The Tribon system has been specifically designed to provide a structured way to develop and

improve the information flow between the different tasks within the shipbuilding process, where
many design development tasks are performed in parallel. The requirements of the complete
information flow have been considered and so the system is not just a computerisation of a
conventional manual process.

The Tribon system is based on the use of a Product Information Model (PIM) database, which
has been designed to handle in an efficient way all of the structural and outfit objects found in
the shipbuilding industry. The information in the Product Information Model contains all the
technical data that is needed to define the final product. It addresses all phases in the design and
production process. Information from one stage can be used in the next stage. All types of
drawings and reports can be derived from the model.

This concept with one common product information model or "ship database" for each project
being used by all designers and production planners means that the information stored in the
database is immediately available to the entire organisation. This source of consistent
information ensures that no errors can develop between design and production functions. It leads
to a very efficient flow of information and which results in reduced man-hours and elapsed time
for a project.

The core of the Tribon system is the Product Information Model database. This can be regarded
as a comprehensive "Ship Database" containing all information about a specific project. The
database is object-oriented in the sense that all design and production data is stored as "objects".
These "objects" are all of the types of physical items found in ship construction, e.g. systems,
components, assemblies, pipes, equipment, brackets, cables, plates, stiffeners, etc. The
description of each type of object is formulated in such a way as to contain all the necessary
technical data and/or properties, which are required in order to describe a particular instance of
the object. The technical data and/or properties are then used to derive the graphical
representation of the object for use in symbolic sketches or in 2D or 3D views, depending on the
context of the presentation. When design modifications are necessary it is this technical data,
which is changed rather than the graphical information, as would be the case in most other CAD
systems.

Two important concepts are used in the Tribon Product Information Model implementation in
order to enable the system to handle the large volume of data that represents a complete ship with
good response performance and with realistic database sizes.

Firstly, all data is stored using Object Technology in which geometry is not explicitly stored, but
is derived as and when needed from the stored technical data.

Secondly, a combination of Solids and Light Solids are used for model display and model
development, again to give a good optimum performance. Light solids are a simplified way of
storing and handling solid primitives and in which a canonical representation is used instead of a
boundary representation.

Below, some of the major characteristics of Tribon and benefits from the Tribon Product
Information Model are listed.
The development and storage of the complete ship design in one large concurrent multi-user
access database promotes the smooth and efficient flow of design information between
engineering disciplines and leads to a shorter elapsed design time and to a more correct design.

These operational advantages lead to a much reduced volume of documentation, less duplication
of work, fewer inconsistencies and errors in the development and transference of design
information and which in turn leads to less information being subject to revision and change. In
using Tribon the structured way of handling the information flow will help to produce a more
technically correct design, at a lower cost and in a shorter time. In addition production can start
earlier and both elapsed time and man-hour savings can also be made in production by using
specifically created complete and consistent information for each stage of production.

The process of ship designing having different sections as follows

Tribon Initial Design is an extensive suite of ship design tools for initial hull geometry
modelling, compartmentation and naval architectural analysis. This suite assumes that the vessel
is of a conventional mono-hulled form.

This application capability is based on long experience in the generation of and replication of
hull form geometry and in the associated traditional hydrostatics and hydrodynamics
calculations, together with the very latest in computer-based modelling and analysis technology.
It combines advanced mathematical methods with well-established empirical techniques. Tribon
Initial Design is integrated with the other Tribon design applications, which means that the
resulting initial hull geometry model, including compartmentation, can then be used as the
fundamental reference geometry for further developing and processing the design in the other
Tribon design applications.

Tribon Initial Design suite can be divided in three basic parts: namely Geometry, Hydrostatics
and Hydrodynamics.

The modules for hull form external surface geometry consist of Form - used for rapid generation
of a new hull form, Lines - a hull replication and fairing tool, and Surface - used to define a
complete surface model of the main hull and its appendages. The Compartment module is used
to model the internal surfaces that establish the compartments of a ship.

The selection of the most appropriate facilities within the Form, Lines and Surface modules is at
the discretion of the user. The Compartment module is compatible with all three.

The hydrostatics modules provide a comprehensive toolkit named Calc for the calculation of
hydrostatics, cross curves of stability, effects of loading conditions, intact and damaged stability,
critical KGs, longitudinal strength, tank calibrations, launching, and container loading.

The hydrodynamics module Hydro, includes a powering function for preliminary resistance and
propulsion analysis of single and twin-screw ships; a strip-theory based seakeeping function for
frequency domain calculations for motions, added resistance and loads as well as time-domain
calculations to predict the response to slamming; resulting wave-induced and a manoeuvring
function for the estimation and simulation of the manoeuvring characteristics of ships.
Curved Hull Module .

The Curved Hull module is used in order to model different kinds of members on the hull
surface, e.g. shell plates, longitudinals and transversals. Depending on the region of the hull
surface these "panels" may actually be curved or flat. Early material estimates and quantities for
shell profiles and plates can be obtained. A panel generation function is used to build all the hull
shell panels of a vessel, including plates, longitudinals and/or transverse frames. All of the
necessary manufacturing and assembly documents can be created by this module.

Planar Hull Module .

The Planar Hull module is used for the modelling of the complete inner structure of a ship,
defining the structure as plane panels including plates, stiffeners, brackets, flanges, etc. These
panels may represent parts of frames, decks, bulkheads, etc. When used in the early phase of a
project, large conceptual panels, so-called "jumbo panels", can be created and later subdivided in
a semi-automatic manner into panels of production size. The topological associativity of the
model defined during the modelling process means that the model can easily adapt to a change
in, for example, the hull form or the position of a deck. The module contains numerous functions
for interactive drawing development in order to assist in documenting the design. These
functions are closely integrated with the modelling functions so that the modelling and
documenting of a design are done in parallel by the designer.

Nesting .
The Plate Nesting and NC module is used in order to nest plate parts onto raw stock plates and
to produce NC/CNC information for cutting and marking. The parts to be nested are created
automatically from the as-constructed definition of the hull panels, both curved and planar, hull
panels taking into account material expansion, shrinkage for welding, etc. The nesting functions
are comprehensive and contain numerous features for meeting the individual requirements of the
various NC/CNC machines, which are used in shipbuilding.

Drafting .
The Tribon Drafting module contains special functions for Product Information Model viewing,
for the developing of drawings and for three-dimensional, 3D, volume modelling.

Tribon Drafting is the common application for all the Tribon modules, which use the Product
Information Model to store the created model objects. However, Tribon Drafting can also be
used as a wholly independent stand-alone module for general drafting.