had to clear 053 in
order to make the name available when we renamed 054). Finally we will rename the former 053 (now undefined)
to 054. We’ll go through it step by step in the next section.

1. First we must clear 053. Make sure the Spool Manager is open and the tree is expanded.
2. Right click on BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-053 and select Clear Spool from the menu. A message box
will appear warning you that this will undefine the spool and asking if you wish to continue. Click Yes to
continue.
3. Spool 053 has been cleared and moved to the Undefined Category (for more information on the available
spool categories and their meaning, see the Reference manual), see below.
4. Next right click on the spool BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-054 and select Rename from the drop down menu.
5. The Available Spool Names dialog comes up showing the next 10 available names that we could choose
from. If we wanted more than 10 choices we could enter any number we choose in the lower right hand box to
expand or shrink the list. Remember that the more names we display the longer it will take to bring up this
dialog in the future. In any case we want to change the name to BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-053, so select it
in the list and hit OK.
6. After the dialog closes the spool manager tree should look like the screen shot below. However how do we
know that new BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-053 is in fact the one renamed?

7. Right click on BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-053 and select Edit Properties from the menu. There has now
been another history item added recording the fact that the spool was renamed.
8. Its time to define the last spool so close the Spool Properties dialog box by clicking on Cancel (or OK if
you haven’t made any changes). Rather than defining the spool by running the Choose Order command again
since we only want to define 1 spool this time we will use the Define command. Right click on the undefined
spool and choose Define from the drop down menu.
9. Next the Define Spool dialog will ask you to choose a name for the new spool. The option <New Spool-Next
Auto Name> will use the next available name (which should be BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-054). The
option <New Spool-Choose Auto Name> will bring up the Available Spool Names dialog we saw
earlier giving you the option to choose from a list of names.
10. Select <New Spool-Next Auto Name> in the list and click OK. Note: For extra practice try the other
option.

11. The Spool Properties dialog will come up allowing us to change the Paint, Galvanization and/or the
Hierarchy Level, however the default settings are the ones we want so click OK to continue.
Locking the Spools

Next we are going to lock the spools to prevent any accidental editing of the pipes in the model. This way anyone
who wants to make changes is forced to first check with the project manager to receive permission to unlock the
spools for editing, helping to keep track of revisions.
1. Open the Spool Manager if not open.
2. Make sure the Defined Category is expanded to show all the defined spools.
3. Select BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-050 then, while holding down the shift key select BALLAST_BASE-
JOB1001-054. You should then have all of the spools selected.
4. Right click on any of the highlighted spools and select Lock from the drop down menu.
5. All the spools will then have been moved from the Defined Category to the Locked Category (Note: The
manager only shows Categories that have spools in them so the Defined Category will no longer be displayed).
Moving the Locked spools back to the Defined Category is as simple as selecting Unlock from the drop
down menu while the Locked spools are selected.

6. Close the Spool Manager by clicking on Done.
Generating Spools
Overview
This section will cover the generation of Spool Drawings from our previously defined spools.
Viewing Spools in the Navigator

1. Open the Navigator.
2. Select the Pipe Tab and highlight drawing BALLAST_BASE (use BALLAST_COMPLETE.DWG if you did
not go through the steps of defining spools).
3. Expand the tree by clicking the “+-sign” as shown.
4. As you can see all spools that were just defined now show up under they BALLAST_BASE drawing. Notice
the icon indicates that these spools have been locked. However it lacks the symbol meaning the spool
drawings are not created yet. If using BALLAST_COMPLETE.DWG the icon will show that the spool
drawings already exist. We will just overwrite them with new ones later.
Checking the Spool BOM

The spool BOM can be customized to fit your specific needs.
1. First we want to make sure that there is a valid Spool BOM (Bill of Material) defined.
2. Go to the Pipe Tab in the Navigator and click on the Spool BOM button, which will bring up the Edit Pipe
BOM dialog.

3. Select Demo from the list of Pipe BOM’s, this will display the properties of the selected BOM on the right
hand side of the dialog. The Demo BOM is setup to contain all the fields we would want; it currently contains
Name, ND (Nominal Diameter), Rad (elbows only), Angle (elbows only) and Length (pipe only). These are
just a few of the many different fields that can be added to the BOM. For an explanation of how to
create/edit/modify BOMs please see the reference manual.
4. Select Done to close the dialog.
Checking the Spool Template

When the spool drawings are created they are based on a template defined in the Template Tab of the Navigator.
Currently the Spool Templates are very similar (nearly identical) to Structure Assembly Templates so they
are stored together. However in the future this convention may change, as the Spool Templates are made more
powerful and therefore more unique.
1. Switch to the Template tab of the Navigator.

2. There are currently only two Templates in the Assembly Folder, ASMBLY 1 ISO which is the Assembly
template and SPOOL which is (obviously) the Spool template. We want to view the SPOOL template so select
it in the tree and either click on the Open button or double click on it in the tree.
3. The template is made up of at least 1 viewport in paperspace (while a spool drawing could have multiple
viewports, this is not how it is generally done), along with numerous keywords. The keywords are simple
AutoCAD text, which look like <KEYWORD> and are replaced by ShipConstructor with the appropriate
information when the Spool is generated. For example “<SYSTEM>” would be replaced by the System of the
spool (ie Ballast, Fuel Line), or “<GALVANIZED>” which will be replaced by “Y” if the spool is galvanized or
an “N” if it is not. For more information on setting up Templates and Keywords please see the Assembly
Template section of the Structure Reference manual.
4. In addition to the Keywords the spools also use two other facets of the template to provide Customization:
a. Layer 0 - All pipes inserted into the spool drawing go onto layer zero, so the user should set the
Color and line Lineweight of the layer to reflect the desired appearance of the pipes.
b. Dimension Style - When generating the dimensions for the spool drawing ShipConstructor
will use one of the Dimension Styles in the template to format the dimensions. Users can have
multiple dimension styles in the spool template allowing for maximum customization (as the
Dimension Style to use is chosen each time spools are generated).
Generating Spool Drawings

It’s now time to go thought the process of generating drawings for all the spools we defined earlier for
BALLAST_BASE. (BALLAST_COMPLETE if you did not define spools in BALLAST_BASE).
1. Open the Navigator and go to the Pipe Tab.
2. Select the drawing BALLAST_BASE (or BALLAST_COMPLETE) in the tree and then click on the Spool
Dwg… button.

3. Next the Create Spool Drawings dialog will be displayed, asking you to select the BOM and Template you
want to use. The Template we want is the one we saw earlier, SPOOL.dwg and there is only one BOM
available, Demo. Once you have made the selections click Next to continue.
4. Next the second Create Spool Drawings dialog will be displayed. This allows you to choose which spool
drawings you want to generate, currently it has selected all the spools for drawing BALLAST_BASE since
that’s the one we had selected when we started the command. However you can change the drawings to be
generated here by checking/unchecking the spools selected in the Tree. You also have the option of viewing the
available Spools by System or by Assembly if this is more convenient. For now we just want to generate
all the BALLAST_BASE spools so click on Next to continue.

5. Next the Spool Drawing Settings dialog appears. The spool settings are collectively referred to as a Spool
Style and multiple styles can be saved for later use (they are saved to the database and therefore can be used by
multiple users, avoiding the necessity of configuring each machine separately). There is currently one style in
the database and it was used to generate the spools for BALLAST_COMPLETE, we will however create our
own style no so we can explore all the settings in detail.
6. Select “Demo Style” first click on the New button which will generate a new style with a default name “New
Style”. First we want to rename the spool style to “Demo Style 2”. To do this click on the style name in the list
box until it becomes editable then delete the current name and type in the new one.
7. Settings Summary:

• AutoCAD Dimension Style - Is filled from the template we choose earlier, and there is only one
style defined so there is no choice in the matter.
• Dimensions
Ø Baseline dimensioning - Dimensions components included in a straight section from a
common starting point. We don’t want to use this option so leave it unchecked.
Ø Break dimensions at tees - Dimensions to the branch point of tees, saddle stitches,
stubins, etc. Very useful for determining position of branches, leave it checked.
Ø Include connections when dimensioning - Dimensions to the center of the connection
points. Again the current setting is acceptable, leave it checked.
Ø Dimension offset - The base distance the dimension text will be offset from the points
being dimensioned. We will want to choose 175.
• Text
Ø Text Size - The size of the label text. We want our text to appear a little larger, change this
option to 0.2.
Ø Paper space units - Check this option to set the text height in paper space units. We don’t
want our text to appear different sizes depending on the zoom of the viewport, so we’ll want
to leave this option checked.
• Connection radius - The size of the connection icon drawn where two pipe entities connect. Enter
“0” for a default size or override with another value to customize the display. We want our connections
to appear a little larger so set this to 0.07. Note: Connection will be scaled to the zoom of the viewport
so they will appear the same size at all times.
• Spool Orientation Settings - The Spool Orientation Settings portion of the dialog allows for a
common orientation of all spools within their production drawing. This is useful to help reduce errors
by keeping the orientation consistent from drawing to drawing for the fabrication shop. The dialog
specifies the orientation for the start of the spool, and the direction to orient the first connected branch.
Level as is.
Ø Ship Coordinate System - The Ship Coordinate System option will leave the spools in the
same orientation relative to the world coordinate system as in the 3D model. Our spools are
relatively simple so we will leave them in there original orientation when they are inserted.
Ø Spool Coordinate System - The Spool Coordinate System orients the spool to the world
coordinate system. If a spool coordinate system is selected, the start of the spool will have to
be picked by the user for each spool that will be made into a spool drawing.
• Labels - The text identifying the item numbers of the pipes that are included in the bill of materials.
Level as is.
Ø Leader lines - Select this option to include leader lines for the straight pipe labels. All other
Pipe entities will retain their leader lines for clarity. Again we want to stick with the current
setting so leave it checked.
Ø Label Size - The size of the bubble that is drawn around the labels: side length for squares,
diameter for circles. Set it to 0.05.
Ø Label Style - List of available shapes to frame the labels with. Circle looks best for the
labels.
• Override Flange Size - Whether or not the flange icon sizes should be overridden. We don’t want to
override the flanges so leave this unchecked.
Ø Flange Width - The 2-dimensional representation of the flange diameter in paper space
units.

Ø Flange Length - The 2-dimensional representation of the flange thickness in paper space
units.
8. Once these changes have been made, click on Save to save the changes to the database. Then click on OK to
actually generate the spools.
9. ShipConstructor will now generate the spool drawings in the background and then open them each up for
formatting individually.
10. After all the spools have been generated the last one will be left on the screen, in this case BALLAST_BASE-
JOB1001-054.
Adjusting a Spool Drawing

In this section we will edit an automatically generated spool to fit our own preferences. In most cases the spools will
require little or no work upon completion, or, as the case with drawing BALLAST_BASE-JOB1001-054 they will
require some manual adjustment.

1. Switch to the model space by double-clicking on the viewport.
2. Change the position of two Labels so they don’t interfere with the dimensions. Do this by selecting the label and
then using the grip point in the middle to move it.
IMPORTANT: The size of the labels and customs length text will change if you are in a zoomed in or out state.
REGEN while in the viewport when you have established the desired zoom level again. All text sizes will be
adjusted and plotted in the correct paper-space size.
Before After
3. Zoom and pan the viewport to the correct size and position for plotting. The type REGEN to size all custom
labels to the specified paper-space size.
4. The spool drawing is now in its final form.

5. Switch back to paper space. Zoom to the top center of the drawing. It lists major properties of the spool, such as
name. Weight, and CG. These are automatically inserted as indicated in the spool template drawing.
6. Pan to the right until you see the BOM. It is formatted as selected in one of the sections before.
7. Start the navigator and open spool drawing BALLAST_BASE (or…COMPLETE).

8. Practice placing the labels into the correct position. It might look something like this.
9. You might decide that this is not the best position for production. You can interactively rotate the drawing and
all our custom labels will still “look” at you. Only the AutoCAD dimensions will retain their respective
orientations. With the next release ShipConstructor will also implement custom SMART dimensioning. Let us
try this out now.
10. Start ORBIT.
11. Right-click and select More / Zoom Extents.

12. Now use the mouse to rotate the drawing interactively. Observe that all labels will remain “looking” at you.
13. You can also us the ShipConstructor 3D View dialog to set other views.

You are no ready to plot the spools, and print the reports to create excellent, up-to-date production
documentation with very little effort

Outfit Tutorial
Overview
The Outfit module lets you define a library of outfit standards, such as pumps, winches, and light bulbs. The outfit
standards are then placed into individual outfit arrangement or piping drawings to form a complete product model
together with Structure and Pipe.
The Outfit Tutorial explores various aspects of the Outfit module including:
• Placement of crane on main deck.
• Creation of an Outfit item and part.
• Investigation of the weight and CG of deck assembly.
Outfit Menu
Terminology
Outfit Standard – An Outfit Standard is an AutoCAD drawing containing a component represented by solids,
any drafting entities, pipe connections, and is combined with information in the
ShipConstructor database. You can build catalogs of reusable outfit standards used
anywhere in the project. Examples would likely be engines, pumps, ladders, railings, etc.
Outfit Parts – Once an Outfit Standard is inserted into an Outfit Arrangement or Pipe drawing, an Outfit
Part is created similarly to a structural or pipe part. Weight and CG are automatically
updated to reflect the insertion.
Outfit Arrangement – Drawings used to place Outfit parts.
Pipe Connection – End Treatments added to an Outfit Standard that allow for connections to pipes created
using ShipConstructor’s – Pipe module.
ShipConstructor Tutorial Outfit Tutorial • 303

Placement of an Outfit Standard
Overview
This portion of the exercise requires that you log into the U12 module of the ShipConstructor2001Demo. Once
logged into the project you will be able to create a new Outfit Arrangement drawing and continue with the Outfit
tutorial.
Creating an outfit drawing

2. Press the Register button in the 3D Unit tab of the Navigator.
3. In the Register Unit Dialog select and log in to U12 of the ShipConstructor demo (see the Structure or Piping
Tutorial for more details).
4. Switch to the Outfit Arrangement tab.
304 • Outfit Tutorial ShipConstructor Tutorial

5. Press New Outfit Arr. to create a new Outfit Arrangement.
6. Enter U12-DECK-OUTFIT for the name.
Placing an Outfit Standard

Overview
We will XREF structural group drawings into the outfit drawing, place a crane on the main deck, and we will
investigate the weights and CG of the assembly, both before and after placement.
1. Open the drawing “U12-DECK-OUTFIT” if it is not already open.
2. Click the button in the ShipConstructor toolbar to open the Xref Groups dialog.
3. Select the main deck, U12MDCK and frame, U12F110.

4. Press OK.
5. Using Manager2001 examine the weight of the main deck assembly before the crane is inserted.
a) Select ShipConstructor / Project / Activate Manager. This opens a separate, but integrated program,
used to manage all aspects of the project.
b) Select Reports / PWBS and SWBS.
c) Expand the Assembly tree and select the item, MDK since the crane will be added to this assembly item.

d) Click the Properties button. Note the Weight of 21241.6 kg and the CG point of 72.765, 0.000, 6.357
meters in the longitudinal, transverse, and vertical direction respectively.

6. Switch back to AutoCAD.
7. Click to set up the 3D-View as shown below (FROM FWD STBD UP).
8. Click to turn on the solid layers.
9. Shade the model using AutoCAD’s Gourad shade mode . The frame and deck should now be visible.

10. The winch is to be placed over the frame and on the deck. Change the UCS to the deck top.
a) Click .
b) Select U12MDCK_T in the Activate from list and then press Activate.
11. To create construction lines used to place the winch, use the Mark Group Intersections function. Click on
the ShipConstructor Planar toolbar.
a) Choose OK to mark on the current UCS.
b) Select the frame U12F110 and press OK. This creates a construction line on top of the MDCK plating to
help us place the crane.

c) All layers other than current production layer are turned off. Turn on the production and solid layers again
by clicking .
12. Draw a line that bisects the group marking line.
a) Start the AutoCAD line command. For the first point enter (0, 2000). For the second point enter (80000,
2000).
b) The model should now look like the following figure:
13. Select SC Outfit / Insert Outfit….

14. Select the Crane, APPLETON_SB_4.5. Press OK.

15. For the insertion point, select the intersection of the two construction lines. Enter “0” for the rotation angle.
16. A part is created upon insertion but before the part is fully defined, a few details need to be determined.
a) The crane is to be assigned to the main deck assembly. Expand the Assembly Tree and select the level
“MDK”. For the paint select “NO”. Press OK.
b) Save the drawing to synchronize the database.

17. Now return to Manager2001.
18. Close the Properties for MDK if still open.
19. In the PWBS tree select assembly MDK and click Properties.
20. Review the properties of the main deck assembly. Note that the weight and CG of the assembly have changed
accordingly. The weight has increased 850 kg to 22091.6 kg and the CG point has moved to 72.793m, 0.077,
and 6.430m in the Longitudinal, Transverse, and vertical direction respectively.

Creating an Outfit Standard
Overview
We will use a pre-made 3D AutoCAD drawing as the starting point for the outfit standard for a winch. These
drawings can be created with any convenient 3D modeling software or imported from readymade drawings supplied
by your suppliers.
To the pre-made drawing we will add a pipe-end, and define it as an outfit standard. Finally, we will add the
standard to the outfit arrangement drawing of the main deck.
1. Click and switch to the Standards tab.
2. Select the Outfitting Standards folder in the tree, and then select the item AMW_12. Notice that the icon is .
This means that the drawing exists in the Standards / Outfitting folder of your project, but has yet to be
converted into an Outfit Standard. The icon for a defined Outfit Standards is .

3. Open the drawing AMW_12.
4. Notice that a new menu, SC Outfit Standard, has been added to the menu bar.

5. Switch to a wire frame display mode.
6. Before an Outfit Standard can be created a CG point must be added to the drawing. Select SC Outfit
Standard / Insert Center of Gravity Point. If only one point exists in the drawing then it is considered the
CG point. Otherwise the point entity must be selected.
7. For the CG point location, enter 917, -7, 687.
8. Now select SC Outfit Standard / New Outfit Standard.
Multiple CG Points detected. Select point object for CG:
Zoom in and/or rotate the image to select the point near the center of the winch axel.
9. Enter the properties as shown in the following figure and press OK.

10. Accept the piecemark size of 50mm.
11. Place the piecemark somewhere near the location shown in the following figure. Enter “0” for the rotation.
12. Now a pipe end can be added to the boss on the winch brake.

13. Select SC Outfit Standard / Insert Pipe Connection.
14. Select the End Treatment type PIPE_END, the nominal size 0.375, and the description Regular. Press OK.
Choose Location of End:
15. Use Osnap Node and select the point at the center of the boss as shown in the following figure:
16. The orientation of the Pipe End, that is the direction of the attaching pipe, needs to be specified.
Specify Direction
Enter @0, -1 for the direction vector.

17. This Outfit Standard can now be inserted into Outfit Arrangement drawings or pipe drawings. When connecting
a pipe to it, ShipConstructor will automatically only allow pipes that match this connection.
19. Using the navigator open the Outfit Arrangement drawing U12-DECK-OUTFIT. Using the methods described
in the preceding section, insert the newly defined winch AMW_12 somewhere on the top deck and assign it to
the MDK assembly level.
20. Save the drawing in order to update the ShipConstructor database.
21. In Manager close the PWBS and SWBS dialog. Then open it again and select MDK.
22. Observe that the winch AMW_12 and the crane APPLETON_SB_4.5 are listed in the right pane.
23. Click Properties and review the main deck assembly properties as outlined in the preceding section. Note the
new assembly weight of 23891.6 kg as well as the new CG point, which depends on insertion point.
24. The arrangement drawing should look something like the one shown in the following figure:

25. Click Report.
26. Select the options as shown.
27. Click Preview.

28. You now have a build strategy report that includes outfitting and structure.

Build Strategy 5, 19, 166–69, 197–200, 318
C
CAD 5, 8, 35, 57, 63, 70, 111, 135, 137–38, 147,
163, 164
Catalog 57, 209, 211, 221, 232, 240, 242, 245, 247,
252–53, 255–56, 259, 263, 273–74
Index Catalog Editor 242, 252, 256, 259

CG 8, 34, 66, 182, 184, 198, 270, 272, 277, 299, 303,
305, 307, 311, 314, 317
class 22
Connections 209, 229, 231–33, 240, 245–46, 257,
284, 296, 303
COPY 46, 63, 83, 85, 88, 95, 101–2, 111, 119, 180,
195, 259, 280
D
3 Detailing 5, 33, 41, 45, 47, 49, 53, 57, 59, 63, 76, 78,
107, 122, 133
3D Orbit 28–30, 69, 167, 181, 218 Display Properties 11
3D Product Model 4, 9
E
A
Elbows 240, 292
Align 57, 140–41, 265 End 1 261
Angle 50–51, 69, 82, 97–98, 125, 146, 177, 184, 248, End Treatment 225, 232, 240–45, 261, 263, 316
292, 311 End Treatment Type 242, 316
Annotating 174–76, 178, 181, 185 End Treatments 73, 209, 229, 231–35, 237, 242–46,
ANSI 231 255, 303
Arrangement Drawings 4, 21, 211, 317 Endcuts 6, 49, 68, 73, 90, 103, 192
ASME 225, 249 EndTreatment Types 243
Assembly 3–6, 8, 19, 22–23, 41, 72, 77, 90, 91, 107, entities 24, 28, 43, 61–63, 79–80, 82–83, 92, 104,
110, 118, 121, 132, 139, 150, 153, 163–64, 106, 121–22, 133, 149, 167, 170, 240, 296, 303
166–72, 174–75, 181, 183–85, 187, 189, 192, Export 8, 24, 41–43, 158
197, 198, 201–3, 238, 286, 292–93, 294, 303, extrusion 67–68, 76, 101–2
305–6, 311, 317 Extrusion Lines 67–68, 76
Assembly drawings 4, 6, 8, 19, 22, 92, 107, 121, 150,
163–65, 167, 171–72, 174–75, 183, 187, 198
AutoCAD 3–4, 7–10, 13, 16, 20, 24, 26–30, 34–35, F
41, 43, 52, 56–57, 61, 75, 81, 86, 96, 105, 111, Faceplate 34–36, 39, 47, 49, 72, 83, 86–91, 107–11
120–22, 127, 129, 135, 138, 151, 155, 156, 158, facing 175, 181
167, 175, 176, 182, 187, 218, 222–23, 261, 277, filter 127, 138–39, 147, 193, 246, 253, 255
282, 293, 296, 299, 303, 308, 310, 312 Fittings 209, 211, 221, 224, 232, 256, 283
AutoNest 139, 147–48 Flange 57, 73, 97–100, 230, 232, 234–37, 239, 241,
249–51, 264–65, 277, 296–97
B Flange/Connector 231, 264
flanged 35, 46, 49, 92–93, 95, 97–98, 107, 143, 264
Bent Pipe 230, 233–34, 240–41, 250–51 Flanges 97–98, 239, 251, 296
Bent pipes 222, 240 Flat 35–36, 38–39, 46, 49, 56, 67–70, 72, 81, 89–90,
Block 9, 35, 38, 72, 81 97, 108, 178, 200, 202, 249–51
BOM 21, 135, 137, 149–53, 155–56, 164–65, 174, Flyout 47–48, 51, 73, 76, 78
185, 291–92, 294, 299 font 10–11
branch 198, 240, 296 Frame 8–9, 26, 32, 37–39, 46, 49–51, 53–56, 58–61,
Bridging 157 63–64, 66, 77, 83–86, 88, 92–95, 101–4, 114,
ShipConstructor Tutorial Index • 319

127, 164, 170, 176, 180, 182–83, 185, 218–19, Material 41, 57, 66, 72, 78, 98, 134–35, 151, 157,
236, 244, 266, 273–74, 296, 305, 308–9, 314 164, 291
Mirror 17, 105–6, 118, 120, 132, 139, 149, 151, 160,
G 178, 186
Module 3, 12, 15, 211, 215, 303–4
Gap 61, 75, 93, 95–96, 99, 125, 134, 141–44, 154, Move 7, 28, 62, 79, 104, 127, 136, 139, 141, 144–45,
247 155, 176, 182, 202, 224, 236, 239, 271, 280,
Genset 235–37, 250 282, 298
Girder 9, 22, 31–32, 46, 49, 53–54, 61, 83–92, 101–
2, 107–8, 111–12, 125, 155, 186
N
Gouraud Shaded 28, 30
group 3, 5–6, 8–10, 12–13, 16, 17, 22, 24–26, 30, Name 7–8, 15–16, 33–36, 38, 41–42, 51, 56–57, 70,
32–34, 41, 46–47, 50–51, 57–58, 66, 72, 84–85, 72, 80, 90–92, 110–11, 113, 118, 126, 128,
93–94, 104, 108, 112–15, 121–22, 125, 166, 133–37, 139, 160, 167, 176, 180, 190, 214–15,
189, 200, 305, 309–10 225, 245–46, 249, 252–54, 261–62, 267, 276–
Group Technology 5 81, 287–89, 292, 295, 299, 305
NC production 25
H Nest 3–4, 15, 18, 23, 41, 62, 100, 107, 132–33, 135–
43, 145–54, 155–57, 159–61, 198, 203–6, 215,
Handle 7–8, 78, 107, 113, 189, 250, 261–62, 265 272
hull 7, 49–50, 54–55, 61, 83, 85, 88–89, 95, 101–2, Nesting 3, 8, 75, 79, 81, 107, 114, 121, 131–35, 137–
105 39, 147–51, 153–60
Network 6, 14–15, 122, 214–15
I Nominal Size 242, 316
Import 20, 125, 211, 252–53, 255

O
interference 8, 20, 66, 125–30, 266–69, 271
IsSaddle 242–43 Offset 62, 81, 89, 95, 116, 141, 277, 296
Orientation 36, 68, 77, 79, 92–93, 100, 104, 106,
K 156, 161, 184, 239, 250, 257, 296, 316
outfit 1, 3, 5, 8, 15, 20–21, 24, 48, 66, 125, 166, 198,
Keymap 19, 164, 170–72, 174 209, 211, 215, 218, 235–39, 251, 266, 303–5,
310, 312–16, 317
L Outfitting 312, 318
Overlap 67, 68, 101, 115, 154, 233
Layers 16, 25, 27, 31–32, 34, 37, 39, 48, 50, 64, 67,
76, 86, 105, 116, 174, 308, 310
Level 5, 15, 165, 176, 185, 189, 215, 220, 238, 290, P
296, 298, 311, 317 Penetrations 157, 197, 209, 266, 269–74
Libraries 56, 133 Piecemark 34, 37, 73–74, 80–81, 91–92, 101, 110–
License 15, 215 12, 122, 315
LineMode 247 Pipe 1, 3, 8, 15, 20–21, 24, 40–41, 66, 125, 127, 157,
lock 15, 214, 290 165, 166, 197, 209, 211–12, 215–18, 220–22,
Longitudinal 7, 17, 22, 31, 39, 46, 49, 54, 67, 68, 79, 224–26, 228–29, 230–36, 239–41, 244–45,
85–87, 93, 107, 114–15, 125, 307, 311 248–53, 256–60, 263, 266, 269, 271–74, 275–
76, 278, 281, 284, 286, 291–92, 293, 296, 303,
M 312, 315–17
Pipe Display 218, 226
Manager 3, 12, 15, 26–27, 56–57, 61–62, 66, 70, 72– Piping 242, 252, 266, 272, 303–4
73, 97, 100–101, 105–6, 111, 121–22, 127, planar group 3, 8–9, 12–13, 16, 17, 24, 30, 33–34,
132–34, 137–38, 141, 144, 148–54, 158–61, 46–47, 93–94, 104, 122
164, 175, 197, 199, 203, 215, 281, 283–86, 288, planar group drawings 3, 8–9, 12–13, 17, 24, 33–34
290–91, 306, 317 Plane 9, 38, 57, 93, 114–16, 176–78, 179, 182–83,
Manufacturer 57 185, 236
Margin Bracket 49, 92–97, 99–102, 143–46 Plate parts 35–36, 75, 106, 111, 138, 170–71, 176–
markings 34, 36, 52, 75–76 77, 182–83
320 • Index ShipConstructor Tutorial

Production 1, 4–9, 22, 25, 27, 31–32, 34, 38, 50, 57, 211, 215, 218–19, 224, 266, 268, 292–93, 303–
63, 64, 67–68, 75–76, 80, 86–89, 91, 99, 102–6, 4, 318
107–9, 111, 114, 115–16, 119, 122, 131, 133, Stub-in 241, 249
149, 163, 167, 175, 197, 271, 284, 296, 299– SWBS 197–99, 200, 220, 306, 317
301, 310
Profile 3–4, 6, 10, 26, 49, 57–58, 67, 73, 75, 80, 83, T
88, 101–4, 109, 189, 192–93, 195, 197–98,
200–202 Tanktop 31, 39, 46, 49–50, 54–58, 60–61, 67, 69–70,
Profile Plots 3, 57, 189, 192 83, 85, 95, 186
PWBS 165, 176, 185, 197–200, 238, 286, 306, 311, Tees 254, 296
317 template 23, 41, 77, 135, 138, 147, 151, 163–64, 171,
189, 194–95, 277, 292–94, 296, 299
Templates 8, 23, 56, 135, 137, 164–65, 172, 189,
Q
195, 277, 292–93
Quality Control Matrix 163, 183 Throw 8, 37, 51, 66, 68, 73, 75–76, 79, 84, 90, 94,
Quality Matrix 175, 183 97, 118, 121, 125, 175
Toolbar 9, 12, 24, 26, 29, 31–32, 34, 46–47, 51, 61,
R 78, 117, 132, 152, 157, 217–18, 220, 225–26,
236, 249, 256, 259, 281, 305, 309
Radius 54, 62–63, 97–98, 108, 142, 202, 234, 296 Toolpath 36–37, 61–63, 66–67, 80, 84, 89, 90–92,
RAM 26, 173 94–97, 100, 108–9, 111, 145, 157, 170
Rectangle 139, 195 toolpaths 34, 157, 171
REGEN 28, 32, 39, 66, 103, 298
Register 12–14, 16–17, 212–13, 215, 304
U
Remnant 135, 159–61
Replicate 58–59, 63 UCS 17, 28–29, 38, 93, 114–17, 121, 175–79, 182–
Rhino 237 83, 185, 224, 236–37, 309
Rotate 30, 73, 117, 140–41, 144–45, 175, 177, 181, Unit 1, 3, 5, 7–9, 12–14, 16–17, 24–28, 30–33, 36,
184, 195, 227, 236, 261, 299–300, 314 46, 51, 57, 64, 72, 81, 107, 121–22, 125, 127,
133, 135, 139, 164–67, 170–71, 185, 197–99,
S 204, 209, 212–14, 269, 275, 277, 286, 304
Saddle 225, 231, 240–42, 247–48, 264, 296

V
Saddle stitch 240–42, 247–48, 264
Scallops 52–53, 55, 83–84, 95 Valve 211, 249–50, 252, 259–65, 283–84
Schedule 5, 225 Valve Handles 261
Search 15, 215 Valves 259, 263
Shading 26, 28, 30, 32, 65, 81 Virtual Reality 34, 41
ShipReport 172, 197 visibility 24, 30–32, 65, 81, 168
Size Definitions 209
Slide Part 143 W
specifications 221, 277
Specs 220–22, 230–31, 244, 253, 256 Weight 7–8, 66, 73, 136, 151, 198, 261, 270, 272,
Spool 3, 5, 21, 165, 209, 275–98 277, 299, 303, 306–7, 311, 317
Spooling 209, 211, 275, 277 Weld Shrinkage 78–79, 184
SQL server 4, 7 Windows 9, 11, 26, 104, 253
standard 7, 9, 20, 34, 41, 43, 48, 52–53, 107, 113–15, Wireframe 28–30, 64, 218
117, 119, 138, 150–53, 190, 197–98, 200, 202, workshop 6, 8, 22
237, 303–5, 312–16, 317
Standard brackets 107, 114, 150, 152 X
stiffener 4, 6, 8, 18, 34–38, 46–47, 49, 57, 67–76,
79–81, 88, 101–2, 114–17, 119, 178–80, 189, XREF 59, 69–70, 85, 119, 218, 272, 305
192, 195–96
Structural Reports 4
Structure 1, 3, 15, 45, 50, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 83, 85,
102, 104, 106, 120, 127, 166, 189, 197, 209,
ShipConstructor Tutorial Index • 321

Z
Zoom 28, 30, 37–39, 53, 58, 61, 66–68, 69–70, 76–
77, 79, 81, 83, 86–89, 91, 94–95, 98–99, 102,
105, 108–11, 114, 116, 119, 129, 136–38, 142,
151, 154, 160, 164, 174, 176, 178, 183, 184,
195–96, 230, 251, 261, 273, 296, 298–99, 314
322 • Index ShipConstructor Tutorial

Tutorial Shipcon PDF

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Tutorial Shipcon PDF

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

ShipConstructor

By ARL - Albacore Research Ltd.

IN NO EVENT WILL ALBACORE RESEARCH LTD. BE

ShipConstructor Tutorial Contents • i

Using Standards 113

Checking the unit 121

Interference Checking 125

Assembly Drawings 163

ShipConstructor Tutorial Contents • iii

Profile Plots 189

Structure Reports 197

Pipe Tutorial 209

Pipe 3D Modeling 211

Outfit Tutorial 303

ShipConstructor Tutorial ContentsTutorial • v

ShipConstructor Tutorial Tutorial • 1

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 3

Generating a 3D Product Model

4 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 5

Don’t Do It The Old Way!

Work Package Save Time and Money

Organizing Your Work and Data

6 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 7

• Production geometry - regular CAD drafted geometry for NC-cutting.

8 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 9

2. In the Customize dialog select the Toolbars tab.

Checking Your System Font

10 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

Changing Your System Font

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 11

The Unit Drawing

The ShipConstructor Toolbar

New Planar Group

12 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

1. Select ShipConstructor / Navigator or click .

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 13

14 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

• Module - The available module name on the lock.

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 15

16 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 17

18 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 19

20 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 21

22 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 23

Viewing the 3D Unit

The Visibility Toolbar

24 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 25

1. On the toolbar click the Select View button.

4. Click OK. The screen is redrawn with the desired view.

Shading the 3D Unit

26 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

2. Click the SHADE button. The Shade dialog is displayed.

3. Set the values as shown in the dialog and click OK.

ShipConstructor Tutorial Exploring • 27

28 • Exploring ShipConstructor Tutorial

To add the 2D Wireframe button on your toolbar: