Molded Conventions

The Molded Conventions are a set of rules that give a default orientations when placing the structural elements, thereby ensuring structural continuity.

This page discusses:

Overview

This section provides a brief overview of the molded convention resource file.

Plates and stiffeners are oriented according to their location in the hull and with respect to the midship or centerline. Midship and centerline definitions are specified in XML file describing reference plane system.

Important: Conventions are specified for each object class of plates and stiffeners defined in the feature dictionary.
Tip: The sample MoldedConventions.xml file is located at ...\startup\Structure\MoldedConvention.

Customization of Molded Conventions

When customizing the xml do not change the format of the xml.

Plates

ThicknessOrient
The side of the support on which plate thickness is oriented.

Stiffeners



PlateSideOrient
The side of the plate on which the stiffener is placed .
SectionOrient
Orientation of the stiffener flange.
AnchorPoint
The point at which the stiffener section is anchored along its trace.

Stiffeners on Free Edge

AnchorPoint
The point at which the stiffener section is anchored along its trace.

Symbols Used

The following is a list of orientations that can be used to specify molded conventions.

Symbols used for orientations (ThicknessOrient of plates, PlateSideOrient and SectionOrient of stiffeners).

HP
Horizontal plus. Nls name : Top.
HM
Horizontal minus. Nls name : Bottom.
LP
Longitudinal plus. Nls name:
  • Portside, if FrontOrientation = Xp in the project parameters file (Front of the ship correspond to X+ ).
  • Starboard, if FrontOrientation = Xm in the project parameters file (Front of the ship correspond to X- ) .
LM
Longitudinal minus. Nls name:
  • Starboard, if FrontOrientation = Xp in project parameters file.
  • Portside, if FrontOrientation = Xm in project parameters file.
LI
Longitudinal inboard. Nls name: Inboard.
LO
Longitudinal outboard. Nls name: Outboard.
NR
Normal of support plane.
IV
Inverted normal of support plane.
TP
Transversal plus. Nls name:
  • Fore, if FrontOrientation = Xp in project parameters file.
  • Aft, if FrontOrientation = Xm in project parameters file.
TM
Transversal minus. Nls name:
  • Aft, if FrontOrientation = Xp in project parameters file.
  • Fore, if FrontOrientation = Xm in project parameters file.
TI
Transversal inboard. Nls name: Inboard
TO
Transversal outboard. Nls name: Outboard
OtherI
Other Inboard. Nls name:
  • Inboard for shell plates or shell stiffeners
  • Normal for plates using Other category (this orientation corresponds to the normal vector of the support used to create the plate)
OtherO
Other outboard. Nls name:
  • Outboard for shell plates or shell stiffeners
  • Invert for plates using Other category (opposite of the normal vector)



Anchor Point Definition

StiffenerClass Name
The name of the object.
DefaultAnchorPoint
The default anchor point you get when placing the object.
AnchorPoint Name
The anchor points that are available in the Anchor Point box in various dialog boxes. Each anchor point should be entered on a separate line, as shown below.

Following are the values that can be used to define DefaultAnchorPoint and AnchorPoint Name:

  • catStrBottomLeft
  • catStrBottomCenter
  • catStrBottomRight
  • catStrCenterLeft
  • catStrCenterCenter
  • catStrCenterRight
  • catStrTopLeft
  • catStrTopCenter
  • catStrTopRight
  • catStrGravity
  • catStrWebSideLeft
  • catStrWebSideRight
  • catStrWebCenter
  • catStrWebCenterLeft
  • catStrWebCenterRight

2D View Orientation

Orient2D_U
Orientation in the U direction.
Orient2D_V
Orientation in the V direction.

The valid values you can enter are as follows:

XP
X plus
XM
X minus
YP
Y plus
YM
Y minus
ZP
Z plus
ZM
Z minus
NA
Not applicable (orientation attribute ignored. Example, orientation does not apply to shell plates.)