Proteus Adds Weight Estimating to FlagShip Suite

Proteus Engineering has added the ShipWeight program to its FlagShip suite of ship design and manufacturing software, adding further depth to the already broad range of engineering disciplines covered by FlagShip. In addition to its use as a standalone tool, ShipWeight is being interfaced to both the MAESTRO structural finite element analysis module of FlagShip, and the new Smart Product Model that is currently under development at Proteus Engineering. ShipWeight, developed in Norway by BAS Engineering with input from a number of Norwegian shipyards and design firms, provides both tracking and monitoring of weight and center of gravity (CG) of the ship as-built, and detailed estimating of weight and CG for new designs. As contractual penalties for weight grow ever larger, and more responsibility for weight is given to designers, it is becoming more important than ever to be able to confidently create a weight estimate very quickly, early in the design process. With penalties in the range of $7,000/ton exceeding 3 percent of contract weight, software such as this can be inexpensive "insurance." Currently in use in five shipyards and 12 design firms in Europe and the U.S., ShipWeight gives the user the ability to track weights and run scheduled weight reports in order to find any deviations as early as possible.

Weight items can be tagged according to d i f f e r e n t schemes, to be able to create reports organized by construction phase, building module, ownerrequested change, etc. ShipWeight can use SWBS, MarAd, or the ShipWeight breakdown structure, or the user can define his or her own. ShipWeight also provides weight distribution data that can be exported to GHS, NAPA, and other programs, as well as overall radius of gyration data for use in seakeeping analyses.

After an " a s - b u i l t " weight model is complete, it is included in the central database, making the data available for use in new design e s t i m a t e s .

Starting with the lightship weight, any level of the breakdown structure can be estimated, or computed as the sum of the levels beneath it. At each level, an estimating method is defined, and the database is regressed to determine the estimating coefficient, and thus the weight and CG. The ships to be included in the regression can be sorted according to ship types and various parameters such as length or installed power, and a sister- ship can be given special influence in the estimate. In addition to the weight and CG, ShipWeight reports the uncertainty of the estimate, based on the standard deviation of the regression.

This uncertainty measure makes it easy for the designer to determine what part of the estimate should receive the most attention. With these abilities, ShipWeight improves on the traditional spreadsheet approach to weight estimating. Any subset of the database can be included in the regressions, greatly enhancing the value of the user's database.

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Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 38, Jan 2001

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