Close-hulled
with TopSolid
By Michael Wendenburg, Sevilla
Just imagine the designers of Michael Schumacher’s racing car would
start to develop cars for mass-production. Impossible you think? Not
so in sailing. Judel/vrolijk & co is among the world leaders in
designing racing yachts for international competitions such as America’s
Cup, Admirals’s Cup, Copa del Rey, Whitbread Race Around The World,
Daimler Chrysler North Atlantic Challenge or Sardinia’s Cup. The engineering
company is headquartered in Bremerhaven, Germany, and is also very
successful in designing cruising and serial yachts. In order to achieve
comfort in little space collision-free, all boats are designed in
3D with Missler’s TopSolid software.
Judel/vrolijk & co engineering gmbh plans and designs sailing
and motor yachts and also implements small commercial shipbuilding
projects on an international plane. The company was founded in 1978
by Friedrich Judel and Rolf Vrolijk. In 1986, Torsten Conradi became
third partner. Their first serial yacht called Popcorn opened up the
doors to the racing scene in which they are well established today.
Their designs have been successful in numerous international regattas
such as the Admiral's Cup, the unofficial team world championships
in offshore sailing which their yachts won three times.
Thanks to its many victories, judel/vrolijk & co is among the
few yacht designers of today that work for the crème de la
crème of sailing. The Bremerhaven-based company was involved
in the development of the German America’s Cupper for the Illbruck
team and is also designing the new racing yacht for the Spanish king
Juan Carlos. However, racing is not the only business of the company
and is not top selling anymore. Over the past years, judel/vrolijk
& co has become one of the leading companies in cruising yacht
design.
Individual customer requirements
Eight employees at judel/vrolijk & co design racing yachts and
cruiser-racers as well as cruising yachts for individual customers
and serial yachts for renowned shipyards such as Baltic Yachts (Finland),
Najad Varvet (Sweden), Dehler Yachtbau or Yachtzentrum Greifswald.
The portfolio of boats includes heavy displacement yachts made of
steel as well as ultra-light sandwich designs made of carbon fiber
reinforced plastic. The company also increasingly designs luxurious
motor yachts.
Over the years, judel/vrolijk & co has produced more than 350
yacht designs. On average, the company works on ten projects per year.
Depending on their scope, however, individual projects can take up
to two years to completion. The company is committed to fulfil individual
customer demands in a consequent way. If required by the customer,
the designers will accompany a project from the conceptual design
and bidding process up to the christening of the ship. Currently,
judel/vrolijk & co is designing two 45 meter yachts by customer
order for a Finnish shipyard.
Customer demands vary depending on the type of boat, e.g. racing or
cruising yachts. For regatta boats, great importance is attached to
the design of shape and hull while luxurious cruising yachts require
more interior work. "Sailing yachts have their own power and water
supply, air conditioning and ventilation, and sanitary system," Torsten
Conradi explains. "In a way, yacht designers are architects, domestic
technicians and stress analysts at the same time, and sometimes they
even take on the tasks of interior designers."
On collision course in 2D
Since the customers want to fit a lot of equipment into cruising yachts,
the boats are becoming bigger and increasingly compact. For this reason,
there were overlaps in 2D designs which could not be identified until
the boat reached the shipyard and caused unnecessary redesign. "In
three out of four cases, the parts drawn did not fit or collided with
each other," Conradi explains. He had wanted to implement a 3D CAD
system long before. The German America`s Cupper was to be developed
in 3D and thus gave reason to install the first TopSolid workstation.
Most interestingly, Missler’s integrated CAD / CAM solution was not
at all taken into account when choosing the system, but appeared on
the scene by a mere coincidence. Missler’s Bochum-based sales partner
ISK CAD/CAM-Systeme introduced the software at Bremerhaven, and the
ship designers were almost instantly convinced of its qualities. "We
immediately thought that TopSolid was exactly what we were looking
for," Conradi recalls. "Supported by ISK, we customized the software
to meet special requirements in yacht design. We are very positive
about this program and are considering to introduce TopSolid throughout
the office."
At present, judel/vrolijk & co has three TopSolid workstations
on a Windows 2000 platform. All computers are PCs with a main memory
of 600MB, 30GB of disk space and a powerful graphics card. They are
connected via a data server to enable all users to access project
information at any time. In addition to the basic TopSolid package,
the system configuration comprises the sheet metal module, which is
used for unfolding acrylic glass window panes, and the kinematics
module for performing collision checks on moving parts.
TopSolid is quick and easy to learn and also very intuitive. After
only two days of training, all users were able to design models. It
took a little longer, however, to become familiar with the parametric
design approach. "If you want to use TopSolid efficiently, you need
to follow a highly structured approach from the very beginning in
order to simplify the process," Conradi explains. According to Tim
Ulrich, who is one of the users of TopSolid, the boat designers have
developed a standardized method for certain areas such as deck superstructures.
Thus, they can reuse existing parametric models in other projects.
Retrieval of hull surfaces
The new 3D system perfectly integrates into the existing system environment
and workflows. Next to TopSolid, judel/vrolijk & co also uses
the Euclid Styler surface modeler, the 2D CAD system AutoCAD as well
as MultiSurf for hull design. "Hull design requires special tools
since the geometric shape needs to be calculated and optimized with
respect to hydrostatic issues in order to achieve a certain position
of the center of gravity and displacement distribution," Conradi explains.
"Therefore, one of our requirements was a perfect transition from
the hull generation in TopSolid."
The hull shape depends on the type of boat, e.g. heavy and comfortable
cruising yachts or light racing yachts. The center of gravity and
the displacement required are identified by weight calculation. The
displacement itself determines the rough shape of the boat’s body
surface and is then optimized in an iterative process with respect
to hydrostatic properties. "You have to check over and over again
if the weights match the defined body of the boat until you finally
have an optimized shell," Ulrich illustrates. The resulting shell
can be imported into TopSolid via an IGES interface with a high degree
of accuracy.
Within the 3D CAD system the imported hull surfaces are supplemented
around the deck and then transformed into a solid, which is subsequently
hollowed. Afterwards, the yacht designer generates the transom by
cutting off the stern, chamfers the boat body at the stem in the front
and then places the cockpit on the deck. "TopSolid’s functions for
importing free-form surfaces and the combination of surface models
and solids are very powerful," Ulrich states. "However, there are
limitations to processing free-form surfaces. We need to be able to
control these surfaces very precisely since the location of a single
point can be crucial for a boat’s hydrodynamics."
According to Friedrich Judel, TopSolid’s function for chamfering surfaces
with variable radii, which are common in shipbuilding, needs to be
improved particularly. A typical application is the transition from
hull to keel beginning with a small radius at the front that increases
towards the middle and is almost zero towards the end. "Consistent
chamfers are not a problem at all, but chamfering from a wider to
an extremely small radius, or even chamfering corners, takes ages,"
Judel explains. "That is the reason why in the beginning, we kept
on cutting that type of surface with MultiSurf and then transferred
the geometries to TopSolid via the IGES interface."
Detailing with a 2D system
Yacht designers do not only shape the body of a boat using a 3D system,
but also its entire interior, albeit not including all details. "We
use 3D whenever components will be mounted in order to ensure that
everything matches perfectly," Ulrich says. "Simplified 3D models
are used to determine a boat’s geometries, to adjust the interior
to structural components and to control the ropes on winches or blocks."
Additionally, TopSolid calculates the volume centers of gravity of
the boat structure’s double bottom tanks.
The boat design is detailed with a 2D system. For this purpose, the
users cut the 3D model and then transfer the geometry to AutoCAD.
"In TopSolid the transition from 3D to 2D is child’s play since the
system can output DWG data directly," Ulrich explains. If required,
the cuts are altered so that 3D model and 2D drawings do not perfectly
match. Data are mostly inconsistent until the boat is finished since
numerous change requests from the customer or the shipyard need to
be implemented in the design process. These changes are not transferred
to the data model. This holds true for both building ships and houses.
2D drawings still are the most important documents in shipbuilding.
They can be generated in AutoCAD in no time since ready-to-use snippets
already exist for many supplied parts which can easily be incorporated
into the drawing. For interior design and furnishing, judel/vrolijk°&°co
supplies manufacturing drawings with a scale of up to 1:1. All 3D
data are reused for boat manufacturing only selectively, e.g. for
milling the keels or frames which are subsequently planked and serve
as a skeleton form for building the plastic hull. It is primarily
the shipbuilders who benefit therefrom and according to Conradi, they
meanwhile take this use for granted.
Communication via 3D models
Friedrich Judel emphasizes that 3D models are crucial for the communication
between yacht designers, shipbuilders and customers. "If there are
discussions with the shipyard about the position of certain parts,
you can for instance visualize the engine room in 3D. In 2D, you can
only identify potential problems after the part has been assembled."
On top of that, customers can more easily picture the finished boat
with the help of a 3D model and therefore express change requests
earlier on in the design process. With TopSolid you can easily generate
video sequences of 3D models and show the customer how certain mechanisms
will work.
The major benefit of 3D is the identification of part collisions on
the digital boat model which greatly reduces the number of errors
due to overlapping features. "This is why I strongly support the use
of 3D," Conradi says. The kinematic functions of TopSolid enable the
users to simulate the most complex 3D kinematics on screen in order
to avoid collisions. "A good case in point is the anchor at the bow
that needs to swing around the forestay during opening," Ulrich explains.
"In the past, we would have needed to build a realistic model."
However, using 3D does not save a lot of design and manufacturing
time since the company’s requirements have increased. "The time you
gain is used up for working on variations and for inspecting things
in detail that you would not have looked at before," Conradi says.
"We just try out more things and optimize to a greater extent. This
in turn makes our boats more perfect and we can better meet the customers’
requirements."
Captions
Lead: jvpinkgin
Judel/vrolijk & co has internationally made a name for themselves
by designing successful racing yachts. (Picture by judel/vrolijk
& co)
Jvtimulrich:
Yacht designer Tim Ulrich appreciates the intuitivity of the 3D
TopSolid software. (Picture by Wendenburg)
Judelconradi:
The customers of Friedrich Judel (right) and Torsten Conradi do
not only include the crème de la crème of sailing
but also wealthy private customers and commercial shipyards. (Picture
by Wendenburg)
Jvuca and jvucamodell:
Shipyards use 3D data of boat models for milling keels and frames
of the plastic hull. This does not actually speed up the design
process, but the building of the ship itself. (Pictures by judel/vrolijk
& co)
Jv70 and jvanker:
Kinematics such as retracting and lowering the long-boat or opening
the anchor at the bow are simulated using the integrated kinematic
module. (Pictures by judel/vrolijk & co)
Jvinterieur:
For regatta boats, great importance is attached to the design of
shape and hull while luxurious cruising yachts require more interior
work. (Picture by judel/vrolijk & co)
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Panasonic
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., best
known for its Panasonic, National and Technics brand names, is a
most comprehensive worldwide electric and electronic product
manufacturer whose products range from electronic components to
consumer electronic products, home appliances, factory automation
equipment, information and communications equipment, and
housing-related products.
Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded
consolidated sales of $51.70 billion (U.S.) for the fiscal year
ended March 31, 2002. In addition to the Tokyo and other Japanese
stock exchanges (6752), Matsushita's shares are also listed on the
Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, New York, Pacific (NYSE/PCX
"MC") and Paris stock exchanges.
Network Business Group at Panasonic AVC Networks
Company, which develops, manufactures, and sells and provides
service engineering of AVC devices, introduced 3D CAD system
TopSolid from Missler Software to organize an environment for a new
innovative way of designing and manufacturing by collaboration with
part manufacturers, and mold base manufacturers.
70% Labor Reduction and Big Cost of the Mold Base
In 1996 Network Business Group (at the time AVC
Company Audio Business Group) at Panasonic AVC Networks Company
started reviewing the introduction of 3D Solid CAD Systems. This
group was organized by unifying number of groups related to radio,
stereo, and audio, etc... and developed many products in a wide
range of categories with several thousands of employees. As the
reformation of the organization progressed, the number of employees
has been reduced to the 30% of the peak time, making it necessary to
improve the designing efficiency. There was also another big
challenge coming from the mold base cost, which pressured the
operation. The cost of the mold base is largely influenced by the
economic activity and the exchange rate, making it a high-risk and
high-cost investment expended before the sales of the actual product
no matter how the sales record had been in the past. At the Network
Business Group, the mold base cost kept rising as the number of
their products increased, eventually reaching more than \4 billion
annually. For example, the mold base cost for a mini stereo system
was more than \100 million. It was becoming a burden on the
designers who was responsible for the mold base cost, and a
challenge for the group to find an effective solution.
In order to find this solution, 4 engineers rose
to the challenge with the objective to "Organize a system which
can produce the mold base with the shortest amount of time and the
least amount of money in the world". These 4 engineers were Mr.
Yoshiaki Miyazaki, Mr. Yoshio Yamashita, Mr. Toshihiro Kaneo, and
Mr. Kohichi Motoyama from the Network Business Group. However with a
conventional method of ordering the mold base, which consisted of
providing 3D CAD surface data for the cavity and providing the 2D
drafts for the core of the part, they could not come up with any
possible solutions enabling them to create mold bases quickly at low
cost. In order to design the data that base manufacturers can trust,
the investigation of 3D CAD systems had begun.
Introduction of TopSolid
Mr. Yamashita and Mr. Kaneo, who were the central
figures in their 3D CAD system introduction, focused on mid-range
CAD systems that were coming out one after another, rather than
focusing on high-end CAD systems. Of those mid-range CAD systems,
they placed a priority on a modeling capability to allow designing
the part that can be used in mold base designing. The winner was a
system called TopSolid developed by Missler Software in France and
distributed by KODAMA Corporation in Japan.
In the beginning, Mr. Kaneo had 2 concerns within
himself. By introducing a 3D CAD system, there was a concern that
they would need to change the familiar designing method of using
drafters and 2D CAD systems. Another concern was whether still
developing 3D CAD systems (including the high-end 3D CAD) have the
potential to make the satisfactory functionality enhancements in the
future worthwhile to continue the use. Because TopSolid allows users
to perform modeling by solid, surface, or wireframe in one space in
one file, for one product, they were able model part by part using
the 2D design as the basis, starting with where they knew how to
model or where the 3D data was necessary, designing step by step
completing the modeling process. As for the development capability
of Missler Software, they were able to see the improvement by
examining the software in its development stage to see the
innovative functionalities of TopSolid applications more than a year
in advance of the actual release. By the introduction of TopSolid,
they also met mold base manufacturers who shared the same idea to
"Create mold bases which can still be profitable even when
cutting the cost by half". This was the moment when a new
innovative way of designing and manufacturing begun at Network
Business Group of Panasonic AVC Networks Company.
Effect of 3D Designing
Mr. Kaneo remembers, "A first mold base was
completed from the 3D data designed in TopSolid. Even though we were
able to decrease the cost of mold base a little bit, the lead-time
for the mold base manufacturing became longer than before. This led
to problems for the production schedule at the mold base
manufacturers and factories. There were even demands within the
Network Business Group to discontinue the use of TopSolid. We were
at a junction to whether to continue using the 3D CAD systems or
not." Instead Mr. Kaneo and the others in the group tried to
find out the cause for the longer lead-time. After discussing with
owners of the mold base manufacturers, designers, and personnel in
charge of machining, they figured out that longer lead-time was due
to the method of ordering the mold base. They found out that even 3D
data had been provided, the formal order of the mold base was done
using the 2D drawings. Before designing the mold base, the mold base
manufacturers who received the 2D drawings and 3D data needed to
carefully check them. This was interfering with the reduction of
lead-time for the mold base creation. Although there were some
demands to discontinue the use of TopSolid, they performed the
designing with 2D CAD and Mr. Kaneo gave up his days off to create
the 3D data for ordering the mold base.
Before ordering the mold base, they asked the part
manufacturers, mold base manufacturers and factories to verify the
data, and asked for their opinions on how to create mold bases at
low cost and quickly. First, they aimed at reducing the machining
time by modifying the shape to make mold base quicker, having
detailed meetings for parting surfaces creation, etc..., and by
trying to minimize the use of electrode machining. For the core
part, they set the modeling rule for the fillet radius and draft
angles to be able to machine using existing end mills. Also in order
to eliminate the need to modify the data at the site of mold base
manufacturers, they decided to perform designing using the mean
tolerance value. By knowledgeable designers creating the database
consisting of common shapes and parts according to the modeling
rules they set, they were able to share the knowledge with other
designers, organizing a system that can provide data, which take the
ideas of partners and related department into consideration. As they
moved from 2D to 3D designing, they also announced to the mold base
manufacturers, if there were any mistakes made in machining by
following the data exactly, Matsushita would pay for all the cost to
correct the mistakes. The money saved for the cost of the mold base
was just \8 million in 1997 fiscal year, but it steadily grew to \42
million in 1998, \100 million in 1999, up to \150 million in 2002.
The lead-time for the mold base has also decreased from 55days down
to 29 days for the front panel of the small stereo system, and 45
days down to 24 days for the portable CD player. Except for cases of
human mistakes such as electrode machining, there was no need to
modify the mold base due to the incorrect data anymore. At the
present, the number of TopSolid installed at Network Business Group
is 55 and they are providing the data to factories, parts, mold
base, press, die cast companies. Mr. Yamashita says, "At the
end, the most important thing is human relationship. Beyond the
companies and status, when we exchange opinions freely and provide
data that incorporates one's opinion, the responsibility and
attachment comes into existence. This leads to the improved quality
and reduced lead-time."
Progression of TopSolid along with Designers
In TopSolid v6.2, which started the sales in Japan
in 1998, the parametric modeling functionalities had been improved,
and the functions to automatically modify the model using mean
tolerance from the tolerance information was added. It also became
possible to automatically create the data that can be used at mold
base manufacturers using the existing dimension. In TopSolid v6.3 it
became possible to choose from "Associative mode" that
keeps the high associativity, "Free Design mode" that does
not keep the associativities between models, and "Non
Associative mode" that does not keep the history information,
allowing users to choose the modes accordingly to their needs.
Also even though ordering the mold base was now
being done using the 3D data, they still needed to check the part
shape using the 2D drawings, therefore they still could not
eliminate the use of 2D drawings. TopSolid did not possess adequate
2D drafting functionalities in the beginning, but through the
collaboration between KODAMA Corporation and Missler Software,
TopSolid has made significant improvement. As a result, TopSolid now
matched the section and dimension functionalities of 2D CAD systems.
Also now it was possible to create a 2D drawing that was linked to
3D data, making TopSolid more powerful in the drafting area.
There are also functionalities developed through
the collaboration with Network Business Group, KODAMA Corporation,
and Missler Software. The "Mounting animation" function to
simulate the assembling and exploding of the product, and
"Draft angle analysis" function were adopted as standard
functionalities from TopSolid v6.5. TopEpas takes in the data
outputted from the electrical circuit designing CAD and
automatically places the corresponding 3D parts from the parts
library. TopEpas confirms the mounting condition and performs the
collision checking between parts, achieving the link between
electrical circuit design and mechanism design. Mr. Yamashita says,
"Looking back to 1997, TopSolid at the time did not possess
sufficient functionalities, but we were more focused on learning how
to use 3D CAD because we were under tremendous pressure to master
using 3D CAD. As Missler Software and KODAMA Corporation listened
and answered to us, the designers' requests, TopSolid has gone
through a several evolutions. The most significant difference for
TopSolid compared to other CAD systems is that the evolution as a
CAD system is steadily getting close to what the designers
demand."
Promoting the Collaboration by using TopSolid data
At Network Business Group, each personnel tackles
to improve each duty, and successful examples are shared as the
"Champion Road" among the group. "Of course the fact
that Mr. Kaneo and others were modeling on their days off was not
acceptable for the organization. However, the achievement has been
recognized now, the organization is spreading the designing and
manufacturing methods by utilizing the 3D data." says Mr.
Motoyama.
Concerning the prototyping, they had been using
stereo lithography from the delivery time and cost standpoint.
However they were not fully satisfied because these prototypes
required finishing and lacked durability on protruded parts such as
buttons when putting them together or taking them apart, and
checking. By using the prototyping service started in 2001 from
KODAMA Corporation, they were able to achieve the similar short
delivery time as stereo lithography. This service allowed them to
send the data in on Thursday and receive a working model on the
following Tuesday with finishing using TopSolid and TopCam. The
material is very close to the real product and it allows them to
perform the drop test at the prototyping stage. For example, they
can check to see if a boss shape breaks or not, enabling them to
test the strength of the product at an early stage. This lead to
significant decrease in remodeling after the mold base has been
completed. This reduction in development lead-time was an unexpected
return from installing TopSolid.
Also in 2001, they started running the e-DR
(electronic Design Review) system, which links the TopSolid
installed at Network Business Group in Osaka and TopSolid installed
at Panasonic Fukushima Factory 600 km away by the Internet. This
system allows the engineers at the factory and the designers to
perform a real-time design review using TopSolid data. It allowed
them to clarify the problems before the prototyping and ordering the
mold base, by analyzing the collision between parts, investigating
gaps and assembly structure. At the Fukushima factory, they were
able to reduce the required preparation period for mass production
by creating the Design Drawing and the animation to describe the
assembling using TopSolid. Today, in order to achieve the
effectiveness among other groups, they are pushing for 3D designing
of portable CD players and mechanisms, etc. They continue to expand
the area of 3D data use, for example by utilizing the Parts
Inspection System which incorporates the data from 3D measuring
instruments and data from TopSolid.
Since the 2002 development model such as DVD
player "DVD-F85" and others, introduced at CES 2003, there
have been collaborations with Asia Pacific Design Center (APDC) of
Panasonic AVC Networks Singapore Company (PAVCSG). For PAVCSG,
technical instructions such as designing methods were given in
Japan, but for an overseas company with heavy personnel flow, it was
difficult to have common designing ideas and to improve the 3D
modeling techniques. In order to improve the designing of models
developed overseas, the Network Business Group is supplying the
database consisting of CAD data from models developed in Japan and
standard shapes, which is the accumulation of know-how of designing,
as well as kinematical animation of mechanisms designed in TopSolid.
Even though they have been trying people in
designing and manufacturing to accept their idea of "Creating
the data that can be used at the mold base manufacturers", it
has been difficult to convince everyone. This is partly due the
temperament of designers who do not consider it is their
responsibility to create the data usable at the mold base
manufacturers. Also there is a resistance among the experienced
designers to switch the CAD systems, or continue designing in 2D,
which can be completed with some vagueness. With this present
situation in mind, Mr. Yamashita says, "What we have been doing
may not be accepted in the globalization process. But if utilizing
the 3D CAD as a tool to realize the new way of designing and
manufacturing, rather than just a replacement for 2D CAD, it will
result advantageously in operations. I would like to spread this way
of thinking to overseas as well."
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