APPROVED - APPROVal of Engineering Design models

The APPROVED project will explore both the barriers to overcome and the requirements needed to establish a fully digital workflow providing a seamless and transparent digital model exchange between stakeholders during the ship newbuilding basic design stage. A 3D digital model established early in the design stage and shared among stakeholders will eliminate the need for producing 2D drawings for the verification of the design by Class. The digital 3D model is the basis for verifying the design against Class Rules and functional goals. A design-centric work process involving the various stakeholders is the result of linking the Class rules directly to the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) early design tools used by the designer. The focus of the project is to support the hull design discipline during the design stage. But the concept of a 3D digital information model will also be explored for other design disciplines and will also have a big potential for use in the operational phase of the vessel. Stakeholder benefits are: * Increased ability to capture and embed standard practices (knowledge as an asset) * Increased automation of routine tasks (increased efficiency) * Improved transparency of the decision-making processes * Improved design consistency and reduced risks (and costs) * Improved speed of design iterations leading to more optimised designs The project has in 2016 focused on identifying user requirements to a full model-based review process in addition to the technical challenges related to the process. In 2017 a new cloud infrastructure for sharing and viewing 3D models has been prototyped. The yard/designers can upload their 3D design models to the cloud and share the model with stakeholders. The classification society can access the model for visual inspection and add comments referencing into the 3D model. Class and yard/designer can engage in a 100% digital workflow when resolving comments and issues. A paper named "A MODEL-BASED APPROVAL PROCESS FOR BASIC HULL DESIGN" was presented at ICCAS 2017 in Singapore in September. This paper explores both the barriers to overcome and the requirements needed to establish a fully digital workflow providing a seamless and transparent digital model exchange between stakeholders during the ship newbuilding basic design stage. In 2018 the project focus has been on finalizing the 3D model exchange specification and prototyping the exchange between yard/designer and Class using the developed format. A paper named ?Approaching Design Review by Classification Society based on Digital Information Derived from the Customer?s Design Models? was presented at the COMPIT?18 conference in May, Italy. The paper describes ideas on how design intent can be supported by the digital exchange specification developed in the project. The exchange specification has been named Open Class 3D Exchange (OCX), and it is the intention of the project to develop this into an industry standard. The OCX standard has attracted considerable attention from 3rd parties outside the project. The project has presented OCX to ABS, BV, Class NK, KR, CCS, LR (classification societies) of Napa, Cadmatic, Sener, Dassault Systems (CAD vendors). All have agreed to enter the Evaluator program offered by the Project giving 3rd parties the opportunity to get detailed insight in the OCX standard and potentially become early adaptors of the OCX before it becomes public when the project ends. NAPA joined the project in 2019 and has committed to fully implement the OCX standard in their design solution NAPA Steel. This means that by the end of the project four major CAD vendors support the OCX. Combined they have a market share of more than 80% of the shipbuilding segment. A paper named ?MODEL-BASED APPROVAL - THE OPEN CLASS 3D EXCHANGE (OCX) STANDARD? was presented at the ICCAS 2019 conference in Rotterdam in September 2019. The paper presents the developed OCX standard in detail and highlights the benefit of establishing a digital thread between the designer/yard and the classification society. The Naval Architect also gave a feature story of the APPROVED project in their May issue highlighting the benefits the OCX standard can bring to the Maritime industry by establishing a digital thread from the design stage. During Q3 and Q4 in 2019 both Kongsberg Maritime, Ulstein and Chantiers de l?Atlantique have tested the APPROVED developed concepts in an end-to-end-process together with DNV GL. The designers have exported an OCX model for the selected design and submitted the model to DNV GL for approval. DNV GL has verified the model to ensure that it contains the necessary information to verify the design against the applicable rules. The experience from the proof of concept tests shows that the APPROVED concepts are valid and that there will be no need for submitting 2D drawings to verify the design.

The project has established an ad-hoc industry standard for exchanging design information between yard/designer and the classification society: The Open Class 3D Exchange (OCX) standard. The OCX is a vessel-specific exchange standard and addresses the need by the classification society. The OCX is a key enabler to replace traditional 2D drawings with a 3D model as design documentation submitted for verification to the society. The OCX will benefit the shipbuilding industry as it will transform the way stakeholders can interact and exchange information. Ultimately the OCX will reduce time to market, costs and improve traceability and transparency for all involved stakeholders.

The European shipbuilding industry has for several decades been under fierce competition from Asian shipbuilders. Despite substantially higher European labour costs many yards have managed to survive by focusing on innovation and custom-made designs together with their subcontractors. The shipbuilding industry is typically characterized by complex products, which have to be developed in extremely short time. Decisions made very early in the design phase have the greatest influence on the final solution and hence offer very large potential cost savings. The APPROVED project will establish a fully digital workflow providing a seamless and transparent digital model exchange between stakeholders during the basic design process in the ship new building. A 3D digital model established early in the design stage and shared among stakeholders will eliminate the need for producing 2D drawings for the purpose of verification of the design. The digital 3D model is the basis for verifying the design against Class Rules and functional goals. A design centric work process involving the various stakeholders is the result of linking the Class rules directly with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools used by the designer. The main focus of the project is to support the hull design discipline during the design stage. But the concept of a 3D digital information model will also be explored for other design disciplines and will also have a big potential for use in the operational phase of the vessel. Stakeholder benefits are: • Increased ability to capture and embed standard practices (knowledge as an asset) • Increased automation of routine tasks (increased efficiency) • Improved transparency of the decision making processes • Improved design consistency and reduced risks (and costs) • Improved speed of design iterations leading to more optimised designs