IfM Research

True Integrated CAD (TICAD) System for Sailing Yacht Designs

Background

This project represents a new approach to integrated CAD development.

Researcher

• KT Tan

Industrial Collaborators

• Andrew Simpson & Associates from Dorset
• Bounty Boat Works from Cambridge
• C & S Yacht Design from Southampton

Sponsors

• Cambridge Commonwealth Trust
• The British High Commissioner's Chevening Award

True Integrated CAD (TICAD) System for Sailing Yacht Designs

Since the Ship Design Spiral concept was first visualised by Evans in 1959, ship and yacht designs have entered a spell of modern design methods which are sequential (in that they must complete each phase before going into the next) and iterative processes that consist of stages. While some refinements were made over time, the features of sequential and iterative have remained unchanged. Although modern design methods are capable of producing acceptable designs, they are unlikely to yield optimum ones. This is because the sequential process requires a great deal of design time and thus designers have limited time to explore all potential designs. Moreover, without being able to recognise the effects of subtle modifications on the design at once, designers may adversely alter other design requirements while concentrating on a particular design aspect.

Problem

In the computer age, ship and yacht designers have benefited from computer technology as a mean of reducing tedious calculations. Computers have replaced some of the laborious tasks, but they have primarily been used as calculating tools, instead of design support systems that could assist designers in making decisions. State-of-the-art innovation at present is concerned with the development of an integrated Computer-aided Design (CAD) method for ship designs, which combines all distinctive ship design software in a single system. This state-of-the-art design method captures the features of modern design methods, and therefore still suffers from the sequential problem. Before the execution of each program, designers are unable to recognise the effects of subtle modifications on the design. This sequential process also requires a great deal of design time and thus reduces the exploration efforts, which results in less optimum designs. In addition to that, it has the difficulties of data redundancy and inconsistency, and non-flexibility structure.

From the literature survey, two key points have been identified :-

• The current state-of-the-art integrated CAD method for ship design is still suffering from the problem of modern sequential design.
• There is no evidence of development effort in integrating a CAD system for sailing yacht design.

These two points may be treated as separate issues; however, it is not sensible to develop a design system for sailing yachts by using current state-of-the-art integrated CAD methods for ship design. Therefore, the primary objective of this project is to establish a new design paradigm that is ahead of the current state-of-the-art integrated CAD method for ship design which will be used to develop a new approach to an integrated CAD system for sailing yacht design.

New Approach

This new approach to an integrated CAD system will be named the True Integrated CAD System (TICAD). It is novel in that, instead of following the traditional sequential design approach, the new design paradigm will pierce through the design spiral to establish a true integrated and concurrent design procedure. The TICAD system with this new design paradigm will have the following features which aim to overcome the shortcomings of present systems :-

• Time saving
  • Compared with current state-of-the-art integrated CAD system, TICAD will enable design times to be reduced by up to 50 %.
• Designer's awareness
  • Designers will recognise the effects of subtle modifications on the design at once, as the hull design and analytical programs will be integrated on a concurrent basis.
• Design Partnership
  • TICAD will be equipped with four design levels and trends of characteristics, to provide a genuine design partnership, where designers will use computers as a design support system, instead of simply a calculating tool.
• Common Database
  • A common database, that is based on relational database theory, will be built to eliminate data redundancy and inconsistency.

The new design paradigm will be established by investigating relationships between the input of the hull design with the input, output and intermediate parameters of the analytical processes. By solving these simultaneous linear and/or non-linear equations, designers will obtain the results of analytical processes at once. The implementation of this new design paradigm in TICAD will be supported by three independent entities; a Relational Database Management System (RDMS); a Graphic User Interface Management System (GUIMS); and a Dominant and Subordinate Module (DSM). The RDMS will form the common relational database, in order to eliminate data redundancy and inconsistency. The GUIMS will consist of three programs: a control program to perform the new design paradigm, an interface, and a feedback program to develop the genuine design partnership. The DSM will contain application programs that execute the analytical processes. TICAD will be developed on the Windows NT operating system using Microsoft Visual C++ to create a program utilising Application Program Interface (API) and Structured Query Language (SQL) commands.

Future

The concept of the new design paradigm in TICAD is applicable to ship designs, and it lays the foundation for ship and yacht manufacturing industries. The final results of this project will make a significant contribution in the following aspects :-

A new design paradigm

The new design paradigm will offer an alternative to the current ship and yacht design industry, for replacing the ineffective design spiral which has been practised for more than two decades. The new design paradigm will enhance the design effectiveness, and will be more likely to allow designers to produce optimum designs. The ship and yacht design industry will benefit by decreasing the design time and increasing the design quality. This will result in highly competitive and lengthy life cycle designs.

A genuine design partnership

The four design levels and trends of characteristics of TICAD will turn computers into an invaluable design partner previously not considered possible. Therefore, computers will no longer be treated simply as a calculating tool in the ship and yacht design industry.

A new era of sailing yacht designs

TICAD will open a new era of sailing yacht designs as there appears to be no previous evidence of attempts to integrate a number of sailing yacht design programs into a single system.