ABSTRACT
Different quality criteria regarding these problem types can be formulated. In case one of these criteria is not fulfilled specific information should be reported to help the engineers to fix the errors. Among these criteria are those regarding the weldability. There are guidelines which for e.g. demand notches at distinctive constellations of components (Fig. 8) depending on production sequence and function of the structural components, minimum values for distances and angles as well as requirements on the weld preparations along the edges of the structural elements to be assembled. Today the inspection of the product data is almost manual and based on drawings and has so far not been automated. Investigations have shown that the expense and time resources necessary for correcting design errors increase exponentially with every phase downstream the production chain (Geitmann et al. 2010). Therefore the motivation of this paper is to introduce a new mechanism to automatically check the product data model regarding quality criteria. The detected errors will be documented and an error-feedback function allows the engineers to fix the automatically detected error
1 INTRODUCTION
The development of a new ship design is a high complex task and usually associated with a very strict time schedule. Therefore the available time to check the correctness of the ship product data model is very short. To make the ship detailed design process easier computer aided design systems are commonly used. These tools offer many functions to perform this task fast and efficient. Different Investigations have shown the importance of the correctness of the ship product data (Bronsart et al. 2010). In the construction process errors are identified which are related to error prone product data. These errors result in time loss and potentially cost intensive correction works. The aim is always that the existing errors are to be detected and eliminated as early as possible. In addition control mechanisms are to be applied at run time and in early phases of the design process like the classification phase, the detailed design, and data exchange between the shipyard and the project partners. To preserve the quality of product data rules, standards and regulation have to be observed. Neglecting these criteria may result in unreliable product data. (Bronsart et al. 2010) have classified the documented problem types in ship structural design into six major categories:
1. Identification Attributes: problems concerning attributes in the 3D product model serving to identify structural parts,
2. Material Logistics: problems caused by not observed limitations in raw material and stock material,
easily by means of error visualization based on the CAD-System being used. This kind of integration between the quality management and the CAD system will result in significant time savings in the production phase as the designer can already analyse whether the formulated requirements are met. In the following important quality criteria will be introduced and the software architecture to integrate the quality criteria control mechanisms with the CAD-system will be introduced. Finally some results and test cases will be discussed.
