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Create free-form and complex marine superstructures and hulls.
Are you looking for a complete solution for your marine design software? Consider Rhino, Orca3D, and T-Splines. Based on the Rhino platform, these three integrated products give a full range of vessel creation and analysis tools.
- Rhino: Powerful 3d modeling application that gives freedom and flexibility to design the complete boat with the accuracy needed for manufacturing.
- Orca3D: Full suite of specialty marine design and analysis tools.
- T-Splines for Rhino: Unique tools for superstructure design and hull design with minimal control points.
I believe that [T-Spline] technology is poised to significantly influence the future of ship design tools and methodologies.” George Hazen, Technical Director, DRS C3, Advanced Technology Center
T-Splines simplifies the creation of marine superstructures and hulls
For years, NURBS surfaces have been used by naval architects to produce fair hull shapes. However, due to certain NURBS restrictions, this can be a time-consuming process.
T-spline surfaces are a promising enhancement to marine design. They are smooth and compatible with NURBS, but offer greater surface control for more easily faired surfaces. Single T-spline surfaces can even be used to create non-rectangular, watertight hulls. Bulbous bows can be modeled as part of the main hull without control points propogating through the entire hull.
Since the T-Splines for Rhino plugin is integrated with Orca3D, it is easy to compute sections, compute analyses, and assign weight and cost properties on T-spline hulls.
Superstructures
Creating a fair superstructure with a freeform or complex design is difficult.
T-Splines makes this process easier by letting the designer cover large sections of the model with a single, watertight, smooth surface.
[Click image to enlarge](Left) Traditional technology (NURBS) requires that a complex model be comprised of many smaller surfaces, which then must be blended together. (Right) T-Splines can represent large sections of the model as a single, smooth surface.
T-Splines features
Traditionally, creating detailed superstructures may take over 300 steps. Using flexible T-spline surfaces, the step count can be reduced by over 10 times. Because T-Splines can export as an IGES file and also is tightly integrated into Rhino, a widely-used marine design software package, T-Splines can fit nicely into your overall design process.
Merging
Using T-Splines, surfaces can be seamlessly merged together into a smooth, editable model.
[Click image to enlarge] Before merge
[Click image to enlarge] After merge
Symmetry
Using T-Splines, symmetry can easily be added, so both sides of the model can be updated at once.
[Click image to enlarge] Before symmetry
[Click image to enlarge] After symmetry
Extrusion
You can smoothly extrude faces of the T-spline model for additional features.
[Click image to enlarge] Before handle extrusion
[Click image to enlarge] After handle extrusion
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Hulls
Most software for creating boat hulls uses a technology (NURBS) that requires an unnecessarily large number of surface control points, which makes ship hulls difficult to fair.
[Click image to enlarge]
T-Splines allows for fewer control points, which makes it easier to create a fair hull. Detail can be constrained to part of a surface with T-points, highlighted in green below.
[Click image to enlarge]
T-Splines features
Local creasing
[Click image to enlarge] Local detail allows creases to fade into a smooth surface--useful for disappearing chines.
Non-rectangular designs
[Click image to enlarge] T-Splines can create editable, non-rectangular hulls.
Local detail
[Click image to enlarge] Local detail allows the designer use a minimum number of control points, making it easier to create a fair surface.
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Orca3D provides a full suite of marine design and analysis tools
Orca3D streamlines your design work with a suite of powerful applications that run within the Rhino environment. Orca3D can work directly on both T-Spline surfaces and native Rhino surfaces to compute sections, create a lines plan using the sections, compute hydrostatics and stability, compute a speed/power analysis, and assign weight and cost properties. More info on all these features is available on the Orca 3D website.
Sections
Orca3D enables real-time update of the sections as the hull surface is modified (real-time update currently available only with Rhino surfaces. T-Splines can be sectioned, but updates require a refresh).
[Click image to enlarge] Sections.
Lines plan
Orca3D easily generates lines plans from T-spline and Rhino hull models.
[Click image to enlarge] Lines plan.
Hydrostatics and stability
Because Orca3D computes the hydrostatic properties based on the surface model, using first principles, there is really no limit to the type of vessel or object that it can analyze. Monohulls, multihulls, vessels with propeller or bow thruster tunnels...basically, anything that floats, or even sinks, can be analyzed with Orca3D.
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Speed/power analysis
"How fast will it go?" The Orca3D Speed/Power Analysis module has two different prediction methods: the Savitsky method to predict the speed/power curve for chine hulls, and the Holtrop method to predict the speed/power for displacement hulls.
Weight and cost properties
The success of any design hinges on its weight and center of gravity. These parameters are fundamental to stability, speed, capacity to carry cargo (whether it be passengers, containers, or weapons), seakeeping performance, etc. Weight and CG tracking therefore must be a fundamental part of any design process. Cost is another critical factor in the success of a design, and good engineering practice calls for cost considerations to be closely tied to the design process.
Orca3D's Weight/Cost Tracking module adds value to your Rhino and T-Splines models by assigning weight and cost parameters to the objects in the model, and summarizing and presenting the data.
Hull assistant
With Orca3D, you have complete freedom to create any type of hull, beginning with a concept and carrying through to final fairing, while ensuring that the hull meets your target hydrostatic properties.
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Rhino has tools for designing the complete boat with the accuracy needed for manufacturing
While T-Splines provides unique tools for superstructure design and hull design with minimal control points, and Orca3D gives a full suite of marine design and analysis tools, both of these product are based on the Rhino 3D modeling platform. Rhino contains robust and powerful surface modeling tools, such as blending, filleting, and trimming, to aid in the construction of the complete boat. Rhino is widely used in marine design; for more information, visit the Rhino website or the wiki page, "Hull modeling and naval architecture with Rhinoceros."
Marine gallery
These models were all designed with T-Splines. A gallery of marine models made with Rhino is also available on the Rhino website.
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Applications 
