The maritime software, services and data analysis provider National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) and the testing, inspection and certification services provider Bureau Veritas (BV) have announced their partnership to enable more effective and general use of 3D models in the class approval process.
Through this partnership, the two parties aim to improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of future vessel design and solve the current challenges associated with 2D drawings.
“While naval architects use 3D models to design ships, the assessment of these designs by class ensure they meet relevant safety and compliance specifications, requiring them to be translated into 2D and then back again into 3D,” explained a NAPA representative.
This process could, therefore, be time-consuming, slow down communication between class societies and designers and lead to errors in the design.
The two partners intend to change this, with the creation of a new process that enables BV to perform its rule checks without needing to re-create 3D models from 2D drawings, by integrating the neutral Open Class eXchange (OCX) format.
“This innovative breakthrough means that we have a viable and effective solution to use 3D model-based approval,” said senior vice president technical & operations at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, Laurent Leblanc.
“The shift to 3D approval underpins what will be the next generation of vessel designs and it also means we will be able to collaborate more efficiently with designers to better iterate vessel designs to meet the safety and sustainability challenges of the future,” Leblanc added.
“Once the designer shares hull data based on the OCX format from its design software, BV imports it into NAPA Steel to automatically generate the calculation models used in BV’s rule-checking software, MARS (prescriptive rule check) and VeriSTAR Hull (finite element analysis),” explained a NAPA official.
In addition, BV provides access to its web-based collaborative platform (VeriSTAR Project Management) to share the comments and the progress of the design review with shipyards, designers and shipowners in real-time.
