Parametric exchange of round shapes between a mechanical CAD system and a ship CAD system

Abstract

Interoperability among heterogeneous Computed-Aided Design (CAD) systems is an important issue. With the advent of global outsourcing, collaborative design has expanded from inside the enterprise to parts suppliers. This paper introduces a method for design data exchange between shipyards and equipment suppliers. These parties usually use different CAD systems, because they want to select the most suitable one for their jobs. CAD systems provide modeling functionality that is based on distinct modeling units. Therefore, to exchange design data, one must map between these two distinct sets of modeling units. Some modeling units can be directly mapped and converted, and other modeling units that cannot be directly mapped (such as the fillet feature in a mechanical CAD system) are converted by the indirect mapping procedure proposed in this paper. The proposed method is demonstrated with case studies between TransCAD and the AVEVA Marine system. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.