Apenas imaginem os projetistas do piloto Michael Schumacher iniciando o desenvolvimento de carros para produção em massa. Impossível? Não em veleiros. Judel/vrolijk & co é a mais nova líder mundial em projetar iates para corridas de competições internacionais como a America’s Cup, Admirals’s Cup, Copa del Rey, Whitbread Race Around The World, Daimler Chrysler North Atlantic Challenge ou Sardinia’s Cup. A empresa de engenharia está sediada em Bremerhaven, Alemanha, e também é bem sucedido nos projetos de cruzeiros e iates em série. Afim de conseguir um conforto em um pequen espeço de tempo, todos os botes estão projetados em 3D com o software TopSolid da Missler.

Judel/vrolijk & co projetam plantas gmbh como também veleiros e motor de iates e executa também pequenos projetos comerciais de construção naval em um plano internacional. A empresa foi fundada em 1978 por Friedrich Judel e Rolf Vrolijk. Em 1986, Torsten Conradi se tornou o terceiro parceiro. Seu primeiro iate em série chamado Popcorn abriu as portas para o cenário de corrida na qual eles estão bem está eis hoje. Seus projetos têm sido bem sucedidos em diversas regatas internacionais como a Admiral's Cup, o time não oficial dos campeonatos mundiais em veleiros fora da costa em que seus iates ganharam três vezes.

Graças a essas diversas vitórias, judel/vrolijk & co é a mais nova sensação de projetistas de iates de hoje que trabalham para o crème de la crème de veleiros. A Bremerhaven-companhia base estava envolvida no desenvolvimento da German America’s Cupper para o time Illbruck e é também projetista do novo iate de corrida para o rei Espanhol Juan Carlos. Entretanto, a corrida não é somente o negócio da empresa e não é superior vendendo mais. Nesses últimos anos, judel/vrolijk & co se tornaram os únicos a liderarem empresas no projeto de iates cruzeiros design.

Oito empregados da judel/vrolijk & co projetam iates e cruzeiros de corrida assim como iates cruzeiros para clientes individuais e iates em série para estaleiros famosos como Baltic Yachts (Finlândia), Najad Varvet (Suíça), Dehler Yachtbau ou Yachtzentrum Greifswald. O portifolio de barcos pesados incluindo iates feitos de madseira assim como projetos sandwich ultra-leve feitos de plástico reforçado com fibra de carbono. A empresa também projeta cada vez mais motores para iates luxuosos.

Com o passar dos anos, a judel/vrolijk & co tem produzido mais que 350 iates. Em média, a empresa trabalha em dez projetos por ano. Dependendo de seu espaço, entretanto, projetos individuais podem levar dois anos para ser completados. A empresa está comprometida a preencher pedidos de clientes individuais de uma maneira consequente. Se requeridos pelo cliente, os projetistas irão acompanhar um projeto de um design conceitual e o processo oferecendo o batismo do navio. Atualmente, judel/vrolijk & co está projetando dois iates de 45 metros pela ordem do cliente por um estaleiro acabado.

O pedido do cliente varia dependendo do tipo de barco, ex.: cruzeiros ou corridas de iate. Para barcos de regata, o mais importante é unir o projeto da forma e do corpo do navio quando os iates mais luxuosos necessitam mais trabalho interior. “Iates de navegação têm seu próprio poder e abastecimento de água, ar condicionado e ventilação e sistema sanitário,” Torsten Conradi explica. “Em um modo, os projetistas de iates são arquitetos, técnicos náuticos e analista de stress ao mesmo tempo, e algumas vezes eles pegam em tarefas de design de interiores.“

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.

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.“

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.

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.“

By Michael Wendenburg, Sevilla
Photos BG Concept Marketing Communication